An honest endorsement of a product that has made my life a lot easier.

By Michael Brown

I have fairly bad eyesight. Without correction I can't really function. My prescription correction numbers are 4.0/4.5, perfect vision is 0/0. Glasses or contacts are part of my life and until recently, a big hassle on film expeditions. Glasses get in the way and contacts can be a nightmare without clean water. My eye doctor, Dr. Mark Zilm in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, suggested a solution in early 2000, just before my first trip to Mount Everest.

As a filmmaker, wearing glasses is inconvenient. I can’t look through the eyepiece very well with glasses in the way and if I take my glasses off I can’t see the scene when I pull my eye away from the viewfinder again.

I like wearing contact lenses because they correct my eyesight to better than 20/20 which also helps with taking pictures. Unfortunately handling contact lenses while on an expedition to an exotic place is dubious. It is difficult to clean your hands properly because local water can be polluted or difficult to even get in the first place. Removing and replacing contact lenses in below zero temperatures in a tent on the side of a mountain is not easy either.

Laser surgery is scary to me and some people have experienced problems with vision at high altitude after having the surgery. I am going to wait at least until they have more information about these effects to decide weather or not to get the surgery.

Bausch & Lomb developed a contact lens called PureVision using special materials that allows much more oxygen to reach the eye surface as conventional soft contact lenses. This allows me wear these lenses for up to a month at a time, without taking them out at all! Often I can put my lenses in the day before I leave on an expedition and then not worry about them again till I am safely home again a month later. If you are a contact lens wearer I recommend that you talk to your eye doctor about PureVision.

Since I have been using them I have worn PureVision lenses to the top of Mount Everest twice without experiencing any problems. Chances are, wherever I am in the world right now, I am wearing PureVision contact lenses.