What do you think of gold ARs?

[Happylady]

I got a job back from the lab and it had a Zeiss Gold Ar. I think the optician clicked on the gold by mistake on the computer. I have only used the gold once and it was for a friend. She told me she perfered the standard AR; she said the gold seemed to have more glare.

Does anyone use the gold and when do you use it? Do the patients like it?

[Fezz]

I have used alot of the Zeiss Gold. I used it with brown frames to sorta blend the color. Patients seemed pleased with it. I tried to postion it as being different than what you could get at the other places. That was not effective. Patients really didn't care. I attended a few seminars by Zeiss and they mentioned that the Gold was "better" for night driving. That claim may be a bit suspect, but who knows. Try a few more and let us know what you think.

Addition: I found that the Gold would take several more days to get back from the lab. They wanted to wait for a bunch instead of running just a few jobs. Several labs told me this was standard!

[Grubendol]

I like that the color is more natural, but it does seem to have more glare than a standard. I am partial to the Zeiss blue personally

[FVCCHRIS]

I had an Optician here who used to order tons of the Zeiss Gold. I have to say I really don't think from a performance standpoint any patient could say whether one color (gold, green, or blue reflex colors) are any better than another. Since you usually do have to discuss the slight reflex colors with patients who are ordering A/R for the 1st time it's up to you if you think they are the type of patient who might prefer one color over another. I think there are some instances where a certain color does enhance the overall appearance of the finished glasses. Chris..

[EyeFitWell]

The gold does have more glare than green. It's gorgeous on a brown sun lens.

[Grubendol]

Amen to that EyeFit.....the first time I did it was on a brown polar.

[HarryChiling]

I use it on gold frames or brown like mentioned. I personally don't like to use it too much. I thought that the concept of AR was to eliminate glare. The risidual color that you see coming off of any lens with AR is the specific wavelength that is being reflected. Why would we want to reflect the same wavelength light that we use for our standard yellow light or Sodium D line, I know it is not exactly yellow. Just doesn't make sense to me. I would also question what specific wavelengths is the Gold AR optimized for?

[For-Life]

Have little experience with Gold, but it was too glary for my liking.

Have had a lot of experience with green versus blue (mostly with Alize and D Alize). Truly love the blue. The lenses are less visible. Recently on a pair I ordered for myself the lab gave me regular Alize by mistake. It actually bothers me now, because when I turn my head or when I use the lensometer I can really see the reflections as compared to the blue. Either way, the blue actually has a percentage less reflections than the green.

[keithbenjamin]

We stopped recommending the gold, silver, and blue reflective ARs on clear, lightly tinted, and transitions lenses because of backside reflection complaints (from the front side coating) and possible safety concerns. I definitely wouldn't want to drive at night with this kind of coating.

-Keith

[EyeFitWell]

For-Life-
That's interesting you had that experience. I had zeiss blue on a pair a year ago, the first pair I made for myself after being in the industry. They were hard to clean, and after a year of wear, I was actually embarassed to wear them at work-they were NOT an impressive display of AR. Then, I got Alize in my new pair and I love it. I've had them for about 6 months now and they are virtually invisble! I've had a couple jobs where we ordered Alize and it's wasn't avail. on that lens for some reason. I usually use Komodo VES b/c it has the 2 year src war that the patient paid for with Alize. It's green like alize but you can tell just from looking at it that it's not Alize. The green is MUCH more noticable!

Harry's right on the money: The color of the AR tells you what wavelengths that coating is optimized for. I'd always heard that green coatings were the most effective b/c green is in the middle of the spectrum, so it allows more transmission of the lighting we're most often in (yellow) whereas gold would be reflecting much of the yellow and allowing other colors to pass through easily. This again supports the idea of using gold for sunglasses, it would help filter out more sunlight. Am I correct on this?

[For-Life]

For-Life-
That's interesting you had that experience. I had zeiss blue on a pair a year ago, the first pair I made for myself after being in the industry. They were hard to clean, and after a year of wear, I was actually embarassed to wear them at work-they were NOT an impressive display of AR. Then, I got Alize in my new pair and I love it. I've had them for about 6 months now and they are virtually invisble! I've had a couple jobs where we ordered Alize and it's wasn't avail. on that lens for some reason. I usually use Komodo VES b/c it has the 2 year src war that the patient paid for with Alize. It's green like alize but you can tell just from looking at it that it's not Alize. The green is MUCH more noticable!

Well I am comparing blue Alize to green Alize.

Yes, I agree with you that some cheaper AR's, even with the same colour, can be much more visible.

[Ory]

Last I checked, Crizal Alize D (the blue one) is not available in the US but we Canadians can have it. Woo-Hoo!

[Clive Noble]

We've been a fan of the Zeiss Gold AR for many years, and have had patients return the blue/green AR in favour of gold... Why?

They all say the lenses stay cleaner and less smudgy