[O/C] Gunnar Optiks Phenom Performance Eyewear

[Overclockers.com]

Gunnar Optiks Phenom Performance Eyewear
by splat

Hardcore gamers are always looking for another way to get a leg-up on their competition. There are performance products for nearly everything imaginable, now including eyewear. Unfortunately, a lot of these products are only marketing hype and fail to produce the results that are promised. So, when I first opened the packaging of the Gunnar Optiks Phenom glasses, I was admittedly skeptical if I would notice any difference when wearing them.

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[ponkan pinoy]

What I don't understand is the justification for the claims that they ease eye strain etc from computer use. According to you the glare reduction is mostly ineffective, and the only other optical effect you describe is having to sit closer to the screen, which -- I find, anyway -- increases eye fatigue.

 

[=XAF=AfterShock]

so if there is a slight magnification and are designed to be worn when your staring at a screen for hours on end without any reduction in glare, that means when you finally take them off your eyes will strain anyway and will eventually do the same amount of damage as not wearing them at all. I can find better ways to ruin my eyesight for $100

 

[macklin01]

skeptical: lots of features to compensate for the unnecessary lenses

From what I can tell, the Neoscopic tuning means the lenses have a slight magnification to them, much like reading glasses. The fRACTYL lens geometry is much like my Oakley ski goggles, providing a completely undistorted lens. The diAMIX lens material is a special plastic lens. The i-FY lens coatings are anti-glare, anti-reflective, scratch-resistant, and smudge-resistant. Last, but not least, the iONik lens tints are simply the lens colors which are available.

My edits in bold and red/cyan above.

So basically, most of the features (in red) are solely to compensate for the fact that you're wearing lenses. The remaining two (in cyan) are the only real changes above and beyond wearing no lenses at all.

The magnification seems dubious to me -- if you really wanted objects on the screen to look larger, you'd get a larger screen or use software magnification. (or possibly tweak the DPI) And as mentioned earlier, I could only see it leading to increased eye strain.

So the only feature that might offer a benefit beyond wearing nothing at all is the tint, and I'd love to see some real scientific, peer-reviewed evidence on that. (Really, I would. Links would be appreciated.) And if it's to increase contrast, then why not just increase contrast in the video card settings?

So, if the tint doesn't help, then aside from the magnification, everything else is just a feature to make sure the lenses are lightweight (diAMIX), don't introduce distortion (fRACTYL), last awhile (i-FY anti-scratch), and don't introduce eye strain in and of themselves (additional i-FY coatings). i.e., these features are just to compensate for the fact you're wearing lenses. I have a difficult time believing these things would be of any benefit to somebody who doesn't need to wear glasses in the first place (in which case you'd do much better get tinted prescription glasses, which necessarily have high quality and come with all manner of fancy coatings).

*edit*
Bah, blue looks lousy in the forums, and cyan looks lousy on the front page. I can't win!
*/edit*