I was wondering if someone can link me up with the oakley private pilot review. I tried searching google but no luck.

Here's the second one: http://oakley.ca/private_pilot/

Don't pay too much attention to it.

Don't pay too much attention to it.

Neil, Why do you say this? Do you know something the rest of us should know? When I was selling, this was one of the best tools I had to promote Oakley. Is it a case of "smoke and mirrors"?

Not smoke and mirrors so much as... perhaps not as independent and unbiased as the blurb might lead you to believe.

Also note that Private Pilot is now defunct. It was never exactly the be-all and end-all of aviation journals, as Oakley leads you to believe.

Neil, do you know of any truely unbiased scientific studies?

While I understand the need to be suspicious of ANYTHING that appears to be anti-oakley, marketing is marketing.

I would bet one would be hard pressed to find an unbiased study of all the "features" that premium eyewear has to offer.

Unless Consumer Reports did one (and they have their own leanings), I would take the reporst for what they are worth.. cool marketing.

Personally, I love the way most of their glasses look and the clarity is excellent. You buy what you like.

I would think that with a little lower price point, Oakley would be EVERYWHERE.

Neil, do you know of any truely unbiased scientific studies?

Heh. Sure. Do I know any unbiased studies on sunglass optics, no.

You can do your own study pretty easily. Find an independent optician who doesn't carry plano sunglasses, and ask him or her to test some samples for you. Of course, you'd have to provide your own samples, which would be a problem for most of you.

That's what I did, and I base my recommendations to my clients from that.
Oakley truly deserve the public view that their lenses are the best on the market; they did extremely well, just not as well as you'd think if the Private Pilot shootouts were all you had to go on.

Is there any truth to the theory that you can test a pair of lens' optics using the laser pointer method?

Well, yes and no. It will show you whether the lens produces distortion at the optical center (which no decent lens will) but it won't tell you much about the distortion at angles other than straight ahead, which is what you're looking for (ie. that's where the differences lie).

Well, yes and no. It will show you whether the lens produces distortion at the optical center

A plano lens does not have an optical center, as the optical power is the same all over the lens: plano / S. 0.0 dpt! Furthermore, not all Pd's (distance between your two pupils) would be the same.

The laser test is easily replicated even with cheap plastic.

A question for Edwin. To get a more accurate optical centre, do you or does Oakley RX dept measure the monocular PD or do you assume symmetry and just use the binocular PD. Also, what's the recommended VD for sports wrap sunglasses, would they be nearer to the eye than the average 12mm?

or do you assume symmetry

Usually there's slight difference between the left and right Pd. For example, my binocular Pd is 63, 32,5/30,5. So, at higher prescriptions, one should always use monocular Pd.

What's VD?

Sorry for being lazy. The VD I was refering to was vertex distance. I was told some sports shade are place much closer to the eye to prevent any backside reflection but I do not know if it might affect the optical centre. Opthalmic glasses seem to be about 12mm from the eye to the lens.

At least VD didn't stand for Venereal Disease.

Opthalmic glasses seem to be about 12mm from the eye to the lens.

12 to 14 mm indeed. Roughly you can say that it's not that important up to a prescription of about +/- 4.00