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2026-05-05

Rudy Mirrorshades

I find it useful to periodically review certain practices, in order to determine when I am doing something out of rote habit rather than intention. In that vein, a couple weeks ago I took the photochromic laser red lenses out of my Rudy Rydon spectacles that I’ve been rocking since 2011. In their place I inserted the Stealth ImpactX Photochromic 2 Black lenses that came with the Z87 Rydons.

The difference was immediate. Black (or grey) tinted lenses pretty much suck. They dim the day-star, but make everything look flat. Contrast disappears. Terrain becomes muted. This has significant practical disadvantages when you are out and about in the world. I had forgotten how much the red lenses were levelling up my capabilities by enhancing my visual acuity. Most of the time I’ve spent out-of-doors for the past 8 eight years has been spent wearing said red lenses, so to me this was not an augmented enhancement but instead was just the way the world looked.

The alternative lenses I always carry in my bag are the Polar 3FX Brown Laser (for environments where I want lenses that are polarized and/or darker – water and snow being the primary applications) but, like red, the brown tint also increases contrast. I do sometimes still wear the Micropores, but guess what tint those lenses have. Brown.

Still, I forced myself to wear the black (or grey) lenses for a week. I wanted to see if my opinion would change after I got used to them. Reader, it did not. But I did find myself wondering how much the “laser” treatment contributes to contrast. I had a coupon with Rudy, so I ordered the ImpactX Photochromic 2 Laser Black lenses. These have the same black (or grey) tint as the ones I was using, but with the laser treatment.

I’ve been wearing those lenses the past few days now, and they actually do seem better. I’m not constantly thinking about how flat everything looks, and I can see potholes and such. They certainly remain inferior to the contrast provided by red (or brown) lenses. Basically they make everyday look kind of gloomy and overcast, even when it isn’t. On the other hand, the silver mirrorshade effect does look bitchin’ – and that counts for something – but that’s likely the only reason to wear them. I think the bottom line is that if you’re wearing black (or grey) tinted lenses, you are leaving capability on the table.

If my karma is to be reincarnated as a razorgirl, the photochromic laser red lenses are probably what I’ll get surgically implanted.

2024-07-24

gear, eyewear, review

Celyfos Spectacle Protection

Back in 2022 I purchased a Celyfos case for my Rudy Rydons. The case is one my favorite things. The leather is beautiful. The front of the case is made of a stiff double layer of veg-tan, with a nubuck lining to protect the lenses. The shape and rigidity of this piece protects the eyewear from downward pressure applied along the top of the case. The internal nose bridge is leather on top of a plastic liner. This protects the eyewear from pressure applied along the front face of the case, toward the lenses. You could still damage the temple arms of your optics by placing a well aimed butt-cheek on the rear of the case, but the case will not be deformed by typical negligent abuse. I have no concern about blindly throwing the case into a pack where it may be tossed around or buried under heavy things. The sports model, sold for Oakley glasses, fits the Rudy Rydons perfectly.

When I refreshed my Julbo Micropores I decided that they deserved a Celyfos case of their own. I went with the medium-sized Atlas model. This one has the same thick leather and overbuilt nose bridge as the sports-wrap case, but also includes a plastic liner between the leather layers of the front face. The liner offers even greater crush resistance. Now that I can compare both side-by-side, I think that the sports model, without the liner, is stiff enough just by the nature of the leather and well thought out design that the addition of the plastic liner probably does not offer much practical advantage.

Unfortunately the new case is not a perfect fit for the Micropores. The Micropores have ear hooks that extend down below the bottom of the lens. This raises the spectacles in the case, preventing the nose bridge of the case from fully supporting the eyewear. They still fit in the case, but the peak of the Micropore’s nose bridge is slightly proud of the front of the case. Top-down pressure will be applied directly to the glasses, rather than being intercepted by the case’s rigid front piece. The case still succeeds in protecting against pressure applied along the front face of the case, towards the lenses.

I am still pleased with the new case. I am confident it will protect the Micropores adequately for my use. I think it would only be improved upon by designing a case specific to the typical shape of classic glacier glasses, similar to how the Rydon case is designed specifically to the unique contours of typical sports-wrap eyewear.

Celyfos cases are made-to-order in an Athens atelier, so some customization is possible. For both of mine, I specified black thread, brass hardware, and had my surname embossed.

2024-07-19

gear, eyewear

Micropore Refresh

In 2008 I purchased a pair of Julbo Micropore glacier glasses from Opticus. This was before PRK, so I needed prescription lenses.

At that time, Opticus was the main (perhaps only) supplier of prescription glacier glasses for the US Antarctic Program and Raytheon Polar Services. Opticus sent me the frames with the prescription lenses installed, but included the uninstalled standard Julbo lenses in the package.

After my surgical shine job I installed the standard lenses, but still did not get back into the habit of wearing the Micropore glasses. They had quite a few miles on them by then. Both the nose pads and the rubber covers on ear hooks at the end of the temple arms were torn up, which diminished their comfort. And outside of deployments under Special Circumstances – like being on a glacier (do they still have those?) – the Micropores are not as functional as my Rudy Rydons. They fail to meet my simple sunglass criteria. Yet they are fun to wear, and unlike sports-wrap style spectacles like the Rydons, the Micropores fold down flat (more so if you do not have the leather side shields installed, as I usually do not). That is attractive for travel when you want to be able to store your spectacles without taking up a lot of space in a bag.

Julbo discontinued the Micropores I-don’t-know-how-many years ago. I think the modern equivalent is the Julbo Cham. But I recently learned that Julbo still offers spare Micropore parts. When I saw that, I jumped at the chance to refresh my pair. I purchased new temple arms, a new nose pad, and a new nose bridge.

I couldn’t actually figure out how to remove the old nose bridge. But once I removed everything that was obviously removable, I was able to clean my original nose bridge and decided that I didn’t actually need to replace that part (and my old one was already sanitized). The temple arms and nose pad were simple to replace.

The aggressive curve of the ear-hooks on this style of spectacles does not work well with the cable retention I use on the Rydons. Nor is such a thing necessary to keep them on your face – those big hooks keep them secure. But I do like the option of having some sort of lanyard so that I can drop the glasses and let them hang around my neck. This is especially useful given that the lenses are not photochromic. The Micropores originally came with a simple nylon cord, but I don’t know what happened to that. Now I am using a Chums Tech Cord. It is an injection molded piece of silicone, and about as simple as it gets. I like it.

The Micropores remain inferior to the Rydons, but I’m enjoying wearing them again intermittently. It is pleasing to be able to buy new components and rebuild old equipment. Eventually I may get custom cut lenses.

2022-05-24

gear, eyewear

Rudy Replacement Lens Program

Rudy Project offers a replacement lens program wherein they will replace any of their lenses for frames that are in the current year’s product catalog. They require you send in the lens you want replaced, and charge $29.95 per pair.

I just learned about this warranty program a couple weeks ago and thought I’d give it a whirl. I sent in two pairs of lenses for my Rydon spectacles.

One pair was ImpactX Photochromic Black. These were one of the two original sets of lenses I bought with the Rydons in 2011. Prior to my shine job, these were what I kept mounted in the Rydon chassis most of the time, with the RX carrier behind them. The lenses had some noticable scratches on them, I think caused by my face, the RX carrier, ImpactX lens, and other people’s fists all coming into loving embrace.

The second pair was ImpactX Photochromic Laser Red. These are the ones I’ve used almost everyday for the past 4.5 years. These had some minor scratches on them from normal use – nothing that was noticeable when worn, but I figured as long as I was sending a package in for warranty I’d include these.

I classify both of these lenses as critical equipment, so I already had a spare pair of each. I was prepared for a long wait, or for Rudy to reject my claim because both lenses were still usable as is.

I put both lenses in a padded envelope, with a check for $59.90, and dropped it in the mail last Monday. The postage cost me $3.42. Today, nine days later, I received a package with two new lenses.

Purchasing those two lenses would cost $209.98. There’s a lot of ridiculous markup in the eyewear industry, but knowing that I can easily replace my Rudy lenses for about 30% of their MSRP makes me happy to continue to do business with Rudy. In past years I’ve looked at third parties, such as Revant, to expand my lens collection with less money. But now I can’t say that I have any interest in purchasing lenses from anyone other than Rudy.

2021-08-29

gear, eyewear, edc

Optical Support Kit

I use an Ultralite Sacks Trail Wallet to carry a few items that support my Rudy Project Rydon eyewear. I have six or eight of these simple cuben fiber zippered pouches floating around for different uses, either from Ultralite Sacks or Zpacks.

I’ve previously mentioned my infatuation with the ImpactX2 Photochromic Laser Red lenses. These remain my lense of choice 99% of the time. But sometimes I want a polarized lens (such as when on water), or one with lower light transmission (such as when the sun is low during the equinox), or one with higher contrast (such as when on snow), or one that is not photochromic (such as when in an enclosed vehicle for an extended period of time). All of these conditions are satisfied by the Polar3FX brown lenses. I carry these in the wallet inside of the small microfiber lens pouch that Rudy provides.

A microfiber bag is useful when I want to put the Rydons inside my pack. The bag doesn’t provide any crush protection, but prevents the lenses from getting scratched. I use the bag that came with my old Revision Sawfly optics.

I also carry a full-size microfiber cloth. This is the same large model I use to protect my laptop screen. It is slightly redundant with the microfiber bag – both can be used to clean the lenses – but I find the larger size of the dedicated cloth useful.

There’s enough room in the wallet to store my Cablz retention strap. I have kept this attached to the Rydons most of the time since purchasing the strap last year, but if I remove it, it goes in the wallet.

The wallet can fit a 5ml spray bottle filled with ROR. That’s not something I carry around on a daily basis, but I’d consider tossing it in for an extended trip.

As you may have gathered, one of my pet peeves is dirty optics. I want to protect my corneas from UV radiation and impact, but I also want vision that is high definition and high fidelity. The Rydons, coupled with this small and lightweight kit, support that objective.

2021-01-24

gear, review, eyewear

Cablz Eyewear Retention

I’ve previously mentioned my fondness for Rudy Rydon eyewear (particularly with the photochromic laser red lenses). One of the benefits of the Rydons is the adjustability of the temples and the nose pad, which allow for a secure, custom fit. This makes added retention via a strap unnecessary for securing the Rydons on the face, yet I’ve come to appreciate having a retainer attached simply because it allows me to drop the eyewear around my neck when I don’t need it. This offers more security than pushing them up onto the crown of my head or hanging them over the edge of my shirt or pocket, without requiring the hassle of putting them away in a pack.

For this application I’ve come to like the Cablz Zipz Adjustable Eyewear Retainer. I use the 12 inch version. These are made of a coated, stainless steel wire. When you’re wearing the eyewear, the wire sits up off the neck so you don’t feel the retainer at all. When you’re hanging it around your neck, it is thin and light enough that you soon forget it is there (this is also a result of the lightness of the Rydons, of course). The zip allows the length of the retainer to adjust from about 6 inches to 12 inches. At the smallest setting this keeps the Rydons tight on my face, but since that is not what I’m looking for I keep it adjusted about half way. At roughly 9 inches in length, I find that I can easily don and doff the eyewear, and that they sit at a comfortable position on my chest when I’m hanging them around my neck. The “universal” silicon ends of the retainer grab securely on the Rydon temples.

Cablz isn’t the only company to offer this style of retainer.

The Croakies ARC Endless is the same basic idea. I bought one to try out, but found it to be inferior. The silicon ends are significantly thicker and less comfortable behind the ear. I could bend the Rydon temples to account for this extra thickness, but I appreciate that the Cablz retainer requires no adjustment of the eyewear. With the Croakies, the pieces you grab to tighten the retainer are quite small. You’re adjusting the retainer blind by reaching behind your head, so the haptics are important. I found the Croakies difficult to use when wearing gloves. The Cablz adjustment pieces are large enough to be easy to use whether gloved or gloveless.

The equivalent from Chums is the Adjustable Orbiter. It only adjusts from 10 inches to 15.5 inches, which is too large for my needs, so I didn’t buy one to try.

I recommend the retainer from Cablz. It provides a simple but helpful augmentation to my eyeball protection system.

2019-05-12

eyewear, review, ablution

Residual Oil Remover

Late last year I ran out of lens cleaner. In the past I’ve never made an informed purchase of lens cleaner, opting instead for the free bottles given out at optometry offices or whatever generic bottles were presented on the counter of the closest drug store. This time around I thought I’d look to see if there was any specific product worth purchasing. I assumed that there were probably picky photographers who had performed a survey of cleaners for their camera lenses, and that their conclusions would apply to other optical surfaces.

Surprisingly, I found only one useful review: a 2013 post on on the Digital Photography Review Forum, which outlined a testing method for cleaning solutions and concluded:

Three branded cleaners out of about a dozen, after 5 test repetitions, walked away with the honors. They are: Zeiss Lens Cleaning Solution, Nikon Lens Cleaning solution and ROR Lens Cleaning Solution. At the bottom of the list was surprisingly, Purosol, that tied with straight distilled water for having absolutely zero emulsifying properties for removing skin oil in all 5 of our test repetitions. When I spoke with the Purosol folks, and asked “How does NASA use your product and for what cleaning purposes”, I was politely told, “That information is classified, and, we unfortunately don’t know!”

Between the 3 top reviewed products, I flipped a coin and ended up purchasing ROR, or Residual Oil Remover.

ROR certainly works. I use it on my Rudy lenses, my laptop screen and external monitors, as well as the screen of my phone. But because I made the purchase after I was out of my previous cleaner, I wasn’t able to compare it to anything else for a couple months. Later on I found a partially used bottle of generic lens cleaner from my optometrist and was able to do a comparison. ROR cleans better with less rubbing.

I don’t know what the contents were of that last bottle of generic cleaner, or how it compares to the other cheap, generic cleaners that I’ve used in the past. But I am happy enough with ROR that I will continue to use and recommend it. I have three bottles stashed around my frequented areas at home and work, and appreciate its ability to keep the clarity of my optical devices at a maximum.

2018-11-28

gear, review, eyewear

Laser Red

My criteria for sunglasses is fairly simple:

They must offer impact protection. Not protecting my eyeballs has always seemed dumb. Not protecting them after I’ve sunk a few thousand dollars into my cornea would be even dumber. ANSI Z87.1 is a good standard for impact protection, but I will of course happily accept MIL-PRF-31013.
They should offer interchangeable lenses. This is not critical, but it is nice to have. Different lens colors are appropriate in different environments. Good eyewear is usually expensive, which can make purchasing multiple pairs prohibitive. If you do purchase multiple pairs, you still have to carry them, which is much less attractive than carrying one pair of frames and different lenses. Photochromic lenses make the single-lens option more palatable, until you realize that the alternative is interchangeable photochromic lenses.
They should not be butt-ugly.

Prior to PRK, the fourth and most important criteria was that they somehow be prescription compatible. I always assumed this was the most limiting criteria. While recovering from my shine job I lay in bed thinking about eyewear, and assumed that there would be a much wider range of options available to me when I could see again.

Imagine my disappointment when, after I recovered enough to see a computer, I found that there were actually no compelling new options. Even without the need of prescription lenses, the Rudy Rydon Stealth are still the best thing out there.

Determined to not be so easily dissuaded from spending money, I decided to treat myself to a new pair of lenses for the Rydons. After some consideration I landed on the ImpactX2 Photochromic Laser Red. Red lenses provide excellent contrast and visual depth. I have owned a pair of Rudy’s non-photochromic Racing Red lenses for a while and found them to be the ideal option for overcast days, but their static nature gave them a more narrow window of effectiveness which limited their actual use. The Photochromic Laser Red take the same excellent color and add the dynamism I’ve come to enjoy: the lenses offer 75% light transmission on the clear side and 16% light transmission on the dark side. On the light side that’s actually 1 point higher than the same generation clear-to-black lenses, making them even more appropriate for indoor or night work. On the dark side, that’s right in the middle of the transmission range typical of most sunglasses. The “laser” in the name refers to a light mirrored coating. These aren’t the mirrorshades Bruce Sterling promised you, but the lasering does serve to reduce glare and eye strain by reflecting some of the light away rather than absorbing it. It also adds an attractive bluish sheen.

I bought these lenses last December and I’ve removed them from the Rydons in exactly two situations: on water and on snow. In those environments I think a good, dark polarized brown lens is hard to beat. I opt for the Rudy Polar 3FX. In every other environment I’ve been in over the past year, my preference has been for the Photochromic Laser Red. I wear them whenever I’m on the bike. Even if I’m riding past midnight and it is pitch black, they transmit enough light that I barely notice I have them on. I wear them indoors when things are going bang. I wear them during the equinox when the sun is low on the horizon, pointing directly into my eyes. Like all photochromic lenses, they react to UV light, and so are suboptimal in cars. They will darken, but not completely. I tend to only spend a collective handful of hours per year in cars, so this isn’t a consideration for me.

If I was only going to have one pair of lenses, it’d be these. (But I like interchangeable lenses so I keep the brown lenses in my pack too.)

This article was modified 2018-12-01.