Aquacolor color correcting masks - Gimmick or the real deal?

[Eureeky]

Hello all,

I will be taking the family to the Caribbean later this year. Obviously there will be a lot of snorkeling and maybe some shallow reef dives (20 - 40 ft.) with the kids. I want to get them their own masks and found the Aquacolor masks to be really interesting. www.aquacolor.com

According to Aquacolor, their lenses are the hot ticket for seeing all the true colors that a beautiful reef has to offer. The way they lay it out scientifically makes sense, they have received an award from the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers for a camera filter made of the same material the mask lenses are made of and they have some great comparison shots using their filter to demonstrate the "with and without the mask" effect (please see attached image).

The stuff on their site is very convincing, however, I don't find much supporting evidence of their claim outside of their own web site. No glowing 3rd-party reviews, no recommendations from dive shops or users of the mask (except those on their web site) and very few people selling the masks other than Aquacolor.

My question is this - Does anyone here have any experience with these masks, or know anyone who has ever used these masks and can attest to weather these things really work this well, especially for snorkeling?

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide. :bonk:

 

[Ber Rabbit]

I don't know if it's an Aquacolor but it looks familiar. He said it cuts down on the glare underwater but he doesn't know if it makes much difference in the colors. He said once your eyes get used to the tint you don't notice it until you take it off on the surface then everything looks a little weird until your eyes readjust.

I have another dive buddy who wears one and he's never had any complaints about it. Hope this helps a little.
Ber

 

[Tim Ingersoll]

I like the ad. What are they selling again? My mind kind of wandered. I remember they sell huge. . . .door knockers. . .headlights. . .no, no. . . .don't tell me, I'll remember.

 

[donacheson]

Eureeky once bubbled...
Hello all,

I will be taking the family to the Caribbean later this year. Obviously there will be a lot of snorkeling and maybe some shallow reef dives (20 - 40 ft.) with the kids. I want to get them their own masks and found the Aquacolor masks to be really interesting. www.aquacolor.com

According to Aquacolor, their lenses are the hot ticket for seeing all the true colors that a beautiful reef has to offer. The way they lay it out scientifically makes sense, they have received an award from the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers for a camera filter made of the same material the mask lenses are made of and they have some great comparison shots using their filter to demonstrate the "with and without the mask" effect (please see attached image).

The stuff on their site is very convincing, however, I don't find much supporting evidence of their claim out there. No glowing recommendations from dive shops or users of the mask (except on their web site) and very few people selling the masks other than Aquacolor.

My question is this - Does anyone here have any experience with these masks, or know anyone who has used these masks and can testify as to weather these things really work this well, especially for snorkeling?

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide. :bonk:

I've never dived such a mask myself, but judging by those I've seen on boats, the filters admit reds in preference to greens and blues. That's fine at one depth, but deeper than that depth I'd expect things to appear unnaturally dark while at shallower depths, unnaturally red.

 

[Eureeky]

Tim Ingersoll once bubbled...
I like the ad. What are they selling again? My mind kind of wandered. I remember they sell huge. . . .door knockers. . .headlights. . .no, no. . . .don't tell me, I'll remember.

Yeah. It does take some effort to keep your mind focused on the masks.

 

[Dr. Jay]

Eureeky once bubbled...

Yeah. It does take some effort to keep your mind focused on the masks.

Masks.... What masks?

 

[Ber Rabbit]

Ok guys, lets not let this question turn into an ogling contest:bonk: Eureeky deserves information with the ogle comments

BTW, my husband's mask is a SeaVision not an Aquacolor. I don't know if that explains why there aren't many dealers, maybe the shops only need one brand with colored lenses.
Ber

 

[Tim Ingersoll]

I heard stories of big bad bully divemasters picking on people with the colored masks.

 

[roakey]

If you want to buy a mask that's specific for day diving a 20' reef they work great. However, you need to understand HOW they work in order to make an informed decision. Note that filters do not ADD colors, they attenuate the colors they don't want to enhance. So they REMOVE light, they don't add anything.

This is why a red mask looks red: All the other colors but red are removed and only the red gets through.

So on a shallow dive where there's still a lot of red left (but much less than the other colors) the mask knocks down the other colors that are "out of proportion" to the red and you get a more balanced view of the colors.

In other words, the water filters out some red and the mask filters some of everything else, leaving you with some balanced light.

But, and here's the clincher, on anything BUT a very shallow reef dive in bright sunlight the mask works against you because the water filters out all the red and the mask filters out the rest. You're wearing sunglasses at night. The process is kinda obvious if you simply note that colored lenses are darker than clear lenses. In any conditions but optimal conditions (night dives, deeper dives, poor vis dive) you want light and lots of it and the mask becomes a liablility.

Note the link to the before/after pictures lies by omission. If you fixed the exposure the "with" pictures, though they'd have correct color balance, would be much, much darker.

Personally I'd stick to clear lenses. The mind is an amazing thing and while diving you'll never notice the lack of colors - your mind will fill them in for you. If you want to see color, bring a small light along. I'd leave the filters for use on cameras only.

Roak

 

[herman]

I had the chance to use a Seavision for a week in Bonaire last year. I swapped off between my clear mask and the seavision. It did improve the color of the reef at shallow depths at first BUT I also noticed that after a while my eyes/brain recalibrated themselves and the benefit was deminished a lot. The mask also had a strange side effect, when I ended the dive and removed the mask, everything had a green hue for several seconds until my eyes/brain re-adjusted. Several others in my group tried the mask and came to the same conslusion. Bottom line, they are OK but I will stick with a clear mask. If all I was doing was snorkling or very shallow dives and I needed a new mask anyway, I might buy one.