Eyeglass Lens Difference
 

If I buy a pair of lens with the same prescription and index from different stores, can there be a difference in lens quality? The reason why I ask this is becasue I went to visit a few stores to requested a quote for lens with 1.74 index and I had price ranging from $230 - $450.

depends on the lens. I use Nikon lens and they seem pretty good. A few years back my dad was getting new glasses and he went with a korean brand coz is cheaper but he keep saying the lens is fuzzy and he got heacache from using it so he switch back to nikon.

There are several major lens manufacturers:

1. Essilor
2. Nikon
3. Other (i.e. Made in Korea/China/ghetto no-name brand)

While I have extensively used Essilor, my sister much prefers Nikon (having worked in the optical industry for 4+ years.) I've used weird made in Korea branded lenses before and they are terrible, much like what Mr.HappySlip described it as. I went back to Essilor right after.

Locally, I believe there is only one distributor who carries the Essilor lenses which is that you are probably paying for.

$230 sounds pretty damn cheap for your index. Just picked up some nikon 3's (1.6 index) not long ago for free, would've been $220 reg price. The price difference is probably because of the different brands, or some shops trying to rip you off ;) Oh, or because of the different coatings.

What are the differences between manufacturers and brands? I thought they were the same thing.

Who gets to decide what coating gets applied onto the lens. I was talking to a sales rep and she explained that the Essilor has three coats of anti-smudge whereas the generic brands they sell only has one coat of anti-smudge.

Only certain lenses and manufacturers can only be used for varying indexes. Like -lincolnboi- mentioned, some shops will be out there to rip you off and most of the time, they will.

when your goin @ 1.74 index.. most of my customers go for the centennial brand from burnaby .. just b/c its @ the best price point vs nikon and essilor but u do pay a premium on the better lens abbe and coatings

:thumbsup:

top 4 choices for lens

1)essilor
2)hoya
3)nikon
4)centopic

It depends on the brand. I don't think there should be too much of a difference though.