Clear Mask Skirt Glare

[Rhone Man]

I wear clear for the same reason that I have lots of windows in my house - I like light.

I know hard core tec divers complain about light glare wearing translucent masks, and maybe that is true if you are using high wattage cave diving lights, but I have never noticed the "glare" thing.

 

[D_B]

i have the same mask in clear and black .. I like the black one more

It's not so much a glare issue, it's trying to maximize your vision, especially in darker water ... the darker it is outside your mask, the darker you want the inside of your mask .. I know, its going to be dark inside anyway ..
what I mean is, look out of your room window when it's pretty late and dark outside, very little light is needed in your room to make it difficult for you to see outside through the glass , it's sorta like that but the effect is more subtle

 

[krulle]

I also prefer black, better contrast (less internal reflection) which is helpful in areas with low visibility ... like discribed by D_B

For those who are interestedin this subject:

There are in fact 3 things that affect visibility which are caused by your mask:

1. Glare = shiny light spots on the inside of the glass of your mask => they affect the contrast. This can be caused by a double reflection: much light is reflected from your face to the glass, a portion of this reflected light is again reflected by the glass to your eyes. Another cause can be light that is entering your mask from the sides. This is why many techdivers choose for a black mask.
2. The loss of incoming light due to reflection of the glass => less contrast and less brightness. Glass normally reflects 8% of the incoming light. An Anti Reflection Coating can improve this behavior to only 4%.
3. Illumination of the particles in the water in front of your mask caused by reflection of the incoming light on the glass and on your skin => this creates white noise on your vision = loss of contrast.

Why is contrast so important under water? I gues that everybody ever looked at the stars. You will have noticed that this goes a lot better with the light out. When what should be black actually is black, it will be easier to notice the the other colours. It is the same under water. The things you want to see should be illuminated. Not the things in between. With a better contrast, you will be able to spot more details, and automaticly you will be able to look further.

But I can understand that people who always dive in good conditions like a extended vision. That extra 3 feet visibility just doesn't matter for them.

For those who want to see a small animation of the light beams in a scuba mask, we've made a small presentation to explain the above points, but I cannot post it over here. (for more info see my site)