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If y'all weren't aware of this, Mark (X-Man) is now selling replacement lenses made by Carl Zeiss at a very reasonable price. With 16 Juliet frames, I am always looking for quality replacement lenses. I contacted Mark in order to get some more information about these lenses. Mark decided to send me a pair of the silver, chrome, mirrored lenses to see what I thought of them. If I liked them, I will pay his reasonable asking price of $50, if I didn't like them for any reason I can simply return them. I also told Mark that I would give an honest review of the lenses and post it on the forum. I am no Hardaway when it comes to lenses, just wanted to make that clear from the start, but I know what works for me and what doesn't, so I hope this review might be of some help to others looking for quality lenses for their Juliets.
A little bit of background before I start this review. My eyes aren't in the best shape after being a brittle diabetic for the last 23 years. I was born with light colored blue eyes that have always been sensitive to bright light. Polarized lenses aren't just something nice to have, for me they are a must have whenever I am outside during the day. I have tried just about all the well known lens manufacturers and also many of the smaller companies as well. If the lenses are poor quality I will develop a headache and my eyes will literally hurt just after an hour or two outside on a Carolina Blue Sky Day. My lens of choice has been the Revant Elite series as well as the Ikon Polarized Iridium lenses. I have tried Fuse lenses several times with mixed results and quality issues that went ignored by their Customer Service. Walleva lenses are just plain garbage, I would be better off not wearing glasses at all. So now you know a little about where I'm coming from lets get on with this review.
I received the silver, or chrome, mirrored lenses a few days ago at the same time I received my Awesome Copper n Nickel Juliet from Cory ( RonkPM). The lenses were simply in a small ziploc bag with a microfiber cleaning cloth. With my vision issues, I prefer lenses that have a light transmission of 15% or less and if it is a really bright day on the lake 10% is even better. There was no paperwork with the lenses that stated what the light transmission was, what the lenses were made of, base curve size and if they had been corrected for this curve, any type of anti glare or anti scratch treatment, hydrophobic coating etc.... I also didn't find much online about these lenses specifically. That only leaves one more thing to do, get them mounted and head out to the river.
The left lenses was a perfect fit. The curve ratio matched the Juliet frame perfectly. The base of left lense is also engraved just like the Oakley lens with the word Polarized. I didn't want to risk scratching them with a micrometer, but I would say they are very close to the same thickness as the Oakley lenses because they fit into the lens channel just right. I have had other lenses by various manufactures that made their lenses much thinner than the OEM lenses. Maybe this was a cost savings or maybe it allowed the lens to be installed even though the base curve didn't match the frame or possibly a combination of the two, who knows? I encountered a small problem when I went to install the right lens. It was very clear that this lens was not the same curve size as the frame, and it also didn't match the Oakley lens that just came out of the frame. It wasn't off by much and I was able to apply a small amount of pressure and it popped into the lens channel. Trust me, if it was off to much I wouldn't have bothered trying to flex it into position. This also wasn't a frame issue because I took another frame out of the case as well as several brand new lenses out of their boxes and the results were the same. Time to hit the road.
I was also taking another Juliet frame with Oakley BIP lenses just in case the Zeiss lenses started to give me a headache. I prefer a neutral grey tint and these lenses didn't disappoint. Once at the river these lenses did a great job of reducing the bright glare off the water on a Carolina Blue Sky Day like today. The Zeiss lenses were very clear and distortion free and no headache came after 7 hours of wearing them. The mirrored lenses did a fine job of blocking others from seeing my eyes, this is another factor that I prefer. I would say the light transmission of these lenses is probably closer to 20% than it is 10%. My buddy and I both swapped between the Oakley lenses and these Zeiss lenses and the Zeiss was definitely brighter. Walking downstream I found a large pool of calm water and once again switched between the two lenses and both allowed us to see clearly into the bottom of the pool. Below is a link to Mark's website where these lenses are sold and a few photos of these lenses in my new Copper n Nickel Juliet. To sum up this review, let me be honest and say that I had my doubts about receiving a quality polarized lens for $50. Not only will I be sending Mark my payment for this pair, I am also going to have him ship me a pair of the blue mirrored lenses as well. I wish I could have given you specifics about materials used, base curve size, anti glare/scratch coatings, etc....... Maybe Mark can provide this information to us? I would also like to thank Mark for sending me these lenses for this review. If you have an X Metal in need of some TLC Mark can make them better than new and now you can even get your Juliets returned to you with brand new polarized lenses. Tough to beat a deal like that. Thanks for your time.
Later
NCH
Lenses - The X-MAN Custom Metalworks
A little bit of background before I start this review. My eyes aren't in the best shape after being a brittle diabetic for the last 23 years. I was born with light colored blue eyes that have always been sensitive to bright light. Polarized lenses aren't just something nice to have, for me they are a must have whenever I am outside during the day. I have tried just about all the well known lens manufacturers and also many of the smaller companies as well. If the lenses are poor quality I will develop a headache and my eyes will literally hurt just after an hour or two outside on a Carolina Blue Sky Day. My lens of choice has been the Revant Elite series as well as the Ikon Polarized Iridium lenses. I have tried Fuse lenses several times with mixed results and quality issues that went ignored by their Customer Service. Walleva lenses are just plain garbage, I would be better off not wearing glasses at all. So now you know a little about where I'm coming from lets get on with this review.
I received the silver, or chrome, mirrored lenses a few days ago at the same time I received my Awesome Copper n Nickel Juliet from Cory ( RonkPM). The lenses were simply in a small ziploc bag with a microfiber cleaning cloth. With my vision issues, I prefer lenses that have a light transmission of 15% or less and if it is a really bright day on the lake 10% is even better. There was no paperwork with the lenses that stated what the light transmission was, what the lenses were made of, base curve size and if they had been corrected for this curve, any type of anti glare or anti scratch treatment, hydrophobic coating etc.... I also didn't find much online about these lenses specifically. That only leaves one more thing to do, get them mounted and head out to the river.
The left lenses was a perfect fit. The curve ratio matched the Juliet frame perfectly. The base of left lense is also engraved just like the Oakley lens with the word Polarized. I didn't want to risk scratching them with a micrometer, but I would say they are very close to the same thickness as the Oakley lenses because they fit into the lens channel just right. I have had other lenses by various manufactures that made their lenses much thinner than the OEM lenses. Maybe this was a cost savings or maybe it allowed the lens to be installed even though the base curve didn't match the frame or possibly a combination of the two, who knows? I encountered a small problem when I went to install the right lens. It was very clear that this lens was not the same curve size as the frame, and it also didn't match the Oakley lens that just came out of the frame. It wasn't off by much and I was able to apply a small amount of pressure and it popped into the lens channel. Trust me, if it was off to much I wouldn't have bothered trying to flex it into position. This also wasn't a frame issue because I took another frame out of the case as well as several brand new lenses out of their boxes and the results were the same. Time to hit the road.
I was also taking another Juliet frame with Oakley BIP lenses just in case the Zeiss lenses started to give me a headache. I prefer a neutral grey tint and these lenses didn't disappoint. Once at the river these lenses did a great job of reducing the bright glare off the water on a Carolina Blue Sky Day like today. The Zeiss lenses were very clear and distortion free and no headache came after 7 hours of wearing them. The mirrored lenses did a fine job of blocking others from seeing my eyes, this is another factor that I prefer. I would say the light transmission of these lenses is probably closer to 20% than it is 10%. My buddy and I both swapped between the Oakley lenses and these Zeiss lenses and the Zeiss was definitely brighter. Walking downstream I found a large pool of calm water and once again switched between the two lenses and both allowed us to see clearly into the bottom of the pool. Below is a link to Mark's website where these lenses are sold and a few photos of these lenses in my new Copper n Nickel Juliet. To sum up this review, let me be honest and say that I had my doubts about receiving a quality polarized lens for $50. Not only will I be sending Mark my payment for this pair, I am also going to have him ship me a pair of the blue mirrored lenses as well. I wish I could have given you specifics about materials used, base curve size, anti glare/scratch coatings, etc....... Maybe Mark can provide this information to us? I would also like to thank Mark for sending me these lenses for this review. If you have an X Metal in need of some TLC Mark can make them better than new and now you can even get your Juliets returned to you with brand new polarized lenses. Tough to beat a deal like that. Thanks for your time.
Later
NCH
Lenses - The X-MAN Custom Metalworks
