Video games have us familiar with augmentations, new equipment and items to enhance our characters’ abilities. Eagle Eyes makes these types of upgrades available IRL (in real life), and I am happy to say that their night time driving glasses actually make a difference.
Eagle Eyes “Night-Lite®: Charlie NL”
Price: $70 (Eagle Eyes)
MonsterVine was supplied with glasses for review
https://www.eagleeyes.com/pages/night-driving
I am accustomed to doing a lot of long distance driving, with family and friends scattered across the globe. Sometimes my work plans burn through all of the available daylight and my driving ends up getting pushed to the witching hours, but that’s how I like it. There is something wonderful and satisfying about late night driving. Alone. The open road ahead. The stars above, occasionally with a moon to help light things up. As I’ve gotten older however, I’ve noticed that my vision, especially at night, isn’t what it used to be. After wrapping the Charlie NL glasses around my face, driving around over the past weeks, and I am impressed with how they have helped ease some of the unpleasantries of driving in the dark.
- Charlie NL Specs
- Frame Material: Grilamid® TR-90
- Frame Style: Classic club-style
- Lens Technology: Night-Lite® Yellow Non-Polarized
- Lens Feature: Anti-Reflective Coating
- Activity: Night Time
- Lens Width: 61mm
- Lens Height: 48mm
- Bridge: 19.5mm
- Temple: 145mm
When I last reviewed a pair of Eagle Eyes they were for blue blocking computer glasses, but hey, sometimes you gotta drive home from a massive weekend LAN party, and that’s bound to happen in the dead of night.
Eagle Eyes promises some specific features, and while I will agree that they all do help, some of them are a lot more obvious than others.
“High-Intensity Light Filtration”
This is the promise of light bloom mitigation. In theory it sounds incredible, an oncoming car has their headlights on, heading down the road in the opposite direction, their headlights shine right into your eyes. Without the NL glasses they bloom and flare like something out of a J.J. Abrams movie. With them… they still bloom, but things are a little more manageable. I wanted this feature to be a night and day difference, but unfortunately it’s very subtle. There is a difference, but it isn’t as drastic as the Eagle Eyes website shows.
“Contrast Enhancement”
Enhanced contrast is probably the strongest feature of the NL glasses. This actually helped significantly with my personal visual noise, giving a much better clearer view of objects in the dark.
“Glare Reduction”
Glare is always an issue when dealing with reflective surfaces, and an oncoming car’s windshield can be a very reflective surface, especially at night. With the NL glasses on I found myself not noticing the glare as much as I would without them.
“2X Scratch-Guard™”
The trademarked scratch guard which Eagle Eyes applies to their glasses is a great, multi-layered feature. It blocks blue and UV light, prevents scratches and reduces glare. It’s just great to have this included, and provides a peace of mind.
THE GOOD Comes with a soft bag and hard case for travel. Helpful and useful for driving. Reduces visual noise, increasing situational awareness in the dark
THE BAD Kind of expensive, for a very specific use. Not enough variety in styles of frames.
The Final Word
I do a lot of driving, and I prefer to drive at night. This means I am a great candidate for the night enhancing glasses like the Charlie NL. I wish all of the features worked as well as the site claims, but even in spite of that I do notice an improvement over just using my naked eyes. The included cases have me excited to bring them with me on my travels. I can’t wait to use them on my next trip to Australia and see how well they help me spot the pesky kangaroos, which love to jump into the middle of highways in front of oncoming traffic.
