Oakley Iridium Question

[David_Oakley]

I'm not keen on the Iridium Technology at all. So please bare with me.

You know how all iridium lenses (regardless of color) have a reflective "mirror" that changes color depending on the angle of light off the surface of the lenses? That's great and all, but I'm just wondering if that's "necessary"?

Is it not possible for Oakley (or any lens maker for that matter) to create a solid deep red iridium that is uniformly deep red regardless of the light angle? Kinda like the way Cyclops' lenses were a solid deep red.

I read in a thread on here a while back that the actor (James Marsden) complained of headaches because they put a red film or something in his movie shades?

Anyway, just wondering if it were possible to have uniform colored iridium per se.

Thanks

David

 

[Duke Nivram]

Black and chrome have a consistant color across them

Edit
Ice is pretty solid along with slate

 

[David_Oakley]

Black and chrome are solid

The Black Iridium actually has a "Silvery" reflective finish. It's not a flat black.

On the same token, how come Oakley never made the "deep red" iridium ala Cyclops in X-men? That would surely sell.

 

[kronin323]

I could be wrong but my understanding is it has to do with the number of coats of iridium. Whatever tint they're using for red, they have to use more coats to get it redder. For the cyclops pair, they had to heavily coat both sides (outer and inner) to get them red enough and it was having the reflective surface on the inside of the lenses that gave Marsden the headaches.

And that also could explain why Ruby has gotten more Fruby and Fire has gotten more yellowish than orange; they may have reduced cost and manufacturing time by reducing the number of times they iridium coat the lenses...

Regarding the different colors from different angles, I can't speak to how / why they do that but I agree BI is solid; it doesn't change color from an angle, only from what's being reflected. My Gold iridium are the same. Also, though Jade goes blue from certain angles, emerald seems to be pretty uniform.

 

[David_Oakley]

I could be wrong but my understanding is it has to do with the number of coats of iridium. Whatever tint they're using for red, they have to use more coats to get it redder. For the cyclops pair, they had to heavily coat both sides (outer and inner) to get them red enough and it was having the reflective surface on the inside of the lenses that gave Marsden the headaches.

And that also could explain why Ruby has gotten more Fruby and Fire has gotten more yellowish than orange; they may have reduced cost and manufacturing time by reducing the number of times they iridium coat the lenses...

Regarding the different colors from different angles, I can't speak to how / why they do that but I agree BI is solid; it doesn't change color from an angle, only from what's being reflected. My Gold iridium are the same. Also, though Jade goes blue from certain angles, emerald seems to be pretty uniform.

Thanks for the insight. I guess from an "engineer's" mindset, I'm thinking it should be easy to just make a solid reflective red lol. So is the chameleon reflective color more so by the natural (unavoidable) process than by design?

 

[David_Oakley]

I could be wrong but my understanding is it has to do with the number of coats of iridium. Whatever tint they're using for red, they have to use more coats to get it redder. For the cyclops pair, they had to heavily coat both sides (outer and inner) to get them red enough and it was having the reflective surface on the inside of the lenses that gave Marsden the headaches.

And that also could explain why Ruby has gotten more Fruby and Fire has gotten more yellowish than orange; they may have reduced cost and manufacturing time by reducing the number of times they iridium coat the lenses...

Regarding the different colors from different angles, I can't speak to how / why they do that but I agree BI is solid; it doesn't change color from an angle, only from what's being reflected. My Gold iridium are the same. Also, though Jade goes blue from certain angles, emerald seems to be pretty uniform.

Also, on a sidenote, I can understand the number of coats, but let's just say they are going to put one coat of red iridium. Why does that coat inherently have "different colors" to begin with?

 

[Carrera1963]

Ice is pretty uniformly coloured too. Red has always been a problem to get uniform for Oakley for some reason, whether +red, ruby, OO red...

 

[Duke Nivram]

The Black Iridium actually has a "Silvery" reflective finish. It's not a flat black.

On the same token, how come Oakley never made the "deep red" iridium ala Cyclops in X-men? That would surely sell.

admended my statement to reflect more of along the lines of what kronin said

 

[kronin323]

Thanks for the insight. I guess from an "engineer's" mindset, I'm thinking it should be easy to just make a solid reflective red lol. So is the chameleon reflective color more so by the natural (unavoidable) process than by design?

Also, on a sidenote, I can understand the number of coats, but let's just say they are going to put one coat of red iridium. Why does that coat inherently have "different colors" to begin with?

That's what I don't know - if the "chameleon" effect is by design or just an innate property of certain tints. I could throw out some speculation but I'd just be guessing.

Linegear has a "red mirror" tint that doesn't show other colors so it's not impossible. I don't really know how the tech they use to mirror coat compares to Oakley, but I recall IH or somebody mentioning that those other techs are part of the problem with their optics (tint particle size causing image distortion, mirror coating also reflecting back inside the lens, etc) so maybe Oakley has to do it this way to maintain optical quality; IDK...

 

[David_Oakley]

That's what I don't know - if the "chameleon" effect is by design or just an innate property of certain tints. I could throw out some speculation but I'd just be guessing.

Linegear has a "red mirror" tint that doesn't show other colors so it's not impossible. I don't really know how the tech they use to mirror coat compares to Oakley, but I recall IH or somebody mentioning that those other techs are part of the problem with their optics (tint particle size causing image distortion, mirror coating also reflecting back inside the lens, etc) so maybe Oakley has to do it this way to maintain optical quality; IDK...

Wow, if optics are impaired, then that makes sense. I never thought there was so much to consider when it came to lens production.