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EyeKon Lenses For Oakley XX (Vintage) Purchase And Review (Final Update 12-31-12)

  • Thread starter digi7alph0enix
  • Start date
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digi7alph0enix

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Having recently purchased a pair of the Oakley XX Twenty frames that I used to love so much, I decided to try out some after market lenses since I wasn't very fond of the stock color my frames came with. Forum members seemed to want a review of eyeKon Lenses (a forum sponsor) and their Cyber Sale coupled with another coupon code I found made them cheap enough to try without being disappointed if they weren't up to snuff. I'll do my best to post a full review and give updates as I am able to actually get out and use them (it's night here currently). Let me also apologize for the quality of some of the pictures I'm posting. All I have is my phone camera and some of these pictures are unnatural close-ups.

Shipping and Packaging

Packing of both sets of lenses I purchased was great. I knew as soon as I took the package out of the mailbox that everything in side should be safe and sound, and it was. Shipping time was decent. I placed the order on 11/24/12 (a Saturday) and the order was processed and shipped on 11/27/12 (a Tuesday), and delivered on 12/1/12 (a Monday). Coming from Florida to Texas via USPS in just under a week will get no complaints from me.

Quality and Comparison to Genuine Oakley Lenses

The first thing I noticed when I took the lenses out of the box was that they aren't thin like many other aftermarket lenses. I've seen several posts and videos about Walleva and Exovista lenses being paper thin and very flimsy and that definitely isn't the case with these. I don't have a micrometer or anything but when held side by side with factory Oakley lenses they are very close if not identical in thickness. Below is a picture of the stock Persimmon lenses (left) and one of the eyeKon lenses (right).

thickness.jpg


The second thing I noticed is that the curve on the eyeKon lens is not identical to the Oakley lenses. I should mention however that both sets of eyeKon lenses I ordered are polarized and the Oakley lenses aren't, so maybe that has something to do with it. I don't have a set of Oakley XX lenses that are polarized to compare them to so maybe someone that has multiple sets of XX lenses can compare Oakley polarized vs regular and see if there are variations in the lens curvature. Here is a picture of all 3 sets of lenses in the following order: eyeKon Black Chrome (left), Oakley Persimmon (middle), eyeKon Bronze Alloy (right)

curvek.jpg



And a few more angles of the lens curve difference (please excuse all the fingerprints)-

curve2.jpg


curve3.jpg


curve4j.jpg



The fit of these lenses is very close to that of the stock Oakley lenses. Once installed I'd say there is a fraction of a millimeter of play in the lens, but only if you are really trying hard to move them. My stock lenses don't move at all however, so I'll assume this is just the price you pay for buying aftermarket, and it may have something to do with the difference in lens curve I mentioned before. The tiny bit of movement doesn't affect the usability of the lenses though, and the fit is actually quite good with no noticeable gaps or binding points. They snap in and out with minimal effort, but don't feel as if they'll fall out or that a short drop would jar them out of place. A close-up of lens fit on the Bronze Alloy eyeKon lens (again, excuse the finger marks around the edges)-

lensfit.jpg



Lens coloration is very good, at least brand new out of the box. Only time and use will tell if they are subject to any kind of fading or peeling and I'll update this post accordingly if anything like that should occur. Lens clarity on initial testing (indoors) seems good without any type of warping or blurring, but again I'll have to get them outside in direct sunlight to really get a feel of how they are and how the polarization is. Here is a picture with one of each eyeKon lens I purchased installed-

oneeach1.jpg


Other Mentionable Items

One thing that put me off of this company right from the start was their lack of actual photos of each color of lens they sell. After emailing them I was put in contact with someone who did have pictures of the first two colors I was going to buy, but the fact that I had to email them at all about something like this seems somewhat unprofessional. While I was told they are in the process of getting something like this set up it isn't like they are Oakley who has numerous stores you can go to if you want to check out new colors, so having real pictures and not just stock photos of your lens colors would seem to be a very important part of your business and almost made me decide not to buy them. Hopefully this is something they will correct in the future as they said.

An unexpected bonus with my shipment was 2 full sized microfiber bags that are big enough to hold all but the largest Oakley frames. The quality of the bags seems to be equal to the Oakley bag on initial inspection but again only time and use will tell for sure. I say this was unexpected because according to their website at the time of purchase all that was included was a microfiber cloth, which I assumed would be one of the small generic ones that I usually just toss out. Here is all the lenses and bags, including the Oakley one-

bagsa.jpg


One other thing to note is that apparently eyecandy lenses and eyeKon lenses are the same company. Even in their emails I got links to both websites, and as I'm sure some of you will notice even the boxes and bags say eyecandy, not eyeKon. That doesn't really mean anything I don't think, but its somewhat odd.

That's about it for now with the first day un-boxing and installation done. It's supposed to be pretty nice here the next week or so which should provide plenty of chances to get out and actually put these lenses to the test against the real thing. I'll do my best to keep updating this thread in the coming days and weeks as I get more use out of the lenses. Hopefully this has been helpful to those of you considering trying eyeKon.


Day 2

Had a bright sunny day here (record setting actually, 83* in December!) and had lots of time to give the lenses their first trial run.

After using the lenses for a full day in direct sun I can say that I had no issues with headaches or vision blurriness, something I've read is somewhat common with aftermarket lenses. The polarization seems to be quite good, and is even across the entire surface of the lens with no visible stress lines or waviness. The direct sunlight also showed no light leakage around the edges of the lenses from an incorrect fit. The only lenses I used today were the Bronze Alloy, but they seem to be very clear without distortion from edge to edge. I did notice that they slightly change the colors you see when looking through them with a very light grey or blueish hue, but to a lesser extent than my Persimmon lenses from Oakley which tend to give off more of an orange or gold hue. I did my best to get a picture looking through a lens, again sorry for the phone picture-

img20121202132626.jpg


The blurriness you see around the edge of the lens in the picture is my poor photography, not the lens itself. Look at the blurry parts extended past the frame of the glasses you'll see what I'm referring to.

I do have one other thing to add to this review before I finish this first update. While I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination on Oakley products or eye wear in general, I consider myself to be quite sensitive and aware of imperfections in my vision. I have severe astigmatism in both eyes and wear contacts to correct it back to normal vision. Because of this I have noticed that my eyes are extremely sensitive to things like light reflection, glare, and other things that cause distortion in my vision like blurry or hazy lenses. Putting on a $5 pair of gas station sun glasses is a painful experience, and that's the reason I've come back to Oakley frames and lenses, and why I made the switch to polarized lenses, even though they are aftermarket. I am doing my very best to give a fair and accurate description of the product I purchased and how it is performing in my day to day life, with the hope that it may save someone else some time and money either by offering them an alternative to official lenses (that may be too expensive or hard to find), or by showing them that this product isn't right for them. I hope everyone realizes that I am in no way affiliated with eyeKon, I just want to help out other members.

To anyone following this thread, I'll probably wait a week or so before posting another update to get a broader range of conditions and usage to give feedback on.

EDIT: Final review and thoughts can be found here:

http://www.oakleyforum.com/recent-o...eview-will-updated-post183051.html#post183051
 
Great write up. Thank you for investing your time for the review.
 
One thing I noticed real quick as soon as you bend a lens beyond its curve optical quality is reduced, and can cause distortion.....
 
One thing I noticed real quick as soon as you bend a lens beyond its curve optical quality is reduced, and can cause distortion.....

That's one reason I was hoping someone who has multiple sets of genuine Oakley lenses for the XX series can chime in and say if there is a difference between the polarized and regular versions of the lenses. I can't get a solid test done on clarity tonight simply because its dark outside and my house is far from bright enough to get a real idea of what distortion, if any, is present in the eyeKon lenses. This is something that I will update as soon as I get the chance to do some real world usage tests. I'm still curious about polarized vs non on genuine lenses though, because until these arrived today the thought never even crossed my mind that the curves may vary due to polarization.
 
Im no expert but I though the polarization was a coating that was on the lens and not the lens itself. The thickness looks good but I also worry about clarity and distortion since the curvature of the lens is different. Show me the lazer test.
 
Polarized is a filter within the lens.

Oakley is superior to many polarized as the filter is within the lens (basically the lens is poured around the filter).

Many other companies use a sandwich technique which in my opinion sucks. You take a polarized filter and sandwich it between 2 lenses using an adhesive. Clarity and distortion are major issues with this technique.
 
Thank's for your brilliant review.
OEM lenses, no matter if XX - New Straight Jacket - Splice and so on, do not have consistently the same thickness (see also #1 picture 2).
The range goes from 1.8 mm (center) down to 1.3 mm (nose bridge and hinge wise). Doesn't matter if polarized or non-polarized!
If I'm right, Eykon (Eyecandy or Lollypop :tongue:) lenses have all the way a thickness of 1.6 mm.
Wrong curvature is a no-go!
 
First post has been updated with the first day of actual use. Let me know if you have any specific questions or comments I might be able to answer.
 
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