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Reviews > Eye Protection and Binoculars > Sun Glasses > Optic Nerve Dedisse Sunglasses > Test Report by Kurt PapkeOptic Nerve Dedisse Sunglasses
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Name: | Kurt Papke |
Age: | 59 |
Gender: | Male |
Height: | 6' 4" (193 cm) |
Weight: | 235 lbs (107 kg) |
Email address: | kwpapke at gmail dot com |
City, State, Country: | Tucson, Arizona USA |
Manufacturer: | Optic Nerve |
Model: |
Dedisse |
Year of manufacture: | 2013 |
MSRP: |
US $49 |
Manufacturer website: | http://opticnerve.com/ |
Color tested: |
Shiny
white. Also comes in Shiny Black. |
Materials: |
TR90 Grilamid Nylon Frame Resin Tactilite™ bridge pads, described as having low slippage in perspiration conditions |
Size: |
One size available only Website indicates "Optimum Face Shape: Average" |
Lenses: |
Smoke
w/flash mirror for bright sun: 15% light transmission High-def copper for variable light conditions: 27% light transmission UV protection: 100% for UV-A, UV-B, and UV-C |
Weight: | Listed: N/A Measured: 0.85 oz (24 g) without stuff sack With stuff sack and extra lens pair: 1.76 oz (50 g) Hard case: 2.15 oz (61 g) |
The Dedisse sunglasses are a member of Optic Nerve's Deuce
series, which come with two sets of interchangeable lenses.
This series excludes the following features available elsewhere in
their product line: polarized lenses, hydrophobic coating,
anti-reflective coating, adjustable wire-core temples, optical
rimlock, adjustable alloy bridge rest, and nickel silver alloy
frames.
As can be seen in the photos, the nose rests are just pads
integrated into the frame. On the positive side, I've had
nose bridges break on me in the past, so these should be very
reliable. On the negative side, they hug my face quite
closely and may not vent real well around the edges causing
condensation. I'll be curious to see how well the venting
mitigates this issue.
I put them on and drove to the grocery store. The smoke
lenses are quite dark, and appear quite optically flat. The
glasses cover my eyes well - I noticed no distractions from
brightness around the edges. The glasses seem quite
comfortable on my head, but are just at the edge of being too
small as I have a very large noggin.
I tried changing out the lenses, but they were not trivial to pop
out. I looked for hints on their website for hints on how to
change lenses without breaking them, but couldn't find anything.
Date |
Location |
Trail |
Distance |
Terrain/ trail type |
Weather |
Altitude
range |
July 5-7, 2013 |
Aravaipa Canyon Wilderness north of Mammoth,
Arizona |
Aravaipa |
28 mi (45 km) |
Creek running through canyon + slot canyon |
Sunny, 70-100 F (21-38 C) |
2550-4000 ft (780-1220 m) |
July 26-28, 2013 | Huachuca Mtns near Sierra Vista, Arizona | Crest Trail |
11.5 mi (18.5 km) |
Sky island canyons and ridgelines | Sunny/rain mix, 55-80 F (13-27 C) |
6600-9000 ft (2010-2740 m) |
August 10-11, 2013 |
Santa Catalina Mtns, near Tucson, Arizona |
Romero Canyon |
12 mi (19 km) |
Sky island canyon |
Sunny, hot, 59-102 F (15-39 C) |
2600-5100 ft (790-1550 m) |
September 21-22, 2013 | Santa Catalina Mtns, near Tucson, Arizona | Romero Canyon |
10.5 mi (17 km) |
Sky island canyon | Overnight showers, 60-85 F (16-29 C) |
2600-4770 ft (790-1450 m) |
I returned the the Huachuca Mountains looking for a respite
from the hot and humid Tucson monsoon season, only to run into
rainstorms. I didn't get in a lot of mileage in, but I
did get a break from the heat. This was a reasonably
high altitude hike, much of it along the section of the
Arizona National Scenic Trail (AZT) near its southern
terminus.
The weather was quite mixed on this trip, and I spent a lot
of time in wooded areas. I would have liked to have used
the lighter lenses, but I still have not taken the time to
figure out how to change them out. Outside of that, the
glasses performed very well, even at the high altitudes where
the sun can be quite strong. They continue to be very
comfortable, even when worn all day long for several days.
After my last trip I was sufficiently frustrated with my
inability to change the lenses that I did some research on the
Web and learned how to change the lenses. The technique
is illustrated in the set of photos below:
The key to the whole procedure is recognizing that the frames
will stretch/flex. By pulling them away from the lens,
it allows it to be popped out of the track. The other
key is to follow the rule that the lens must come out of and
go back into the front of the glasses, i.e. the side that is
away from the wearer. When I tried to force them out the
backside (closes to the wearer) they would not budge.
The procedure takes only a few seconds for each lens.
The only downside is they get covered with fingerprints, so I
immediately had to clean the lenses mounted in the
frames. No sense in cleaning the removed/stored lenses,
as they will just get smudged again when reinstalled.
It was a blazing hot August afternoon, but fortunately I was
hiking with the sun at my back for both the hike in on
Saturday afternoon and the hike out on Sunday morning.
Since I was not going to have the sun directly in my eyes I
decided to leave the lighter lenses that I had installed while
experimenting with changing lenses. The lenses worked
great in this situation, in particular on the early morning
hike out as shown in the following photo.
The only issue I had was sweat constantly dripping down the
lenses which had to be periodically cleaned, but there's no
magic solution to that problem.
A month later I returned to the canyon. I had planned
to do a 3-day trip down Paria Canyon, but the roads to the
trailhead got washed out with the severe rains. I
settled for a quick return overnight trip up Romero. The
sunglasses performed just fine on this trip, no issues other
that sweat running down them due to the unusually high
humidity. Someday someone will invent sunglasses
unaffected by dripping sweat, but I'm not aware of any
available today!
In addition to the backpacking trips described in this
report, I now have 4+ months of wearing these glasses pretty
much every day. Some days its just in the car on the
drive to/from work, other days include short strolls at work
to various buildings. I have used the supplied soft case
extensively on a daily basis - I like having the alternate
lenses with me, even though they take up a little bit of bulk
in the container.
Good things:
Improvements:
Thanks to BackpackGearTest.org and Optic Nerve for the
opportunity to contribute to this test.