The holidays are upon us, as is highly reflective ice and snow, as well as bright sunlight, reduced daylight, and reduced colour. All of these spice up winter's recipe for ocular annihilation and can leave driver's retinas looking like sun-baked sidewalk earthworms.
Got a driver on your Christmas list? Want to treat them to a useful gift that'll make a positive difference whenever they travel? A set of driving glasses are in order - and not the sort you get for $9 at your local hardware store.
Ahead of the holiday- and winter-driving season, I've assembled and tested several pairs of quality sunglasses from two leaders in driving eyewear: Oakley and Maui Jim.
Both brands offer unique and cutting-edge lens technologies. Most of the pairs mentioned feature a polarized lens, too. This does for your eyes what a spam-filter does for your email: blocks the harmful, unwanted stuff. With your email, its viruses and Viagra ads; with your eyes, it's nasty reflections and glare that cause damaging strain and fatigue.
The difference in vision quality with any of the eyewear listed below is remarkable for various reasons, and any set will make a great Christmas gift.
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| Photo: Justin Pritchard |
Maui Jim Waterways ($219): Maui Jim's slightly grey “PolarizedPlus2” lens fine-tunes light transmission, rather than darkening heavily or altering color. Everything looks very natural, but crisper and free of glare and haze. This backs the brand's ideology of maximum protection with minimal distortion.
Drivers will feel their eyes literally relax when wearing these. “Maui Gradient” lenses are tinted more lightly at the bottom enabling, for instance, a clearer view of your instrument cluster.
Oakley Deviation ($170): Unique design touches combined with a “red iridium” lens that generates more colour depth and contrast. The scenery really pops with these lenses, and strain-causing glare is knocked back significantly.
For drivers, the big draw here is the large lens size which fully covers the field of vision. Additionally, the thin arms don't impede peripheral vision during shoulder checks. These are a stylish, high-design pair of shades that will get compliments everywhere. Opt for the available polarized lenses for additional glare reduction.
Oakley Jupiter Squared ($220): This set showed off Oakley's optional “HDPolarized” lens, which is tinted brown and coated with a special glare-reducing film. This lens tint and coating both block hazy colours like blue and grey, while making reds, yellows and oranges stand out.
Drivers will note more contrast between objects and their backgrounds, and more detail farther up the road. The overall effect is a more stimulated, vivid and high-definition vision -- a very remarkable lens.
Maui Jim Hideaways ($319): These are extremely lightweight glasses with a remarkably thin frame and arms. Those arms are mounted high, so they don't block peripheral vision while driving. The “Neutral Grey” lens color is very natural, with no color distortion or negligible darkening.
“PolarizedPlus2” lenses, again, help eyes feel more at ease the instant they're worn. With their extremely light weight, thin arms and excellent, natural-looking lenses, Hideaways felt the most as if I weren't wearing glasses out of the entire bunch.
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