Tints for Sport sunglasses
To decide on the best tint you have to consider your sport and when you do it.
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Yellow or Amber lens If you tend to practice your sport in the early mornings or evening when light conditions are poor you will find that yellow or amber lenses improve contrast and depth. This colour lens is also useful in fog. Tennis players may also find that yellow tints increase the contrast between the court and the yellow ball. The increased visual acuity provided by yellow tints also makes them ideal for driving. Skiers and snowboarders also find that yellow or amber tints enhance the grey shadows on the slopes allowing you to ‘read’ the slope better. |
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Orange lens For general wear and variable light conditions, orange lenses can be useful as they provide high contrast which improves the perception of details. |
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Dark grey lens If you are lucky enough to practice your sport mostly in bright sunshine you will need a lens which has low light transmission such as dark grey or brown. For bright light conditions these lenses (and other colours) can be given a mirror coating and for even more glare reduction an anti-reflective coating can be put on the back of the lens. These coatings are also known as ‘Laser’ and ‘AR-Laser’ coatings. |
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Brown lens Brown lenses also effectively filter blue light which is excellent in the mountains. Brown tints are useful if you intend to wear your sunglasses for prolonged periods as this colour is inherently soothing to the eye. |
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Polarised grey lens In bright light conditions with lots of reflected glare such as near water or snow the best lens option is polarised. Polarised lenses are therefore ideal for skiing, snowboarding, sailing, water Sport and fishing. Cyclists will also find polarised lenses useful in eliminating the reflected glare from oncoming vehicles and wet road surfaces. Because polarised lenses eliminate reflected glare, a lighter tint can be used to achieve the same degree of glare reduction compared to non-polarised dark lenses |
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Red Deg lens In more changeable weather conditions or in Sport where you are moving from areas of bright light to shade (for example golf and cycling) photochromic lenses are useful. These lenses darken in bright light and become paler in less intense light conditions. Rudy Project now has an innovation in lens technology which is a polarised lens which is also photochromic. Photochromic lenses are also available in red Deg lenses are also useful in variable light conditions. These lenses have a partial gradient coating applied to a different colour base lens. This makes the lenses darker at the top and lighter at the bottom |
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Red/Rose lenses In moderate and poor light, red or rose lenses are useful as they increase contrast and depth perception. This is particularly useful on the ski slopes to make it easier to see the bumps and ridges in the snow. This tint allows moderate light transmission making it unsuitable for use in very bright sunlight |
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Grey/green lens For Sport which take place with a predominantly green background (for example golf and grass court tennis), lenses with a grey/green tint can greatly improve the contrast between the background and the ball and other objects on the course or court. Rudy Project has developed a lens especially with this in mind which they have called the ‘Golf’ lens! |