Now that I wear contacts and can feed my appetite for sun glasses, what is the word on yellow driving lenses? Day use, night use, Walter Sobchak cosplay? For low light situations it seems counterintuitive to use any tint as it reduces what limited light is available, and what I have seen for optometry articles agrees. I recall my father driving overnight with yellow lenses 30 years ago. What say the hive?
I don't like them in bright sunlight. I don't like them at night. I do like them if it's grey and overcast.
I use a set of "driving glasses" that do have a yellow-ish tint but they're transition type lenses and don't get clear enough to use at night.
I've also in the past use a yellow tint insert for a motorbike helmet visor when riding around London. Seemed to work pretty well even at night, but useless out in the countryside where I ended up living because there weren't enough street lights.
Maybe some glasses with a very slight yellow tint would work OK at night.
Thumbs up for the Walter Sobchak reference.
Not quite the answer, but close enough. My son had a yellow and an orange tinted shield for his helmet when racing karts. He swore by them when the track was lighted for nighttime driving and for overcast days. Said it just made everything much sharper and brighter. For rain, he had an antifog shield. The light color on the track seemed to make a difference whether he used the yellow or orange. Darned if I know what the difference was, but he could see it and that's all that mattered.
Might be worth getting an inexpensive pair to try and if you like it, spend the money for more expensive ones if you want. I know I've seen informercials for them, so I assume you're local WallyWorld or Walgreens/CVS will have them in the store to try.
-Rob
I don't know anything about the yellow lenses, but I really like the AO Optical Original Pilot sunglasses. The lenses in them really work well in both bright sunlight and overcast skies. I've worn contacts for over 30 years and I've always had a pair of original pilot glasses.
Yellow tint is for shotgunners. It increases contrast under indirect lighting like overcast days. It's not good under full sun.
As seen on TV, how can you go wrong?
I prefer a blue lens for driving. Never tried yellow.
Nick Comstock said:I don't like them in bright sunlight. I don't like them at night. I do like them if it's grey and overcast.
Would you like them in a plane?
Would you like them on a train?
I always wanted to be that one guy from The Chemical Brothers.
aircooled said:Nick Comstock said:I don't like them in bright sunlight. I don't like them at night. I do like them if it's grey and overcast.
Would you like them in a plane?
Would you like them on a train?
I would not like them just the same.
barefootskater said:Thumbs up for the Walter Sobchak reference.
Yeah, but if you walk around like that, people will keep asking you for toes.
Tom_Spangler said:barefootskater said:Thumbs up for the Walter Sobchak reference.
Yeah, but if you walk around like that, people will keep asking you for toes.
You want a toe? Cause I can get you a toe. Don't ask where. .
Interesting. I will look for a $10-20 pair to try. That said, my go to sunglasses are cheap polarized fishing glasses from Walmart in sporting goods. Currently using a $5 pair.
I think its a pretty personal thing. I tried yellow tinted glasses a couple of times when racing on weird overcast days, they didn't seem much of a difference to me. I gave them a shot at my dad's insistence - he swore by them from running Daytona at night in the 70s/80s. He said the yellow lenses cut the glare from the overhead lights at night, and helped contrast during the day when the light is "flat."
I wear yellowish (blue light filtering) glasses at work and when I'm playing video games. Helps with the headaches I was getting from staring at a screen all day. Probably doesn't help your question but thought I'd add to the conversation anyways.
Nick Comstock said:aircooled said:Nick Comstock said:I don't like them in bright sunlight. I don't like them at night. I do like them if it's grey and overcast.
Would you like them in a plane?
Would you like them on a train?
I would not like them just the same.
Would you, could you in a car?
Eat them! Eat them! Here they are!
I wear yellow tinted Spy goggles when I'm racing both woods and motocross and prefer them to clear in sunlight.
Hunters in these parts choose yellow for high contrast. Especially in winter. I had a set of tifosi bike glasses with removable lenses. I would put the yellows in for winter driving or fog/over cast days. Don't recall using them at night. I have tifosi polarized now with non removable lenses.
As a super cheap start, my local Tacoma Screw has tinted safety glasses for $2.31. That gray, yellow, or blue. $10 let's you test the spectrum to start.
I had yellow tinted visor on my helmet when I raced offroad. In the dust it was a huge difference for sight. Night races it helped a bunch in parts of the track not well lit. I wear yellow lens in my safety glasses at work when it's sunny and we are working deep. ( I'm an excavator operator) The contrast of bright at ground level and say 15' deep in a narrow trench box is literally night and day.
barefootskater said:Tom_Spangler said:barefootskater said:Thumbs up for the Walter Sobchak reference.
Yeah, but if you walk around like that, people will keep asking you for toes.
You want a toe? Cause I can get you a toe. Don't ask where. .
Shut up. You're out of your element .
The only way you are going to know is try them out everybodies preference is different. I wear Natives with the interchangeable lenses. My go to is the bronze/brown which make everything so clear and crisp its like my eyesight got better. The yellows are good for overcast low light conditions and give the same crispness. I have a set of orange lenses that fall somewhere in between, but I rarely use them because the browns just work better. With my last set I also got a free pair of lenses that are a really light blue almost clear. They are like light gathering lenses. During daylight hours they make your eyes feel light you are staring at the sun. They would probably work very well for night driving.
have to wear yellow night glasses while driving at night. I am very sensative to light and even dims hurt my eyes and head.
Last Autocross it rained on a few runs. It was dark and gray but the yellow glasses made the dirty old cones stick out.
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