Goggle Lens Guide
What is the best goggle lens color? It is mostly personal preference, but here are a few attributes to certain lens tints that can help you make the best choice for your eyes and skiing conditions.
General Lens Color Guide
*Blue light limits the eye's ability to focus and creates blurriness, especially in snowy environments. Many lenses are designed to reduce the amount of blue light that reaches the eye.
| Lens Color | Benefits |
|---|---|
| Yellow/Orange | Provides greater clarity in fog and low-light, high contrast and depth perception by blocking blue light. |
| Pink/Red | Improves depth perception, provides the best contrast, reduces eye strain (alters perceived color). |
| Blue/Purple | Reduces glare, helps define contours and color perception. |
| Green | Good all purpose tint, even color perception, dims glare while brightening shadows, improves contrast in low-light. |
| Brown/Amber/Bronze | Ideal in variable conditions, enhances contrast and depth perception, cuts the haze for crisp vision. |
| Gray/Black | Reduces eye fatigue, provides true color perception while minimizing glare in bright-light conditions, block the brightest rays. |
| Mirror Coatings | Greatly reduce glare - the base tint lends the greatest visual benefits to the lens while the mirror tint is for glare protection. Blue mirror specifically reflects away blue light, increasing visual acuity while minimizing glare. |
Lens Categories
| Category | VLT Range | Tint | Conditions |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 80-100% | None or Very Light Tint | Very low light or night skiing |
| 1 | 46-79% | Light Tint | Low light or overcast days |
| 2 | 18-45% | Medium Tint | Effective in average sunlight conditions |
| 3 | 8-17% | Dark Tint | Perfect for most skiing conditions and provide excellent protection from the sun |
| 4 | 3-8% | Very Dark Tint | Only necessary in extremely bright conditions, like hiking glaciers or high altitudes |
VLT - Visible Light Transmission
VLT is a measurement that specifies the percentage of light coming through the lens and reaching your eyes. A totally clear lens for dark conditions typically have around 90% VLT and a very dark colored lens with mirror for sunny conditions may have down to 10% VLT. Most all round lenses will be found between 30 to 60%.