Hi Colin,
my presbyopia kicked in quite suddenly. One day, I had great vision, particularly near vision which was almost microscopic, and some astygmatism which was only an issue shooting at 600 metres in the army. The next, I was in Paris, had a hired car delivered to the hotel, and could not for the life of me read the road map supplied, to get out of Paris.
After cursing every French cartographer (and French makers of most other things, which always seem to be counterintuitive), I happened to step out into the bright sunlight, and could suddenly see again. Since then, I only do intricate work with enough light for a small sports stadium, but I did need specs.
At first, they were only readers. About two years later, on a beautiful mild evening after a great day of trout fishing, I discovered that the Evening Star was actually a hitherto undocumented double planet. Before I could hasten to consult an almanac, as the sky darkened, I noticed a proliferation of double stars - up to that point, I had only been able to recall Rigel in the Orion constellation, and the faithful Canis Major trailing on the Huntsman's heels. So from that time, I needed distance glasses.
After a few years of juggling two pairs, sometimes misplacing both on my head, I decided to try bifocals, but was persuaded to go the varifocal route. I soon abandoned them. Apart from almost killing myself more than once, going down stairs, I used to get a headache in shops, having to adjust gaze from the price tag to the item description, to similar nearby items, etc. My head was oscillating vertically, like those radar antennae on ships, once they have locked on to an incoming threat. I went back to bifocals, but find them impossible for sustained reading or computer use.
So now, I have a spread of specs around at any one time, and usually only use coarse language when I find myself driving out the gate with my readers rather than my bifocals on my face. But as you point out, the workshop is the rem acu tetigisti, so I am very interested in your experience. I notice from your posting, that the VoltX is a 2,5 diopter. Would you know what diopter your conventional readers are? I use a 2,5 reader to get a bit more "distance" in the shop, but lose out on detail that I would need a 3,5 for.
I have been eyeing some purportedly adjustable specs (a milled knob near each lens allows the tension in the frame to be adjusted, allegedly changing the refraction), but the proposition sounds dicey, and yours may be the safer bet.
Incidentally, I took some comfort from a lecture by a local professor of ophthalmology some years ago. In his experience, the ability to adjust to multifocals varied inversely with the IQ of the wearer. The Lord giveth and taketh away.
