What Are Polarized Sunglasses?
Besides being an item for UV protection, polarized sunglasses are also eyewear gear used for glare protection in water environments or smooth places. They can prevent 99% of the glare caused by reflection from water or flat objects. Polarized shades offer the best protection and clear view when fishing. The water is the most reflective place, and thus most anglers have loved to wear them to reduce glare and increase their productivities.
With the advancement in technology, polarized lenses made of better quality and low price, polarized sunglasses have become popular in daily activities such as commuting to work, playing sports, traveling, going picnic. Thanks to their benefits, life now has become a lot more comfortable.
The left image is blurring when wearing non-polarized glasses compared to the sharp image on the right when wearing polarized sunglasses
Polarized Lenses
Sunlight is present everywhere around us, even on cloudy days or wintertime. It becomes polarization when encountering a flat surface. Polarization is a physical process to transform a non-polarized wave into vertically and horizontally polarized waves. The vertical light is beneficial to the eyes, but the horizontal light is known as glare to cause eyelid sunburn, blurred vision, eyestrain, and headache.
Regular sunglasses can protect your eyes against UV lights and reduce the amount of light entering the eyes. Unfortunately, glare can strike your eyes and cause discomfort and eye pain. On the contrary, polarized lenses are covered with a chemical filter to acts as an intelligent gate to block and absorb the reflective glare while only allowing no harmful light to pass through your eyes.
A beautiful landscape is seen through polarized aviator sunglasses
Benefits Of Wearing Polarized Sunglasses
- They help drivers have a clear vision as the lights reflected from the road are blocked, thereby minimizing unexpected traffic accidents that may happen.
- They help athletes who play outdoor sports achieve high performance by providing clear contrast, natural colors, and undazzled vision.
- They reduce water glare from open water, lake, river to allow anglers to see fishes beyond or underneath the water surface.
- They help tourists to enjoy the true beauty of nature, beach landscape without annoying by glare.
- For people having refractive errors or after Lasik surgery, their eyes are so sensitive to light. Polarized sunglasses are the best choice in this situation since they shield the eyes from both intense solar radiation and glare.
Disadvantages of polarized sunglasses
When it comes to combating glare and UV rays, polarized sunglasses are an optimal choice to minimize glare and enhance visual clarity, but there some drawbacks in certain conditions.
Difficult to read the LCD.
LCD used the same technology with polarized lenses. Thereby it's hard to view instructions from a liquid crystal display for certain professions as the pilot and screen machine operators. For this reason, polarized sunglasses are not appropriate for any career that requires reading the electronic panel.
Difficult to distinguish between white colors.
Glare is discomfort and the loss of visual performance, but helpful when you are skiing downhill. Without wearing polarized lenses, the glare reflected from the ice will help you to distinguish between the ice and the snow and control your path to safe areas. Therefore, skiers usually love to wear mirrored sunglasses and avoid polarized shades.
How To Identify Polarized Lenses
- You can recognize polarized sunglasses by noticing the letter P engraved on the lens corner, or the word " polarized" printed on the spectacle temple.
- All sunglasses stores have their ways to check the polarized lens by a film. The objects on that film are dim and blurring to see, but they become visible when viewed through polarized lenses.
- The other way is to put the glass in front of LCD panels like a cell phone, computer screen. The images on the phone, viewed through a polarized lens, will eventually fade if we rotate the glass 90 degrees.
View more how to identify polarized sunglasses
Sport Polarized Sunglasses
Due to the characteristics of racing, biking, and other outdoor sports, athletes are often exposed to sunlight and glare for long hours. Thus sports sunglasses are usually designed with polarized lenses to enhance visibility in glare environments. It allows athletes to have a transparent vision of the surroundings, thereby optimizing their performances.
Sport polarized sunglasses feature light weigh materials, comfortable design, polarized lenses integrated to provide a clear vision for Wearers.
When it comes to sports shades, brands as Oakley, Carrera, and New balance are the prominent ones. These glasses are made from lightweight, high-tensile materials and equipped with safety locks as well as polarized lenses. Its durability, comfort, and anti-glare feature are the factors that make polarized sports glasses not only suitable for athletes but also for ordinary men in general.
Polarized Sunglasses For Women
In the history of sunglasses, all types of polarized glasses are designed for men only. However, in recent years, manufacturers have become more interested in making polarized sunglasses for women than ever before. The two most famous names in this segment for women's sunglasses are Polaroid and Puma.
Polaroid has specialized in anti-glare glasses with its minimal yet trendy design for a long time. Those, especially women, using Polaroid glasses have a chance to enjoy the perfect natural beauty on picnics or cruises.
Beautiful polarized mirrored sunglasses help women more attractive and provide a sharp vision.
Meanwhile, Puma sunglasses have a youthful touch with coordinated colors and polarized lenses. On top of that, its affordable price is a plus for people with a tight budget. Thus, polarized shades can be considered as a companion of every woman in their daily life.
Mirrored Polarized Sunglasses
In addition to the outstanding anti-glare feature of polarized lenses, as mentioned above, this kind of glass adds a mirrored coating to protect the eyes more thoroughly. Regarding fashion, a mirrored coating offers a fun color and creates a visual effect to appeal to most men and women.
Cheap sunglasses integrated both mirror coating lenses and polarized lenses for the best eye protection.
Besides, mirror polarized glasses prevent the amount of light from entering the eyes more than other regular glasses by 20-30%. For this reason, they are a favorite choice by cyclists and skiers to protect their eyes from harsh sunlight.
Ray-Ban Polarized Sunglasses
Ray-Ban polarized glasses are not much different from regular Ray-ban glasses, except that their G15 or B115 lenses have an anti-glare coating that provides a super clear vision for every user. They allow only 15% of the visible light to pass through the eyes and block completely glare. Therefore, glasses wearers can experience nice-contrasted images and comfort.
Famous Ray Ban Wayfarer integrated with polarized lenses is the best choice for men who want to have perfect protection and clear vision.
Rayban polarized sunglasses offer the most pleasant feel to its users. They are confirmed to be suitable for almost all outdoor activities, from driving to off-road biking, camping, and hiking.
Conclusion
Of all types of polarized glasses, there will be a perfect one made for your demand. Whether you want a sporty look or a stylish one, polarized sunglasses can satisfy you.
Equipped with outstanding features, polarized shades will not only complement your style with their stylish frames but also enhance your visibility, allowing you to see everything clearly from the very start to the end of the day. With advanced technology and efficiency in manufacturing processes, polarized lenses are made of better quality and become affordable, which means polarized sunglasses are not as expensive as you thought.
That’s it, enjoy a pair of cheap sunglasses with a polarized lens option and see how it changes your way of living.