High Definition (HD) Glasses: Types, Costs, Pros/Cons

What are HD Glasses?

High-definition (HD) glasses improve your vision more than regular eyeglasses. Regular corrective lenses give you 20/20 vision, but some people see subtle distortions.

HD glasses correct these irregularities and offer the sharpest possible HD vision, no matter the conditions. They are available with an anti-glare coating, so the wearer gets as clear and accurate a view as possible.

Higher-order aberrations cause distortions. Corrective lenses alleviate nearsightedness, farsightedness, and/or astigmatism but don’t give you perfect vision.

This is due to the optical limitations of regular lenses or the natural characteristics of your eyes.

HD lens technology offers the highest level of vision improvement available with glasses. They are available in high-index, photochromic, bifocal, or progressive lenses.

These lenses are customized to create sharper images, brighter colors, and crisp focus. You’ll see things through HD lenses as if you were seeing them with natural vision.

When Should You Wear HD Lenses?

You should wear HD lenses whenever you want crisp, clear, vividly colored vision. They’re ideal for people who can attain 20/20 vision with corrective eyewear.

HD glasses are for you if you don’t like how things look through your current glasses. They’re also great for:

Nighttime
Low-light environments
When you want to see colors vividly
During the use of “screens,” when you might wear blue light glasses
Reading

Pros & Cons of HD Glasses

HD glasses are great because they let you correct vision problems and enjoy clear, sharp images. But they might not be right for everyone.

Pros of HD glasses include:

20/20 vision with no distortion
Wider peripheral vision
Reduction of digital eye strain
Glare reduction
Elimination of light halos
Brighter, more intense color

Cons of HD glasses:

Not too helpful for people with very poor vision
Takes doctors longer to create the prescription
More expensive than regular glasses

HD glasses aren’t harmful if your vision is poor, but most people do not see much difference from conventional, less-expensive lenses.

Types of High-Definition Glasses

There are two types of high-definition glasses: free-form and wavefront lenses.

Free-Form Lenses

Most HD glasses are free-form lenses. Free-form is a manufacturing process that reduces higher-order aberrations such as halos or glares.

Computer-controlled surfacing equipment is used to manufacture free-form lenses, making them more precise.

Some benefits of free-form lenses are:

Eliminates spherical aberrations
Makes nighttime driving safer and more comfortable
Entirely customizable
Takes into account the position and angle of the lenses on someone’s eyes
Gives the most accurate lens power and sharpest vision available

Some of the most popular HD lenses include:

Essilor 360 DS
Hoya NuLux EP
Clarlet Individual
Hoyalux iD MyStyle
Zeiss Progressive Individual 2
Seiko Supercede
Varilux Physio DRx

Wavefront Lenses

Wavefront lenses are more advanced than free-form HD glasses. They have the following benefits:

More customizable
Corrects higher-order aberrations
Provides sharper vision than regular eyeglass lenses.
Helps you see better in low-light environments.
Improves contrast and color vision.

HD glasses improve lingering vision issues after LASIK and other refractive eye surgeries.

If you invest in wavefront lenses, your doctor will measure your eyes with the Zeiss i.Profiler Plus. This is a three-in-one automated device designed to measure three factors:

Refractive error
Corneal topography
Higher-order aberrations

This data is gathered and sent to the optical lab that manufactures these custom-made HD lenses.

Studies show drivers driving at night wearing wavefront lenses detected, recognized, and reacted to a pedestrian on the side of the road 20 feet sooner than when wearing conventional glasses.¹

This makes wavefront glasses the most powerful night vision glasses available. HD night vision is clear and accurate, which makes driving safer. They also make great driving sunglasses for the daytime.

Cost of High-Definition Eyewear

They are more expensive than conventional lenses because of the customization and the technology required to create them.

In most cases, you will pay 25 to 30 percent more for HD glasses than a pair of conventional glasses with the same design.

Many people who invest in HD lenses believe they are worth the extra cost. Some people use them as night driving glasses because they reduce glare and light halos. This is especially true for those who were never happy with their conventional glasses.

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