Fuse Lenses Review | Oakley Replacement Lenses

[Fusion_m8]

Can we have a picture comparison between old and new? Thanks.

 

[Antonio Vidal]

Here are my xs Fuse Cosmic lenses.
Polished Carbon X Squared Fuse Cosmic Lenses | Oakley Forum

 

[Saintz]

I did some research on Fuse and then bought two of their lenses. Here's what I found. Review to follow.

Fuse buys blank lenses from Dynamic Labs, which sells Sola lens from Zeiss Vision. Let's break down what that means.

Zeiss is a large multi-national conglomerate who manufacturers lenses (sunglasses, cameras, microscopes, etc.), lens coatings, and also licenses their name and technologies. For example, there are two lines of Zeiss lenses for Sony cameras. One line is manufactured by Zeiss and is manual focus. One line is autofocus and is manufactured by Sony, using Zeiss design principles, to Zeiss specifications, with Zeiss lens coatings, and licensed with the Zeiss name.

Zeiss bought a lens manufacturer named Sola, so Sola lenses are made by (a subsidiary of) Zeiss. Zeiss is based in Germany but Zeiss Vision is based in Italy (where Luxotica, Oakley's parent company is based and where many sunglasses are made).

Fuse has 3 lines: Fuse, Fuse Ion, and Fuse+. All three lenses use the same base Sola (Zeiss subsidiary) lens. They are optically identical. The Ion line adds A/R coating and hydro-oleophobic scratch resistant coating. The Fuse+ line adds Zeiss branded hard scratch coating, but no A/R or hydro-oleophobic coating.

All three lenses are made by a Zeiss subsidiary and supplied through Zeiss Vision, but only the one with Zeiss branded coatings is technically Zeiss branded. This is the confusion.

 

[Saintz]

Zeiss supplies 2 different base curves, 6 base and 8 base. Zeiss supplies more color options in 6 base than 8 base. Holbrooks are 6 base. Flak 2.0 are 8.75 base. If you check Fuse's inventory, Flak 2.0 is available in only limited colors vs. Holbrook and I believe this is because they are using 6 base for Holbrook and 8 base for Flak 2.0.

First off, the base is slightly off in the Flak 2.0 (8 lens vs. 8.75 frame). I had some trouble getting the lens to fit in the Flak 2.0 frame and it caused the lens to bend and distort. Once I realized the problem, I was able to reinstall the lens and make sure it seated correctly. At that point I had no issues. Importantly, I also had trouble installing a stock Oakley lens in the Flak 2.0. So this isn't a problem just with Fuse lenses, it's really a problem with the Flak 2.0 frame being very thin and needing extra care to ensure lenses are seated correctly.

 

[Saintz]

I bought two lenses, Fuse+ Midnight lens for a Revo Stern (8 base frame) and Fuse Ion Glacier for a Oakley Flak 2.0 (8.75 base frame).

The Fuse Ion lens is 8 base and had some trouble fitting the 8.75 base Flak 2.0, but so do stock lenses, so this threw me off at first but once carefully installed, was fine.
The Fuse+ Midnight I believe is a 6 base lens, because I don't believe Zeiss supplies Midnight with Zeiss coating in the 8 base. Regardless, it fit just fine in the Revo Stern (8 base frame). I point this out in case anyone wants to verify further, but for me the lenses worked when installed carefully.

First the optics. Both lenses are optically the same. They come from the same blanks. The blanks are all sold by Zeiss. I had dizziness when the Flak 2.0 lens was installed wrong. Once installed correctly, no dizziness, dry eyes, unconscious desire to remove the glasses, etc. I have no equipment to test these further, but they work fine for my eyes and given they're from Zeiss, I'm sure these are optically on par with polycarbonate lenses from Smith, Serengeti, Bolle... because all of those companies use Zeiss lenses, too. I'm sure they're also on par with Oakley, Costa, Maui Jim, and whoever else.

The Ion lenses have a A/R coating. It's not as good as Costa or Maui Jim, but it is worlds better than Oakley, which is virtually non-existent. I tested all 4 of these back to back in the same conditions, Costa and Maui are great and identical, Fuse Ion is good, Oakley is not. I like A/R coating because it stops eyeball reflections in strong sun and stops cheek reflections if you have 6 base frames (e.g. Holbrook) where there's a big gap. If you're tired of getting backside reflections, these are a huge step up from Oakley.

Ion also adds hydro-oleophobic coating. Touch the lens, and it doesn't leave a fingerprint. Smudge the lens and it wipes right off. Get water on the lens, and it beads off. If you're constantly cleaning your glasses or near water, these are awesome. Costa has a similar coating, but the Ion coating works much better. Oakley no longer offers this coating, but you can temporarily apply a coating using the pen kit. The Ion coating is permanent.

The Ion coating is also scratch resistant, which I haven't tested. From my experience with Seek Optics coating, which appears very similar to the Ion coating, I am sure these lenses are very scratch resistant and should be much better in that regard than Oakley. I haven't actually tested it yet, though.

The Ion Glacier lens has a slight warm/yellow tint.

Next, Fuse+ in Midnight. This lens is pure grey base, no warm tint. The optics are perfectly fine, just like the Ion. Now that we're done with the good news...

The Fuse+ lenses lack the A/R and hydro-oleophobic coating. They get fingerprints easily. The mirroring gets off colored when smudged. Water sheets over the lens instead of beading up. When the sun is strong you see your eyeball and when the sun is behind you, you see your cheek. Basically, they behave like Oakley lenses. Apparently the Zeiss coating is very scratch resistant, so that might be one plus over Oakley lenses, but I would rather have A/R and hydro-oleophobic with mild scratch resistance, than just have strong scratch resistance.

I like the Ion lenses, but they're only available in limited colors. The Fuse+ lenses look good, but they're not as practical, at least for my purposes.

 

[FizzikalJ]

I have a set of Fuse lenses for my Batwolf's and I love em, the only thing I dislike, is the VLT % is much lower than the OE lenses or the Walleva's I had prior, which results in a much darker view, but other than that I love them

 

[Roach]

Thanks to all for the reviews I been looking for good quality replacement lens for my Straight Jacket gen 2 for a while now and I think Fuse fit the bill for me..

 

[Vaapad]

One problem I've had with fuse lenses so far is that the brilliant colored mirror coating looks amazing from some angles, but much more transparent from others. Basically, as I wear my glasses, look in a mirror, and rotate my neck from one side across to ol the other while keeping my eyes on the mirror, there are points at which I see the beautiful lens color reflected back at me, and points at which I see my eyes through basically grey-tinted lenses.

I have noticed this on several colors, but all were square wire 2.0

 

[Mike Beauchamp]

Looks like I'm picking up a pair for my JFL's now. Thanks for all your input!

 

[Walleva]

That's possible. They told me that black mirror were similar to black iridium when in fact they're more like chrome iridium. Have not seen the violet in person.

The biggest point of this is that these lenses appear to be a good aftermarket option.

They have good colours, good impact resistance, and very good clarity.

Really great review. Have you got the interest in testing the Walleva Lenses?