Fluid goggles

[Siku]

So how well can you really see with fluid goggles? What's the clarity and what's the width of vision?

I heard recently that you can see 'the bare minimum'. I don't understand why there should be any less visibility that normal swimming goggle, presuming of course that the lens is correct?

 

[Stuart]

You can see not that well, but much better than without any. And of course because they are filled with water then they do not suck your eyeballs out as normal goggles would if you tried to do any depth with them! Having said that I can't stand them and much prefer it without any mask or goggles. I ain't diving to look around...

 

[efattah]

You can see perfectly sharply only in the very center of your field of vision. If you look left or right, spherical abberation makes your vision very blurry. There is no way around that. Very highly quality lenses can increase the field of clear vision. Poor lenses offer a very narrow field of vision. But there is always some magnification. And the peripheral vision is not good.

 

[Siku]

Thanks Stuart, Eric.

Apologies if this is a dumb question, my understanding of optics is very limited. Why isn't it possible to wear contact lenses that correct the water distortion, eliminating the need for goggles at all?

 

[Siku]

Or laser surgery.

(Obviously on one eye only, so you have one for above and one for below. That's enough isn't it?)

 

[Erik]

Thanks Stuart, Eric.

Apologies if this is a dumb question, my understanding of optics is very limited. Why isn't it possible to wear contact lenses that correct the water distortion, eliminating the need for goggles at all?

It's been done. Mayoll wore a hard lens and there was a company making a softer lens.

 

[efattah]

Hard scleral lenses give perfect vision underwater, the only way that you can get perfect vision underwater (better than any mask). But they are bad for your eyes and for days after using them you have a sandpaper-in-the-eyes feeling.

Soft scleral lenses are better for the eyes but give a weird halo in the peripheral vision and they get disloged very easily, so you need to wear water filled goggles on the outside to prevent them from getting bumped around.

 

[Bill]

'Why isn't it possible to wear contact lenses that correct the water distortion, eliminating the need for goggles at all?'
It's possible but......to make and sell them in very limited quantities, one would have to charge 500-1000 Euros. You still need the liquid filled goggles in case the lens comes out.