Prizm Sport vs. Protan Colorblindness – Tested, Very Surprising Results

[jeskli11]

Hello guys,

I would like to share my findings regarding the effects of Oakley Prizm Sport lenses on my color perception. I am mild to moderate protan colorblind, meaning I have impaired red–green color vision, more specifically reduced sensitivity of the L-cone.

The first Oakley Prizm lens I ever used was Prizm Road. I loved that lens (and still do), but after several discussions and some experimentation I realized why: it was the first time I felt I could see almost the same way a person with healthy color vision would see through a neutral-base lens.

Oakley does not state that any of its lenses are intended to correct color vision deficiencies, but from my experience rose-base lenses seem to help in my case. I have not tried EnChroma or Pilestone glasses, which—at least to my knowledge—are currently the only products explicitly marketed as color-vision-correcting.

I have tried multiple colorblindness tests, but for this experiment I stuck with the EnChroma color vision test, as it provides percentage scores for the perception of individual base colors (blue, green, red). I tested the following conditions:

• No glasses (baseline)
• Prizm Road
• Prizm Trail Torch
• Prizm Low Light
• Prizm Snow Sapphire

Each option was tested at least three times. Below, I present the most consistent results for each lens (individual runs sometimes varied slightly, but repeated tests always converged back to the same values).

Results

Lens	Blue channel	Green channel	Red channel
Baseline (no lens)	100 %	75 %	62 %
Prizm Road	100 %	75 %	75 %
Prizm Trail Torch	100 %	62 %	75 %
Prizm Low Light	100 %	87 %	75 %
Prizm Snow Sapphire	100 %	12 %	100 %

Interpretation​

As shown above, none of the lenses negatively affected my blue-channel perception.

Prizm Road, Prizm Trail Torch, and Prizm Low Light all increased my red-channel perception to 75 %, while Prizm Snow Sapphire boosted it all the way to 100 %.

As a side effect:

• Prizm Trail Torch reduced green-channel perception to 62 %, which makes sense given that it suppresses green wavelengths to enhance contrast in wooded environments.
• Prizm Snow Sapphire suppressed green even more aggressively, reducing it to 12 %.
• Prizm Low Light, on the other hand, boosted my green-channel perception to 87 %.
• Prizm Road left my green perception unchanged at 75 %.

This means that, in my particular case, Prizm Road equalized my perception of red and green, resulting in the most natural-looking vision overall.

Final Thoughts​

Each Prizm Sport lens has its own specific purpose and ideal use case, and none of them are designed to correct colorblindness. However, if you also have protan color vision deficiency, my experience may serve as a useful reference—keeping in mind that individual results will certainly vary.

For me, experimenting with how different Prizm lenses affect my color perception as a colorblind person has been both interesting and insightful. If you have experience with Prizm lenses and color vision deficiency (especially deuteranopia), I would be very interested to hear your findings.

 

[Ventruck]

Cool test and the relativity of some of the results is what I would've expected. Torch and Sapphire have visibly denser hues of red and violet compared to Road.
Haven't tried low-light, but I kinda didn't expect it would actually cater to the green perception.

 

[ryansmith53]

I was also surprised by the Prizm Low Light’s effect on green-channel perception. I didn’t expect it to boost green as much, given that many colorblind corrective lenses tend to mute certain colors. It’s interesting to see how these lenses not only help with contrast but also subtly adjust color perception in ways that may be helpful for those of us with color vision deficiencies.

 

[jeskli11]

I was also surprised by the Prizm Low Light’s effect on green-channel perception. I didn’t expect it to boost green as much, given that many colorblind corrective lenses tend to mute certain colors. It’s interesting to see how these lenses not only help with contrast but also subtly adjust color perception in ways that may be helpful for those of us with color vision deficiencies.

It was an interesting finding indeed, especially since the Prizm Low Light lens uses only one Prizm dye and doesn't have any colored Iridium coating on top.

Last week I brought the Radar EV Path with Prizm Low Light with me to a bouldering gym and I could definitely notice the colors of the holds—there's a lot of colors on a single wall—more popping/more “boardered” (if that's a word)/more easily distignuishable than with no glasses—it's hard to describe that impression without actually trying. They unfortunately didn't help me differentiate between blue and violet holds, which I was kind of hoping they might when ordering that pair (that's my biggest issue especially when climbing, even on a computer screen I can see these two colors nearly identically), but I could definitely distinguish much more easily between green and yellow holds (I can see these colors differently even with no glasses, but the white magnesium on the sometimes filthy holds can make me see them very similarly sometimes, not an issue with the Prizm Low Light though).