YOUNGER OPTICS recently released its Camber lens design, representing what it refers to as a breakthrough in the way lens design utilizes multiple lens curves on both sides of the lens to provide a more precise vision correction (camberlens.com). David Rips, Younger’s president and CEO, offers some talking points.
THE CAMBER LENS IS BORNE OUT OF A RATHER COMPLICATED DESIGN IDEA. CAN YOU EXPLAIN IT FOR READERS IN A FEW SENTENCES?
Camber technology combines complex curves on both surfaces of the lens to provide excellent vision correction. The unique, continuously changing surface curvature of the specially designed lens blank allows expanded reading zones with improved peripheral vision. When combined with a sophisticated back surface digital design, both surfaces work together to accommodate an expanded Rx range, offer better cosmetics (flatter) for many prescriptions, and yield user-preferred near vision performance.
HOW IMPORTANT IS THE BASE CURVE TO THE Rx? AND DO YOU THINK ECPs IN GENERAL HAVE AN APPRECIATION FOR THE ROLE LENS CURVE PLAYS IN VISION CORRECTION?
Base curve seems to be treated like the Rodney Dangerfield of optics—it doesn’t get the respect it deserves. Yet it is vitally important to good vision in the finished Rx. Perhaps the problem is that the importance of base curve has been known for so long—going back to the Tscherning ellipse—that it is now taken for granted.
I don’t believe it has really occurred to most ECPs that when progressives were moved from the front surface to the back, and paired with a single vision front rather than a continuously changing front curve, an optical compromise was made. Camber is designed to solve the issues that came with that compromise.
WHAT DOES THE PATIENT NOTICE ABOUT A CAMBER LENS? HOW DOES THE EXPERIENCE DIFFER FROM THE TRADITIONAL EXPERIENCES OF WEARING A PREMIUM PAL?
Matching the correct lens base curve to its appropriate power throughout the lens is more important when the user is looking through oblique angles than when looking straight ahead. In a PAL, a patient is always looking at an oblique angle when they are looking through the reading zone. So the most discernible benefit a patient will notice is the ease at which they can find the reading zone, and the clarity they have there.
The fact that many digital progressive lenses are made using a single vision front base curve means that most free-form software needs to compensate for optical issues it causes. Since Camber software does not have to compensate for a SV front base curve, it leaves open a lot of computing power to make the distance and peripheral zones as clean and clear as possible. Camber’s optical computing power is used for optimization rather than compensation. Patients will notice the benefits of this in every zone of the Camber lens.
WHAT RETAIL ADVANTAGES CAN CAMBER PROVIDE ECPs?
ECPs can feel confident that they are dispensing a lens which is as technologically advanced as any other lens on the market. Camber provides a better looking lens with easier frame selection (especially for higher base curve prescriptions), with superior optics in all fields of vision.
WHAT’S AHEAD? NOW THAT THE INDUSTRY HAS BECOME COMFORTABLE WITH FREE-FORM TECHNOLOGY, IS THIS A TASTE OF WHAT ELSE CAN BE DONE WITH LENSES AND CURVES?
There is no question that we are in the very beginning of free-form and lens design technology in our industry. Optical designers love curves, and having two curves—the front base curve and the back curve to work with—is much better than having just one side. The best is certainly yet to come, and Camber is a giant step in that direction!
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