Oakley Prism Rose goggle- do you really rate the tint in low light?

A snowHead

I want a low / flat light goggle that's particularly good with terrain definition.

How do you rate it as it seems surprisingly quite dark.

I really struggle in early Jan from 3pm onwards especially if very cloudy.

Thanks for replying in advance.

A snowHead

Got some at the start of winter, love them. Work great considering how tinted they are. Can get hi-pink if you want to go brighter, but I've never felt the need, and have worn them on a lot of flat/low light and snowy days this year.

Huge improvement over my last Oakley goggles with a couple of iridium lenses.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Got some at the start of winter, love them. Work great considering how tinted they are. Can get hi-pink if you want to go brighter, but I've never felt the need, and have worn them on a lot of flat/low light and snowy days this year.

Huge improvement over my last Oakley goggles with a couple of iridium lenses.

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I suggest you look at this thread re Rose vs Pink Prizm

http://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=127585&highlight=oakley+prizm

my view: v happy with Rose for all poor light (cloud to flat) , including vs Hi Pink. Others have different views, incl Smith chromapop etc

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@T_Hee, The Rose Prizm lens shouldn't work. They are relatively low transmission - 25-28 compared with Hi Yellow 71-78 per cent. But they are extraordinarily good in low light. And I mean really, really good. I have many goggles and use them - Bolle, Oakley, Smith, Scott - so I can compare many lens and tints. The Rose Prizm are a genuine technological step forward. I used Prizm rose in zero viz (and I mean that) last year and still had definition. The Hi Yellow were not really superior, just different. And that's extraordinary. They are the best lens I have ever used in thirty years of climbing and skiing. With the low transmission, the good thing is that when the sun does come out, you can still use the Rose - not in Spring full on sun, but when the cloud breaks. This is very helpful since it means I don't need to switch lens or googles. I have used the Smith Ignitor lens for my kids, since this is a good low light, mid light lens, but have now bought Rose Prizm for my 13 year old son, who is out all weather. This means I can rely on him seeing in clag, but also being protected when the sun comes out, and this means no pfaffing when he is on the hill being coached and responsible for his own kit.

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@valais2, Don't think I could have put that better myself. Exactly what I found with them.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

@valais2,

After all it is free

Your brain processes away the colour cast after a couple of minutes usually.

Prizm lenses are amazing in light levels from Stratus cloud to bright sun, but for me, for overcast and snowing days, nothing beats HI Yellow.

There is no substitute for light transfer and we are talking about 3-4 times the amount of light transfer with HI Yellow. Close up/immediate area is similar (ie both very good), but distance vision isn't comparable to the HI Yellows. I was comparing Airbrake Prizm Rose with Crowbar HI Yellow. At distance, everyone looked like silhouettes with the Rose, with the HIYs I could differentiate between colours of outfits. Fortunately I sold on my Prizm Rose for nearly what I paid for them (in the sales), to then buy the HI Yellows Airbrakes.

I always carry the second set of goggles, so swapping them on a lift is no drama for me.

Other people's eyes may work differently to mine (they are getting old) and I actually try to avoid going out in days when I need to use the HIYs.

If you are paying over £200 for a second set of goggles, have a think about buying one of these for your rucksack...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Trespass-Boxer-Goggles-Fleece-Lining/dp/B009K2D830/ref=sr_1_18?ie=UTF8&qid=1535018445&sr=8-18&keywords=goggles+case&tag=amz07b-21

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@Dave of the Marmottes, Thanks, I have to believe you now as I've just bought a pair of Prize Rose Miner Goggles from S&R for £62. They fitted me well with really good all around vision and are a very nicely finished /well made goggle.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

@bar shaker, interesting. I've also tried Bolle yellow lens but the additional light transfer really didn't help in terrain definition at all. Granted, there was no 'Hi contrast' blurb, just around 70% vlt, they only cost around £30 then but nothing gained IMO. From what I've read, Prizm Hi Pink could have been a better choice for really low flat light but is definitely only an S0 category lens.
You make a valid observation about distance viewing however, I suspect I only need around 10m and if I get that I'll be much happier than I am now even if slightly darker.
This is why I asked the question of what others thought, to gauge the general satisfaction in low light conditions.

Thanks for your reply.

snow reports

You know it makes sense.

Mine are approaching the start of my 7th decade to. It's not impossible it's my Rods and Cones misbehaving 😂😜 but I have 6/6 for distance and 5/6 for near acuity.
Fingers crossed anyway. It's a good technology and a good goggle and at low price of £62.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

@bar shaker, I would admit that when light levels go down that low, passive technologies can't work as there's so little to work with ultra high definition coatings fancy coating or not.
Perhaps I should just accept to come off the mountain earlier in Dec/Jan. Safe, not sorry...

A snowHead

Also worth checking out Smith Chromapop.

Similar technology.

Cheaper I think.

A snowHead

@T_Hee, blimey that was cheap.

To reassure you, this:

I acknowledge the SH views that it’s going to be subjective and that age and other factors can come into play. I very deliberately compared Rose P, Hi Yellow, Bolle Yellow, Bolle Aurora and Smith Ignitor. This was done on various ‘clag’ days, with comparisons ranging from alternately holding up lens to eyes and observing the difference, to short periods of wearing (10mins) followed by a period of letting the eyes normalise, then trying something else.

Conclusion: in deep clag with low light and poor contrast - really socked-in - Rose Prizm was on a par with, but slightly different to Hi Yellow. It was superior to all others. For me. And for the others messing about with us. I have no axe to grind, and am relaxed about having a load of goggles lying around from which to choose, so this is a pretty unbiased view. If the Bolle had been best, I would have said so. But they weren’t - the Rose Ps walked it.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

I'm with @bar shaker. Rose Prizm has its place but in good cloud, flat light etc it's nowhere near as good as Smith blue sensor mirror (actually a light yellow). My go-to goggle for bad light; carry the RP as a back up.

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hmmm....Hi yellow and blue sensor not that apart really in the way they function...and I have said what I found when we did a fairly systematic comparison...beyond my view, this Colorado instructor not quite in concert with this 'blue sensor rules' view. See:

https://www.pugski.com/threads/discovered-a-fabulous-low-light-goggle-lens.6883/

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

I read that only as saying that the old blue sensor mirror was generally regarded as very good, but now no longer made. Its immediate successor (Chromapop) wasn't rated so good but the replacement for that, Chromapop flash yellow (?) is very good, same tech as the Prizm I think he says.

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@Grizzler, ...indeed same tech as the Prizm. Just to be clear, that's me point, officer. We compared Prizm Rose back to back with Hi Yellow, and on a number of criteria they were very evenly matched (contrast, depth perception, distance definition, etc). They tied, which is weird considering the very different VLT figures of each. Now this is the important bit: Hi Yellow is the Oakley equivalent of Smith Blue Sensor. So by way of reassurance to the OP; for T Hee to buy the Rose Prizm is not buying something vastly inferior to blue sensor. Which is a top performer, no doubt, but to say 'nowhere near as good' I think is misleading - or indeed may be boiling down to a personal preference thing.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

@valais2, interesting. I haven't tried the Hi Yellow.
All I can say us that, like the OP, I find the Rose Prizm far 'darker' than the Blue Sensor Mirror, particularly in grey cloud, low or dim overall light etc. Yet oddly, for someone with light-sensitive eyes, I find the BSM quite easy to tolerate if the sun comes out too.
Personal preference and different eyes, as you say. I have always disliked any orange or heavy yellow tint. The BSM is a very subtle yellow, the RP more definitely pink. Maybe for me that's why.

After all it is free

@valais2,
@Grizzler,

I will post later IF the P. R. worked for me or not. Fingers crossed.

I also got self motivated (the price was £80) with Atomic's REVENT FDL HD Stereo in green. They say the Fused Double lens coating works 'similarly' to Prizm technology, certainly there's no hint of internal reflections, refractions and no chance of the usual lens foam separating layers becoming unstick as there isn't one! The 2 lens layers are fused together apparently!
Without a lens foam, the increased field of view is very noticeable. I'm almost NOT aware of the goggle around my nose anymore - best ever...

I would have preferred a blue stereo - Atomic's lowest light version but I couldn't find one. The online tint simulator images between the Green and Blue stereo was hardly noticable...

Probably, Oakley s P. R. will be quite similar and I hope superior in low light.

Oh well, nothing ventured etc.

Just one other interesting factor with VLT...

Taking off my Hi Yellows, give worse vision than leaving them on, even though that gives me 18% more light.

Like @T_Hee says, when it's that bad, we should get off the hill, or head for the trees.

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@bar shaker, ...that's right re yellow tint, which works with the human eye's preference for yellow/yellow-green light and thus ups the contrast, which your brain processes as 'seeing better'. That's why yellow is better than clear in some clag situations.

re 'heading for the trees' it's the getting there which needs the good vision. I have known accidents in less than total whiteout which were caused by people having googles ill-matched to the conditions. And sometimes you don't have a choice...and that's when high performing googles can make all the difference.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

Given there is no Magic Bullet or Goggles with "Bat Sonar"...another vote for Prizm Rose.

snow reports

What will everyone vote for if Oakley brings out a Prism Hi Yellow lens

Oakley marketing will be in Klosters on the bonuses for a whole month if you want to ask them !

You know it makes sense.

yip big fan of them....great lens

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

This threads very timely for me as I was about to purchase a Prism Hi Pink lens for my Airbrakes.

I've used the Hi yellow in the past with an older pair of goggles and was very impressed when used in cloudy low light , but was under the impression that the Hi pink was an improvement on the yellow. Now, I'm not sure whether to go back to the Hi Yellow.

Has anybody compared the two and if so, which would be your preference?

A snowHead

@ElDiablo, I have read about people who have said that Prizm Rose matches the performance of Hi Yellow in flat light, but also copes with much brighter conditions. The Prizm Hi Pink is marginally better than the Rose in very murky conditions, but isn't as versatile.

I have the Rose and have yet to find a condition that it doesn't work.....on Bluebird days, I use Prizm Tourch, which also has a wide range.

A snowHead

@Old Fartbag, thanks for that.

I also have the Prism Rose and Torch that i'm going to try for the first time this winter, so going to hold off purchasing the Hi yellow/pink until I've tried them.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

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@Old Fartbag, exactly

Help!!

Oakley Prism Rose goggle- do you really rate the tint in low light?

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