Sunglasses & podcast
- This topic has 16 replies, 13 voices, and was last updated Mar 18, 2013 at 1:31 pm by
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Listened to the podcast last night with the Costa guy and found it pretty informative. Oddly, I was getting ready to send my Smith glasses back for some warranty work. I wish you would have asked him about the photochromic feature that some brands like Smith use. I know That Costa makes a great product, but how would they compare to the Smith’s? Anyone have any experience with both brands? Smith has been awesome as far as warranty support and the glasses are great! Are Costas better?
Awesome podcast zach loved listening to him explain all the stuff I’ve read on their website.
David,
I can’t compare to scott but I can tell you the warranty process with costa is pretty straight forward.
I love Smiths, used them for years, couple years ago when I was due new glasses, their lenses factory (China I think) had burnt down, so I went with Guidelines.
My only complaint with Smith is great lenses but their frame selection sucks, (side coverage) nicely told that to them multiple times, but so far they don’t listen and I shop else where.
Looked at Costas many times but $759 for progressive Rx is steep. They may be good but are they that good ??? When you can get Smith for $300-ish and Guideline for $225-ish
I’m actually looking at Costa now, got a new prescription 01/03/13 and thinking of contacts (never been fitted) could get regular Costas. So many ways to look at this.
I’ve listened to the podcast 3 times so far, will listen again, very informative.
David – I went the way of Costas and contacts about three years ago. It works fine except that for a couple issues. First, you will need some kind of magnification unless you go with bifocal contacts. So you will then have two sets of glasses tethered around your neck. And, for me, I don’t see as well with my contacts as my glasses (progressives). That said, I still like the system but find that I wear my regular glasses on overcast days instead of polarized sunglasses.
If you are a fresh water fisherman who stays out till half past dark thirty, you will run into the issue of wanting to remove the Costas and thus your eye protection.
Regarding the progressive lenses, I’ve used Rudy Projects for some years now. They have a special frame that sits behind the wrap around lenses that works quite well. After the initial investment, it’s pretty cheap to upgrade your progressive prescription without scrapping the entire setup.
I listened to the podcast last night.
That really was more informative than I was expecting.
I bought a pair of copper 580G glasses a while back, not long after they were introduced. I really like them. But after a while, the soft plastic material on the earpieces started to deteriorate. (Either due to sun, sunscreen, or both.)
I sent them back to Costa to get them checked out and their service was great. Like Clay mentioned, it was pretty straight forward. I did some stuff online and then mailed them off. They replaced the earpieces with new ones. The new ones had a different material on them. I don’t remember how much it cost me, but it wasn’t all that much.
If I recall from the podcast, the copper lenses were good for color enhancement. And the mirroring would let less visible light in. Is that correct? I’ll have to give it another listen. Anyone know how different the mirrored lenses are compared to their non-mirrored counterparts?
I like the copper a lot, but they don’t work well in low light. I have been looking at the Sunrise lens for a while. And after the podcast, I think I am going to actively shop for a pair.
I have the fathom frames, but I think they are a little small for my noggin. I might look into one of the larger fitting frames. The Zane looks nice.
Also, has anyone ever used those little stick-on reader lenses?
Brian
Duncan –
I think Ed was doing his best to explain that subject in understandable, lay terms, but that link is very helpful.
I found the this podcast to be a real eye opener (no pun intended!). I learnt a lot and will be buying some 580Gs as a result. I have others but not glass, though all my mountaineering glasses have always been Vuarnet glass which were regarded as the best.
Gerard –
I’m in the process of writing an article on sunglasses, actually. (I was supposed to write this like five years ago but for whatever reasons our contacts were not being forthcoming. Thanks to Ed Moody’s podcast, we were able to restart the article. This will be in American Angler magazine this spring).
Anyway one thing I’ve learned in researching this is just how much overlap there is in the sunglass market. There are two huge corporations – Luxottica and Safilo Group. Both are big Italian optics companies and they both have a bajillion brands under them. For example, Smith Optics is in the Safilo portfolio, whereas Oakley is a Luxottica brand.
Bottom line is chances are very good that whatever top end sunglass you buy, you’re getting one or the other of these companies’ products. (The exception seems to be Costa in the fishing market, which is owned by, of all things, a company that makes high-end ink pens).
The takeaway though is that you most definitely want to buy a “technical” sunglass versus a “fashion” one. One of my contacts told me about the wars his company had with his parent company because the profit margin on technical shades is not nearly as fat as it is on, say, Ralph Lauren brand glass (which incidentally has been made by both of those big conglomerates at one point or another).
A technical sunglass selling at $250 represents a pretty typical markup in the outdoor industry over the base cost (usually that’s around 60% from wholesale to retail). A *fashion* sunglass selling at $250? Man, I would be scared to know the markup on that. It’s probably over 90% based on the grumbling I heard.
So in terms of bang for your buck, your technical companies like Oakley, Smith, Costa, Kaenon, etc., have your back. Perry Ellis? Not so much.
Zach
This podcast was very well timed for me. I was just researching getting a better pair than the $4.99 Berkely glasses I have. I was planning to upgrade to $40 Typhoons because I can find so little empirical evidence as to the actual performance of higher priced glasses. I will now seriously consider Costa. I think my scientific test will be to buy a $40 pair and a 580p in amber (same as my el cheapos) and go to a body of water and literally see if the polarization and quality of the lens is noticeable.
I don’t buy into the “you only have one pair of eyes so you should spend more money to protect them” mentality. At work we have $2 safety glasses that are ansi z87 rated and block uv light sufficiently that I have never experienced “weld burn” in my eyes even when accidentally getting flashed.
I feel that at least by selecting the same material and color of lens I should be able to conclude a reasonably accurate result. I can then return the undesired pair.Over the weekend, I tested out some Costa Zanes that I got.
A couple months or so back I bought a two pair of Costa Zanes. One with the Sunrise 580P lens and one in the Green Mirror 580G.
First off, both are excellent at what they do. The green mirrors are great when there’s plenty of sun out. Fish and structure really stood out. I was fishing in an Ozark stream with a rocky bottom. Most of the day was overcast, so I wore the Sunrise glasses the most. I am very pleased with these. They worked great with clouds or when the sun was low.
I didn’t really get to test them in really low light at dawn or dusk, so I am curious about that. I have a pair of cheap yellow lens polarized glasses (actually safety glasses) that I wanted to compare them to, but I forgot them at home.
I’m pretty pleased with the purchase and finally happy I had a chance to fish and test them out. I chose the green mirror over the silver mirror because I mainly fish streams with a varied bottom.
Big bonus this weekend: Nabbing a very large brown. I was sight fishing and I saw him eat. I was able to set the hook on him before he could spit it out. I didn’t even notice if my indicator moved or not.
Color me pleased.Brian
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