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In this Article: Introduction: Why Are Your Lenses Annoying? Why Sunglasses Can't Cut Out All Glare The Issue of Reflections in Sunglasses Enhancing Your View and Comfort with Hats Top Picks for Hats Introduction: Why Are Your Lenses Annoying? Did you ever notice that the view through your sunglasses is better when you are driving than when you are outside the car, with full overhead sun conditions? The same experience happens when you are walking in and out of the shade. When the sunlight isn’t directly on your eyes, even while wearing sunglasses, there seems to be significantly less glare to deal with and it becomes much easier to see without squinting or losing color in the surrounding environment. Why is that? Shouldn’t the sunglasses cut out that glare? Source: https://www.miamiamine.com/ Why Sunglasses Can't Cut Out All Glare The answer is no. Your sunglasses are designed to function in a certain environment and not to exceed it. If you have ever experienced a solar eclipse you may remember being told not to use your sunglasses to look at the sun, and instead use a specialized lens. This is because your sunglasses, if they have category 3 lenses like most shades, are built to block 82-92% of all visible light (having a visible light transmission of 8-18%). This is sufficient for most normal strong sunlight conditions in most places, but certain environments need even more protection, such as on high mountains, in the desert, and in very bright snow conditions. Since your sunglasses filter out a percentage of the sunlight, as the total amount of sunlight increases so does the total amount of light coming through the lenses. If the sun is in front of you, or at an angle where its direct rays are hitting your face, there is a good chance your sunglasses are not enough to make you completely comfortable. You may even get a headache from squinting over a long period of time spent in that situation. I find this particularly annoying in the mornings, when the sun is low, or even worse, in the winter when the sun is low throughout the day in many places. In this circumstance, your sunglasses are dealing with direct light from the sun, which it cannot handle adequately, and light from all around us, bouncing off of everything in sight into our eyes, which it thrives. If there’s a tint that works to block direct sun, I don’t know about it. Sunlight is pure white and will not be reduced to tolerable levels by any lens. It’s gonna be blinding. The Issue of Reflections on Sunglasses Another issue is the reflection in the lens itself, sometimes on the front and sometimes from the backside of the lens. With a gap at the sides or top of the sunglass, there are all kinds of opportunities for unwanted light to enter, either coming in directly or reflecting off the inside of the lens. One of the most common complaints is of people seeing the reflection of their own eye on the inside of the lens. Backside anti-reflective coating helps a lot here, but it cannot completely eliminate the annoyance. Even though the anti-reflective coating will eliminate any reflections of your face on the lens, it will still allow for an irritating shine across the lens that reduces clarity and overall visibility. When I walk to work in the morning or the winter and the sun is shining low in the sky, I often get an annoying veneer of light that streaks across the lens, especially if I am wearing a pair of shades that has any sort of gap on the sides or top that light can get it. You could wear a wrap design sunglass that completely covers your eyes and lets no light in from the top or sides, but unless you are playing a sport or engaged in an active activity, your shades will be very unfashionable and out of place. That is beside the fact a wrap pair cannot help with direct sunlight any more than a flatter pair. Enhancing Your View and Comfort with Hats There is a way to easily fix this problem, and it gets back to the comfort of being in the car or the shade. Wear a hat. Making your own shade wherever you go is a great way to not only protect your skin and head from sun damage but also allows you to gain the full benefits of your sunglasses and enhance your view and viewing comfort dramatically. Any hat of any style works as long as it provides shade over your eyes. However, not all hats are created equal when it comes to sharing real estate with your sunglasses temples (arms). Depending on the shape of your head, the hat may enter the space above your ears where your shades rest on. If you have bayonet temples, which companies such as Oakley, Randolph, and American Optical use, this may not be such a problem, as they are designed to either slip under your hat or headgear or sit on the outside of the hat and gently hug the head to stay put. Even then, if the temples do not wrap around your head snuggly and there is any space between the tips and your head you will likely feel some pressure with the hat on. Fit is key here and any issue can be easily fixed with a frame adjustment. If you have skull temples that hook around your ears, it may be better or worse depending on your head shape. Most people prefer this setup, as the temples are thinner and barely add anything to the space above your ears, so there is normally no competition between the hat and the arms. For the few people who do have their hats resting right next to their ears, if there is any conflict, it’s very hard to fix unless you find an hat with another shape or you can tilt it up without making your head uncomfortable. If you are one of those people, try wearing a snapback. Not the same look as a curved hat, but it will work. This is a website about sunglass technology, but this point seems to be missed by a lot of people. To get the full benefit of your sunglass investment you should invest in a hat, or different kinds of hats, that you enjoy wearing and make you look good. Take a wearable item that enhances both your view and your aesthetic and use it to improve your sunglasses which do the same. Source : https://www.vecteezy.com/ Simple, but effective. Top Picks for Hats Baseball caps Under Armour Men's Blitzing 3.0 Cap (I own six of these) Features: UA Classic Fit features a pre-curved visor & structured front panels that maintain shape with a low-profile fit Front panel backed with a foam padding for added comfort UA Microthread fabric uses re-engineered fibers designed to give superior stretch & breathability Built-in HeatGear sweatband wicks away sweat to keep you cool & dry Stretch construction provides a comfortable fit Snapbacks KBETHOS Classic Snapback Hat Blank Cap Underbrim Cotton Wool Blend Flat Visor Unisex (I don't wear often because the style doesn't suit me, but I find it very comfortable with nearly any pair of shades) Features: Acrylic Fitted closure Hand Wash Only Classic flat brim fitted baseball cap 9 sizes ( 6 7/8 ~ 8 ) Great unisex design for both men & women 6-panel structure Round flat brim visor Tilley/Bucket hat Tilley Ltm6 Airflo Broad Brim (My wife doesn't let me wear this, but I want to) Features: 100% Recycled Nylon With A Polyurethane Membrane Imported Pull-On closure Machine Wash Rated UPF 50+ sun protection. Durable water-repellant finish. Moisture-wicking hydrofil Straw Hat FURTALK Women's Beach Sun Straw Hat Foldable Brim (My wife has this. It's the only non-baseball hat she'll wear) Features: Polyester Pull-On closure Hand Wash Only This Beach Straw Hat offers high UV UPF sun protection with a full brim, sun blocker function make the hat perfect to use as a beach hat for holidays or as a daily headwear, is very wearable with all outfits A Packable and Foldable Summer Hat, it's easy to carry no matter in a bag or suitcase for travel or holidays; Lots of classic and fantastic colors are designed for different preferences; There are two sizes offered, Size M-L is recommended for a normal head size with a head circumference 22-22.8 inch (56-58CM) and Size L-XL is recommended for a large head size with a head circumference around 22.8-23.6inch (58-60CM); In addition, the hat size could be adjustable by velcro strap inside the wicking sweatband.

Is the sky blue? Is the grass green? Are red roses really red? No. And yes. What you perceive as color is a miraculous combination of physics, biology, and psychology. And sunglasses can play a big role here. Let me explain. In This Article: The Electromagnetic Spectrum Why Are Things Different Colors? The Role of Cones in Color Vision Perception of Yellow and Other Colors The Sensitivity of Human Eyes and Color Perception Color Theory and Manipulation Sunglasses and Color Perception The Electromagnetic Spectrum Take a look at this red and blue ball, with a brown and white puppy sitting on green grass. Photo by Egor Vikhrev on Unsplash The greens are many different shades, as you can differentiate between all the blades of grass. The blues and reds go from lighter to darker shades, depending on the light shining on the different spots. Throughout the whole picture you are really seeing many hundreds of different shades of colors. You see all those colors, but none of them actually exist. What you are seeing is different wavelengths of light being reflected off of those objects into your eyes. And then your brain decides what colors you are seeing. The fact that our eyes and brains can pick up the tiny differences between colors and interpret them to such a detailed degree is really astounding, especially when you keep in mind that the difference between colors is the minuscule difference between waves of energy. This is the Electromagnetic Spectrum, with the visible light spectrum sliver highlighted. Light is a form of energy that travels in electromagnetic waves. Light is both a particle and a wave, it has healing energy and harmful energy, and it is so fast that it travels the 24,901 miles around the earth 7.5 times in one second. We can see the wavelengths of light from around 400nm to 700nm. The lower the number, the shorter the wavelength and the higher the energy. You can see that the different frequencies make up certain colors, like blue, green, yellow, red. Violet is there but it isn’t really visible. These frequencies come from different light sources, most notably the sun, but also from artificial light like lamps. They leave the light source as waves of energy and bounce off different objects until they hit our eyes. But why are things different colors? Shouldn’t everything be white, since that is all the colors together? Why Are Things Different Colors? Different objects absorb different frequencies of light and reflect others. When red and green light are absorbed, but blue light is not, the only light bouncing off the object into our eyes is blue. So, we see blue even though that’s the only color that object does not accept. Are red roses really red? No. We see the red light being reflected from them and interpret that as them being red. The Role of Cones in Color Vision Our eyes have color receptors called cones. Cones are a type of photoreceptor cell in the retina. They give us our color vision when they are stimulated by light hitting them. The retina has approximately 6 million cones. There are only three types of cones as far as color is concerned. Blue, green, and red receptors. Those are the only colors our eyes can actually see. They make up the RGB structure used in screens, cameras, and light bulbs, as no other color is picked up the same way as these three. Our eyes cannot pick up yellow light. Perception of Yellow and Other Colors But we do see yellow and purple and brown and other colors. How does that happen? Our brain makes them up. When our eyes receive a mix of green and red light coming from the same object, our brain interprets that as yellow. Same thing for brown, when the right mix of green, red, and blue hit together. The same way a child learns to paint and mix colors, our eyes and brains construe the world around us. The cool thing about this is that our brains almost always get it right. When we make up yellow in our brains, we are usually seeing something reflect actual yellow light. With one exception. Magenta (rose, purple etc.). That color doesn’t exist. It isn’t on the visible light spectrum. I explain here how that happens. The Sensitivity of Human Eyes and Color Perception The eye does not respond equally to all wavelengths of light. When the visual response to daylight is plotted, it forms a bell curve with the maximum response in the green/yellow portion of the spectrum. The way our eyes and brains work with this setup is fascinating. When the human eye looks at a colored object and a few minutes later at a similar colored object, it cannot tell us from memory whether the colors are different unless the difference is substantial. The human eye does not function as an instrument for spectral analysis. That means that the same color sensation can be produced by different physical stimulus. Thus a mixture of red and green light of the proper intensities appears exactly the same as spectral yellow, although it does not contain light of the wavelengths corresponding to yellow, since we don't have yellow receptors. The eye-brain mechanism of the human is incredibly sensitive. The human eye can differentiate about 10 million colors, but only by making a side-by-side comparison. The human eye can only identify about 300 different colors from memory. Any color sensation can be duplicated by mixing varying quantities of red, green and blue light. These colors, therefore, are known as "the additive primary colors". Color Theory and Manipulation These characteristics lead us towards the interesting world of color theory and how our eyes know how to mix and match colors, what colors have psychological effects on us, and how we can manipulate color to our benefit. According to Dr. J. Trevor Woodhams, M.D., Chief of Surgery, Woodhams Eye Clinic, different cultures with their languages arrange what we call colors differently than English speakers. Russian speakers make the same red / pink and orange / brown distinctions as we would. But they will also make a further distinction between sinii and goluboi, which English speakers would simply call dark and light blue. To Russian speakers, these "colors" are as separate as red and pink, or orange and brown are to us. In Mandarin and Japanese, what we call "green" is considered a type of Blue! Sunglasses and Color Perception With that simplified science in mind, we can now understand that the color around us is not inherent. It is interpreted. And with sunglasses, we have tools that allow us to control and manipulate what light passes through the lens, in effect changing the world around us. We can alter and even eliminate colors. For example, see this picture from Oakley This is an accurate and excellent representation of what a brown lens can do. The right side is significantly more colorful, the colors are easier to tell apart, and the details are much clearer. But as we’ve seen before, the lens does not ‘add’ color. It can alter or eliminate colors. In fact, all the colors on the right side of the picture are present in the left side as well. The difference the lens is making to this view is that the brown lens is boosting green and red light while blocking blue light and even eliminating some blue wavelengths. I explain this further in my post about brown lenses and in other posts like this . Most people think of sunglasses only as a way to reduce glare and protect their eyes from harmful light. Though those reasons are the primary reasons to wear shades to reduce harm and annoyance, the benefits that you can enjoy by picking the right lens for the right view cannot be understated. The world will look so much better, with enhanced colors and clarity, and you will end up picking up shades not to protect yourself but to enjoy your surroundings. My discovery of this happened too fast to use as an example, but my wife really went through this gradual process of realization. At first she was skeptical of any real tech in the lenses I kept buying her, but as time went on she went from not caring which lens she wore to choosing different colors depending on the conditions, to choosing different shades and technologies within the same color. I love that I can pick the colors of the trees and sky and when I walk to work each morning. I love that I can tune the world to fit my mood in a way a painter could never, as I can take the same canvas and change it every day. That is the purpose of this website. To share the knowledge of sunglasses as tools to beautify our world just the way we like it.

I first came across this topic when I was looking into how rose lenses work and why they are so contrast-enhancing in some environments, but downright useless in others. What I discovered is that magenta, rose, purple, etc. do not exist at all. Magenta is an ‘extra-spectral color’, meaning that it is not found in the visible spectrum of light, which is why it is not in a rainbow. You can “see” an object when light reflected from an object enters your eyes and strikes the photoreceptors inside them. I explain this in much more detail here . But briefly, we have three types of cones in our eyes that are sensitive to blue, green, and red light. When your brain sees red light your red cone fires. Same with blue and green. If your brain gets yellow light, it makes both the red and green cones fire partially, and your brain will interpret that combination as yellow, since it is in between red and green. This is really astounding, as your brain is perceiving something real it cannot actually measure. In physics, you cannot mix photons. But in biology, the brain can mix what the eyes pick up. That's how we can see hundreds of shades of color. And that's why you can see yellow even if there is no yellow light present since a mix of red and green would result in the same yellow perception as yellow light itself. And that is why computer or phone screens only need red, blue, and green lights to make all the colors you are seeing right now. When it comes to the color of materials there is a lot of misunderstanding. Many people think that a yellow object, for example, reflects only yellow wavelengths (those at about 580nm) and absorbs the rest. But it isn't like that. Most of the colors that we see do not correspond with one wavelength of light but are composed of a mixture of wavelengths. This can be shown using a reflectance spectrum, which is the best way to see what light makes up the color that we see from an image. We can measure a reflectance spectrum using a reflectance spectrophotometer. This instrument illuminates the object with light at all the wavelengths in the visible spectrum and measures how much light is reflected by the sample at each wavelength. This gives us spectral reflectance factors which generally range from 0 (total absorbance and no reflectance) to 1 (total reflectance) at each wavelength. Let’s take something purple and see what the spectral reflectance looks like. First, this is the purple I am talking about. Now let’s look at the reflectance spectrum. Notice that reflectance is lowest at around 540nm. This is in the green region of the spectrum. Purple objects generally absorb in the middle of the spectrum and reflect both long and short wavelengths. But notice that the reflectance factors are less than 1 at every wavelength. This means that to some extent the object is absorbing light right across the visible spectrum but the absorption is strongest in the middle of the spectrum. Most crucially, notice that the purple object does not only reflect the blue and red wavelengths. It reflects strongly in the orange region (around 620nm). There is appreciable reflectance (around 20%) in the yellow region (around 580nm). There is even about 5% reflectance in the green region. Light is not colored; it just looks colored. The distinction is critical to understanding color. Objects don’t look a particular color because they reflect the wavelength that corresponds to this color. The vast majority of things (look around your room now; almost all of those) have quite broad reflectance spectra; they reflect lots of different wavelengths. Purple is different than yellow though. Yellow wavelengths do exist, though we cannot see them. Our brains see a mix of red and green light and ascertain that what we are seeing is yellow - and it gets it right. Purple is a mix of blue and red, short and long wavelengths, and our brain makes up the color purple, but there is no actually corresponding wavelength. It wants to see a color that makes sense to be in between blue and red, which would be green. But our green cones are not firing, so it cannot be green. In other words, purple can be described not only as a mix of red and blue but in terms of optics, it is also simply the relative lack of green light. And that is why rose lenses are some of the most interesting and useful lenses out there (you knew we would get here eventually). The sensitivity of the human eye varies with wavelength or color. Because of the physiology of the human photoreceptors, the sensitivity of the eye falls off rapidly for colors in both the blue and red ends of the visible spectrum and is highest for wavelengths near the middle of the spectrum. This means that considerably higher quantities of blue or red light are required to elicit the same sense of brightness as, for instance, yellow-green light. A plot of the relative sensitivity of the eye as a function of wavelength is known as the relative luminous efficiency function. During the day, the eye is maximally sensitive to yellow-green wavelengths near 555 nm; this is the photopic response of the eye. Now look at a rose lens spectral profile. And when we overlap the two: Rose lenses almost perfectly inversely correspond to the sensitivity of the human eye. While we get a much higher brightness from green light relative to red or blue light normally, with the green light reduced relative to the red and blue light the result will be a similar brightness through all colors. Rose lenses and their effects and best uses are discussed much more here .

When it comes to sunglasses, the combination of lens color and mirror coatings can significantly impact both the aesthetics and functionality of your eyewear. The most popular combination is a blue mirror on a grey lens. This pairing not only looks stylish but also offers several benefits in terms of visual performance and color enhancement. In this blog post, we'll explore the effects of a blue mirror on a grey lens and why this combination might be the perfect choice for your next pair of sunglasses. In This Article Sunglass Lens Principles Blue Mirror on a Grey Lens What are Blue Mirrors on Gray Lenses Best for? Top Picks Conclusion Maui Jim Blue Hawaii Sunglass Lens Principles Let's start with sunglass lens principles: 1) The color of the base lens tint will let more of the same color light through relative to other colors. A green lens lets more green light in, and a rose lens lets in more red and blue (what combine to make rose). 2) The color opposite the lens color on the color wheel (the complementary color) will generally be the least transmitted and most muted. A green lens will most block purple (a mix of blue and red), a brown lens (which is shades of orange or red) will block blue, etc. 3) The color of any mirror, with some exceptions, will block the same color as the mirror and create an opposite effect. A blue mirror will block blue light and make a grey lens more orange or amber. Another color lens with a blue mirror will make the tint lean towards amber from wherever it is on the wheel (a green lens with a blue mirror would become more yellow). To bring home the point here, a blue lens lets in more blue light and a blue mirror blocks blue light. They have opposite effects, though people often confuse them. 4) Letting relatively more light of a color through the lens brightens that color relative to other colors. Letting less of that light in relative to other colors will make other colors brighter relative to that color. 5) Generally speaking, if you want more contrast (difference in colors) you will use a lens that blocks the most prevalent color and boosts the other colors. If you want less contrast you will use the lens that is the same as the dominant color in your environment. Blue Mirror on a Grey Lens A grey lens is generally the simplest lens in many ways. All colors are reduced more or less equally, and there is no change in color perception. A blue mirror will (almost) always block blue light by reflecting it away (that's why it appears blue to us), meaning less blue light is making it through the lens relative to other colors. The effect of the blue light reduction is to cause the rest of the tint to shift to the opposite color on the color wheel - a shade of red/yellow/brown. (We are not talking here about blue light blocking in the sense of High Energy Blue light which is only a small section of blue light. We are referring to blue light being reduced across the blue spectrum of light). Therefore, blue mirrored grey lenses will have a amberish hue, and depending on the color of the mirror it can be subtle or very strong. The darker the blue mirror the more subtle amber it will be, the lighter the blue mirror the browner it will be. Think of base tint and mirrors like a seasoned chicken dish. The seasonings can radically change how it tastes and looks, but the dish will still be chicken at the end of the day. The mirror can affect the tint but the lens color will still be in the same color category. A grey lens with any mirror will always have some variation of a grey tint. Here is the Costa Del Mar Rinconcito with 580 glass lenses. On the left is the silver mirror lens, and on the right is the blue mirror lens. The blue mirror changes the tint to a more amber hue. It is still not a brown lens, but it is definitely not a straight gray lens. Revo makes two blue lenses, the "Blue Water" and "Heritage H2O", that have much lighter blue mirrors, making the lenses so blue blocking that the tint is essentially a brown lens. There are some exceptions to this. For a reason I have not figured out yet, Maui Jim Blue Hawaii lenses in their MauiBrilliant material have a slightly green, cooling effect on the view, with no warming effect at all. Randolph blue mirrors do not seem to have any effect at all. I have their Atlantic Blue, and Steel Blue (out of production) lenses in the grey base/blue mirror, and the Steel Blue has a negligible effect on the tint. What are Blue Mirrors on Gray Lenses Best for? Generally, it is better to add some warmth to a lens to make the world more colorful, energetic, and vibrant. This is because blue light, which is blocked by a blue mirror, is cooler and has higher energy, so it is very prevalent and hurts our ability to see other colors clearly. In addition, we like to add warmth and color to the view because it makes us more alert, energetic, and happy. A great way to accomplish this would be to use a brown or rose lens, which are very warm and add a lot of color and contrast. But brown or rose can be too much, especially in bright conditions where there is already a lot of contrast and color and the extra pop can feel unnatural. It will not actually be too sunny to look at, but it will feel too "hot". Gray with a small touch of warmth makes us feel like the world is natural but everything is slightly boosted, which to some degree makes it feel more boosted than others. With a rose or brown lens it can be hard to forget you are wearing sunglasses because the view, though beautiful, is far from what you would normally see. A gray lens will feel "natural", and a small touch of warmth will not be noticeable to our brains but it will still enhance the same colors a brown lens would, green and red. Unlike a brown lens, the grey lens with a blue mirror is only slightly blocking blue, so blues are still considerably more vivid than with brown lenses. With the usual disclaimer that what is displayed on the screen is not an accurate representation of what the lens looks like with our eyes, here is an example of what a premium blue mirror lens can do: Best Uses Blue mirrors on grey lenses are best for bright, sunny days surrounded by lots of color. Beach and water, hiking and exploring. Excellent for offshore fishing and boating. Great for sunny driving. They won't be best for winter but not any worse than a regular grey lens. The lenses will feel too dark in cloudy conditions but may have enough color pop that if the clouds are bright enough it will not be an issue. Top Picks Here are some of my top picks for grey lenses with blue mirrors: Maui Jim Blue Hawaii in SuperThin Glass This lens is arguably the best bright conditions lens available. The color pop and clarity are off the charts and the comfort in full sun is wonderful. See the full review here . Costa Del Mar 580G Blue Mirror Sort of the inverse of the Maui Jim lens qualities, this lens still has great color enhancement and clarity but is exceptionally comfortable in the brightest conditions. It was designed to be the best offshore lens in the harshest conditions and it fills that role to perfection. See the full review here . Revo Blue Water Sirilium Lens I prefer this version of Revo's blue mirror lens over their H2O Heritage glass lens. Very similar to the Costa Blue Mirror with a bit more boost to greens and reds. Conclusion In conclusion, selecting sunglasses with a blue mirror on a grey lens can be an excellent choice for those seeking both style and functionality. The combination provides a subtle warmth and color enhancement while maintaining the natural look and feel of grey lenses. This makes them particularly suitable for bright, sunny days and environments rich in color, such as beaches, hiking trails, and outdoor adventures. I highly recommend these lenses, as some of the available options are among the best lenses you can buy.

One of the best lens colors is grey, the darkest, most common tint. Maui Jim Neutral Grey In This Article How Do Grey Lenses Work? What are Grey lenses good for? Sports Driving Beach Adding a mirror to a grey lens Top Grey Lenses Conclusion How Do Grey Lenses Work? Grey lenses seem to be straightforward when it comes to the science behind them, but there are a lot more details that add nuance. That nuance can result in huge differences between lenses, and between an average lens and an exceptional one. The color of a lens will let more of the same color light through relative to other colors. A green lens lets more green light in, and a rose lens lets in more red and blue (what combine to make rose). But Grey is not a color. When we see grey or black it means the object we are looking at absorbs almost all wavelengths of visible light and reflects very little, if any, back to our eyes. The absence or minimal reflection of light across the visible spectrum results in the perception of black. This is why black objects can get warmer than lighter-colored objects when exposed to sunlight as they absorb more light energy. So a black or grey lens absorbs all colors equally, and that means that a grey lens will not change the color balance of our view the same way a green, brown, or rose lens would. However, two factors greatly affect how a grey lens will differ from other grey lenses. The tint itself can incorporate shades of other colors. The lens technology can manipulate the light spectrum to boost specific colors. The tint itself can incorporate shades of other colors. It is impossible to show the differences in how grey lenses will render a view when looking through them on a phone or computer screen. But look at all the different tints within the grey category. These lenses are all listed as grey, but they are significantly different. The Vuarnet is almost blue and many of the lenses lean towards green. You can't see it in the photo, but the Oakley has a faint rose effect. Differences in grey lenses are subtle and much less noticeable than in other color lenses. They are smaller differences that matter less but still make one lens feel significantly unlike another. The lens technology can manipulate the light spectrum to boost specific colors. Using a variety of filters and other technology, brands have been able to manipulate the light spectrum to reduce and boost specific wavelengths of light. This will cause reds, greens, and blues to be brighter and more vibrant, without making the lens any brighter than a standard lens. Source: Progressive-glasses.com It would be impossible to show an actual simulation of the grey lenses without exaggerating it, as the differences are so subtle that only our brains can pick them up. But our brains can definitely pick them up. And though many brands claim to pull off this feat, only a few actually do. Making a grey lens into a color-enhancing lens is among the hardest things to do in sunglass tech. With other lens colors, a lot of the heavy lifting is done by the color tint itself, and the added tech is adding to the natural color effect. With grey lenses, too much light manipulation will change the lens tint and the lens will not be grey anymore. Too little will make no difference. VLT (visible light transmission) makes a bigger difference with grey lenses than other colors, as a 10% VLT will feel much darker than a 17% VLT. A brown lens, for example, might not feel as different depending on the shade of brown used. However, using VLT can still be misleading. VLT is a bit outdated when it comes to color-enhancing lenses because they reduce annoying light more than normal lenses but let more good light in. So to some degree, they are supposed to be brighter while still feeling comfortable to most people. The key to great grey lenses is managing light, not manipulating it. They are best used in full sun where the colors and available light are abundant. There may be no way to accurately show the difference between grey lenses through a computer screen but we can compare other aspects in a review of a grey lens. The clarity, brightness, contrast, and colors can all be noticeably different. Much of that is due to the materials and processes used to manufacture the lenses. Even within brands, there can be differences. Maui Jim makes a superior grey lens, but their glass lens is better than their MauiBrilliant lens material which is better than the MauiPure lens material. What are Grey lenses good for? In bright sunlight, grey lenses will never be a bad choice, even if there are better ones available. If the view is already bright, warm, and colorful, there may be no need to add any color or warmth. No Lens With Lens Grey lenses are not good for overcast or even mixed conditions. When the amount of available light is already reduced, turning it down even further without enhancing colors can make the world cold and dreary. No Lens With Lens Grey lenses are more visually comfortable in bright sun than other lenses over long periods because our color memory doesn’t have to adjust as much as it would for other tints and get tired. Color memory means we remember how objects are supposed to look and adjust subconsciously so they appear correct. Grey lenses will never feel weird after long exposure because they match our color memory. Other tints can eventually feel odd in some way, like the sky being a different shade of blue during a certain time of day than we would normally expect Sports In full sun, grey lenses will be fine to use for sports, but not ideal. Since grey lenses are neutral, they are neither calming nor vibrant. When we play sports we want the view to elicit feelings of energy, vibrant, and warmth. For that, a brown or rose lens will be a better choice. Maui Jim may be an exception here because their grey lens enhances colors and clarity more than many brown lenses do. Grey lenses are great for water sports and fishing. It is best to not wear glass lenses for sports. Driving Grey lenses will be a good choice to drive with in full sun, but often we drive in overcast or mixed conditions, depending on our environment. In those instances, grey lenses will not be ideal. We generally want warmer, more alert colors when we drive, so similar to sports, a brown or boosted grey (using a mirror) will be a better choice for driving. Polarized lenses are recommended for driving. Beach Grey lenses can be great at the beach. They are dark and comfortable and allow for a much more relaxing experience. The more beautiful the view is, the more the grey lenses will assist in displaying it. Polarized lenses are highly recommended for the beach. Adding a Mirror to a Grey Lens The color of any mirror, with some exceptions, will block the same color as the mirror and create an opposite effect. A blue mirror will block blue light and make a grey lens more orange or amber. This is explained in more detail here . Here is Maui Jim SuperThin Glass with different mirrors on the grey lens. Maui Jim Grey Lenses Depending on the mirror color, the lens will get a warmer or cooler effect. Grey with a small touch of warmth, like a blue mirror, makes us feel like the world is natural but everything is slightly boosted, which to some degree makes it feel more boosted than others. With a rose or brown lens, it can be hard to forget you are wearing sunglasses because the view, though beautiful, is far from what you would normally see. A gray lens will feel "natural", and a small touch of warmth will not be noticeable to our brains but it will still enhance the same colors a brown lens would, green and red. The same is true of a grey lens with a mirror that has a cooling effect, like a red mirror. The view will be slightly calmer but not to the degree that the world feels unnatural. Some of the best lenses you can buy are mirrored grey lenses. Top Grey Lenses Here are my picks for the best grey lenses: Maui Jim Neutral Grey Superthin Glass The best of the best, this lens is arguably the most advanced and impressive lens in the world. Everything looks more picturesque, with enhanced reds, blues, and greens, without shifting the overall color. Costa Del Mar 580G Grey Costa is renowned for making offshore, dark lenses, and this is no exception. This lens is very comfortable to wear in full sun while still boosing colors more than a typical grey lens. The clarity rivals the Maui Jim. Oakley Prizm Black The only non-glass option on this list, which makes it better for sports, and highly lightweight. This lens has a faint rose hue to it that boosts blues and reds and adds contrast to the view. Vuarnet Grey Polar A slightly more blue lens than the others, this lens is very relaxing and dark. The VLT is lower which makes it ideal and comfortable for very bright days. Colors are not noticeably boosted. Conclusion In conclusion, grey lenses stand out as one of the best choices for those seeking a neutral and visually comfortable option in bright sunlight. Their ability to absorb all colors equally without altering the color balance of the view makes them a reliable choice for various outdoor activities, including beach outings and driving in full sun. Although they may not be the best option for sports or overcast conditions, their neutrality helps reduce eye strain over long periods and aligns well with our color memory, providing a natural and fatigue-free visual experience. Adding a mirror to grey lenses can further enhance their performance by subtly altering the warmth or coolness of the view, making them even more versatile. Overall, while grey lenses may seem straightforward, their subtle nuances and advanced technologies can make a significant difference, ensuring that wearers enjoy a balanced, vibrant, and natural visual experience in bright conditions. Maui Jim

The blend of lens color and mirror coatings can dramatically transform both the look and functionality of your sunglasses. A popular combination is a green mirror on a grey lens. This pairing not only looks great but also provides notable advantages for visual clarity and color enhancement. In this blog post, we'll explore the effects of a green mirror on a grey lens and why this combination might be the perfect choice for your next pair of sunglasses. In This Article Sunglass Lens Principles Green Mirror on a Grey Lens What are Green Mirrors on Grey Lenses Best for? Top Picks Conclusion Sunglass Lens Principles When discussing the effect of a green mirror on a grey lens it is importa nt to start with sunglass lens principles: 1) Base Lens Tint and Light Transmission: The color of the base lens tint determines which colors of light are transmitted more effectively. For instance, green lenses allow more green light through, while rose lenses let in more red and blue light (which combine to form rose). 2) Complementary Colors and Blocking: On the color wheel, the color opposite to the lens tint (its complementary color) will typically be blocked the most and appear muted. For example, green lenses block purple light (a mix of red and blue), while brown lenses (shades of orange or red) block blue light. 3) Mirror Coatings and Their Effect: Mirror coatings usually block the same color as the mirror and create an opposite effect on the lens tint. A blue mirror, for example, blocks blue light, making a grey lens appear more amber or orange. On lenses with other tints, like green, a blue mirror will push the color toward yellow. It’s important to note that green lenses and green mirrors have opposite effects—green lenses let in green light, while green mirrors block it. 4) Light Transmission and Perceived Color Brightness: Allowing more light of a specific color to pass through the lens makes that color appear brighter relative to others. Conversely, blocking more of a certain color makes the other colors stand out more prominently. 5) Contrast and Lens Color Choice: To enhance contrast, choose a lens that blocks the most dominant color in your environment while allowing others to shine. For a more neutral, low-contrast view, opt for a lens color that matches the dominant color around you. Green Mirror on a Grey Lens A grey lens is generally the simplest lens in many ways. All colors are reduced more or less equally, and there is no change in color perception. A green mirror will (almost) always block green light by reflecting it away (that's why it appears green to us), meaning less green light is making it through the lens relative to other colors. The effect of the green light reduction is to cause the rest of the tint to shift to the opposite color on the color wheel - a shade of purple. Therefore, green mirrored grey lenses will have a purplish hue, and depending on the color of the mirror it can be subtle or very strong. The darker the green mirror shade the more subtle purple it will be, the lighter the green mirror the more purple it will be. Think of base tint and mirrors like a seasoned chicken dish. The seasonings can radically change how it tastes and looks, but the dish will still be chicken at the end of the day. The mirror can affect the tint but the lens color will still be in the same color category. A grey lens with any mirror will always have some variation of a grey tint. The lens will not be purple, but grey with a purple hue to it. Here are Maui Jim glass lenses. On the left is the Neutral Grey lens, and on the right is the MauiGreen lens. The green mirror changes the tint to a more purple hue. It is still not a purple lens, but it is definitely not a straight grey lens. Otis has their Lit Green Mirror lens which is saturated enough to make the lens almost rose. Still not a full rose lens like MauiRose or Serengeti Sedona. The tint is almost deceptive, as the Otis is a lot more neutral than the MauiRose or Sedona. What are Green Mirrors on Grey Lenses Best for? Because green mirror lenses block green light and therefore make reds and blues relatively brighter, they work best when you want to reduce green. Why would you want to reduce green? Because the human eye is most sensitive to green, it appears brighter than other colors even if all colors are illuminated the same. By reducing green we equalize all colors, which then seems to be a color boost across the visible light spectrum. In other words, by making all colors the same brightness to us, we add color and definition to our view. The lens may seem purple at first, and it will seem surreal for a few minutes when you put them on, but after that, everything calms down and feels like a color-boosting grey lens. The sky is blue, the grass is green, and the roses are red, but everything seems even more so. This will have a nice effect that works well for any regular sunglass use and is great for sports. In fact, many Oakley lenses are either rose-based, green-mirrored, or both. The effect on mood is interesting. It is both warming from the reds and cooling from the blues, offering a soothing yet vibrant viewing experience. These lenses perform exceptionally well in full sunlight and open landscapes where greens dominate, like beaches, golf courses, or hiking trails. If rose lenses feel too "hot" in full sun, but you want a toned down version of what a rose lens can do, a green mirror lens is a great option. This lens is best in full sun. It does not work well in overcast conditions and is not red enough to be that useful in bright haze. It will work well on bright winter days. It's important to differentiate between the two effects of purple vs rose. Blocking green light boosts red or blue. When a green mirror causes a purple effect, as opposed to a rose effect, that means the lens is letting in more blue light (but still plenty of red). You can see here how the shade of purple is much closer to blue than to red. A rose lens means the balance is tilted towards red (still with blue tones included). Before we get too technical, let's see what this means for our view. The two lenses will be similar but with some small differences. Purple will be relatively closer to grey, while rose will be much more red. Keep in mind as well that besides the shades, the difference between a green mirror lens and a rose lens is significant in the base tint as well. A green mirror is like adding some salt to your eggs. Brings out some flavor but it still tastes like eggs. Here, it is still a grey lens just with a slight shift to purple. For a rose lens, it's like eating chicken instead of eggs. Green mirror lenses are like the heavily watered-down version of rose lenses. Here is the Maui Jim MauiGreen lens (green mirror on a grey lens) next to the MauiRose lens. This is how the view would look on a sunny day: No Lens Grey Lens Keep in mind that photos will never look as good as the real view  looking through the sunglasses with your own eyes. These lenses are among the most difficult to show and are best tried on. These photos may look somewhat similar, but in reality, the difference is stark. Green Mirror Lens Rose Lens Top Picks Maui Jim MauiGreen Comes in glass and more impact-resistant materials with all coatings and Maui Jim's color-enhancing technology. A beautiful purple hue that is color-boosting and relaxing at the same time. Click here to check out the MauiGreen . Otis LIT Green Mirror Like the MauiGreen, the LIT Green Mirror is glass with all coatings but is closer to rose and has a warm hue to it. Easy on the eyes and a favorite for sunny days when I want a rose effect without feeling too "hot". Click here to check out the Otis LIT Green Mirror . Oakley Prizm Jade An impact-resistant sport lens, not to be confused with the rose-based Prizm Road Jade, this lens has no other coatings and is one of Oakley's more relaxed grey-based lenses, but more color-enhancing than their Prizm Black lenses. Click here to check out the Oakley Prizm Jade . Conclusion - Effect of a Green Mirror on a Grey Lens Green mirror lenses on a grey base offer a unique combination of aesthetic appeal and practical functionality. By reducing green light, they enhance reds and blues, providing a subtle yet impactful boost to color and contrast. This makes them a versatile choice for bright, sunny conditions, offering a balanced visual experience that is both vibrant and soothing. Whether you're drawn to Maui Jim’s refined hue, Otis’s warm tones, or Oakley’s sporty edge, these lenses are a fantastic choice for sunny days and outdoor adventures. Explore these options, try them in person, and experience the subtle power of this unique lens combination!

Like a man wearing a suit in a blizzard or a woman wearing a dress to the pool, blue lenses are the nicest looking lenses to wear that are nearly always the least useful in any situation. Here’s why. In This Article How Do Blue Lenses Work? How Blue Lenses Change the View Sunny Conditions Cloudy Conditions When are Blue Lenses Recommended? Conclusion - How Blue Sunglass Lenses Work How Do Blue Lenses Work? The blue lens is one of the only lenses that uses a distinct color actually on the light spectrum. Grey, brown, and rose are not on the light spectrum as visible colors ( Our eyes can only see blue, green, and red ). Green is often used, reviewed here , and red is sometimes used as lenses but is not particularly useful. The visible light spectrum is made up of wavelengths of energy that correspond to different colors interpreted by our eyes. The highest energy and shortest wavelengths are the blue light spectrum. Green light is less energy and longer wavelengths, and red light are the lowest energy and longest wavelengths. This means that blue light moves faster and more frequently than green or blue light. Because of this, blue light is more prevalent in our view. It’s why the sky is blue, because blue light is scattered more than green or blue by particles in the atmosphere, called Rayleigh scattering. The human eye contains three types of cone photoreceptors, each sensitive to different parts of the light spectrum: short (blue), medium (green), and long (red) wavelengths. The cones that detect blue light are less numerous and less sensitive compared to those that detect green and red light. Because of this, our eyes are less adept at processing and distinguishing fine details in blue light, leading to lower contrast. Blue light doesn’t contrast well with many other colors in our environment. For example, blue doesn’t create as strong a distinction when placed next to black, white, or gray, compared to red or yellow. This poor contrast makes it more challenging for our visual system to detect edges and details in an image. Brown Lenses clear the blue haze We don’t even realize how blue everything we see outdoors is. It dulls the other colors because of its higher energy and the world becomes less colorful and washed out as a result. Conversely, removing blue or adding red will add a lot of color that was being throttled by the blue light. That’s why putting on brown lenses, which are a mix of green and red light and reduce blue the most, can feel like adding a fresh coat of paint to the world. The way a lens tint will work follows these principles: The color of the base lens tint will let more of the same color light through relative to other colors. A green lens lets more green light in, and a rose lens lets in more red and blue (what combine to make rose). The color opposite the lens color on the color wheel (the complementary color) will generally be the least transmitted and most muted. A green lens will most block purple (a mix of blue and red), a rose lens will block green, etc. Letting relatively more light of a color through the lens brightens that color relative to other colors. Letting less of that light in relative to other colors will make other colors brighter relative to that color. Generally speaking, if you want more contrast (difference in colors) you will use a lens that blocks the most prevalent color and boosts the other colors. If you want less contrast you will use the lens that is the same as the dominant color in your environment. For example, if you want more contrast on a green golf course, you would use a rose lens. If you want more contrast in a red desert, you might use a green lens. Blue lenses transmit blue light relatively more than green or red light. This makes colors appear cooler and more subdued because they reduce the intensity of warm colors like red and yellow. Objects may appear with a bluish tint. It will make blues and some greens more distinct. To be clear, blue lenses can still be fully protective, both from UV rays and even from HEV blue light. We are talking now about the effect of the blue lens on the view. Let's see what blue lenses look like. How Blue Lenses Change the View Sunny Conditions Let's choose a situation that has somewhat favorable conditions for blue lenses, due to the blue water and blue sky that will look nicer with blue boosted. But notice the buildings which are shades of red, orange, and yellow, and how washed out and dull they are in the next picture. No Lens Blue Lens I find the blue lens a strange mix of calming, as it reduces the bright colors of red and green, but also brighter, with the higher energy blue light dominating the view. To me, it is a bit disorienting. Is the blue lens better than nothing? Yes. It reduces the total light and the view is more comfortable than without anything on, and it protects from UV rays. But it's an odd choice when a simple grey lens will look like this: Grey Lens The colors are pleasant, comfortable, and natural. The only aspect that is not as good is the sky, which is only slightly less royal blue and the difference is barely noticeable. To bring home the point, let's use a brown lens now, as it is the closest thing we have to the opposite of blue (because that shade of red is near the complementary color on the color wheel). The brown lens is much more pleasant, the colors are brighter, clearer, and more contrasted. The only slight drawback is the sky, which gets a slight tinge of red to it, but that is barely noticeable and most people prefer it. Brown Lens Cloudy Conditions In cloudy conditions, the effect of blue lenses is even worse. Since clouds cause light to be diffused, contrast is reduced significantly. Normally, we would want to boost contrast in that situation, but blue lenses do not. No Lens Blue Lens Again, the blue lens reduces light, and that is a benefit. But the view is colder, washed out, dull, and pretty sad. I don't generally recommend grey lenses for overcast conditions, as they are better in full sun, but I think they are a solid step-up on blue lenses here. Grey Lens Here, where we want to add contrast, a brown (or rose) lens would be much better. Brown Lens When are Blue Lenses Recommended? We've seen how blue lenses are generally the worst lens choice, but are there times when blue lenses outshine others? Yes. When we want to reduce color and contrast. This can be a location or a mood determination. Sometimes a place is so bright and colorful, and on the red hue side, that blue lenses help calm things down. A desert for example. No Lens Blue Lens Grey Lens The blue lens here is a bit nicer than the grey, and a brown would be offputting with the red and distorting the blue sky. But the difference is not that big, and most people do not need dedicated desert sunglasses if grey or green lenses would work also well here. Many people will still prefer brown, green, or grey for the better contrast the provide. Sometimes people prefer blue lenses because they feel like everything is too hot and exciting - even when most people wouldn't feel that way - and they want a calming, cooler sensation. That's a subjective decision. The other time blue lenses can be helpful is indoors. This only works for Category 1 and 2 lenses, as Category 3 lenses are too dark to wear indoors. The reason blue lenses are better indoors is that the lighting is often warmer in tone than outdoors, making blue lenses the correct hue to counteract that. They are also the nicest lenses to wear aesthetically, which is why many celebrities wear them and why many fashion-oriented brands have blue lenses. Performance brands, on the other hand, rarely have blue lenses in their lineup. For example, Ray-Ban , Tom Ford , Persol , Moscot, and Cartier will have a lot of blue lenses in their frames. Oakley, Maui Jim, Costa Del Mar, and Revo have none. Vuarnet is a rare exception with its blue polar lens. I would only suggest buying blue lenses for fashion. Conclusion - How Blue Sunglass Lenses Work While blue lenses may be stylish and offer a cool, modern aesthetic, their performance often falls short compared to other lens colors. Their inability to boost contrast, especially in cloudy or low-light conditions, makes them a suboptimal choice for most outdoor activities. By allowing blue light to pass through while muting warmer colors, they create a view that is often dull, washed out, and lacking in vibrancy. However, blue lenses do have niche applications, such as creating a calming visual experience in high-energy, colorful environments like deserts or providing a subtle, fashion-forward look indoors. If visual performance and color enhancement are your priority, brown, rose, green, or grey lenses will typically offer a superior experience. Blue lenses may look great on the outside, but as this analysis shows, beauty doesn’t always translate to better performance.

Have you ever wondered how sunglasses transform a bright, blinding day into a comfortably shaded experience? The science behind sunglasses is both fascinating and essential for protecting our eyes from harmful solar radiation. Let’s delve into the mechanics of how sunglasses work. In This Article What do Sunglasses Actually Do? How are Sunglasses Made? How to Use Sunglasses to Change Color Perception What do Sunglasses Actually Do? Let's first understand what sunglasses are designed to do. Light originates from the sun and can interact with objects in three primary ways: absorption, reflection, and transmission. Sunglasses employ all three mechanisms to shield our eyes. They predominantly absorb light, slightly transmit it, and, if equipped with a mirror coating, reflect a portion of it as well. To understand why sunglasses are so effective, consider this: the outdoors can be 100 times brighter than a fully lit indoor room. Our eyes only need a small fraction of this light to maintain excellent vision. So by removing 80-90% of light, sunglasses ensure that just the right amount of light reaches our eyes to see comfortably. Sunglasses are therefore absorbing and reflecting most of the light in our vision. How are Sunglasses Made? Sunglasses utilize specially designed lenses to manage light. The lenses are treated with dyes or tints. In plastic lenses, dyes are embedded in the material, whereas in glass lenses, tints are used. For plastics, a tint tank is used. the lens is placed in the dye solution to absorb the chemicals. The longer it is in the dye, the darker the tint will be. There is a good (long) video on this here. Watch it at 1.5 speed. For glass lenses, the actual glass will be made by smelting the other compounds into the mix and will come out of the furnace as tinted lenses. Otis has a video showing the process. Essentially, sunglasses are dirty lenses we put in front of our eyes. There are many chemicals and compounds that are used to manufacture these dyes and tints, and many brands have proprietary blends. Maui Jim, for example, uses rare earth elements as part of their blend to fine-tune the light wavelengths that pass through the lens. The compounds within these dyes and tints are adept at absorbing or reflecting a significant amount of light—typically around 80-90%. This selective absorption means only 10-20% of light passes through to reach our eyes, allowing us to see comfortably even on the brightest days. Some brands do this better than others. If the tint isn't evenly applied, saturated enough, uses poor materials, or isn't attached well the sunglasses will not perform or hold up effectively. Sometimes the manufacturing process of even good brands can have mishaps and quality control is key. Some cheap pairs do not even use dyes. They take a darkened coating and laminate it to the clear lens. This is what you will get from street vendors in shady places. The coating will peel off and it is unlikely that the tint was applied evenly, being stretched out over a lens. The process continues with adding coatings to the lenses. The coatings can be UV coatings, mirror coatings, hydrophobic (water repellant), oleophobic (oil repellant), anti-reflective (only on the backside of the lens for sunglasses), scratch-resistant, and polarized films. The coatings are added in different ways. Sometimes they are placed in a vacuum chamber where multiple layers of metal oxides are applied using a process called vacuum deposition. This involves vaporizing the coating material, which then condenses on the lens surface in very thin, uniform layers. UV coatings are often applied using a dip-coating process. The lenses are submerged in a UV-blocking solution and then slowly withdrawn to ensure an even coating. What happens to the absorbed energy? When sunglasses absorb light, they also absorb the associated energy. This process converts light into heat, which is why objects left in the sun, including sunglasses, can become warm. However, sunglasses typically don’t get hot enough to cause discomfort when touched. Other objects, like cars and metal surfaces, can become scorching under the sun—they absorb and convert a large amount of solar energy into heat. How to Use Sunglasses to Change Color Perception The colors we perceive in objects are a result of light being reflected from their surfaces to our eyes. An object absorbs certain wavelengths of light more than others, reflecting the remaining wavelengths, which determine the color we see. Objects themselves don’t possess color; it’s their interaction with light that creates the hues we observe. This is explained more here . Sunglasses as Light Filters Sunglasses allow us to manipulate the light entering our eyes, adjusting brightness and color. By fine-tuning the amount of light transmitted through the lenses, sunglasses can enhance visual comfort and clarity. They can also alter the perceived color of objects by filtering specific wavelengths of light. Reds, greens, and blues can all be fine-tuned to be the most visually pleasing shades and brightness possible. This capability is akin to how photographers use filters to adjust images, enabling us to experience the world in the most visually appealing and comfortable way possible. Photographers can only do it afterward, with computers. We can do it with the computing power of our brain combined with color-enhancing sunglasses in the moment, and even better. Have you ever been to a beautiful place and thought "Wow, could anything be better than this?" With the right pair of sunglasses, it most certainly can. In essence, sunglasses are more than just a fashion accessory. They are sophisticated tools that manage the light spectrum to protect our eyes and enhance our visual experience. Whether it’s reducing glare, enhancing contrast, or simply making a sunny day more bearable, sunglasses play a crucial role in our daily lives. So next time you put on a pair of shades, you’ll know the science behind their magic!

There are billions (you read that correctly) of sunglasses sold each year, but there are only four types of sunglasses shoppers. Knowing what kind of consumer you are can help you make the correct choice for price and quality, and understanding what motivates other consumers can open you up to new possibilities that were unknown until now. In This Article The Four Types of Sunglass Shoppers Eye Protectors Style Lovers View Enthusiasts Art Collectors What All Four Types of Sunglass Shoppers Should Know Eye Protectors Anyone who buys sunglasses is concerned about their eye health. They want to eliminate harmful UVA/UVB rays and lower the sunlight level to be comfortable. They may even want polarized lenses to remove annoying reflected light. This category of sunglasses shoppers refers to those who are only concerned about eye protection. They do not care much about the quality of the frames or lenses above the basic function of the sunglasses. Style does not matter as long as the frames do not look hideous. And price will always be kept as low as possible. This is by far the largest category. Style Lovers Style Lovers know they need sunglasses for protection, but their main concern when making a purchase is what looks good on them. This often has as much to do with branding as it does with frame shapes. These shoppers do not care much about the quality of the lenses or frames, at least in comparison with the looks and status of the frames, though they may assume the pairs they are buying are high quality due to the often steep price. Designer brands target this category. Style Shoppers are likelier to spend larger sums on sunglasses and have multiple pairs for different colors and looks. The price can be high or low here, as some shoppers will find styles they like for cheaper and some will opt for pricier options. It is not that Style Lovers are low information consumers per se, they simply only care about aesthetics and protection. Since aesthetics are subjective, as long as they are happy with their purchase they are spending well enough. This is why Ray Ban is such a successful brand. They make styles like the aviator, wayfarer, clubmaster, and round that look great on most people, often with good quality. Past that consideration, most shoppers do not even realize there is more they can get that would be a significant improvement, often for around the same price. This is the second biggest category. View Enthusiasts View Enthusiasts are a growing category as more consumers learn about the phenomenal ability of premium quality lenses to enhance the wearer's view by boosting colors, adding contrast, and maximizing clarity. Historically, many of these consumers focused on sports and outdoor activities that precluded this category from overlapping much with the Style Lovers, as the frames were more functional and less fashionable. That is changing as more brands add fashionable frames to their catalogs while keeping their premium lenses and frame construction. The prices for this category are often the same or cheaper than the designer pairs sold to Style Lovers, even with the additional quality. This is mostly because the style category is so large as to dominate the market and set the prices, with brands that View Enthusiasts patron trying to get a slice of that market. The best is when View Enthusaints and Style Lovers overlap. Brands like Maui Jim and Serengeti , long-time sporty brands, have been adding many gorgeous styles to their lineups, all with their fantastic quality of frame and lenses. At Sunglass Science we only deal with this category as we focus on different premium lenses. Art Collectors Art collectors are a niche in the sunglasses world who buy pairs that are unique, rare, and generally expensive. Unlike Style Lovers who are primarily concerned with how the sunglasses will look on them when wearing them, Art Collectors are driven by the beauty and prestige of the sunglasses themselves. Art Collectors will still only buy frames that they can reasonably pull off themselves. Since the lenses do not contribute much to the fine craftsmanship of these exlusive sunglasses, they are often stocked with unremarkable, lower quality offerings, that can be swapped out for custom lenses by their new owners. There are three motivations for Art Collectors: They are motivated by the craftsmanship and beauty of the frames. Brands that use intricate detailing, rare and precious materials, and advanced or creative engineering have an allure to collectors much in the same way luxury watches and vintage cars do. Many people are drawn to high-end sunglasses for the prestige and exclusivity they offer. The craftsmanship, rare materials, and unique designs of these luxury brands can be highly appealing, symbolizing a sense of style and success. For some, owning such sunglasses is a way to enjoy the finer things in life and express their personal taste and achievements. Some Art Collectors believe their purchase is also a smart investment, with the possibility that they can sell limited edition pairs for a profit sometime in the future. Often, this is an additional consideration for those motivated by beauty or exclusivity. What All Four Types of Sunglass Shoppers Should Know Most of these different groups can learn to appreciate aspects from others and try to incorporate them into their own considerations. For example, Style Lovers can appreciate how some sunglasses can be collection pieces that stand out as attention grabbers by themselves, much like how celebrities wear certain rare sunglasses to public events. Eye Protectors, Style Lovers, and Art Collectors can all appreciate the Lens Enthusiasts. Everyone has gone to beautiful places on sunny days and seen mountains and oceans and breathtaking views that are far better than what they experience in their daily lives. Some scenes are significantly better than others. Premium color-enhancing lenses make any view, anywhere, better. Everyone becomes a view enthusiast once they try on a premium lens. The difference is undeniable. That is something anyone can appreciate and I would highly recommend considering when you buy your next pair of sunglasses.

In This Article Background What is the Risk? What do the studies say? Let's Get Real Conclusion Background On Aug. 3, 2021, Hannah Oliver was driving home from her parents' house wearing her favorite sunglasses. "I got on South Cobb [Drive] and was going down the road, and a guy pulled out in front of me, slammed on the brakes," Oliver says. "I couldn't react fast enough. As soon as I hit him, the airbag came out, and it just hit my sunglasses right at the right angle, I guess. And they shattered on impact." "It deflated my eye on impact," she says. "My retina was detached, and my optic nerve was severed, so there was no coming back." This story has been picked up by many news organizations , and Hannah wrote about it herself in the Guardian. She went viral on Tiktok and her story spread far and wide. A large sunglasses channel on YouTube even did a video on it where the host swore to never wear glass lenses while driving because of this risk. What is interesting about Hannah's story isn't the horrific nature of her accident. It is not the common occurrence of ocular injury caused by car accidents. The interesting twist in the story is that Hannah has opened her own sunglass brand focused on "safe" polycarbonate lenses to help others avoid the tragic accident she went through. A story of hope out of the ashes. "I haven’t been able to work for the last year because of the accident, but my new goal is to release my own sunglasses line made out of shatter-resistant polycarbonate lenses. I think every company should have a disclaimer stating that sunglasses can shatter on impact." I am sure Hannah has the best of intentions. She has come out of a horrible life-altering ordeal that I cannot imagine going through. However, it is worth asking if the risk of wearing glass lenses while driving is really something to be concerned about or if it is a freak accident we should not alter our behavior for. Do the statistics indicate there is a serious risk? What is the Risk? First of all, what exactly is the risk? It is a fact that the theoretical risk of injury is present. What would we be concerned about? In the event of an accident, several risks could be a factor in this regard. The airbag could hit the face and break the lenses which could then splinter into the face. Glass shards from a broken windshield could also fly into the lens and in turn break it. Other projectiles from inside or outside the car could also be the culprits. Now, it's important to keep in mind that front seat airbags are designed and aimed at a fully grown adult's chest region, not at his head. If it was head, the airbag impact would break the person's neck. So a majority of the impact is taken by your chest. In a properly seated car, you don't really have to worry about glasses getting crushed by airbag. A bigger worry would be if glasses get knocked off your eyes and get jammed sharply in any part of your body. (Even those chances are pretty slim). As long as glasses are on your eyes, airbags pose low safety concerns. Anyone telling you otherwise doesn't know about car safety. What Do the Studies Say? But what do the studies say? A Finnish study in 2003 is the best data we have on this specific question. (Do Motor Vehicle Airbags Increase Risk of Ocular Injuries in Adults? Lehto KS, Sulander PO, Tervo TM Ophthalmology. 2003;110(6):1082-1088) The study concludes: "Automobile airbags have been shown to reduce the risk of fatality in motor vehicle accidents. Airbag deployment may cause ocular injury by direct mechanical forces such as by compressing spectacles, which could cause additional injury -- and by chemical injury from the reaction necessary to cause inflation of the bag. The authors of this retrospective observational study reviewed the records of airbag-associated eye injuries in Finland, where every fatal accident is investigated by the Finnish Motor Insurers Center, and where nonfatal accidents involving airbags were registered between 1993 and 1997 by the police department. Other sources included a review of 62 case reports describing 110 patients with eye injury after airbag deployment and a review from the authors' own records of 331 individuals in motor vehicles accidents, from which they culled those where an airbag was deployed. Review of the literature revealed that airbag-associated injuries were no more likely in patients who wore glasses compared with those who did not , but open-globe injuries were statistically more common in spectacle wearers. Spectacle wearers appeared to have a lower risk of chemical-associated injury. In the Finnish study, the risk of airbag-associated eye injury was 2.5% for any injury and 0.4% for a severe injury. The risk of airbag-associated eye trauma appears to be low and no greater for spectacle wearers compared with nonwearers." Another study was done of 89 cases of ocular injury where only 15 were even wearing glasses of some sort. None of the injuries were caused by shattered glass to the eye from the eye glasses. In another study , hospital emergency room records were reviewed retrospectively for a period of 4 years for patients who had sustained ocular injuries in motor vehicle accidents. Those injuries associated with airbag inflation were analyzed as to the nature of the injury, type of vehicle, speed, and visual morbidity. Fourteen cases of ocular injury related to airbag inflation were identified. Hyphema (nine cases) and cornea abrasion (eight cases) were the most common. Three cases, all patients who had been wearing glasses, sustained serious and permanent ocular damage. Three cases in four years. In a population of millions who drive every day. What about the legal profession? Personal Injury Lawyers must have gone after companies that make products not properly labeled for common risks, right? Well, here , here , here , and here all list many risks and injuries that they are happy to fight for you for. Some very rare incidents. But none of them mention sunglasses breaking. Doesn't seem to be something they come across even infrequently. No sunglasses companies issue any warnings about this. Would seem to be a legal risk if it was something consumers should consider. But it doesn't seem to be something to worry about Let's Get Real - Glass Sunglasses are Not Dangerous to Drive With Let's talk about the actual risks and what we should be worried about. The odds of this kind of freak accident happening are extremely low and we shouldn’t let fringe cases scare us from living life normally. There are hundreds of millions of people in North America and Europe who drive many times each day. Millions wear glass lenses from brands like Maui Jim, Costa Del Mar, Serengeti etc. Serengeti even makes a fantastic glass lens called the "drivers" lens. You can swim in the ocean and not be paralyzed with fear of sharks. If we won’t wear glass lenses while driving we shouldn’t wear them crossing the street either. People can look at the stats themselves and they’ll see they have a better chance of winning the lottery than having their glass lenses break and damage their eyes. Costa Del Mar sunglass wearers wear their glass lenses fishing and can get hit in the face hard many times, but this doesn't seem to result in many hospital visits. This is not a "better be safe than sorry" situation. It is irrational to take action based on fear and not based on a solid risk assessment. You have almost nothing to fear about wearing glass lenses when driving. Remember, your windshield is made of glass and can shatter on impact as well. Don’t live life afraid of fringe cases. It’s not impossible for it to happen but it’s so rare that we should not change our behavior over it. We can’t live based on rare anecdotes. And we cannot scaremonger about fringe cases, especially if we are then selling products to the people we are scaring. Products, it should be noted, that are already widely available. Polycarbonate lenses have been easy to purchase for decades. Oakley's lenses are all polycarbonate. I wear a seatbelt because that’s been proven to save lives and the stats bear it out. There are thousands who die every year in car accidents and seat belts have reduced that likelihood significantly. That is a risk worth reducing. For glass lenses while driving there is no known risk to avoid. We can only find a handful of cases where there was an incident of ocular injury due to glass lenses in sunglasses while driving. I can find you much more terrible instances of accidents while swimming, bathing, and walking your dog. Over 100 people drown every year in bathtubs . I hope you still shower. Just because there is a chance of something happening people do not necessarily need to take action to avoid it. That’s not scientific or rational. Just because there is a remote risk of something doesn’t mean it should generally be avoided. We cannot just think emotionally. We need actual data to back up our actions. One lady's story shouldn’t change the behavior of hundreds of millions of people. Keep in mind the frames are also a risk of causing blunt-force injury in the event of an accident. So even wearing any sunglasses of any lens can be an issue if this is your fear. Even other lens materials aren't much safer, and in some ways can be less safe than glass. CR-39 will ALWAYS have very sharp pointy shards. A properly tempered glass lens will break into small chunks. A chemically strengthened or case-hardened glass lens is far less likely to break than a CR-39 lens is (talking mainly plano and minus power lenses -- plus power lenses are almost certainly more impact resistant regardless of the material). It is a characteristic of the strengthening/hardening process. The key concept, I believe, is not about the actual lens breaking. Its about quantifying the potential for additional contribution to eye or facial injury after it breaks. And Hannah Oliver herself?  She was wearing sunglasses with PLASTIC lenses! If you go to the " ABOUT US " section of her website Blue Eye Sunglasses, she says that it was plastic shards in her eye, not glass. Conclusion After thoroughly examining the facts, it is evident that the risk of ocular injury from glass lenses in sunglasses during car accidents is extremely low. Glass sunglasses are not dangerous to drive with. Studies, including the Finnish study, demonstrate that airbag-associated injuries are not significantly higher for spectacle wearers. Legal cases and medical records corroborate this rarity. While Hannah Oliver's tragic experience is heart-wrenching and her advocacy for safer polycarbonate lenses is commendable, it is crucial to base our decisions on comprehensive data, not isolated incidents. The likelihood of such an injury is so minuscule that it does not warrant altering our behavior. We must remain rational and grounded in evidence. Let’s not succumb to fear driven by fringe cases but instead, make informed choices. Wearing glass lenses while driving poses no significant threat and should not be a cause for concern. Live life without unnecessary fear—continue enjoying your favorite sunglasses with confidence.

In This Article What are polarized lenses? Should you get polarized lenses? Why you should also get non-polarized sunglasses Polarized lenses bother you when you wear them. They Impact Your Device's Displays You are a pilot. You are playing fast-paced sports. You think the glare makes things look better (I’m serious about this) Conclusion What are polarized lenses? Polarized lenses eliminate or reduce reflected glare, meaning light that bounces off objects. This glare is, with few exceptions, not useful. Besides being not useful, it is annoying due to causing extra eye strain, and also washes out colors and dulls the view by bathing it in a gloss of hazy light. To be clear, you don’t need polarized lenses, as non-polarized lenses will work fine, but they are generally better at removing unwanted light and allowing you to feel more comfortable in bright sunlight. They are also not related to UV protection. Non-polarized lenses are just as UV-protective as polarized ones. Reflected glare is especially bothersome near water, which is highly reflective, and around asphalt and metals. Because of this, it’s highly recommended to wear polarized lenses by bodies of water and while driving. Removing this glare by itself enhances vision and color, even without adding any extra color-enhancing technology. This is a major effect of polarized lenses. They will take away much of the reflected light in a scene: those bright patches on the road, and the top of your dashboard, reflections of the sky off other cars, or the water. The different colored objects in your field of view are going to look more distinct because you’re seeing more of the colored surface, and less of the light reflecting off them. In that sense, they boost contrast (between different objects) in both sunny and overcast situations. Many of the best brands in sunglasses exclusively make polarized lenses. Maui Jim, Revo, Costa Del Mar, Bajio, and Kaenon only make polarized lenses. Brands like Serengeti, Smith, and Spy make most of their lenses polarized. Fashion brands often do not. That is due to their sunglasses often being used indoors where there is little glare to eliminate, or because they aren’t designed to be worn in bright conditions for long anyway. Sometimes it is also done to cut costs, as polarized lenses do not change how the sunglasses look, the main draw of designer sunglasses. Oakley and other sports brands have a mix, but for the most part, the non-water sports lenses are non-polarized and all other lenses have the option to be polarized. We will explain why. Should you get polarized lenses? The benefits of polarization are undeniable, and you should own at least one pair, if just for driving and water activities. The glare coming off the road or other vehicles can be unbearable at times, and being on or near the water without polarized lenses can be a blinding experience. You should own at least one pair of polarized lenses. The question is if you should also own a non-polarized pair. Why you should also get non-polarized sunglasses There can be situations where having non-polarized lenses would be beneficial. The five reasons to not get polarized lenses are: Polarized lenses bother you when you wear them. Your device's displays are impacted by them. You are a pilot. You are playing fast-paced sports. You think the glare makes things look better (I’m serious about this) Let’s go through each of those one by one. Polarized lenses bother you when you wear them This is actually fairly common with cheap pairs of sunglasses and very rare with premium ones. Cheap pairs can have the filters applied unevenly on the lens or the angle of the filter on one lens not the same as the other. This would be an issue for almost anyone. More inherently, the tilt and angle of your head to the glare will change whether you see it or not. If you are looking straight the glare is gone. If you tilt your head to the side you will see the glare. That can annoy some people, and even cause some people to be unbalanced, but it’s not common. It’s far more common to be annoyed and fatigued from the excess glare with non polarized lenses. Polarized lenses are usually more comfortable. Polarization can also cause issues with depth perception, as will be discussed more in the sports section, but that shouldn’t play a role here. The feeling of imbalance that can happen is generally from poor application or from the changing glare through head movements, not from depth perception problems. Though this is rare and I would caution against anyone assuming they are in this category until they try polarized lenses from a few different premium brands in different frame shapes, I cannot discount that for some people this really is an issue and should be mentioned. From my conversations with opticians, it seems around 5% of people have some level of discomfort from this effect. They Impact Your Device's Displays LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) screens, such as those on smartphones, tablets, and some car dashboards, use polarized light to display images. Inside these screens, light is polarized in specific directions to control how it passes through the liquid crystal layers and reaches your eyes, creating the visible image. If the polarization filter in your sunglasses aligns with the polarization of the light from the LCD screen, the light will pass through, and you can see the display normally. However, if the polarization filter in your sunglasses is oriented at a different angle (typically 90 degrees) to the polarization of the light from the screen, the polarized light from the screen is blocked by the lenses. This can make the screen appear dark or completely black. This interaction can cause visibility issues, making it difficult to read screens on digital devices while wearing polarized sunglasses, especially if the angle of polarization is not aligned. This can be a problem with certain screens, for example, GPS displays. However, it is not as much of a problem as it was. Modern smartphones often use IPS or OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) displays, which handle light polarization differently than older LCD screens. IPS displays provide better viewing angles and more consistent color and brightness. OLED displays emit light directly from each pixel without the need for backlighting, reducing the reliance on polarized light. Some modern devices use circular polarizers instead of linear polarizers. Circular polarizers can mitigate the issue of cross-polarization with polarized sunglasses because they affect light in a way that isn't as easily blocked by polarized lenses. Modern smartphones have significantly higher brightness and resolution, which can help counteract the dimming effect caused by polarized lenses. Even if some light is blocked, the display remains legible due to the increased intensity of the remaining light. iPhones do not have much of a problem anymore. Smartphone manufacturers are aware of the issues with polarized lenses and have made design adjustments to minimize these problems. I wouldn't hold back from getting polarized lenses for this reason unless it is a serious impediment to your functionality, but it may be worth getting a second non-polarized pair if you are often dealing with this issue. You are a pilot Pilots are generally advised against wearing polarized lenses for several reasons related to safety and operational efficiency. Here are the key points: Instrument Readability This is one of the two main issues. Many aircraft cockpits are equipped with LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) screens and other digital displays, which are essential for navigation, communication, and monitoring flight systems. Polarized lenses can interfere with the visibility of these screens, causing them to appear dark or completely black when viewed from certain angles. This can make it difficult for pilots to read important information quickly and accurately. The second critical reason is that aircraft cockpits often have multiple layers of glass, including heated glass panels to prevent ice formation. Polarized lenses can create patterns or distortions when looking through these multi-layered or specially treated glass surfaces, potentially obstructing the pilot’s view. Some glare can be important visual cues for pilots. For instance, sunlight reflecting off another aircraft or objects on the ground can be critical for situational awareness and avoiding collisions. Polarized lenses can sometimes reduce the visibility of haze and other atmospheric conditions. Pilots need to be able to see and interpret weather phenomena accurately to make informed decisions. In summary, while polarized lenses offer significant benefits for many outdoor activities, their potential to obscure critical information in the cockpit makes them unsuitable for aviation. Non-polarized lenses are preferred to ensure pilots have a clear and accurate view of their instruments and surroundings at all times. You are playing fast-paced sports Polarized lenses can affect depth perception under certain conditions, and understanding why involves considering how polarization interacts with light and visual cues. Here’s a detailed explanation: Reduction of Reflective Glare Polarized lenses are designed to reduce glare from reflective surfaces by blocking horizontally polarized light. This can be beneficial in many situations, such as driving or being near water. However, glare often provides visual cues about the distance and position of objects. For instance, reflections on water or shiny surfaces can help the brain judge depth. By eliminating these reflections, polarized lenses can sometimes reduce the amount of visual information available, potentially affecting depth perception. Effect on the Eyes’ Ability to Merge Images Depth perception relies heavily on binocular vision, where the brain merges two slightly different images from each eye to create a single three-dimensional image. Polarized lenses can occasionally affect how light reaches each eye, particularly if there are inconsistencies in the polarization. This can disrupt the brain’s ability to merge these images properly, leading to issues with depth perception. This is why Oakley and other sports sunglasses brands make most of their sports lenses non-polarized. For a novice, the difference in depth perception is not usually a problem but for professionals even a slight change can be very problematic. I usually wear non-polarized when I play tennis, but it is not a problem when I occasionally play with polarized. Many people who normally see this issue with polarized lenses often report it is not an issue with premium lens brands like Maui Jim, due to the clarity and contrast making up for any depth perception challenges. Polarized lenses can also be an issue for snow sports and icy driving. While you may think polarized lenses would be beneficial for highly reflective snow conditions, this glare can actually be useful. Glare from ice patches on the road or trails can alert you to slippery, dangerous areas. Polarized lenses can reduce this glare, making it harder to see these potentially hazardous spots. I will usually wear polarized in snow because of the glare, but I wouldn't for skiing. Almost all snow goggles are non-polarized. You think the glare makes things look better This is the most controversial reason to go with non-polarized. Some claim that along with cutting glare, polarization kills a lot of the "liveliness". That the lenses take away from the visual experience making some surroundings look less "lifelike". They like being able to see things the way they are naturally, reflections intact. For these people, polarized lenses kill some of the surface detail along with the reflections. The claim is that non-polarized colors are more saturated, and things just look more "real" because they have reflections. Another thing is that polarizing filters are basically gray. And they will usually make things look more gray through a color-tinted lens. A non-polarized lens of the same color will be more saturated and vivid. So non-polarized color tinted lenses are going to make things more saturated and intense. I find this very unpersuasive. Though of course it is subjective and everyone can have their preference, I think there are convincing reasons to disregard this argument. First of all, I hate glare. I love seeing more of a colored surface, and less of the light reflecting off it. In that sense, polarized lenses boost contrast (between different objects) in both sunny and overcast situations. Glare is just blocking me from seeing what is underneath it, and removing color that would otherwise be there. Secondly, the best lenses in the world are polarized. Maui Jim, Costa, Serengeti, and similar brands that make the most spectacular lenses are either always or mostly polarized. Besides these brands and their engineers knowing what they are doing, you can try them on in comparison to any non-polarized lens and see for yourself which you prefer. These brands will win out 99 times out of 100. Thirdly, it is true that polarized lenses are a bit greyer than the same lens without a polarized filter, but why would you limit yourself to the same lens of the same brand if the tint isn't to your liking? If the polarized Persol green lens is too grey for you, you do not have to stick with the non-polarized green lens from Persol. You can get another green lens from a brand that tints the lens, with polarization, to your preference. Conclusion In summary, polarized lenses offer significant advantages in reducing glare and enhancing visual clarity, especially in environments with reflective surfaces like water and asphalt. However, they are not universally ideal for every situation. The decision to use polarized versus non-polarized sunglasses depends on specific needs and activities. Polarized lenses are highly beneficial for: Driving, where they can significantly reduce glare from the road and other vehicles. Water activities, where they eliminate the intense reflections from the surface of the water, allowing the wearer to see beneath the water. General outdoor use in bright sunlight to reduce eye strain and enhance visual comfort. Non-polarized lenses might be preferable when: Polarized lenses cause discomfort or visual disturbances. You frequently use digital devices with LCD screens, as polarized lenses can interfere with screen visibility. You are a pilot, as polarized lenses can obscure important instrument displays and distort views through multi-layered glass. Engaging in fast-paced sports where depth perception is crucial. You prefer the natural appearance of glare and reflections for a more vivid visual experience. Ultimately, having both polarized and non-polarized sunglasses allows you to choose the best option for any given situation, ensuring optimal visual performance and comfort. I recommend everyone own at least one pair of polarized lenses.

When it comes to trying new sunglass lenses, there's a clear right way and a wrong way to go about it. Understanding the correct approach can make all the difference in leveraging the full potential of your eyewear and how it can enhance your viewing experience. In This Article Introduction Adjusting to Changing Brightness Adjusting to Color Change and White Balance How Trying on Sunglass Lenses is Affected Conclusion Introduction I've heard so many times "I don't like brown lenses" "Rose lenses make the world look funny" "I only like grey lenses" etc. And it's true if you only try them on your eyes for 30-90 seconds. It often does look bad when you have just put them. But after that, it's not true at all. Your eyes just need a few moments to adjust. And they won't if you take them off right away. Keep the lenses on for two minutes. Rose lenses are a good example of this. When you first put them on they look like this: Obviously, this is awful and nobody would wear this lens. But if you just wait around two minutes your brain adjusts and the view looks more like this (Oakley Prizm Road): Or this, in the case of brown lenses: Why does it take 2 minutes to adjust? Two reasons. Our eyes need to adjust to the amount of light being decreased. Our brains need to make sense of the colors being altered. Both of these problems are solved by just keeping the lenses on for around 2 minutes. That is all it takes for our eyes and brains to adjust for us to know whether we truly enjoy a lens or not. In addition, if you are trying on multiple lenses, you should take off the first pair and look around without any sunglasses on for around a minute before trying on the next pair. Your brain needs a minute to get back to baseline, much the same way people smell coffee beans in between smelling fragrances to prevent their noses going smell-blind. Let's go into more detail to understand why our eyes and brains need 2 minutes. Adjusting to Changing Brightness Our eyes possess remarkable adaptability when it comes to perceiving different levels of light. If you've ever used a conventional point-and-shoot camera, you might be acquainted with the concept of "aperture." This adjustable opening in the lens enables light to enter, facilitating image focus. Interestingly, the human eye functions in a remarkably similar manner. While the iris is recognized for determining eye color, it's also composed of small muscles that collaborate with the pupils. Together, they regulate the amount of light entering the eye. The pupil's behavior closely resembles that of a camera's adjustable aperture. In low-light conditions, these muscles relax, causing the pupil to dilate and admit more light. Conversely, in bright environments, these muscles contract, causing the pupil to constrict and reduce the amount of light required for focus. Once light enters the eye through the circular pupil, it traverses the retina and interacts with light-sensing cells positioned at the rear of the eye known as photoreceptors. These photoreceptors can be categorized into two groups based on their shape and function: Rods: These are responsible for nighttime vision, offering lower resolution but greater abundance. Cones: They contribute to daytime vision, are responsible for color perception, and are present in smaller numbers. The combined functions of these two types of cell receptors enable our eyes to adapt to varying lighting conditions, with the retina adjusting the workload between rods and cones based on the amount of light allowed by the pupils. Adapting to Darkness If you've ever wondered how you can see in a dark room with minimal lighting, you can attribute it to your rod photoreceptors. When the lights are extinguished, you may notice a delay in your vision adjustment. This is because these rod receptors become "bleached out" due to the previous light source, and it takes time for them to regenerate their rhodopsin pigments. This process, termed "dark adaptation," occurs more slowly compared to its counterpart, "light adaptation," because rod receptors are more sensitive and significantly more numerous than cone cells. During the rhodopsin restoration phase, which can sometimes extend for up to an hour, our pupils dilate to their maximum extent to admit any available light sources, enhancing our vision in darkness. Adapting to Bright Light Have you ever stepped out of a dark movie theater into the bright afternoon sun after watching a film? If so, you're likely familiar with the temporary glare that prompts you to blink as your eyes adjust to the intense brightness. This sudden influx of light triggers responses in our pupils and photoreceptors, initiating the process of light adaptation. Similar to dark adaptation, this automatic adjustment occurs in the retina, involving both rod and cone receptors. However, cone receptors, being more agile and less numerous than rods, respond more rapidly to immediate changes in lighting. Cone cells also regenerate about five times faster than rods, enabling your vision to return to normal more swiftly. Adjusting to Color Change and White Balance In photography, one of the most important concepts is white balance. While people don't have the same mechanism to adjust white balance as cameras, we do adjust in a similar way. What is white balance? Some light is warm in color. As an example, think of candlelight and the warm light glow it emits. Conversely, overcast skies are cool and look bluer. Usually, colors in your photos will look pretty close to the way they look in real life. However, your camera is easily confused and can sometimes make the colors too warm or too cool. The most obvious place to spot this problem is the parts of your scene that are, or should be, white. When you take a photo by candlelight, sometimes the whites will look kind of yellow or orange. Applying a correction so that pictures make these colors look normal is what white balance is all about. Do we have white balance adjustment in our eyes and brains? The way our eyes see things is pretty complicated. It involves special cells in our eyes and a lot of work in our brains. Our eyes and brains can interpret color in a far more advanced way than cameras do. Our visual system has mechanisms to maintain color constancy, which is the ability of our visual system to maintain a consistent perception of color despite changes in lighting conditions. We can do this in a relative, subjective, and ongoing manner, for each detail in our visual scene. The human vision system is complex, involving both photo-receptors and neurons in the eye, along with intricate processing in the brain. The main receptor of information from the retina is the lateral geniculate nucleus, located in the thalamus near the center of the brain. This nucleus routes information to the primary visual cortex and other visual areas. The primary visual cortex processes this information into a three-dimensional model of the world. For this question, areas V2 and V4 are important. Cells in V2 process orientation, spatial frequency, color, depth perception, and motion. Together with the primary visual cortex (V1), V2 registers wavelength, hue, and luminance. At this level, the brain likely performs a "white balance adjustment" similar to a camera, normalizing each channel, though it is more complex and dynamic. It's V4 that does the real trick. V4 handles color consistency based on color memory. We remember how objects are supposed to look and adjust subconsciously so they appear correct. For instance, we know roses are red, snow is white, and certain fruits have specific colors. Research supports this, showing that humans have "memory colors," for example, for skin tones, which is why accurate white balance is crucial in portraits. The fovea, the part of the retina creating the sharpest image and most sensitive to color, covers only one or two percent of the retina. Unlike a camera, which captures a full-color image at once, our eyes and brain build and update the image over time, with the fovea being crucial for high visual acuity tasks like reading and recognizing faces. How Trying on Sunglass Lenses is Affected Adjusting to Light and Color As we've discussed, your eyes need time to adjust to changes in light and color. When you put on a new pair of sunglasses, your pupils and photoreceptors undergo a quick adaptation process to accommodate the altered light conditions. We need to give our eyes time for this to happen. More importantly, our brain needs a moment to adjust to any color changes brought about by the lenses. Adding a tinted sunglass with subtle color-enhancing light filtering technology can be a sharp change for our vision. Our eyes and brains may take minutes to process the color differences to remake our vision in a way our brains feel comfortable with. Choosing the Right Conditions To accurately assess the effectiveness of sunglass lenses, it's essential to try them in appropriate conditions. Testing sunglasses indoors under artificial lighting won't provide a true representation of their performance in natural light. Outdoor conditions, such as the time of day and weather, also play a significant role. Bright, sunny days will highlight how well lenses reduce glare and enhance contrast, while overcast or varying light conditions can show how they handle changing brightness levels. It is highly recommended to take the sunglasses you are trying on outside and test them where they are meant to be used. Consider Your Activities Different activities demand different types of lenses. If you're an avid cyclist or runner, lenses that enhance contrast and improve clarity, like rose or amber tints, may be more suitable. The nicest looking lens in general may not be the best lens for your particular activity. Conclusion Choosing the right sunglasses involves more than just picking a pair that looks good. Understanding how your eyes and brain adapt to changes in light and color is crucial in finding lenses that enhance your viewing experience. Give your eyes the time they need to adjust—about two minutes—when trying new lenses. Ensure you test them under the right conditions to see how they perform in real-world scenarios. By doing so, you'll be able to make an informed decision and select the best sunglasses for your needs. I always tell people that sunglasses with premium lenses sell themselves. Try them on in the right way and you'll see why.