Another Sunglasses Thread

I wear prescription bifocals. For sunglasses I’ve been “getting by” with the clip-on’s that came with my last set. They’re basically “smoked glass”…no polarization, bad color, etc. They don’t help much out on the water.

I’m due to get my eyes tested again and this time I’d like to upgrade to something good. I’ve done some research, and it appears that there are several decent makers of sunglasses out there (Costa, Smith, Maui Jim,Native). What I’d like to know is how you go about getting good prescription sunglasses. Do you do this by dealing directly with Smith/Costa/etc., or do you work through your regular optician?

Thanks

S.R.

I went optician route. I have had poor luck with prescription sunglasses in that they never seemed to have the sharp vision that my regular glasses had. Then a month ago I got Maui Jim with the polycarbonate lenses. Sharp vision, light weight, polarization great and all in a lineless bifocal that is perfectly proportioned. The fitter at my optician recommended these and he was right. Getting a good fit for lineless bifocals is important.

Great question

I have had a few upper end prescription(oakleys,costas)thought it would be great for tying knots in the boat,what I found for me was,if the lens was dark enough to keep my eyes comfortable it was too dark to see decent enough for knot tying.
I also purchase sunglasses through my optician,but only in single vision rx.

Bill makes a great point; so what about transition lenses?

I have the transitions for my regular glasses and worked good for the knot tying,but not dark enough for me when its really bright,so I end up bringing both!!

my eyes are shot for close up and have the same problems in the boat, my solution has been to have cheap cheaters to switch to when knot tying. I am going to try prescription costa and see what happens but I am really, really bad at keeping expensive sunglasses in one piece and have gone back to cheap sunglasses also. So don’t know how long my costa will last.

I’ve gone the optician route. Kind of the pay for service if something gets weird vs internet direct purchase thing.

last pair something got mixed up in the order and one of the lenses wasn’t right. Good customer service and they made it right without making it a hassle for me.

There’s brand loyalists but Smith, Costa, Maui Jim, Kaenon are all reputable brands. Mostly people buy or sell sunglasses based on fashion. For this purpose find a lens or two you think is good then go find a frame that fits.

I finally jumped the gun and purchased a pair of costa’s (not prescription) and was amazed at the clarity and just how amazing colors are with them browns really really pop out you look at a yard and see all the brown dead grass that’s normally not noticeable even looking at a grove of trees you notice the different shades of green from the different species of trees and they’re amazing on the water I’ve always bought the cheap $20 polarized shades in the past never thinking I could justify the price of a good pair of shades but now I don’t think I could go back I have a friend who able to use their HSA on a pair of prescriptions don’t know if that’s an option for you or not and if you do go down the costa route I’d look into the copper base green mirror lens.

Love my costas because of the glass (non-plastic lenses). I’m hard too hard on plastic lenses to have them last. My current costas have lasted over a year, unprecedented for me.

A friend at work also bought his costas using a Health Savings Account, went the bifocal route and swears by them for line tying.

He bought them thru the eye doctor

Costas are the cadillac of fishing sunglasses hands down when using glass lenses. I tried multiple pairs, loved the lenses, but hated the frames. Also keep in-mind that Costas glass lenses are only rated to 60mph as shatterproof. The salesman told me that they don’t recommend them to anyone who would wear them on cycles for that very reason.

I settled on the new Oakley Prizm lenses. I’d put their new polarized poly lenses against any other poly lens on the market, and their frames fit even better with more styles at ~$80 cheaper.

buckybadger wrote:

Also keep in-mind that Costas glass lenses are only rated to 60mph as shatterproof.

Agreed, I don’t recommend them for soldiers, softball players or bikers. My daughter plays softball and I won’t let her borrow them on game day. But…on the lake, I’ve found nothing I like better.