Types of Sunglasses for Off-roading - Dark & Darker

[Patrick]

Hi everyone,

Since starting my off-roading journey I have noticed that both of my "standard" sunglasses that I had, whether polarised or not, were way to bright for off-roading. With the sunglasses on, I often found myself pinching my eyes a bit, causing slight fatigue when driving on a bright sunny day.

After doing some research, I found that sunglasses are categorised by lens darkness.

Have a look at the attached chart. 

Your run-of-the mill sunglasses you can buy at the shopping mall typically have a Cat 3 lens which refers to the darkness. You can check your glasses' Cat number  by looking at the inside of your temples/frame. What Cat are you using? Now, the much less common Cat 4 lenses are generally not widely sold and are used more for applications such as winter sports in bright snow. 

After a lengthy journey looking around in Dubai and calling some optical stores, I found that Decathlon sells several models of Cat 4 sunglasses. There are options on the Amazon US store too.

The darker Cat 4 sunglasses have been a game changer for me, allowing me to drive in absolute comfort on a bright day. Only having to switch to my Cat 3 sunglasses close to sunset.

Just thought I would share that, for those that thought sunglasses = sunglasses when in fact different darkness levels do exist!

 

Edited May 2, 2023 by Patrick

[Frederic]

16 minutes ago, Patrick said:

Hi everyone,

Since starting my off-roading journey I have noticed that both of my "standard" sunglasses that I had, whether polarised or not, were way to bright for off-roading. With the sunglasses on, I often found myself pinching my eyes a bit, causing slight fatigue when driving on a bright sunny day.

After doing some research, I found that sunglasses are categorised by lens darkness.

Have a look at the attached chart. 

Your run-of-the mill sunglasses you can buy at the shopping mall typically have a Cat 3 lens which refers to the darkness. You can check your glasses by looking at the inside of your frame. Now, the much less common Cat 4 lenses are generally not widely sold and are used more for applications such as winter sports in bright snow. 

After a lengthy journey looking around in Dubai and calling some optical stores, I found that Decathlon sells several models of Cat 4 sunglasses. There are options on the Amazon US store too.

The darker Cat 4 sunglasses have been a game changer for me, allowing me to drive in absolute comfort on a bright day. Only having to switch to my Cat 3 sunglasses close to sunset.

Just thought I would share that, for those that thought sunglasses = sunglasses when in fact different darkness levels do exist!

 

Wow that’s interesting to learn and I never looked into it. Weirdly enough I tried different sunglasses in the past and when leading in difficult terrain (bright white dunes with little shading) i still prefer no sunglasses at all. It takes a while to adjust but eventually trust my eyes better without glasses. I’ll definitely look into the cat3 glasses and see if that helps !

[Gaurav]

Apart from the above info on cat 3 or 4, which I didn't know before.

I always found the polarized lens showing the sand dune formation, ripples, and ridges clearly versus non-polarized. Test of these is super obvious when leading on white sand (faqa, lisali, etc) during peak sun hour.

Thanks for this new info, will explore more on my next purchase.

[Simon D]

I personally tried several sunglasses expensive and normal brands , polarised and non polarised. 

But the ones that i currently use are the ones from Decathlon i dont know the exact model but i have picked then for very high sunlight and polarised,  for me it was a game changer . 

I always felt there are 2 particular timings which are really annoying to drive ( without these sunglases ) . Just at the sun rise due to the sun blasting in my eyes and the second timing is within two hours from sunrise when the light angle reflects on the sand causes a mirage kindof effect which makes it harder to read the sand.

Thanks for bringing up this topic 

[Varun Mehndiratta]

1 hour ago, Patrick said:

Hi everyone,

Since starting my off-roading journey I have noticed that both of my "standard" sunglasses that I had, whether polarised or not, were way to bright for off-roading. With the sunglasses on, I often found myself pinching my eyes a bit, causing slight fatigue when driving on a bright sunny day.

After doing some research, I found that sunglasses are categorised by lens darkness.

Have a look at the attached chart. 

Your run-of-the mill sunglasses you can buy at the shopping mall typically have a Cat 3 lens which refers to the darkness. You can check your glasses' Cat number  by looking at the inside of your temples/frame. What Cat are you using? Now, the much less common Cat 4 lenses are generally not widely sold and are used more for applications such as winter sports in bright snow. 

After a lengthy journey looking around in Dubai and calling some optical stores, I found that Decathlon sells several models of Cat 4 sunglasses. There are options on the Amazon US store too.

The darker Cat 4 sunglasses have been a game changer for me, allowing me to drive in absolute comfort on a bright day. Only having to switch to my Cat 3 sunglasses close to sunset.

Just thought I would share that, for those that thought sunglasses = sunglasses when in fact different darkness levels do exist!

 

Wow really interesting .. didn’t know about cat 3/4 element. 
 

In general one element I observed is Polarized end up being super challenging on white sand - they make it difficult to differentiate between shades of white - a major issue around Qudra once sun is out. 
 

Bought some sports one with multiple color glass options - realized black doesn’t work at all - kills the differentiation. Best I found are blue glasses. I don’t do much sun set time drives, however understand that green  glasses work  best for that time. 

Understand yellow and Orange are also good, sharp shooter usually use these  - yellow surely didn’t work for me, wasn’t very comfortable. Orange haven’t tried yet. 

[Hisham Masaad]

16 hours ago, Patrick said:

Hi everyone,

Since starting my off-roading journey I have noticed that both of my "standard" sunglasses that I had, whether polarised or not, were way to bright for off-roading. With the sunglasses on, I often found myself pinching my eyes a bit, causing slight fatigue when driving on a bright sunny day.

After doing some research, I found that sunglasses are categorised by lens darkness.

Have a look at the attached chart. 

Your run-of-the mill sunglasses you can buy at the shopping mall typically have a Cat 3 lens which refers to the darkness. You can check your glasses' Cat number  by looking at the inside of your temples/frame. What Cat are you using? Now, the much less common Cat 4 lenses are generally not widely sold and are used more for applications such as winter sports in bright snow. 

After a lengthy journey looking around in Dubai and calling some optical stores, I found that Decathlon sells several models of Cat 4 sunglasses. There are options on the Amazon US store too.

The darker Cat 4 sunglasses have been a game changer for me, allowing me to drive in absolute comfort on a bright day. Only having to switch to my Cat 3 sunglasses close to sunset.

Just thought I would share that, for those that thought sunglasses = sunglasses when in fact different darkness levels do exist!

 

Many thanks for the above @Patrick. I heard once about the Cat4 in one of the offroad groups, and wanted to make more research, but so far no time. Now you have made the effort, thank you again. My issue, is to look for suitable one to use, keeping the power lenses which I can not get rid of. There is no point solving the sun issue, and not able to see the dunes all together 😂. I've seen some military grade ones, large with a space to keep the lenses on. 

[Patrick]

Hi @Hisham Masaad Not sure if I can recommend it here, but since it's a large brand and not a small shop or garage I will just mention it. Zeiss offers prescription lenses that are extra dark (I think 95% dar). I saw them at the Dubai Hills mall shop. The lead time is 1-2 weeks as they FedEx the extra dark lenses from Germany. I ended up not really needing them but it might be worth checking out if you need Cat 4 prescription. 

[Hisham Masaad]

1 hour ago, Patrick said:

Hi @Hisham Masaad Not sure if I can recommend it here, but since it's a large brand and not a small shop or garage I will just mention it. Zeiss offers prescription lenses that are extra dark (I think 95% dar). I saw them at the Dubai Hills mall shop. The lead time is 1-2 weeks as they FedEx the extra dark lenses from Germany. I ended up not really needing them but it might be worth checking out if you need Cat 4 prescription. 

Much appreciated @Patrick, will work on it and the other first option. Your option is great, but need to invest in another frame🤭