Do you prefer bronze or grey-color sunglasses?

[zhuzhu]

I am shopping for a pair of high quality "everyday sunny CA" sunglasses. There are simply too many styles/brand to chose from, yet I can''t even decide between the bronze-color lens vs grey-color lens.

I would appreciate your thoughts on 1) what color lens makes sense, and 2) what brand, material, or any special-features you would recommend that I try out.

Thank you!!!
Zhuzhu

 

[Luckyeshe]

Personally, I prefer the bronze tinted lenses. The grey is too dark for me. But if you like it darker, then go for the gray. I like raybans and oakleys. I prefer my sunglasses to kinda wraparound so that sunlight doesn''t come in from the sides. I also like the aviator ones since they''re a bit big and you also don''t can''t look over the lenses when you''re wearing them. I actually have both tints, and I change up which one I wear depending on where I''m going. If I''m going to the beach, I use my grey ones. If I''m just lounging and having gelato outside at a restaurant patio, depending on time of day and where the restaurant is, I use my bronze ones. If there''s a lot of reflective services, I go for grey. I hope that helps!

 

[Lestat]

Date: 1/30/2010 11:26:08 PM
Author:zhuzhu
I am shopping for a pair of high quality ''everyday sunny CA'' sunglasses. There are simply too many styles/brand to chose from, yet I can''t even decide between the bronze-color lens vs grey-color lens.

I would appreciate your thoughts on 1) what color lens makes sense, and 2) what brand, material, or any special-features you would recommend that I try out.

Thank you!!!

Zhuzhu

I work in the optical industry, so I like to have good quality sunglasses. I''ve sold and worn most brands available here in Australia.

I sell brown tints as a great driving and water lens, they give great contrast and depth perception and they enhance the colors you see in traffic lights for example. They also may feel like they brighten things up, where a grey lens will dull things down. Older people tend to prefer brown as well because the pupil tends to get a bit smaller with age, so better contrast and a brighter lens makes it easier to see. I''ve had plenty of commercial fisherman tell me that brown lenses make it easier to see fish in the water as well, which goes against my training that green lenses are best for water use, but who am I to doubt people that live and work on the ocean every day? I would say brown lenses are my favorite tint, I would only choose another color if my frames would not look good with brown.

Grey tints are probably the most common. They are color neutral, so if that''s what you''re after, that is their main benefit. They basically take what you''re looking at, and darken it. Not my personal preference, because I don''t like feeling like every day is a rainy day.

I would only choose grey if my frames were black or grey so they would match. Brown tends to look a bit strange in a black frame.

Green is nice on the water simply because it enhances green, blue-green water looks nice. They will enhance green in general, so they''re nice here in tropical areas too, lots of greenery around. Personally I prefer green to grey just because it feels just as dark and it''s a bit more interesting to look through.

As for materials, optical glass has the best light transmission clearest to look through, but has a low impact rating, it''s more likely to chip and break if something hits your lens or your frame is bent or twisted, and isn''t as safe to wear for those reasons. Optical plastic (CR-39) is next, good clarity, decent impact rating, but lesser resistance to scratching. Polycarbonate is very impact resistant, hard to chip, you will usually find it in sunglasses with no frame, or half frames. Oakley sunglasses use polycarbonate. The main problems with polycarbonate is that it has the poorest optical quality of all the types of optical plastic, and because of that, it tends to break up white light a bit more into it''s colors, so sometimes you''ll get what is called "color fringing", basically rainbows of color in the lenses off to your peripherals. My sunglasses are optical glass, but I would also wear a good optical plastic as well. Polycarbonate looks hazy to me to look through, and I''ve had customers say so as well, sometimes using the words cloudy, milky, etc. Some people can''t tell the difference, so you have to weigh the benefits for yourself.

With cheap sunglasses you''ll get a lot of distortion in the lenses, especially near the edges in wrap-around sunglasses. They can even make you feel nauseous after a bit.

Features wise, some sunglasses have a full mirror or flash-mirror coating on the front (for example Oakley''s Iridium lenses) which will allow less light in. Some people don''t like the mirror look though.

A great feature most people will appreciate is a back-surface anti-reflective coating. Some of the Raybans have it, but I find their coating a bit too shiny still, it''s a bright blue. On my sunglasses it''s a dark green which works really well. The idea is to let more light pass through the back of the lenses, so it doesn''t reflect off into your eyes. You don''t want this coating on the front for sunglasses, because it will let more light in, but on the back, it will allow light coming from behind you (like when you''re driving with the sun to your back) to pass through the lens and not reflect back at you. Try a pair on and have a look around, then try a pair without, you''ll see less reflections of the store lights on the back of the lens.

I live in the tropics so polarised lenses are a must. They filter out all light reflected off a flat surface, for example, road, water, beach. I tell my customers one example is the light that is reflected off your dashboard in the car onto the windshield, it''s hard to see through that glare, but polarised lenses filter it out. They can sometimes make it hard to see LCD screens if they''re at a bad angle, and you can sometimes pick up the stress patterns in very cuved glass (for example in the back windows of some cars you may see a slight rainbow pattern) but for me and most people the pros far outweigh the cons. You should be able to find polarised lenses in grey, green, or brown at least. I would say here in the tropics that probably close to 80 to 90 percent of prescription sunglasses I sell are polarised.

Some lenses are photochromic, which means they will darken when exposed to light. Serengeti is known for it, and some other brands do it as well like the Rayban Light Adaptor lenses. Whether you need this is up to you, personally, I''ve traded it off for other features from different brands.

I don''t know if you have this brand in the USA, but my sunglasses are made by Revo. They use a few different materials including glass and polycarbonate depending on the model, mine are made from Neophan glass, which filters blue light and is used in the portholes of spacecraft. They are polarised, and have a back-surface anti-reflective coating and a flash mirror coating as well as being coated with a material that makes them hydrophobic (they repel water and oils to make them easy to keep clean). They''re top lenses. I''ve tried other brands and keep coming back. Unfortunately some of their designs are a bit blah, but if you can find a nice one, they''re great sunglasses.

Maui Jim also is quite good, one of their features that isn''t too common in most brands is a double-gradient tint. Some of their lenses are darker across the top and bottom, lightening a bit as they get closer to the middle. This is meant to be good on the water where you''re getting light reflected up from the water as well as down from the sky. If I couldn''t get Revo, Maui Jim would be my 2nd choice.

Rayban is sort of upper middle range. Their prices are good and they have a lot of good features as well. As I mentioned before, I found their anti-reflective coating a bit too shiny, but it''s still better than none at all.

Oakley for me is more of a fashion buy, their lenses are pretty good, but polycarbonate is a poor optical material even if it''s marketed as a great one. The one thing they have over most companies is that they have an extremely wide variety of tints available for all circumstances, and the fact that their designs are quite nice.

Most of the high fashion brands like Prada, Versace, Donna Karan, Vogue, etc have very basic lenses, just a non-polarised fashion tint, sometimes not dark enough to wear as a real sunglass. Sometimes you''ll find a polarised version, but they''re very expensive and they don''t tend to come with the other features you can find elsewhere.

Hopefully this helps, keep in mind these are just my opinions, I''m not trying to offend anyone who loves their sunnies

Good luck!

 

[Cehrabehra]

when I buy glasses I go for the DARKEST lens I can find - more of the grey sort I suppose but just very dark - they look black. I have very light blue eyes and they are so so so sensitive to light and the amber (bronze?) ones only cut glare, they don''t darken IMO

My friend has a pair of light blue/grey sunglasses she calls her winter glasses because the winter sun isn''t as strong or intense - but I like my summer glasses in the winter and actually wish I could find darker ones in the summer.

 

[Cehrabehra]

mine are polarized also and I enjoyed reading the expert opinion on lenses! I would agree with everything she says - people who are light sensitive are in the minority so take that into consideration when you read my reply

 

[Lestat]

Date: 1/31/2010 4:18:09 AM
Author: Cehrabehra
mine are polarized also and I enjoyed reading the expert opinion on lenses! I would agree with everything she says - people who are light sensitive are in the minority so take that into consideration when you read my reply

*Ahem* HE says

 

[zhuzhu]

Lucky - Thank you for sharing your personal experience with me! I too, thought about needing both colors! There are two pairs that I tried in person and liked thus far but both are in brown. Maybe I should find the grey version to try so I have one color each!

Lestat - Thanks so much for your expert opinion. It is very interesting to hear your preference of brown over grey lenses. It is my understanding that grey filters out more light than brown. I was wondering have you ever found brown tint to be not sufficiently-powered to filter light on the beach or when you ski?

The two brown pairs I like are:
1) Rayban Polarized 3194: http://www.ray-ban.com/usa/products/rb3194/014-83
2) Maui Jim PONO in brown: http://cgi.ebay.com/Maui-Jim-PONO-New-MJ-H102-20-Sunglasses-102-20_W0QQitemZ110477091066QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_Sunglasses?hash=item19b8f2a0fa

Both are polarized and with anti-reflective properties (except Rayban has that "inside blue coating" which Maui Jim does not use). Rayban is "crystal lens" whereas Maui Jim is a mixture of material. Are they different enough to have both? if not which one is a better performer?

Sarah, I am not sure how sensitive I am with light to tell you the truth (haha). I do live in sunny CA though so I should prob have a test drive...

Thanks again, I really learned a lot!

linklink

 

[Cehrabehra]

Date: 1/31/2010 4:23:04 AM
Author: Lestat

Date: 1/31/2010 4:18:09 AM

Author: Cehrabehra

mine are polarized also and I enjoyed reading the expert opinion on lenses! I would agree with everything she says - people who are light sensitive are in the minority so take that into consideration when you read my reply

*Ahem* HE says

Ooopsie! My bad You just made so much sense there I was confused

 

[rainwood]

Lestat -

Thank you for all the info on sunglasses. I feel like a more informed buyer next time I''m in the market for a pair of shades.

 

[Cehrabehra]

zhuzhu - You would know if you were sensitive... like for me if I forget my glasses at home I have to go back or I have a miserable day all day with headaches and my left eye closed all day with the right a slit - it''s just bad. When I put on brown lenses (I do get the attraction and if it''s good enough I''d recommend them as well for all the reasons listed before) I still want to squint and close one eye so I let my reaction be my guide - if you''re just figuring out a tossup it probably makes no difference and you can pick the one you prefer.

 

[Cehrabehra]

oh also - if you have brown or dark eyes you probably aren''t - most people who are sensitive have not just blue eyes but light blue eyes - I''m not sure why... maybe lestat can chime in for that one

 

[Lestat]

Date: 1/31/2010 4:36:27 AM
Author: zhuzhu
Lestat - Thanks so much for your expert opinion. It is very interesting to hear your preference of brown over grey lenses. It is my understanding that grey filters out more light than brown. I was wondering have you ever found brown tint to be not sufficiently-powered to filter light on the beach or when you ski?

The two brown pairs I like are:

1) Rayban Polarized 3194: http://www.ray-ban.com/usa/products/rb3194/014-83

2) Maui Jim PONO in brown: http://cgi.ebay.com/Maui-Jim-PONO-New-MJ-H102-20-Sunglasses-102-20_W0QQitemZ110477091066QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_Sunglasses?hash=item19b8f2a0fa

Both are polarized and with anti-reflective properties (except Rayban has that ''inside blue coating'' which Maui Jim does not use). Rayban is ''crystal lens'' whereas Maui Jim is a mixture of material. Are they different enough to have both? if not which one is a better performer?

Thanks again, I really learned a lot!

Re: Grey filtering more than Brown, not always, depends on the darkness of the tint. For example, a dark brown vs. a dark grey tint can be filtering exactly the same amount of light but the brown might still "feel" brighter because of the color. Oakley as I mentioned has a huge variety of tints available, they have an interesting section of their website where you can view the details and get a visual sample of what they might look like in various conditions. Check it out here.

Sunglasses like any spectacles are a custom item. They''re quite a personal thing. Everyone has different needs and you need to know your common use situations in order to find your optimal sunglass. For example, previously I mentioned that commercial fishermen tend to like brown lenses for fish spotting. That could come under water use, but quite a few people like green because it makes the water look pretty. Not everyone likes the color changes caused by brown and green, not to mention other colors, so it''s a bit personal. Grey is a safe general purpose lens, which is probably why it''s the most common. It does most things well, but it''s not really best at anything except being dark and color neutral.

I own a combination of brown & green sunglasses at the moment, I''ve tried grey, and I''m not a fan. However, I do agree that for people that want the feeling of the darkest lens possible, a dark grey tint is the way to go.

Basically, grey will give you the darkest feeling and will perform well in most situations, but brown will give you better contrast and depth perception, which is great if you''re doing any kind of activity where you need to be able to judge distances better or see minor differences sharply in terrain like in tennis, golf, or skiing. It does seem brighter, so it''s better in lower light conditions or cloudy days, personally I find it sufficiently dark on a bright sunny day, but as you can see, some people do not. That''s personal preference. A flash mirror coating will help if you find it too bright. My brown lenses have a flash mirror on the front and anti-reflective on the back, and I never feel uncomfortable.

About the two sunglasses you have there, I believe the word "crystal" on the Rayban means glass lenses. Be aware they will weigh more than plastic if you have a sensitive nose

Rayban has 3 levels of polarised lenses, these are the most basic, which isn''t a bad thing, it just means they don''t have a hydrophobic layer, and the top Rayban polarised lenses also have a color enhancing filter. These are basically a glass lens with a polarising filter and back surface anti-reflective coating. Better than quite a few sunglasses out there, but like I said earlier, just upper average.

The Maui Jim''s you have linked are glass as well, superthin just means they are made from a higher refractive index glass which for you means less weight on your nose. This does mean a slight reduction in optical clarity, but I doubt it''s noticeable. Nothing like polycarbonate and probably still equal to or slightly better than optical plastic. The main difference here is the layers on the glass, these ones say they use Maui''s PolarisedPlus2 technology, which basically means they have a hydrophobic layer on the front and back of the lens and are anti-reflective on the back as well. They also have the double gradient tint and flash mirror options I mentioned earlier. As far as lens performance goes, I''d go Maui Jim hands down between the two. As for frame comfort and whether it''s dark enough for you, you''ll have to give them a try yourself, but the flash mirror on the Maui Jim should make it feel a bit darker than the Raybans. I wouldn''t buy both, if you were after two, for another color if you have hobbies or sports that brown might not be suitable for. Maybe give one pair a try first and see how you go, and then look around to fill gaps if it doesn''t do everything you''re after.

 

[Lestat]

Date: 1/31/2010 4:42:33 AM
Author: Cehrabehra
oh also - if you have brown or dark eyes you probably aren''t - most people who are sensitive have not just blue eyes but light blue eyes - I''m not sure why... maybe lestat can chime in for that one

People with blue eyes (myself included) unfortunately have more eye issues in general. It''s actually proven that lighter colored eyes tend to be more sensitive to bright light because they have less pigmentation compared to someone with dark colored eyes and therefore allow more unwanted light into the eye. Other conditions can cause light sensitivity as well, but as far as blue eyes go, it can be a factor.

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 1/31/2010 3:50:20 AM
Author: Lestat

Date: 1/30/2010 11:26:08 PM
Author:zhuzhu
I am shopping for a pair of high quality ''everyday sunny CA'' sunglasses. There are simply too many styles/brand to chose from, yet I can''t even decide between the bronze-color lens vs grey-color lens.

I would appreciate your thoughts on 1) what color lens makes sense, and 2) what brand, material, or any special-features you would recommend that I try out.

Thank you!!!

Zhuzhu

I work in the optical industry, so I like to have good quality sunglasses. I''ve sold and worn most brands available here in Australia.

I sell brown tints as a great driving and water lens, they give great contrast and depth perception and they enhance the colors you see in traffic lights for example. They also may feel like they brighten things up, where a grey lens will dull things down. Older people tend to prefer brown as well because the pupil tends to get a bit smaller with age, so better contrast and a brighter lens makes it easier to see. I''ve had plenty of commercial fisherman tell me that brown lenses make it easier to see fish in the water as well, which goes against my training that green lenses are best for water use, but who am I to doubt people that live and work on the ocean every day? I would say brown lenses are my favorite tint, I would only choose another color if my frames would not look good with brown.

Grey tints are probably the most common. They are color neutral, so if that''s what you''re after, that is their main benefit. They basically take what you''re looking at, and darken it. Not my personal preference, because I don''t like feeling like every day is a rainy day.

I would only choose grey if my frames were black or grey so they would match. Brown tends to look a bit strange in a black frame.

Green is nice on the water simply because it enhances green, blue-green water looks nice. They will enhance green in general, so they''re nice here in tropical areas too, lots of greenery around. Personally I prefer green to grey just because it feels just as dark and it''s a bit more interesting to look through.

As for materials, optical glass has the best light transmission clearest to look through, but has a low impact rating, it''s more likely to chip and break if something hits your lens or your frame is bent or twisted, and isn''t as safe to wear for those reasons. Optical plastic (CR-39) is next, good clarity, decent impact rating, but lesser resistance to scratching. Polycarbonate is very impact resistant, hard to chip, you will usually find it in sunglasses with no frame, or half frames. Oakley sunglasses use polycarbonate. The main problems with polycarbonate is that it has the poorest optical quality of all the types of optical plastic, and because of that, it tends to break up white light a bit more into it''s colors, so sometimes you''ll get what is called ''color fringing'', basically rainbows of color in the lenses off to your peripherals. My sunglasses are optical glass, but I would also wear a good optical plastic as well. Polycarbonate looks hazy to me to look through, and I''ve had customers say so as well, sometimes using the words cloudy, milky, etc. Some people can''t tell the difference, so you have to weigh the benefits for yourself.

With cheap sunglasses you''ll get a lot of distortion in the lenses, especially near the edges in wrap-around sunglasses. They can even make you feel nauseous after a bit.

Features wise, some sunglasses have a full mirror or flash-mirror coating on the front (for example Oakley''s Iridium lenses) which will allow less light in. Some people don''t like the mirror look though.

A great feature most people will appreciate is a back-surface anti-reflective coating. Some of the Raybans have it, but I find their coating a bit too shiny still, it''s a bright blue. On my sunglasses it''s a dark green which works really well. The idea is to let more light pass through the back of the lenses, so it doesn''t reflect off into your eyes. You don''t want this coating on the front for sunglasses, because it will let more light in, but on the back, it will allow light coming from behind you (like when you''re driving with the sun to your back) to pass through the lens and not reflect back at you. Try a pair on and have a look around, then try a pair without, you''ll see less reflections of the store lights on the back of the lens.

I live in the tropics so polarised lenses are a must. They filter out all light reflected off a flat surface, for example, road, water, beach. I tell my customers one example is the light that is reflected off your dashboard in the car onto the windshield, it''s hard to see through that glare, but polarised lenses filter it out. They can sometimes make it hard to see LCD screens if they''re at a bad angle, and you can sometimes pick up the stress patterns in very cuved glass (for example in the back windows of some cars you may see a slight rainbow pattern) but for me and most people the pros far outweigh the cons. You should be able to find polarised lenses in grey, green, or brown at least. I would say here in the tropics that probably close to 80 to 90 percent of prescription sunglasses I sell are polarised.

Some lenses are photochromic, which means they will darken when exposed to light. Serengeti is known for it, and some other brands do it as well like the Rayban Light Adaptor lenses. Whether you need this is up to you, personally, I''ve traded it off for other features from different brands.

I don''t know if you have this brand in the USA, but my sunglasses are made by Revo. They use a few different materials including glass and polycarbonate depending on the model, mine are made from Neophan glass, which filters blue light and is used in the portholes of spacecraft. They are polarised, and have a back-surface anti-reflective coating and a flash mirror coating as well as being coated with a material that makes them hydrophobic (they repel water and oils to make them easy to keep clean). They''re top lenses. I''ve tried other brands and keep coming back. Unfortunately some of their designs are a bit blah, but if you can find a nice one, they''re great sunglasses.

Maui Jim also is quite good, one of their features that isn''t too common in most brands is a double-gradient tint. Some of their lenses are darker across the top and bottom, lightening a bit as they get closer to the middle. This is meant to be good on the water where you''re getting light reflected up from the water as well as down from the sky. If I couldn''t get Revo, Maui Jim would be my 2nd choice.

Rayban is sort of upper middle range. Their prices are good and they have a lot of good features as well. As I mentioned before, I found their anti-reflective coating a bit too shiny, but it''s still better than none at all.

Oakley for me is more of a fashion buy, their lenses are pretty good, but polycarbonate is a poor optical material even if it''s marketed as a great one. The one thing they have over most companies is that they have an extremely wide variety of tints available for all circumstances, and the fact that their designs are quite nice.

Most of the high fashion brands like Prada, Versace, Donna Karan, Vogue, etc have very basic lenses, just a non-polarised fashion tint, sometimes not dark enough to wear as a real sunglass. Sometimes you''ll find a polarised version, but they''re very expensive and they don''t tend to come with the other features you can find elsewhere.

Hopefully this helps, keep in mind these are just my opinions, I''m not trying to offend anyone who loves their sunnies

Good luck!

What a great post, thank you Lestat!!

 

[Lestat]

Date: 1/31/2010 6:01:13 AM
Author: Lorelei
What a great post, thank you Lestat!!

Thanks Lorelei, I like to try and help when and if I can!

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 1/31/2010 6:21:42 AM
Author: Lestat

Date: 1/31/2010 6:01:13 AM
Author: Lorelei
What a great post, thank you Lestat!!

Thanks Lorelei, I like to try and help when and if I can!

You do a great job, I am glad you are here!!!

 

[Cehrabehra]

Lestat - the Shadesumer

You mentioned other factors and I am amblyopic (fortunately, they track together) and my weak eye is by far the more sensitive though they are both more sensitive than the average person.

I have worn brown lenses on darker days and I agree that they have qualities that make them nicer but by and large it''s just not a good option for me

 

[Luckyeshe]

Date: 1/31/2010 4:36:27 AM
Author: zhuzhu
Lucky - Thank you for sharing your personal experience with me! I too, thought about needing both colors! There are two pairs that I tried in person and liked thus far but both are in brown. Maybe I should find the grey version to try so I have one color each!

Lestat - Thanks so much for your expert opinion. It is very interesting to hear your preference of brown over grey lenses. It is my understanding that grey filters out more light than brown. I was wondering have you ever found brown tint to be not sufficiently-powered to filter light on the beach or when you ski?

Not a problem, zhuzhu! I wish I could help more, but good luck on finding one that's perfect for you!

Lestat, thanks for all the info! I feel better armed next time I go looking for new sunglasses with the knowledge you've shared!

 

[MsP]

I have lots of sunglasses--Gucci, Chanel, Tiffany, some Ray Bans, Dior, etc etc. Some are more for style than for function...



With that being said... MAUI JIMS. That''s my answer. They might not be the *most* stylish but the optical clarity and amazingness of them just blows my mind. I had read posts on PS about Maui Jims and just thought they were similar to Ray Bans or normal polarized lenses but not so. Best money ever spent on sunglasses for me.

 

[ksinger]

Maui Jims Shoreline style. I adore them. Prescription. Neutral gray polarized...very soothing with no color distortion - love that. Did I mention I love Maui Jims?

 

[zhuzhu]

I have decided on the Maui Jim Pono in bronze. Thank you all so much for your advice and feedback!

HUGS!!!!