 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi guys,
I planning to buy a goggle for my husband as a X-mas gift and I really need some help.
I was thinking about Oakley A-frame, but what kind (iridium or polarized - wich is better for snowing or cloudy conditions?) and collor of lenses should I buy!?
Also, what is the difference between the alternative fit and standard one?
Thanks a lot
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Welcome to snowHeads JF.
"Polarised" is a function, not a brand name. It means the lens is designed to cut out high intensity glare on a sunny day - espcially good at cutting the reflective glare from multiple angles that occurs on snow - so that you get a nice consistent view of the world. Not good in low visibility. Iridium is Oakley's version of a polarised lens, I think - someone correct me if I'm wrong!
The best lens for low light is one that helps accentuate shadow and hence help you see the contours of the snow. In practice a yellow tint. Oakley tend to vear to a "persimmon" colour.
Dunno what alternative c.f. stardard fit means. All I know is I can't wear standard goggle frames over my specs - I have to go for OTG (over the glasses) wot have a bit of a cut-away to allow my spectical frames to [i]not[/b] get crunched against my face by the goggles.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Thanks for the explanation. So, the best thing is to get a yellow one…if I got it right classified at Oakley as permission (sorry about this “confirmation” I just making sure that I am not losing anything – English is not my native language)
About iridium I thought that was a special lens from oakley but not polarized as they sell polarized lens as well (and it costs more than iridium).
If you have any others tip (brand or anything else) I’ll be glad to read...
Thanks again
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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JF, If you speak to my buddy Ian at Ten-Eighty on 01603 628123 he'll talk you through the various options. They have in stock all the Oakley goggles & lenses and will send them mail order, I'm sure you'll find he can sort you out!.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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The persimmon oakley A frame is also the cheapest and you can get a spare lense for under £30. Great for flat light.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| Manda wrote: |
Iridium is Oakley's version of a polarised lens, I think - someone correct me if I'm wrong!
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JF, Welcome to snowHeads.
Oakley's Iridium lenses are NOT polarised. Iridium is a high definition lens coating & can be applied to either polarised or non-polarised lenses. Iridium lenses are quite a bit more expensive that standard lenses.
I'd say no to polarised lenses for skiing. I have the same lense in polarized & non-polarized for my specs & you can't tell the difference on snow. As the polarised are waaay more expensive they're a waste of money IMO.
More importantly, AFAIK Oakley only offer a few goggle lenses in polarized - VR28 & HI amber plus maybe one or two more. These definately aren't the best skiing lenses.
For a mid to bright light go with the fire iridium & for low to mid light go with the High Intensity yellow or the standard persimmon.
The black & blue iridiums look great but they don't give the same level of contrast as the fire's which is really noticeable (dangerous?) when you ski from a brightly lit area in to a shaded area. Here's a list of the Oakley ski goggle lenses.
NON POLARIZED DOUBLE LENSES (Wisdom, A Frames)
Clear 83% S0 Neutral transmission. Very low light. Indoor use.
High Intensity Yellow 83% S0 Flat to very low light.
High Intensity Persimmon 63% S1 Flat to very low light.
Persimmon 62% S1 Flat to very low light.
Pink Iridium 57% S1 Flat to very low light
VR50 50% S1 Flat to very low light.
G30 30% S2 Neutral transmission. Medium to bright light.
VR28 28% S2 Neutral transmission. Medium to bright light.
Blue Iridium 30% S2 Neutral transmission. Medium to bright light.
Gold Iridium 20% S2 Neutral transmission. Medium to bright light.
Black Iridium 16% S2 Neutral transmission. Medium to bright light.
Fire 16% S3 Neutral transmission. Medium to bright light.
Oakley offer replacement lenses in case of damage etc. Note the word 'replacement'. They are not designed to be interchangeable - this is a real pain to do & certainly not something to do quickly on the slope & if done to often it's likely to induce premature wear/damage to the locating lugs inside the body of the goggles.
Oakley now offer what they call an 'Alternative Fit' model which is the same design but I think is a tad smaller, although I've never seen/tried them.
If your husband wears a helmet he really needs to try the goggles with it, but this may spoil the Xmas surprise. Oakley do a special 'helmet strap' for both the Wisdom's & the A Frames which positions the elastic so that it comes out of the sides of the goggle body to around a helmet. Saying that, my A Frames fit my Giro helmet fine with the standard straps.
Hope this helps.
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I use A-frames with high intensity persimmon for all round use (bright light, flat light, fog, whatever). It has the same persimmon base but also has a blue iridium coating to cut glare - this really does work well. I've also had VR28 lenses which were too dark, gold iridium which were fine in the sun but not so good if you go into a shaded area. I've just bought a new Pink Iridium lens for my other set of A-frames, not tried it out in anger yet, but an oakley sponsered pro I skied with last year who was trying it out for oakley reckons it is the best flatlight lens they've made, though not so good in bright light.
Personally I think all the high light lenses (Black/blue/gold and (thoughspyderjon may disagree  ) fire iridium lenses) are all too dark - even if they work for you on a bluebird day in bright sunlight you'll still find shaded areas where you then can't ski - also no good for flat light days (I ski a lot in Whistler, so lots of them!  ). HI yellow ( think it used to be called HI blue) and I presume clear (though I've not tried them) are too light for most uses
On the helmet front, A-frames work fine with my Giro nine.9, though I briefly had a pair of Wisdoms that didn't even with the helmet strap (I really have had too many goggles haven't I!!  ). incidently, The A-frame helmet strap doesn't make them any better, just looks odd, so you probably don't need to bother with it!
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JF, Interesting thread on Epic at the moment: http://forums.epicski.com/showthread.php?t=32824
I think that one lens can't do a good job in all conditions so it's best to have two pairs - one for mid to bright light & one for low to mid light.
Many people wear sunglasses for bright light & the corresponding better/warmer conditions. Low/flat light is often accompanied by poorer/colder conditions (often it can be snowing) so the a goggle is way better here than sunglasses.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Hi all - well this thread has already taught me a lot...
Now I'm getting some Oakleys and have pretty much decided I want goggles that are suited to cloudy/flat light days... up to sunny (at which point I would change to my sunnies)
The thread is leading me to Persimmon - but do I go HI Persimmon rather than regular Persimmon????
Also being a bit of a 'label/brand' monkey - is an Iridium lens good to have - in which case should I for pink iridium?
(Notice that pink iridium and hi persimmon are more expensive that standard persimmon - is that because its a better lens or because they look really cool?)
thanks...
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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mountain mad, IMO the best lens for low/flat to mid light are the High Intensity Yellow's (previously HI Blue) which are iridium.
I haven't seen/tried the pink iridium's & from what I can see they yet don't appear on Oakley's light transmission chart. If it was me buying I'd want to know the light transmission figure before I committed. Perhaps stuarth can tell us the figure as should be on the info that came with his new lens.
The HI Yellow transmits 83% available light which is really excellent. If the figure is higher than this for the PI's then they'll be better in low light than the HI Yellow's.
Are your sunnies Oakleys? If so what lens? If not how dark are they? The reason I ask is that you could end up with experiencing a mid level light were it's too bright for your goggles but too dark for your sunnies. Apart from them both being superb lenses, the reason I have the Fire Iridium's for bright-mid light & the HI Blue's for v.low-mid light is that their respective performance ranges overlap.
So if your sunnies aren't too dark to can go with a v.low light lens in ya goggles but if they're very dark you might want to for a lens that covers a more wider spectrum like the persimmon's.
The light level figures for the std persimmon & the HI persimmon are virtually the same so the decision is more a budget one.
I've a possible solution for you & I've sent you a PM.
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mountain mad,
HI persimmon is an iridium lens too - it has a blue iridium coating on a persimon lens. On the techy side, it's transmissivity is very slightly lower than the normal persimmon, but the iridium coating really does make a difference (cuts out glare so increases definition - I've tried both, this _really_ works). If you can afford the cash go for the HI persimmon over the normal one - the iridium coating makes it look better too which is obviously the most important thing
Checked out my lens box, the transmissivity isn't on it - it must of been on the leaflet (which I've lost! ), anyway I believe the transmissivity is apparently slightly lower than HI persimmon (not much) which is odd because it looks clearer and I've been told it doesn't perform as well in bright light but better in flat light than HI persimmon.
I'm not really too fussed about the figures, they are just a very rough guideline in my opinion as the light transmission figure is I presume for the whole spectrum, therefore different lens base colours could have the same transmissivity yet perform very differently, therefore my lens picking methods are far less scientific than spyderjon's !!  - I picked HI persimmon by standing outside the shop on a cloudy day, I picked pink iridium because peering through someone elses pair in the Whistler gloom, they looked pretty good, and MrsH's Smith gloggles have a pink lens which is awesome in all conditions, especially flat light. In my oakley goggle history I've also picked Gold iridium because it was in my sunglasses but turned out not great for skiing and a VR something or other one for no particularly good reason and that wasn't too great either I've also tried out HI blue/yellow/whatever it is now, and I found it was good at increasing the definition in very bad light, but any light at all and you lost the definition because it was too bright - just my opinion probably everyones eyes are a bit different.
What I really need is something like my Specialized biking sunnies, they are sort of reacta-light and are great because you cycle through gloomy trees and they are yellowish to increase definition, then you come out into the sun and they quickly go much darker to block the bright light.
All that's probably not helped that much has it! 
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You know it makes sense.
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That sounds really helpful...
I looked at the lenses on this link http://oakley.com/technology/lens_tints/ and assumed that the pink black iridium lens was the fancy new pink one that you'd been referring to...
I will have a look which actual goggles look best with my helmet now - and check out the net to see if there are any deals to be had... looking at the persimmon HI and pink iridium... because I think they look cool!!!
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