Ventruck
I am Jim Jannard...
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In the deals section, @Linegear has been clearing some lenses out under the Zero brand. This is not the same supplier for they use for their notable X-Metal offerings; however,cheap price and the presumption that Linegear wouldn't bother with a sub-par product made me intrigued. Another feed for curiosity is that these are supposed to be prism-corrected, in similar fashion to the other higher-priced offerings in the aftermarket.
Going forward, I'm gonna be pretty dry cut in this review to outline my likes and dislikes.I grabbed two sets: one red mirror and one light yellow to try out at work while I'm at the computer 99% of the time.
+Cut and Finish
The thickness and curve were seemingly on the mark against OEM. Edges are beveled as well.
Seating, which I've seen some aftermarket brands fail to nail with the Jawbone, was spot-on.
Colors are nice. The red mirror set leans more to Positive Red than Ruby, which is a win for me as I'll discuss later.
+Optical Quality
As far as perceptions go, I liked the the red mirror set in particular because it feels very similar to Oakley's own Positive Red. Most brands with red mirror finishes run with a much stronger blue tint whereas this one leans a bit more to neutral. That being said, color perception was up there with this set.
The yellow set pretty much did its job at the computer. Feels really bright at first, and sorry to say I've never tried Oakley's own High Intensity Yellow, but this was surely brighter than say, tinted safety glasses. Contrast effect was in play as expected.
+Features
I felt that the outside mirror coating cut glare very effectively on the red set. Again, I pretty much thought I was wearing Positive Red.
Hydrophobic effectiveness was observed and neither set showed any signs of fogging.
-Backside Anti-Reflective Coating (for the yellow set)
Oh it's there, in fact it's totally there. When I first put on this pair I thought I already smudged them, but I was observing heavy ghosting. When I take off my contacts and put these on again, I can literally be looking back at my own eyes (I'm near sighted so there's definition at this distance). Backside coating seems like it could be stronger than the front.
It's not even the case that there's a lot of back lighting (we're talking close-fitting sports frames here) but whatever light ahead is entering hitting my eye.face and bouncing back to the lenses. These lenses probably fare best in foggy weather or something.
To be clear,though, the red mirror set doesn't exhibit this issue at all. From there perhaps light transmission is in play to not have as much light therefore bouncing backing. If Oakley's own High Intensity Yellow exhibits this, I'd be curious to know.
=Overall and further thoughts
This review, again, is pretty dry-cut because you've probably read my other reviews and there's no point in rehashing similar elaborated thoughts. Before these Zero lenses, I tried Revant's HC3, Walleva's recent Mr. Shield, and Fuse+. Since I paid for this set out of pocket, I'm a little less reserved in mentioning competitors in this review.
And that being said, these are perhaps my favorite in terms of executing a near-OEM tint. Doesn't make them outright better, but I do feel like I effectively found a non-vented Positive Red substitute. Could be that Zero's other colors are a miss for all I know.
All the lenses I mentioned have impressive optics to my eye. It just boils down to tint preferences, although objectively the Fuse+ was a few tiers down in finish period.
Where the Zero's come short (apart from the overkill backside AR in my yellow set), though, is that they're not polarized — or at least from what I could make out it's not an option. I'm actually not big on polarization but in regards to the general market, it's something to consider. At full price they're in the $40 range/set for the Jawbone, which is perhaps ~$10-$20 off the HC3 and Mr. Shield.
An interesting thing I noticed in Zero's offerings is they do shield lenses. The product listings are saying the ones for the Radarlock are also prism-corrected, and if that's true, that's a first I've heard of in the aftermarket. Unfortunately I don't really use my Radarlock pairs anymore to really care for trying a set out.
Last thing I'd want to mention is that my transaction with @Linegear was smooth, and I'm addressing that as a user and distributor. They were very communicative in answering some questions and quick in sending out the lenses based on when I followed the tracking. Probably not news to the X-Metal crowd, but yeah, cool stuff.
Going forward, I'm gonna be pretty dry cut in this review to outline my likes and dislikes.I grabbed two sets: one red mirror and one light yellow to try out at work while I'm at the computer 99% of the time.
+Cut and Finish
The thickness and curve were seemingly on the mark against OEM. Edges are beveled as well.
Seating, which I've seen some aftermarket brands fail to nail with the Jawbone, was spot-on.
Colors are nice. The red mirror set leans more to Positive Red than Ruby, which is a win for me as I'll discuss later.
+Optical Quality
As far as perceptions go, I liked the the red mirror set in particular because it feels very similar to Oakley's own Positive Red. Most brands with red mirror finishes run with a much stronger blue tint whereas this one leans a bit more to neutral. That being said, color perception was up there with this set.
The yellow set pretty much did its job at the computer. Feels really bright at first, and sorry to say I've never tried Oakley's own High Intensity Yellow, but this was surely brighter than say, tinted safety glasses. Contrast effect was in play as expected.
+Features
I felt that the outside mirror coating cut glare very effectively on the red set. Again, I pretty much thought I was wearing Positive Red.
Hydrophobic effectiveness was observed and neither set showed any signs of fogging.
-Backside Anti-Reflective Coating (for the yellow set)
Oh it's there, in fact it's totally there. When I first put on this pair I thought I already smudged them, but I was observing heavy ghosting. When I take off my contacts and put these on again, I can literally be looking back at my own eyes (I'm near sighted so there's definition at this distance). Backside coating seems like it could be stronger than the front.
It's not even the case that there's a lot of back lighting (we're talking close-fitting sports frames here) but whatever light ahead is entering hitting my eye.face and bouncing back to the lenses. These lenses probably fare best in foggy weather or something.
To be clear,though, the red mirror set doesn't exhibit this issue at all. From there perhaps light transmission is in play to not have as much light therefore bouncing backing. If Oakley's own High Intensity Yellow exhibits this, I'd be curious to know.
=Overall and further thoughts
This review, again, is pretty dry-cut because you've probably read my other reviews and there's no point in rehashing similar elaborated thoughts. Before these Zero lenses, I tried Revant's HC3, Walleva's recent Mr. Shield, and Fuse+. Since I paid for this set out of pocket, I'm a little less reserved in mentioning competitors in this review.
And that being said, these are perhaps my favorite in terms of executing a near-OEM tint. Doesn't make them outright better, but I do feel like I effectively found a non-vented Positive Red substitute. Could be that Zero's other colors are a miss for all I know.
All the lenses I mentioned have impressive optics to my eye. It just boils down to tint preferences, although objectively the Fuse+ was a few tiers down in finish period.
Where the Zero's come short (apart from the overkill backside AR in my yellow set), though, is that they're not polarized — or at least from what I could make out it's not an option. I'm actually not big on polarization but in regards to the general market, it's something to consider. At full price they're in the $40 range/set for the Jawbone, which is perhaps ~$10-$20 off the HC3 and Mr. Shield.
An interesting thing I noticed in Zero's offerings is they do shield lenses. The product listings are saying the ones for the Radarlock are also prism-corrected, and if that's true, that's a first I've heard of in the aftermarket. Unfortunately I don't really use my Radarlock pairs anymore to really care for trying a set out.
Last thing I'd want to mention is that my transaction with @Linegear was smooth, and I'm addressing that as a user and distributor. They were very communicative in answering some questions and quick in sending out the lenses based on when I followed the tracking. Probably not news to the X-Metal crowd, but yeah, cool stuff.
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