Maui Jim, Costa and Serengeti questions
Hi!
I just had PRK surgery and have no previous sunglasses at all, I stumbled upon this sub and Sunglass Science website in search of some quality sunglasses since I am regaining eyesight.
I had quite a bit of luck with Serengeti since I have found many good deals in the used market.
Right now I only have a Serengeti Alray with the 555nm blue lenses which I love both aesthetically but especially the lens quality is superb, the tint really brightens up your view.
I’m also interested in the driver lenses, maybe in a metal frame like the navigator or the wayne cause I find em very classy, but I digress
I kinda need a darker tint cause I find the 555nm blue insanely good but a bit too bright (maybe I am also still a bit photophobic from the surgery) and my main choices are those:
-Costa Grey (with or without the mirror)/blue mirror lenses, especially the canaveral frame since it’s a navigator style, with glass lenses and it’s one of the few costa’s with a “formal” look, I also really appreciate the sandwich of glass layers to protect the inner mirror. Unfortunately I have seen that Costa has many bad reviews recently, is it a brand to completely discard? I kinda like the idea of a very resilient lens that can be used at the beach/boat without the worry of scratching the “soft” mirror
-Maui Jim with the grey lens in particular, I’ve tried the Lewalani and the Kahana which both fits me well, especially the Lewalani. Unfortunately both have only polycarbonate lenses, I know that they use siloxane coatings which increases their scratch resistance by a lot, but I know how coatings are just less durable than a glass layer, in my mind they will not last that long, especially if I plan to use em on harsh environments where there is sand.
Are their plastic lenses very durable?
As an alternative I can get the Mano for 200€ which has the glass lenses and has still the same frame more or less, what do you suggest?
-Serengeti onyx, mainly with the navigator frame, has all the extra features only Serengeti lenses have and it’s glass.
As you can see my main concern is the scratch resistance and durability of these sunglasses (I would like to keep em for many years), after comes the lens quality and the overall aesthetics.
Also some frame like the costa and the polycarbonate ones from Maui Jim are made out of titanium, I honestly don’t care that much about it since heavy sunglasses don’t bother me and they are all coated so the corrosion resistance of the metal itself isn’t even that important.
What do you suggest to get? My idea was to have the 555nm blue for casual use, the drivers for more formal occasions/autumn winter/ overcast conditions (both lenses are super versatile) and the gray tint for very bright conditions where the other are uncomfortable, I prioritise scratch resistance cause I will mainly use them for activities where the environment is harder on them compared to casual use.
As a side note, why the hell does Maui Jim have so few frames with the glass lenses? Especially if the frame is made out of metal lol, I would have loved the Lewalani with a glass lens