Best Lens To Reduce Blue/green Light?

[Dan Carullo]

Hi - I would like to give a bit of background for this question...I have a vision condition which forces me to wear sunglasses outside from dawn to dusk - regardless of how sunny it is out. I also find that my eyes feel a lot better wearing polarized lenses when on the computer and/or under fluorescent light. I'm thinking i'll need around 3 pairs to cover the various light conditions.

After much research i have found that the best approach is to use polarized lenses that significantly cut violet & blue light, and to a lesser extent green light. What i'm trying to figure out is which lenses would be the best at this? I know that oakleys used to come with a paper insert that had charts with the % of light blocked by wavelength/color, but i haven't been able to find a recent version of this with all the new lens tints.

Any help/insights on this would be greatly appreciated.

 

[BriP]

Reduce blue green light, my mind jumps straight to vr28 black iridium. Try anything from this set-

Vr28 black irid
Gold irid
Tungsten irid
Titanium irid
OO black irid polar
OO red irid polar


Imo these are some of the nicest lens tints oakley makes, and i wore gold irid and vr28 black irid daily for a long time.

 

[RetinaBurn]

Looking for something like this: http://www.oakley.com/innovation/optical-superiority/lens-tints

 

[Lamsouth]

I agree with BriP. I tend toward the OO series because they seem to have some of the best clarity. I suffered a stroke a few years ago and often require wearing sunglasses as well. The VR28 is a great lens as well, which I use if I can't get OO black or OO +red.

 

[Rustpot]

Can you get to a store? It sounds like fit will be a large issue as well. Picking a tint is important as well, but if you choose something that has a lot of light coming in from the sides the glasses might not be worth it.

 

[MrMoonlight]

The lens tints that BriP recommends will do a decent job with blues and violets. Most of them do, however, enhance greens. That's how contrast tints work..they supress certain wavelengths while enhancing others, whereas neutral tints filter all wavelengths equally...i.e., they just darken everything.

The best tint for someone who needs blues, violets and greens filtered would be a red tinted lens...which is obviously not practical. I'd go with a VR28-based or an OO-based lens as BriP suggested. You might even look into the G26 lens. It's a bit of a radical tint, but would be in the ballpark of what you're looking for as far as what's getting through to your eyes. Fire Iridium with its amber base may also be worth looking into.

After much research i have found that the best approach is to use polarized lenses that significantly cut violet & blue light, and to a lesser extent green light.

Polarization has nothing to do with filtering certain wavelengths/colors. That's all dependent upon the base tint and exterior coating of the lens. Not whether or not it's polarized.

 

[Rustpot]

The lens tints that BriP recommends will do a decent job with blues and violets. Most of them do, however, enhance greens. That's how contrast tints work..they supress certain wavelengths while enhancing others, whereas neutral tints filter all wavelengths equally...i.e., they just darken everything.

Essentially yes. They technically don't "enhance", they just don't filter as much of a certain color so your eyes are more drawn to the higher transmission.

It would be interesting to know if a VR28 (for example) had a 28% transmission based on max wavelength transmission across the visible spectrum, or if there's an average and certain wavelengths transmit at higher percentages.

 

[MrMoonlight]

Essentially yes. They technically don't "enhance", they just don't filter as much of a certain color so your eyes are more drawn to the higher transmission.

Yes, thanks for pointing that out. The enhancement is purely perceptual, not physical. My statement wasn't very well worded.

It would be interesting to know if a VR28 (for example) had a 28% transmission based on max wavelength transmission across the visible spectrum, or if there's an average and certain wavelengths transmit at higher percentages.

That's a good question. I'd like to know that, too. I wouldn't be surprised if it were the latter. That may explain why certain tints that have a lower transmission listed for them sometimes appear lighter than others listed with a higher transmission (at least as far as contrast tints are concerned).

 

[Rustpot]

Makes me wish I stuck with a hard sciences field instead of applied sciences.

If I had a collimated source of full spectrum light and a prism we'd have a rough idea...

 

[BriP]

It would be interesting to know if a VR28 (for example) had a 28% transmission based on max wavelength transmission across the visible spectrum, or if there's an average and certain wavelengths transmit at higher percentages.

it is the average across the visible spectrum afaik.

btw, i specifically did not choose G26 because in my experience it "boosts" greens and violets (and is very intense on the eyes!) and did not choose fire because it boosts greens.

i have to agree, alot of the other lenses i chose do enhance greens, but the OO line i find do not do this as much as gold, tungsten etc.