In this article you will get my experience from the Zeiss Individual 2 progressive lenses. This review contains detailed information about my configuration of the lenses as well as other possible options I could have chosen.
The Zeiss Individual 2 in my opinion is overall a great progressive lens. It was one of the first progressive lenses I forgot I was wearing it. Because it made it easy for me to find the right spots in the lower half of the lens to see clearly through. Also during my working day, I tend to get a little stressed because a lot of my work takes place within my arm’s length. But with the Zeiss Individual 2, my experience was quite relaxed.
One thing I want to mention though that falls in the negative experience is that straight lines appear a little more bent than I used to be wearing progressive lenses. I know this will disappear over time but still, after more than ten days wearing it, I see my iPad quite bent. The same is true for stairs as well.
The blurry space in the periphery is there of course as usual with progressive lenses but it did not bother me at all. Which means the intensity of the blur seems to be lower compared to other progressive lenses.
What Configuration I Chose for the Zeiss Individual 2 Review
| SPH | CYL | A | ADD | PRISM | BASE | |
| R | 0,00 | 2,00 | 0,75 | 360 | ||
| L | 0,00 | 2,00 | 0,75 | 180 |
I chose the balanced lens design option which does not favor the intermediate (laptop distance) or the reading distance. But of course, you are a heavy laptop user or you want to have maximum performance in the intermediate space you should choose one of the other options. (Explanation is in the video below)
For me the balanced option works great. I personally use my laptop for a few hours daily. And typing out this review of the Zeiss Individual 2 progressive lens feels easy even for a longer time which is great. But be careful with your expectations about the blurry fields in the periphery.
They are there of course and looking at the screen of my 15″ laptop they are quite noticeably. The “blurriness” is driven by the amount of reading support you need and is described as your ADD value in your prescription. Most people will end up with an ADD value of around 2.00 Diopters. And with this prescription, I get approximately one-third of a clear field of view out of the intermediate space of the Zeiss Individual 2.
When I talk about the spots in the progressive lens for your laptop distance I talk about the upper half int the pink outlined space you can see in the picture down below.
Because what bothers me a lot is the advertisements for progressive lenses in general. The illustration I gave you above is a more real-world experience will probably have. But after watching the wrong advertisement you might get a wrong impression and expect something like in the screenshot I captured from the Zeiss advertisement on their youtube channel.
In this case, the blurry field of view is illustrated with a grayish color overlay. If you are over 50 years old and need an ADD value of around two diopters you will be probably disappointed because your clear field of will be just a fifth as wide compared to the illustration below. So set your expectations right with my example I gave you above.
The optician can enhance the width of view in your Zeiss Individual 2 lenses by making them longer. I chose to go with a medium length of 15mm. Most people will have this type of length in their progressive lenses. If your Add value is lower than mine and you chose the same length as me you will get a wider field of view.
The relations about the width and the length of progressive lenses, in general, are described in depth in this article here.
What to Expect From the Reading Area in the Zeiss Individual 2?
The reading area was really easy to use for me. Holding my phone in portrait mode was perfectly fine and I got a perfect vision from edge to edge with my iPhone plus. As soon as I turn my phone in landscape mode and I can still read everything from edge to edge easily but I notice the blur on the sides of the screen coming up.
You might zoom into the picture a little bit but on the picture down below I illustrated the blurriness I experience. It is the two to three words on the edges that get a slight blur. Of course, as soon as I turn my head a little bit into the direction I want to see clear in I see it just fine. But when I perform eye-movements only to capture the text I notice the blur.
I will do a detailed comparison of progressive lenses in general but for now the performance of the reading zone was a little better compared to other brands in the progressive lens industry.
What I Like With the Individual 2
The Zeiss Individual 2 progressive lens definitely gives me a wider field of view compared to standard progressive lenses. This frankly spoken is no surprise because there are already randomized controlled trials like this one here that confirm the higher visual comfort and adaption people have when buying them in our shop for example.
The LotuTec coating was great in terms of anti-reflection. I had definitely less reflections on the back surface compared to other brands and no nearly no dust whatsoever was accumulated over a whole day. So the lens surface was practically clean the whole day. I had to clean it two times on an average day wearing them from morning till evening.
What I Did Not Like
Color Fringes
That is something probably nobody else would care about but wearing the Zeiss Individual 2 gives me very minimal color fringes when the sun is shining very bright. It is not as much as I described it within the Varilux X review but it is also there. So looking at a shadow for example in this picture gave me a slight yellow shadow effect underneath. Very minimal.
This effect comes up in combination with the coatings sometimes. I chose the LotuTec coating. Except for the color fringes, I see it is great. The Zeiss sign in the upper right of my right lens is also something I do not need to have. Because sometimes I got asked if I had a scratch on my lens surface. And every time I looked at what they meant it was the Zeiss engraving.
But that is very minimal.
Bent Lines
One thing I noticed is bent lines that are actually straight. I experienced this bent lines a little more compared to other brands. But we talk about really marginal things here.
So my laptop looks a little curved or my tablet when working with it. But considering how easy I adapted to the lenses it is worth compared to this little downside.
The Price of the Zeiss Individual 2
The Zeiss Individual 2 with LotuTec UV retails for 698€ in Germany. A high price for high tech lenses.
Maybe you notice there is actually not a bad thing at all about these lenses. They are one of the highest tech lenses you can buy today. And I can definitely recommend them.