These magical things I should know far more about seeing as ive had them for over 20 years. saw an advert the other day that peaked my curiosity. Was an advert for a branded one called Crizal or similar. Now I do drive a fair bit at night so get a lot of flaring and glare from pretty much any light, do these coatings actually work or as they basically a snake oil coating like the scratch resistant stuff they put on them.
Coatings do work for camera lenses and glasses. But I find even with coating, any finger print or grease on the glasses still means glare and flare. So I'd recommend you make sure your glasses are clean before you drive off, coating will help, but only to some degree.
Im pretty good with them being clean use cleaning solution on them to get rid of grease oils etc ones im wearing now I get the flaring on pretty much any light at night streetlamps etc so anything that cuts it down would help. I have contacts I dont wear them all the time.
I don't know about Crizal, but I have polarising lenses for driving, and it's made a massive difference to my commute (I drive due east in the morning and due west in the evening, so I always have the sun in my eyes). It's made a massive difference, especially with low sun in the winter mornings/evenings and it does help to a certain extent with glare at night as well.
Me too, have done for years. coatings really do work and they also reduce risk of scratching when cleaning.
I have an anti glare coating on my regular lenses and as long as they are good and clean then it makes a lot of difference. For night driving I have a pair of polarised lenses with a yellow tint as these get rid of the reflected glare from the road surface and improve contrast.
I buy Pentax extra thin and light lenses which come with an ultraclear coating and I think it genuinely makes a difference.
Keeping lenses clean is the key. Whereas I can see the tiniest speck on my lens which brings out the cleaner. My good lady on the other hand could probably cook a fried breakfast on the grease on hers.
True dat. If I'm wearing my glasses under my helmet the lenses get polished to within an inch of their life so as to reduce fogging (even though they're coated) but the rest of the time they're downright covered in crap
Crizal is an essilor group trade name for their top end lenses. They,re ok, essilor is pretty much bottom to mid range optics but they have Great advertising. Regards MAR coatings, they work, but the crizal ad is a load of crap. They take about 2-4percent off the light transmission (vlt) but don't affect clarity or add a visible tint. What they do is prevent internal reflections in the lenses and eliminate ghost images. They,re good under strip lights and for office work but for driving at night they won't eliminate the glare of headlights to any great extent. The advert shows an effect more like polarised lenses, which you can,t get in the 85percent vlt that's the legal minimum for driving at night in the UK. Ps. Hard coatings on plastic lenses are not snake oil, uncoated lenses can get scratched by dust blown in the air. Although certain high St opticians charging extra for them is a big scam. I know of no manufacturers that Don,t supply hard coat lenses as standard, you basically pay more for a standard feature.
I'm much the same. The coating definitely does make a difference though, my lenses are also anti-scratch and they've avoided any noticeable damage so far despite a hell of a lot of use.
I have the Nikon coating for anti-glare and higher refractive index, and it works great. Unfortunately it starts scratching off after about 18 months, so I pay the extra £20 for 24 month warranty/insurance then get them replaced
