Lensmeters that provide iso-astigmatism/iso-mean power plots. Worth it?

[eyemechs]

Hi, I'm wondering how many here have the more advanced lensmeters which map out the iso-astigmatism and iso-mean powers of a progressive lens? Has it been worth it in the sense of 'matching' the client's worn progressives (purchased externally, sometimes overseas, and coming in as a new patient) with the product range at your practice?

What benefits and other uses have you made of automatic lens analysis? Have they assisted you in troubleshooting?

Are these lensmeters worth it, in your experience and opinion? (e.g. Visionix VX40)

[drk]

I've seen these, and they're intriguing. but no, it's not worth it.

If you had someone else's money and wanted a toy, it'd be OK to mess around with.

But there is no utility in matching old PALs...that whole concept needs to be thrown in the dustbin. Matching is for cowards. It's about improvement, not stasis.

I would, however, like to see what these unexplained designs do (a la "The Lens Guru" of days of yore) but the control and the specificity needed to make actual scientific evaluations would be prohibitive.

[Robert Martellaro]

But there is no utility in matching old PALs...that whole concept needs to be thrown in the dustbin. Matching is for cowards. It's about improvement, not stasis.

Yup, although it's a good idea to keep one eye open in case of surprises.

Robert Martellaro

[ChrisBowers]

A lensometer can measure toric surfaces in mid indexes well but fails to measure high indexes with prism values over 3 diopters. I do think that labs should provide atoric and progressive maps of what the lens is supposed to be as well as a map of what they produced with a mathematical certainty confidence. Even if you had a mapper, you would not have the design to compare it accuracy. I can’t speak for today but when I worked in the industry there were labs that made free form lenses and did not 100 % map them.

Chris