Date:
Friday , June 19, 2009
Author:
Steve Lynch
Editor:
Kyle Bennett
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GUNNAR Optiks Digital Performance Eyewear

Who is GUNNAR Optiks? What is Digital Performance Eyewear? Why should you care? Is it all a load marketing BS or do these glasses really work? We put them on, left them on, and three [H] editors are here to share our experiences.

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Testing Methodology

When it comes to eye strain and computer vision syndrome the editors here at [H]ardOCP are ideal test subjects. Most of us spend most, if not all, of our work day in front of a computer monitor.

Personally, I have spent 12 hours a day for the last ten years staring at a computer monitor. Years ago, when eye strain first became an issue, there were only two real options for dealing with the problem. The first remedy was to take time away from work at set intervals during the day. Obviously this isn’t an ideal solution because putting my job on hold multiple times a day wasn’t a realistic option. To be honest, most people do not have the luxury of stepping away from their job during the workday to rest their eyes so a more practical method was needed. For me, that meant throwing more monitor real estate at the problem. About 8 years ago, I upgraded to the largest monitor available and that seemed to help but only for awhile. Soon afterwards I went to a dual monitor configuration and the size of those monitors grew over time as well.

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Finally, I upgraded to a dual dualhead video card configuration and triple 22 inch widescreen LCD set up (with lighting behind the monitors) to help ease eye strain. This is the set up I am currently using for this product evaluation. While I do have an enormous amount of desktop real estate, long hours still puts a heavy strain on my eyes by the end of a workday.

Three HardOCP editors are chiming in today on Gunnar Optiks. Brent Justice and Kyle Bennett have also been using these glasses for quite a while now and both of them also with larger display multimonitor setups.

I decided to try the GUNNAR Optiks Onyx Catalyst Rockets while working to see if in fact the glasses performed as advertised. Naturally we approached this product evaluation with a healthy dose of skepticism because, to be quite honest, it just seemed too good to be true.

I began wearing the Onyx Catalyst Rockets almost a month ago and I was immediately impressed with the styling and craftsmanship. The glasses easily weighed less than half of what a standard pair of sunglasses weighed but, at the same time, I found the frames and lenses to be extremely durable. Initially I was a bit apprehensive because the frames of these glasses are very, very thin. My concerns proved to be unfounded when I flex-tested the frames and found them to be very strong. The same amount of force it took to bend my regular sunglasses completely out of shape had no impact on the frames of the Onyx Rocket glasses.

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The tint of the GUNNAR Optiks takes a little getting used to because it gives everything a jaundiced look. Color aside, the yellow tone took a lot of the harsh edge off the fluorescent lighting in the office and the glaring white light from my LCD configuration. As mentioned, the glasses are extremely light and, with a few minor adjustments they fit so well you could hardly tell you were wearing them.

I wore the GUNNAR Optiks glasses every day for the next two weeks. The first day I wore the glasses I had developed a headache after a few hours. To eliminate the possibility that it could just be a coincidence, I removed the glasses and waited a day before trying them again. On my second attempt to wear the glasses, once again I developed a mild headache but this time I continued to wear the glasses. After an hour or so my headache disappeared and I could get down to business.

To make sure that the glasses wouldn't cause headaches for everyone that wore them, I had colleagues try the glasses and none of them reported headaches, although one person did say wearing the glasses made him "nauseous" when he first wore them. Obviously each person is unique and the glasses can affect people in different ways. The important thing is that any adverse effects from wearing the glasses we experienced were short term and went away after using them for a few hours. There was a slight bit of peripheral vision distortion when looking out of the very corner of your eyes but nothing significant.

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In addition to the reflective lens coating and yellow tint, the GUNNAR Optiks glasses appeared to have a slight magnification. This combination made the text on the screen larger and easier to read. The lens tint adds a layer of contrast to the onscreen text that not only makes it easier to read but you can actually "feel" your eyes relax when reading black text on white backgrounds. All in all, once the initial headache subsided, the glasses worked very well.

Now that we know that glasses help keep eyestrain at bay when you use them all day, every day, what about wearing them after you are suffering from dry, tired eyes? We spent a week starting our work day without the GUNNAR Optiks glasses, waiting for the affects of eye strain to kick in before donning the glasses. Surprisingly enough, the glasses helped alleviate the symptoms of CVS most of the time.

With a product like GUNNAR Optiks, most of what you will read in online reviews and product evaluations is subjective. Since there are no "benchmarks" for eyewear, you’ll never have a standard "100 frames per second = digital performance eyewear" test. The person testing the product gives you his or her opinion and you are hopefully left with enough information to make an informed buying decision.

In the case of Gunnar Optiks, there is a simple way to, pardon the pun, "see" if they work and that is by using video. By video taping the glasses in action we can actually demonstrate how the glasses work and give you an idea of what you can expect. While this certainly isn’t a scientific test, it does give you tangible evidence that the glasses perform as advertised.

Immediately you can see the benefit of the specialized tint used by GUNNAR Optiks. The harsh white light is filtered and the text seems bolder and easier to read. By moving the glasses over the text you can see the slight magnification I spoke of earlier and see how it enhances the text. The combination is much easier on the eyes and makes a difference you can feel.