Hey guys, noticed something yesterday that got me thinking and thought I'd post here for an answer.
I've owned quite a few pairs of Oakley's throughout the years and currently own two pairs of Cerakoted Gascan SI's. A Desert Sage pair with Tungsten Iridium lenses, and a Mil-Spec Green pair with Black Iridium Polarized lenses. I wanted the Tungsten Iridium Polarized, but at the time they weren't available and Oakley didn't offer the lenses separately.
Having a ton faith in the quality of genuine Oakley lenses, but also wanting polarization, hesitantly, I decided to give a set of aftermarket polarized lenses a try.
Came across Ikon. Researching them, I found they're 100% designed, tested, and manufactured in the U.S.A. They also had stellar reviews and were priced well. Went ahead and ordered a set of the 24K gold iridium's.
After receiving them, I noticed some very slight differences between them and the original Tungsten Iridium lenses. Most notably, the very obvious A/R coating on the inside of the Ikon's, but no obvious coating on the original lenses. Figured maybe Oakley reserves this for their more costly polarized lenses, even though I didn't recall seeing this on any of my previously owned polarized pairs.
Fast forward to yesterday, and I received the Mil-Spec Green pair with the BIP lenses. Again, I compared them with the Ikon's and still didn't find that brilliant blue coating on the inside, so I did some looking around and can't find much from Oakley in the way of advertising the use of any kind of A/R coating. If they are using it, you'd think they'd make it known, especially considering the cost of a set of genuine polarized lenses versus these aftermarket replacements. I did find some older posts here on the forum with guys arguing back and forth about whether or not Oakley uses anything, and another post which mentioned what they call Stealth. It seems to be Oakley's terminology for their A/R coating, but it was also said that it pertains only to their Rx line.
After doing some reflection testing myself, it seems that if they are using anything on the inside of the lenses to reduce the reflection of light, it's not as effective as this blue coating used by Ikon. Since everything I found here was quite old, can anyone give me a definitive answer regarding whether or not Oakley is using any form of anti-reflection technology in their non-Rx lenses? Doesn't REALLY matter to me, I'm just curious. I'll love Oakley's just as much, no matter the answer.
I've owned quite a few pairs of Oakley's throughout the years and currently own two pairs of Cerakoted Gascan SI's. A Desert Sage pair with Tungsten Iridium lenses, and a Mil-Spec Green pair with Black Iridium Polarized lenses. I wanted the Tungsten Iridium Polarized, but at the time they weren't available and Oakley didn't offer the lenses separately.
Having a ton faith in the quality of genuine Oakley lenses, but also wanting polarization, hesitantly, I decided to give a set of aftermarket polarized lenses a try.
Came across Ikon. Researching them, I found they're 100% designed, tested, and manufactured in the U.S.A. They also had stellar reviews and were priced well. Went ahead and ordered a set of the 24K gold iridium's.
After receiving them, I noticed some very slight differences between them and the original Tungsten Iridium lenses. Most notably, the very obvious A/R coating on the inside of the Ikon's, but no obvious coating on the original lenses. Figured maybe Oakley reserves this for their more costly polarized lenses, even though I didn't recall seeing this on any of my previously owned polarized pairs.
Fast forward to yesterday, and I received the Mil-Spec Green pair with the BIP lenses. Again, I compared them with the Ikon's and still didn't find that brilliant blue coating on the inside, so I did some looking around and can't find much from Oakley in the way of advertising the use of any kind of A/R coating. If they are using it, you'd think they'd make it known, especially considering the cost of a set of genuine polarized lenses versus these aftermarket replacements. I did find some older posts here on the forum with guys arguing back and forth about whether or not Oakley uses anything, and another post which mentioned what they call Stealth. It seems to be Oakley's terminology for their A/R coating, but it was also said that it pertains only to their Rx line.
After doing some reflection testing myself, it seems that if they are using anything on the inside of the lenses to reduce the reflection of light, it's not as effective as this blue coating used by Ikon. Since everything I found here was quite old, can anyone give me a definitive answer regarding whether or not Oakley is using any form of anti-reflection technology in their non-Rx lenses? Doesn't REALLY matter to me, I'm just curious. I'll love Oakley's just as much, no matter the answer.
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