Re: [Paddlewise] Prescription sunglasses - polaroid vs tinted

I am a great, great fan of polaroid glasses.  Tinted lenses are simply no substitute for the glare reduction afforded by polaroids. 
Nonetheless as you pointed out, they ain't cheap.  I get past that by using clip-ons over my regular glasses.  Here in the states I can also find huge polaroid fishing glasses that also cover the sides and can cover my personal glasses. Overall they're cheaper than prescription polaroids and I don't feel bad if I lose them.

I think that what people have difficulties with is that with some forms of glare, such as reflections from wave peaks, there is a difference in what each eye receives.  This can create a problem with 3-D perception -- it certainly looks funny enough.  But, you can get used to it.  I can certainly understand why, say, a bus driver would have problems with this -- he would be far more dependent on unimpeded depth perception.  

One other aspect of polaroids is the enhanced contrast between sun and sky; unfortunately it is direction-sensitive, though.

Joe P.

-----Original Message-----
>From: rebyl_kayak <rebyl_kayak_at_energysustained.com>
>Sent: Aug 2, 2009 5:55 AM
>To: paddlewise_at_paddlewise.net
>Subject: [Paddlewise] Prescription sunglasses - polaroid vs tinted
>
>In cloudier climates this is probably not much of a problem, but in Oz we need
>to wear sun glasses to protect from UV as well as cope with glare. So I'm
>planning to buy a set of bifocal prescription sunglasses. To date I've always
>bought polaroid lenses as they are way better than tinted sunglasses for
>seeing rocks under water. However, polaroid prescription sunglasses are really
>expensive and worse still the optician says they make it harder to read
>instruments and his bus driver clients won't use them, preferring to use
>tinted spectacles instead.
>
>If it turns out that a VHF or GPS screen is harder to read with polaroid
>lenses then it would make sense to opt for tinted prescription glasses and to
>use cheap polaroid non-prescription sun glasses for negotiating rocks when its
>unlikely I'll need to read GPS or VHF.
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