New Optica timing 'too close to Mido'

The Cologne event attracted 23,000 visitors from 70 countries, which met its organiser's expectations for attendance at the event. The two giant halls at the KölnMesse trade show centre saw 667 firms from 24 countries exhibit in 45,000sq m. However, the high profile frame companies Luxottica and Safilo were not present, which provoked comment by some exhibitors at the show that this was due to to the event's timing a week before the Milan show. Mido takes place this coming weekend (May 5-8). Optica's return to its spring timing after a one-off November show in 1998 was welcomed by most of the exhibitors optician spoke to. The organisers estimated that from the unaudited attendance figures 4,000 visitors came from outside Germany. Two new progressive lenses along with two new fitting tools were unveiled at the show. The latest lenses, Impression from Rodenstock and Gradal Individual from Carl Zeiss, offer improved optical performance for wearers of progressive lenses. Also having its European debut at the show was the Varilux Panamic from Essilor that was launched in the UK during March (see optician March 17). Both of the Optica-launched products produce individual lenses tailored to the optical needs of the wearer. Zeiss claimed that new software now allowed the topology of an individualised progressive to be calculated in 20 seconds and then fed to a diamond cutter for production. To improve performance even further both firms have suggested that additional values need to be obtained by the practitioner when fitting the latest progressive lenses. In the past, average statistical values have been used for pantoscoptic tilt, interpupillary distance and the corneal vertex distance. Attendance at the event met the organiser's expectations