What Are Polarized Sunglasses?
Polarized sunglasses can improve clarity and reduce eye strain on bright sunny days. It has a special filter that blocks this type of intense reflected light that bounces off surfaces, reducing glare and boosting your visibility on bright days. Polarized lenses work by filtering out this horizontal light, removing the occurrence of glare.
Polarized sunglasses = Sunglasses with antiglare/antireflective property.
Advantages of Polarized Sunglasses
- It improves visual comfort.
- It reduces eye strain
- It improves contrast and visual clarity
- Very good for driving.
Disadvantages
- The lenses cost more than standard tinted sunglasses.
What are Photo-Chromic lenses?
Photochromic lenses gradually darken to a sunglasses tint when exposed to sunlight or ultraviolet radiation and return to a clear state when indoors.
Photochromic lenses are made of many lens materials including plastic, glass or polycarbonate.
For example, walking outside from a dark room on a sunny day would cause your photochromic lenses to darken from normal-looking glasses to sunglasses. They typically take around 30 seconds to fully darken and about two minutes to return to a clear state.
Advantages and benefits of photochromic lens
- Reduces your exposure to the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays which helps to lower the risks of cataract or eye/age related problems.
- You only need one pair of glasses both indoors and outdoors rather than get two pairs.
Disadvantage
- These lenses are also affected by weather and humidity
- They are costly.
Polarized sunglasses are permanently dark and does not change colour, unlike photochromic lenses that starts out clear and turns dark in the bright sunlight.
Both frames are beneficial in their own ways and also have darkened lenses for comfortable day time vision. Photochromic lens can also come with antiglare properties.
Both lenses are great at doing what they do and both can be “the best” depending on the situation from everyday wear to sporting events, beach days, driving etc. So it all depends on what you want. However, if you are using your sunglasses for a specific event or hubby such as running, marathons, golfing or fishing, you may find that one will benefit you than the other. For example, reducing glares will come to you as a huge benefit when fishing, whereas photochromic are the better option when you are switching indoors and outdoors activities frequently.
Now that you know the basics of polarized lenses and photochromic lenses, you can now purchase the best pair of polarized sunglasses for yourself. Shop from Us on our social media handle Instagram @glasses_ng
NB: You can also add these properties to your prescription lens power. Ask your eye doctor for more details.