Black masks

[Mike Newman]

Biggest single reason for using a black mask - in brighter conditions it makes the likelihood of reflections on the inside of your mask lenses becoming a distraction. For this reason, they are more popular amongst photographers.

But divers who are mildly concerned about claustrophobic tendencies are more likely to prefer a see-through mask skirt.

 

[theskull]

A black skirt is much better on night dives. The lights from other divers are more likely to hit your eyes from the side with a clear skirt.

Fashion-minded? Get a mask with a black skirt but a yellow frame!

theskull

 

[ProfessorAronnax]

they look WAY COOL

I concur. The Way Cool factor is important

 

[Peter_C]

I just upgraded to a Mares X-Vision in black for the reasons stated above. Something I did to see the difference was simply to sit in my chair with my clear skirted mask on and turn my head sideways to the light on the table, and guess what happened? Big time glare on the inside of my lense. Then purchased a black mask!

For snorkeling black is the only way to go, as you will always have the sun at your back so to speak, creating tons of glare.

 

[JustinW]

A black skirt is much better on night dives. The lights from other divers are more likely to hit your eyes from the side with a clear skirt.

Fashion-minded? Get a mask with a black skirt but a yellow frame!

theskull

So if my buddy is signaling me with his light, I can communicate with him better during a night dive with a clear skirt? My dive buddy wouldn't accidently blind me, but he would communicate with me using lights.

This pro-black-skirt argument doesn't sit well with me. I really like my black skirted mask, but that isn't one of the reasons.

 

[Charlie99]

I've used both clear (well, really kind of yellowish) skirted and black skirted. I like being able to sense motion or light changes in my peripheral vision with the clear skirted mask. The peripheral vision is particularly useful on night dives. I do use a hand occasionally to shade the mask when looking in a dark hole in bright sunlight.

The black mask does a better job of shielding my eyes from stray light when looking into holes. Unfortunately, while I can shade my eyes by bringing a hand up to my clear mask, there is nothing I can do to regain peripheral vision when wearing a black skirted mask.

For my wander around the reef gawking at the fishies type of diving I prefer the clear skirted. If I were doing task oriented dives and didn't mind the tunnel vision effect, then I'd use a black skirted mask more often.

 

[Hoosier]

Black mask used to give more tunnel vision. It is a good for a lobster diver and photographer. Recently I sold out my all clear skirt's masks because my bad eye.
The black skirt makes me much easier to focus and see in underwater.....

 

[Torcatdog]

I dive with a TUSA Visulator that has a black skirt. It is relatively easy to clear and advertises a 2.5 times larger field of vision. I think that the black skirt does cut glare / distracting side light. With the big lens I can see MUCH more that 3 other masks I have sampled, even my handles on quick release weight belts.

 

[wunat]

I just think that black masks look pretty cool when I was looking for a replacement a few years ago. I still think so today!!!!

 

[wreckedinri]

There are only three colors to wear in scuba: black, black, and black! Cuz that's what Mike Nelson would wear !