true view masks

[watercooled]

I've run across those tinted lense masks a couple times. they're supposed to make the colors true to life and help in the murky waters of erie and such.
do these really help or is this just more advertising bs?

 

[Dive Right In Scuba]

I love mine and bought them for the whole staff!! The ones we carry have the anti-fog built into them and crystal clear glass ....it does work...I use the Yellow one for the fresh water and it does brighten up the water.....as for the red, I havent had the pleasure but my customers say there is definetly a difference

 

[Jeff Toorish]

I've run across those tinted lense masks a couple times. they're supposed to make the colors true to life and help in the murky waters of erie and such.
do these really help or is this just more advertising bs?

The colors you see, without these masks, are "true to life." That is, life under water.

With the mask colors are filtered, altered if you will, to what humans percieve as normal colors on the surface. Every color you see, no matter where it is, is affected by nature. Early morning and later afternoon sunlight is softly golden, while midday light seems more harsh. Under water the spectrum of colors are dramatically affected by the reduction of sunlight penetration.

Here's another way of thinking about it; your dog sees only black and white. That can be beneficial in certain hunting circumstances. When he's going after a gopher, he sees that gopher in only shades of gray. If you watch him going after that gopher, you see him and the gopher in color. Both are "true to life."

Personally, I like seeing the underwater world as it is.

Jeff

 

[BidAndDive.com]

Yeah, they work. But they're just like trap shooting glasses, you may need different colors on different days. Totally depends on the weather and what's going on under water...

 

[Eskasi]

I bought a pair.....I must say that I don't really fancy them so much.....like the other post said, it just does not seem like how it should be underwater. I am thinking that a small torch may help for deeper dives when the color goes....with the red lenses, at depth, it gets much darker (which I don't really like).

 

[watercooled]

some one once told me they work good for filtering through all the small particles in murky water, like in lake erie for example. anyone dive the great lakes with these?

 

[Spratman]

I bought a pair.....I must say that I don't really fancy them so much.....like the other post said, it just does not seem like how it should be underwater. I am thinking that a small torch may help for deeper dives when the color goes....with the red lenses, at depth, it gets much darker (which I don't really like).

The yellow ones "act" like light enhancers, to make murky water appear brighter or supposedly to see better.

Red ones are mostly useful in bright clear water, such as in the tropics. It certainly does bring the color out on most things. I wouldn't recommend them (red ones) for northern diving....

 

[JonKranhouse]

Hi watercooled,

Here is an FAQ from our website

8. Q Are you going to make a color correcting mask with pink / orange lenses?
A Not yet. Amber and pink filters were first used 60 years ago on underwater cameras with color film to help restore color balance in shallow water -- but when you are deeper than 40 feet, that pink / orange filter behaves like a dark gray filter, making the image darker and blurry. That is because the warm wavelengths of light (similar to the color-filter) have been fully absorbed by the water above you, and that filter blocks the ambient blue light. "Blue-blockers" are great for sunglasses, not for diving!

In low illumination, two physiological events occur inside your eyes:

1. Your pupils dilate; just like widening the iris blades of a camera lens, your focus will not be as sharp.
2. Images are formed inside your eye -- on your retina -- where you have two kinds of imaging sensors. CONES provide color vision and high resolution, but your cones stop working in dim light. RODS are for dim light, but rods have poor resolution and cannot show color.​

If you compare clear vs. tinted lenses at 40 feet, you will discover the image through the clear mask is more colorful, has higher contrast, and is sharper; the deeper you go the more obvious the difference gets.
For safety's sake, you would never drive a car at night while wearing sunglasses. Likewise, we think that wearing tinted lenses deeper than 50 feet is ill advised.
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I think SeaVision's chameleon concept of a removable tint is a good idea for flexibility vs. owning 2 masks, or for a single dive with significant deep and shallow segments. Of course I'm a bit biased toward the True-View(TM) of our Double-Dome masks.

 

[Spratman]

Nice product, Jon! I just don't have the right set of eyes to use them...

 

[konasdad]

I haven't personally used these masks so I can say whether it will make your dive better or not.

However, a filter works by reducing or removing a certain range (wide or narrow) of light. The emphasis is on "less" light in a certain range. If I understand the idea behind these masks they reduce the amount of blue (green) light your eyes see and change the proportion of blue vs red. This in an effort to make things appear as it would on the surface (direct sunlight). This is commonly done with video cameras to make the video look more "normal".

To me this is a bit like wearing sunglasses underwater. This would be good if there was too much light. If the mask can filter out distracting light, it might be worth it. However, with my eyes not getting any younger I prefer to get all the light I can.

The brain does a pretty good job of adjusting to the changes in color underwater. Just look at photos you have taken underwater and they look very much blue/green. Did it seem that way when you were down there?

My main concern when buying a mask is the fit and comfort. If I have to deal with water in my mask all of the time, that's a bigger problem than correcting its color.

-Mark-