Blacker isn't better?

[Lougle]

I had my eyes tested yesterday. Standard 'Is it better with 1, 2, or about the same?' stuff. The optician said that I 'chase the negative' so I always choose the option that is smaller and darker. I was puzzled and said that I thought the darker the black, the clearer it is, so 'better'. He said that some people 'chase the negative' so it's easy for an inexperienced optician to overcorrect their sight.

Why don't they tell you what 'better' means from the outset, and why isn't blacker better?

Interesting, I've not heard of that before. So how does your optician decide what strength of glasses you need?

I don't know what you mean? I always try to find the letters at their clearest - I have never noticed any difference in the shade of the letters.

For me, when they are clearer, sharper, the seem more of a crisp black.

He said that it's partly common sense. Short sightedness improves in most adults as they age, apparently, so it's not logical for short sightedness to be getting worse in most cases. He said that my current glasses are now far too strong, so my eyes are overworking to compensate.

That is so true , i told my optician this , although it's blacker it is not as clearer, and the response was , oh I don't think we can do much about that 🙄

My mind is blown - genuinely never noticed the letters being "blacker", just sharper.

I had an eye test the other day and the optician actually asked "which one is clearer, not blacker but clearer". It's the first time I've been asked that. I think I may have gone for blacker in the past but she made me think about the clarity instead.

Surely when trying to get clear vision it's obvious that clearer means, well clearer.
Not blacker? That doesn't mean that the clearer option isn't also blacker, but you shouldn't be defaulting to the darker.

As for the eyes improving in adults, I've been told the same. Not until you're 'older' though. Something to do with muscles relaxing with age.

Mind you the same optician also told me short sightedness stops getting worse in your 20s. I'm 38 and mine are still deteriorating.

I thought this was going to be a discussion about something someone had said about skin colour, I clicked with quite a lot of trepidation!

I always go by the crispness of the outline. I do worry sometimes that I answer incorrectly but I think they have ways of testing you that cater for the fact that some responses will be made too quickly- it does always feel quite stressful with the quick-fire questioning!

I get this too OP. Sometimes they’re blacker and a bit smaller. It feels like they’re more distinct. Took me a few tests to realise I couldn’t actually read them any better!

O you have your eyes tested regularly?

It's not the shade of the letters. They have black circles and you are asked to say when it's blacker (clearer) with different lenses.

Yes I have in fact had an eye test recently - I had forgotten about the circles - but my Optician doesn't ask which is blacker, just the clearest.

Other people are right, they usually ask which is clearer, not blacker. The clearer ones do usually appear blacker though, don't they?

My prescription is correct, so must be answering ok.

You're right, they do say clearer.

Got told mine would stop deteriorating in my early 40s. 47 and one eye has nosed dived another -.75 in the past 2.5 years. 🙄 No comment on the blacker/clearer thing though.

I'm autistic and I need things properly explained, it's fine now I'm aware of it but for years I had no idea what we relent being asked of me during an eye test. Now I tell them I need clear instruction, particularly when it comes to which is 'better'!

I strongly suspect I am, too. I did tell the optician that it felt like an exam with no mark scheme!

To me, clearer and blacker are generally the same! I do notice text looking blacker when I put on my glasses. Confused now as I've never heard of "chasing the negative!"

i don't understand most of this.

1. I alway say what is clearest

1. when doing some weird test to press a button when I notice something, I stopped and asked them to clarify exactly what and when I was supposed to hit the button.

1. my eyesight both shortsighted and longsighted has deteriorated 🤷‍♀️ they didn't tell me that's not possible.

I don't wear my glasses all the time. probably should but the optician is fine with me not.

'Chasing the negative' apparently means that when I'm given two options, I always choose the one that has more of a correction for short-sightedness, so a 'stronger' correction. I've always assumed that being able to read smaller text clearly is 'better' and that 'blacker' is 'clearer', but it seems that isn't the case.

I’m always confused when the circles are clearer but not so round! They say “better with or without?” and it’s like “it’s clearer but now it’s a square not a circle”

Yes! 'the individual circles are clearer, but now it's an oval, not a circle.'

The red/green screen with the 8s, too. The green side is a darker black, but I'm not sure if that's because the green shows a better contrast with the number, or if it's clearer. Give me two 8s, both on the same background, then I'll be able to tell you.

I so want to get it right, but never feel like I do!

I interpret blacker as clearer in that when the prescription is wrong, the fuzziness means that the black is duliuted because it's spread over a larger area, and mixed in with the white/green/red.

The whole point of that test is the red or green background, so if you were shown two 8s on the same background it wouldn’t do anything!

If you have too much minus in your prescription they look clearer on the green, too much plus and they look clearer on the red.

Op I’m an optometrist. With just the circles you want ‘rounder and clearer’ and with the red/green you want clearer and blacker.

We have alternatives for both of the tests and also a device called a retinoscope which we use for children and people who struggle with the tests. This combined with an autorefractor Mean we often have a good idea of what you’re going to say before you say it.

Usually, as you get older your distance vision gets less short-sighted/more long sighted. And close vision wearing glasses gets worse.

it does vary though, plenty of people get more short-sighted, just fewer as a percentage.