Spectacle Lens Brands Review

if your glasses were a car then the lenses would be the engine it's a simplistic analogy I know but it does hold true because after all whilst we want our glasses to look great we also want to see great as well and did you know most people don't that the lenses within your glasses play a huge role in how clearly you see the world it's not all just about your prescription so in today's video we're going to be rating reviewing comparing and contrasting some of the world's best spectacle lens Brands to see which are the best which are the worst and which ones you should buy for your next pair of glasses so hi I'm Robert style and vision consultant here at the spectacle Factory and it's my job to pay you with your perfect pair of glasses and an integral part of your perfect glasses are the perfect lenses we recently did a tier list for frame Brands and that was one of our most successful ever videos one of our most popular and you guys seem to love it so I thought why not focus on lenses because if you've chosen your perfect frames all you need are the perfect lenses and you've got your perfect glasses so without further Ado let's get into this we're gonna have a bit of fun I've ranked the categories as 4K HD SD and VHS hopefully that kind of makes sense to you I just picked that as a kind of terminology to represent the level of quality within the spectacle lens industry VHS being obviously the most old-fashioned technology out there and it'll be interesting to see if any lenses actually fall into that category but let's find out so let's work from we'll work from bottom left to top right so starting with Road and stock and actually running stock got a difficult brand to categorize and the reason I say that is they are extremely good but maybe not quite top tier so let me tell you a little bit about Road and stock they are a German lens manufacturer I believe actually slightly older than Zeiss that I might be wrong with that but that's what I've got in my head and those two just compete they compete with each other constantly throughout Generations Some people prefer Zeiss Some people prefer running stock there's an old story about an optician in Germany who when he saw his clients he used to sell exclusively Zeiss and then they had a falling out and he went over to the dark side I guess of Road and stock and his his message to his customers was do you want Zeiss lenses or do you want the best lenses and if they chose the best he would suggest Road and stock but for me they are not the best they do have some interesting Technologies the big Vision as they call it which stands for biometric intelligent glasses is very interesting technology what it means is that when they are constructing your spectacle lenses they're feeding in a lot of information about the anatomy of your eyes you see the prescription that you have for your eyes does actually tell us a little bit about the shape of your eyes and the shape of your eyes determines how you focus through the lenses separately to the prescription itself so big vision is designed to give you the most natural vision by incorporating data about the Biometrics of your eyes it's not the most exciting technology I've ever heard but it is a pretty cool technology they also have similar Technologies to the high profiler that we use by Zeiss they call it their dni scanner and I've heard good things about it maybe not quite as good as ice but nevertheless Road and stock are definitely up there I would put them in the HD category next up we'll skip Zeiss just for a second we'll leave that there we'll look at iot and iot is a lens brand that you've probably never heard of but I'm a huge fan of iot and the reason is because they're a completely Independent Lens designer as you're going to see throughout this video there is less competition in the lens Market than you would probably think and stay tuned to find out what I mean by that but with iot they're a completely Independent Lens designer who actually don't make lenses so they don't manufacture anything but they sell their lens designs to Independent Laboratories all over the world some of whom we use they create hundreds of different design of lenses whether it's single Focus very focals progressive lenses and you can do a lot of customization maybe more customization with an iot lens than any other lens in the world so a lab can go to iot they can license their designs so what I mean by the design of a lens is all the data or the mathematical data that goes into the computer that then manufactures that lens the manufacturing is actually the easy bit it's the science behind that manufacturing that tells the machine how to cut your lens how to design it from point to point that is the crucial bit about your lenses and iot are one of the few companies in the world actually designing lens designs from scratch they get a lot of credit from me for that however however they're not they're not always the best because you have that inconsistency because anybody can use an iot design that means you have some really rubbish quality iot lenses and some absolute best in the world class iot lenses and just because of that I'm going to put them in the HD tier with Road and stock not bad at all in fact one of the best lens designers out there like I said we use them obviously with high quality labs in Partnership and they're great for orders where a client wants something really out of the box that none of the other mainstream lens manufacturers will do next up Seiko so Seiko definitely not as good as the first two that I have touched on so far in my opinion Seiko in our subsidiary of Hoyer one of the three brands in this list that are actually under that same umbrella don't get me wrong say come make good quality lenses but I just feel especially since they've been purchased by Hoya there's been a severe lack of innovation in their designs if we go back five or ten roughly 10 years Seiko we're one of the best they were towards the top and one thing that they get a lot of credit from me for is their use of tribrid tribrid is a hybrid material of trivex which combines three unique properties it's Ultra clear because it's got high AB value check out my lens materials guide for more information on that it is ultra strong like almost unbreakable and Ultra lightweights at the same time know what the lens material in the world has all those three properties to the same extent as tribrid and Seiko are the only brand on this list other than iot because they do everything who actually work with tri-bit so they definitely get credit from me for that I'm going to put them in the SD category I guess we've got to get Zeiss out of the way now you've probably been waiting for this one and you probably know if you're watching this Channel that I am a Zeiss fun boy listen I'm I don't think I am biased because I really try to leave my bias at the door as much as I am a fan of certain brands so for example like Seiko I absolutely adore Grand Seiko which is the watch Division if I could have a grand Circle watch I would have that over any Rolex protectfully you name it Grand Seiko is like my ultimate tree watch doesn't mean that I'm going to sell them in my store as much as I love their brand because I don't feel the best for my clients when you consider all aspects all facets of lens manufacturing and design I genuinely believe that Zeiss are the best in the world and the proof is in the history really because Zeiss were the first to make a Tory cleanse design that means a lens that corrects for astigmatism they were the first in the world to use anti-reflective coated lenses they invented that technology they were the first in the world for so many things and they keep innovating all the time you know in the last 10 years nobody in my opinion has innovated more than Zeiss with Technologies like drive safe the first in the world to look at specifically filtering out headlight glare things like smart life technology which I wear in most of my glasses which generally give me the most natural vision possible Technologies like photofusion X which has just come out last year that is 80 faster to react and changes from clear to dark so much faster than any other lenses that have come before you just can't argue with Zeiss being at the very top of the tree when it comes to lens manufacturing that's why we partner with them that's why if a client asks me what lenses to get I almost always say Zeiss with the introduction of Clearview we now have really affordable Zeiss lenses that are still excellent quality and I would recommend all day long so they've got to go in the 4K tier next up Pentax so Pentax complete the triumvirate of Manufacturers within hires portfolio so they are owned by Hoyer for a long time they were kind of in the doldrums Pentax are obviously a historic camera lens manufacturer world famous and one of actually the most recognizable lens names in the world but they lost their way over the years because they were just a licensed brand that was used by some of the much cheaper Opticians in the market and how you have brought them back just as that it's their really cheap really affordable lens line having said that you know I've been pleasantly surprised by the quality for the price they're probably the best on the market if you're getting a Pentax lens it should be inexpensive but it will be a good lens having said that there is absolutely nothing special about them at all there's nothing Innovative in the Pentax range they don't even make their own lenses like I said it's made by hoyu it's like the cheaper division of higher so I'm I'm going to put them it pays me to save but they have to go in the VHS category because they are old technology but they are affordable and if you're looking for a cheap pair of glasses I would definitely go with Pentax lenses they're the best affordable lens brand in the world but they're not going to give you great vision they're going to give you acceptable Vision maybe good Vision Kodak instant VHS tier basically everything that I've just said about Pentax applies to Kodak if you go back to when I started in the industry Kodak were one of the best lens manufacturers a division of Cigna armor lights who I don't think exist anymore the Kodak name has just been passed around from different companies it's just a licensed name they don't make their own lenses if you're buying Kodak you are just paying for the name because it's not made by them definitely VHS tier next up one of my favorite and one of my least favorite lens manufacturers in the world we've got SLR and Hoya I'll start with SLR so SLR here's the thing here's another thing that's going to show my lack of bias in these videos I hate SLR with a passion they're actually part of luxottica now it's called esselo luxottica they form together and if you check out my framed here this video I rated luxottica frames as the very bottom tier of glasses and I hate SLO just as much as I hate those Satsuki because they stand for all of the same things as you're going to see just like luxottica they have attempted to dominate the global eyewear Market by buying up all the other lens brands that they can get their hands on by it goes further than that because they actually buy the lens casters which are generally in China these are the companies that make the raw materials that every other lens brand uses Essilor owned huge parts of the whole supply chain and you would be shocked if you found out how much of a monopoly they really have that said they make excellent quality lenses they were actually the inventors of very vocals so you've got to give them credit for that and very Luxe lenses which are their line of very vocals or progressive lenses they are very very good quality I think the portfolio is a bit bloated because there are so many different options within the lineup which does get very confusing but that's because they're trying to attack every part of the market they're trying to get whereas at all price points SLO do do a lot of research they spend a lot more on marketing and they're definitely the kings of marketing because Brands like Crizal and very looks as I mentioned Eisen transitions they own all of those Technologies and don't get me wrong they are all very good Technologies but there is a hell of a lot of marketing behind them as well I would say that all of those segments there are better products out there but you probably haven't heard of them so despite the fact that I hate SLR with a passion because of their attempt to monopolize the hour Market I'm going to put them in the 4K tier because they do make great lenses I can't doubt that and I can't tell you not to buy a slot I would definitely recommend SLR lenses not from a moral perspective or an ethical perspective but definitely from a quality perspective a next up higher these are going to definitely between HD and 4K higher are one of my favorite lens manufacturers in the world for people who don't quite want to spend as much advice I'll generally always recommend higher because they make lenses that are close to the quality of dice but a lot less expensive they have I think the best lens Coatings in the world and the lens coatings on your glasses actually make a huge difference to them in terms of the durability in terms of the day-to-day convenience of not having to clean them so often all that stuff it makes your glasses a lot easier to live with higher lenses are made across the world obviously they're a Japanese company but they have factories across Europe and I think in the US as well and I like how I'm a big fan so all things considered I'm going to put them in the 4K category I definitely recommend Holly lenses next up Nikon this might surprise you because Nikon are probably the most expensive lens brand in the world but they're going straight in the SD category and the reason for that is similar to Seiko I've just not seen much Innovation from them over recent years and again you might be surprised to find this out but they're not independent Nikon spectacle lenses are completely 100 owned by SLR Nikon lenses don't do anything special they are a very good quality you definitely get a good level of vision from them just like with Seiko I wouldn't say don't buy a Nikon lens it's definitely better than an unbranded lens in terms of quality but there's no reason really to search out Nikon lenses in my opinion I also think they're way overpriced for what they are for the reasons I've said next up is Shamir and guess what also owned by SLR but there is a bit of a difference because Shamir have huge ties to the the Israeli company they have huge ties to the Israeli military they have a lot of military contracts just like as with a lot of other Industries when military spending gets involved you have huge Innovation they are one of the pioneers of freeform technology which all lens designs are now based on the original Three were Zeiss Shamir and Seiko but unlike Seiko they haven't lost the way at all they're still innovating and even though they're 100 owned by esselor unlike Nikon they're still creating really unique products for example last year their award-winning new technology was metaform lenses which look super interesting actually I've been reading up on them a lot I actually don't have too much experience selling them recommending them to clients but I'm definitely going to be testing those at some point it sounds really interesting they're talking about a complete lens that where the coating is almost not separate from the lens itself it's just a single film that is bonded to the lens rather than the typical applied Coatings that literally every other brand does or it's applied in layers one at a time with different properties so you might have like an anti-static layer then an anti-scratch layer then a waterproof layer then another anti-scratch with with metaphone technology Shamir are doing it all within the single manufacturing process and they say that that makes the lenses a lot more durable a lot thinner and gives you amazing vision and you know what I believe them if they say that because she may have a great track record they were the first company to use artificial intelligence in their lens designs I would have absolutely zero hesitation recommending Shamir I'm going to put them in the 4K category and I wasn't sure about that before I started this video but as I list off all those different things I think they've got to be in there they also make great sport lenses they're one of the two companies I would say Shamir and Zeiss make the best sports lenses in the world if you want glasses for things like tennis golf go with others ISO Shamir last two Leica obviously world famous I think in the Camera World Leica are considered the best I'm not a camera expert myself but photographers seem to absolutely Rave about Leica they're the only store that I see like dedicated Leica stores all around again they don't actually make their own spectacle lenses they're made by a separate company in France but I believe that they are working very closely together and I think it's kind of interesting because it's probably the one brand out there that carries the weight that Zeiss does in the optic space but at this moment in time I have no clue what Leica lenses are like I actually have a pair on order and I'm going to be testing them soon so make sure to subscribe for that I think we'll both find that really interesting to see how the Leica lenses perform against the Zeiss that I typically wear and one thing that actually really struck me is that Leica make lenses specifically for photographers with apparently a different Design Within the lens for viewing your camera and viewing this well I should say specifically the viewfinder of your camera that is really interesting for now I'm going to leave Leica here I'm not going to categorize it because I just don't know enough about them they only relaunched in 2019 and there's just not enough information out there for me to really give a firm opinion but I'm quite excited to find out how they do perform and finally we have Maui Jim now Maui Jim in my opinion makes some of the best prescription sunglass lenses in the world and some of the best sunglass lenses in general you know even without prescription I think Maui Jim deserved the place in this list and I think as non-prescription sunglasses Maui Jim are definitely in the 4K category there's no question about that the lens designs by the way are actually borrowed from Shamir so Shamir create lens designs used by Maui Jim which is another interesting fact for you I'm going to put them on balance in the HD category so there you have it I think that is my final tier list we've got Zeiss Essilor Hoya and Shamir in the top category those are the ones you really want to look out for Maui Jim iot if you're looking for something more specialized wrote and Stark I don't really see a reason to buy them nowadays over the other four in the top category Seiko Nikon not bad but again no reason to choose them and Pentax and Kodak kind of avoid unless you have to but what do you think of my tier list do you wear lenses from a brand that I featured in today's video or do you not even know what lenses are in your glasses if you don't I'd encourage you to find out and maybe give one of these a try and see if you can notice the difference I'd be really interested to hear your thoughts and leave them in the comment section below if you found this video helpful or interesting give us a like And subscribe to the channel for more of the best eyewear content on the internet and I look forward to seeing you in the next video thanks guys bye-bye [Music] [Music] foreign [Music]

if your glasses were a car then the lenses would be the engine it&#39;s a simplistic analogy I know but it does hold true because after all whilst we want our glasses to look great we also want to see great as well and did you know most people don&#39;t that the lenses within your glasses play a huge role in how clearly you see the world it&#39;s not all just about your prescription so in today&#39;s video we&#39;re going to be rating reviewing comparing and contrasting some of the world&#39;s best spectacle lens Brands to see which are the best which are the worst and which ones you should buy for your next pair of glasses so hi I&#39;m Robert style and vision consultant here at the spectacle Factory and it&#39;s my job to pay you with your perfect pair of glasses and an integral part of your perfect glasses are the perfect lenses we recently did a tier list for frame Brands and that was one of our most successful ever videos one of our most popular and you guys seem to love it so I thought why not focus on lenses because if you&#39;ve chosen your perfect frames all you need are the perfect lenses and you&#39;ve got your perfect glasses so without further Ado let&#39;s get into this we&#39;re gonna have a bit of fun I&#39;ve ranked the categories as 4K HD SD and VHS hopefully that kind of makes sense to you I just picked that as a kind of terminology to represent the level of quality within the spectacle lens industry VHS being obviously the most old-fashioned technology out there and it&#39;ll be interesting to see if any lenses actually fall into that category but let&#39;s find out so let&#39;s work from we&#39;ll work from bottom left to top right so starting with Road and stock and actually running stock got a difficult brand to categorize and the reason I say that is they are extremely good but maybe not quite top tier so let me tell you a little bit about Road and stock they are a German lens manufacturer I believe actually slightly older than Zeiss that I might be wrong with that but that&#39;s what I&#39;ve got in my head and those two just compete they compete with each other constantly throughout Generations Some people prefer Zeiss Some people prefer running stock there&#39;s an old story about an optician in Germany who when he saw his clients he used to sell exclusively Zeiss and then they had a falling out and he went over to the dark side I guess of Road and stock and his his message to his customers was do you want Zeiss lenses or do you want the best lenses and if they chose the best he would suggest Road and stock but for me they are not the best they do have some interesting Technologies the big Vision as they call it which stands for biometric intelligent glasses is very interesting technology what it means is that when they are constructing your spectacle lenses they&#39;re feeding in a lot of information about the anatomy of your eyes you see the prescription that you have for your eyes does actually tell us a little bit about the shape of your eyes and the shape of your eyes determines how you focus through the lenses separately to the prescription itself so big vision is designed to give you the most natural vision by incorporating data about the Biometrics of your eyes it&#39;s not the most exciting technology I&#39;ve ever heard but it is a pretty cool technology they also have similar Technologies to the high profiler that we use by Zeiss they call it their dni scanner and I&#39;ve heard good things about it maybe not quite as good as ice but nevertheless Road and stock are definitely up there I would put them in the HD category next up we&#39;ll skip Zeiss just for a second we&#39;ll leave that there we&#39;ll look at iot and iot is a lens brand that you&#39;ve probably never heard of but I&#39;m a huge fan of iot and the reason is because they&#39;re a completely Independent Lens designer as you&#39;re going to see throughout this video there is less competition in the lens Market than you would probably think and stay tuned to find out what I mean by that but with iot they&#39;re a completely Independent Lens designer who actually don&#39;t make lenses so they don&#39;t manufacture anything but they sell their lens designs to Independent Laboratories all over the world some of whom we use they create hundreds of different design of lenses whether it&#39;s single Focus very focals progressive lenses and you can do a lot of customization maybe more customization with an iot lens than any other lens in the world so a lab can go to iot they can license their designs so what I mean by the design of a lens is all the data or the mathematical data that goes into the computer that then manufactures that lens the manufacturing is actually the easy bit it&#39;s the science behind that manufacturing that tells the machine how to cut your lens how to design it from point to point that is the crucial bit about your lenses and iot are one of the few companies in the world actually designing lens designs from scratch they get a lot of credit from me for that however however they&#39;re not they&#39;re not always the best because you have that inconsistency because anybody can use an iot design that means you have some really rubbish quality iot lenses and some absolute best in the world class iot lenses and just because of that I&#39;m going to put them in the HD tier with Road and stock not bad at all in fact one of the best lens designers out there like I said we use them obviously with high quality labs in Partnership and they&#39;re great for orders where a client wants something really out of the box that none of the other mainstream lens manufacturers will do next up Seiko so Seiko definitely not as good as the first two that I have touched on so far in my opinion Seiko in our subsidiary of Hoyer one of the three brands in this list that are actually under that same umbrella don&#39;t get me wrong say come make good quality lenses but I just feel especially since they&#39;ve been purchased by Hoya there&#39;s been a severe lack of innovation in their designs if we go back five or ten roughly 10 years Seiko we&#39;re one of the best they were towards the top and one thing that they get a lot of credit from me for is their use of tribrid tribrid is a hybrid material of trivex which combines three unique properties it&#39;s Ultra clear because it&#39;s got high AB value check out my lens materials guide for more information on that it is ultra strong like almost unbreakable and Ultra lightweights at the same time know what the lens material in the world has all those three properties to the same extent as tribrid and Seiko are the only brand on this list other than iot because they do everything who actually work with tri-bit so they definitely get credit from me for that I&#39;m going to put them in the SD category I guess we&#39;ve got to get Zeiss out of the way now you&#39;ve probably been waiting for this one and you probably know if you&#39;re watching this Channel that I am a Zeiss fun boy listen I&#39;m I don&#39;t think I am biased because I really try to leave my bias at the door as much as I am a fan of certain brands so for example like Seiko I absolutely adore Grand Seiko which is the watch Division if I could have a grand Circle watch I would have that over any Rolex protectfully you name it Grand Seiko is like my ultimate tree watch doesn&#39;t mean that I&#39;m going to sell them in my store as much as I love their brand because I don&#39;t feel the best for my clients when you consider all aspects all facets of lens manufacturing and design I genuinely believe that Zeiss are the best in the world and the proof is in the history really because Zeiss were the first to make a Tory cleanse design that means a lens that corrects for astigmatism they were the first in the world to use anti-reflective coated lenses they invented that technology they were the first in the world for so many things and they keep innovating all the time you know in the last 10 years nobody in my opinion has innovated more than Zeiss with Technologies like drive safe the first in the world to look at specifically filtering out headlight glare things like smart life technology which I wear in most of my glasses which generally give me the most natural vision possible Technologies like photofusion X which has just come out last year that is 80 faster to react and changes from clear to dark so much faster than any other lenses that have come before you just can&#39;t argue with Zeiss being at the very top of the tree when it comes to lens manufacturing that&#39;s why we partner with them that&#39;s why if a client asks me what lenses to get I almost always say Zeiss with the introduction of Clearview we now have really affordable Zeiss lenses that are still excellent quality and I would recommend all day long so they&#39;ve got to go in the 4K tier next up Pentax so Pentax complete the triumvirate of Manufacturers within hires portfolio so they are owned by Hoyer for a long time they were kind of in the doldrums Pentax are obviously a historic camera lens manufacturer world famous and one of actually the most recognizable lens names in the world but they lost their way over the years because they were just a licensed brand that was used by some of the much cheaper Opticians in the market and how you have brought them back just as that it&#39;s their really cheap really affordable lens line having said that you know I&#39;ve been pleasantly surprised by the quality for the price they&#39;re probably the best on the market if you&#39;re getting a Pentax lens it should be inexpensive but it will be a good lens having said that there is absolutely nothing special about them at all there&#39;s nothing Innovative in the Pentax range they don&#39;t even make their own lenses like I said it&#39;s made by hoyu it&#39;s like the cheaper division of higher so I&#39;m I&#39;m going to put them it pays me to save but they have to go in the VHS category because they are old technology but they are affordable and if you&#39;re looking for a cheap pair of glasses I would definitely go with Pentax lenses they&#39;re the best affordable lens brand in the world but they&#39;re not going to give you great vision they&#39;re going to give you acceptable Vision maybe good Vision Kodak instant VHS tier basically everything that I&#39;ve just said about Pentax applies to Kodak if you go back to when I started in the industry Kodak were one of the best lens manufacturers a division of Cigna armor lights who I don&#39;t think exist anymore the Kodak name has just been passed around from different companies it&#39;s just a licensed name they don&#39;t make their own lenses if you&#39;re buying Kodak you are just paying for the name because it&#39;s not made by them definitely VHS tier next up one of my favorite and one of my least favorite lens manufacturers in the world we&#39;ve got SLR and Hoya I&#39;ll start with SLR so SLR here&#39;s the thing here&#39;s another thing that&#39;s going to show my lack of bias in these videos I hate SLR with a passion they&#39;re actually part of luxottica now it&#39;s called esselo luxottica they form together and if you check out my framed here this video I rated luxottica frames as the very bottom tier of glasses and I hate SLO just as much as I hate those Satsuki because they stand for all of the same things as you&#39;re going to see just like luxottica they have attempted to dominate the global eyewear Market by buying up all the other lens brands that they can get their hands on by it goes further than that because they actually buy the lens casters which are generally in China these are the companies that make the raw materials that every other lens brand uses Essilor owned huge parts of the whole supply chain and you would be shocked if you found out how much of a monopoly they really have that said they make excellent quality lenses they were actually the inventors of very vocals so you&#39;ve got to give them credit for that and very Luxe lenses which are their line of very vocals or progressive lenses they are very very good quality I think the portfolio is a bit bloated because there are so many different options within the lineup which does get very confusing but that&#39;s because they&#39;re trying to attack every part of the market they&#39;re trying to get whereas at all price points SLO do do a lot of research they spend a lot more on marketing and they&#39;re definitely the kings of marketing because Brands like Crizal and very looks as I mentioned Eisen transitions they own all of those Technologies and don&#39;t get me wrong they are all very good Technologies but there is a hell of a lot of marketing behind them as well I would say that all of those segments there are better products out there but you probably haven&#39;t heard of them so despite the fact that I hate SLR with a passion because of their attempt to monopolize the hour Market I&#39;m going to put them in the 4K tier because they do make great lenses I can&#39;t doubt that and I can&#39;t tell you not to buy a slot I would definitely recommend SLR lenses not from a moral perspective or an ethical perspective but definitely from a quality perspective a next up higher these are going to definitely between HD and 4K higher are one of my favorite lens manufacturers in the world for people who don&#39;t quite want to spend as much advice I&#39;ll generally always recommend higher because they make lenses that are close to the quality of dice but a lot less expensive they have I think the best lens Coatings in the world and the lens coatings on your glasses actually make a huge difference to them in terms of the durability in terms of the day-to-day convenience of not having to clean them so often all that stuff it makes your glasses a lot easier to live with higher lenses are made across the world obviously they&#39;re a Japanese company but they have factories across Europe and I think in the US as well and I like how I&#39;m a big fan so all things considered I&#39;m going to put them in the 4K category I definitely recommend Holly lenses next up Nikon this might surprise you because Nikon are probably the most expensive lens brand in the world but they&#39;re going straight in the SD category and the reason for that is similar to Seiko I&#39;ve just not seen much Innovation from them over recent years and again you might be surprised to find this out but they&#39;re not independent Nikon spectacle lenses are completely 100 owned by SLR Nikon lenses don&#39;t do anything special they are a very good quality you definitely get a good level of vision from them just like with Seiko I wouldn&#39;t say don&#39;t buy a Nikon lens it&#39;s definitely better than an unbranded lens in terms of quality but there&#39;s no reason really to search out Nikon lenses in my opinion I also think they&#39;re way overpriced for what they are for the reasons I&#39;ve said next up is Shamir and guess what also owned by SLR but there is a bit of a difference because Shamir have huge ties to the the Israeli company they have huge ties to the Israeli military they have a lot of military contracts just like as with a lot of other Industries when military spending gets involved you have huge Innovation they are one of the pioneers of freeform technology which all lens designs are now based on the original Three were Zeiss Shamir and Seiko but unlike Seiko they haven&#39;t lost the way at all they&#39;re still innovating and even though they&#39;re 100 owned by esselor unlike Nikon they&#39;re still creating really unique products for example last year their award-winning new technology was metaform lenses which look super interesting actually I&#39;ve been reading up on them a lot I actually don&#39;t have too much experience selling them recommending them to clients but I&#39;m definitely going to be testing those at some point it sounds really interesting they&#39;re talking about a complete lens that where the coating is almost not separate from the lens itself it&#39;s just a single film that is bonded to the lens rather than the typical applied Coatings that literally every other brand does or it&#39;s applied in layers one at a time with different properties so you might have like an anti-static layer then an anti-scratch layer then a waterproof layer then another anti-scratch with with metaphone technology Shamir are doing it all within the single manufacturing process and they say that that makes the lenses a lot more durable a lot thinner and gives you amazing vision and you know what I believe them if they say that because she may have a great track record they were the first company to use artificial intelligence in their lens designs I would have absolutely zero hesitation recommending Shamir I&#39;m going to put them in the 4K category and I wasn&#39;t sure about that before I started this video but as I list off all those different things I think they&#39;ve got to be in there they also make great sport lenses they&#39;re one of the two companies I would say Shamir and Zeiss make the best sports lenses in the world if you want glasses for things like tennis golf go with others ISO Shamir last two Leica obviously world famous I think in the Camera World Leica are considered the best I&#39;m not a camera expert myself but photographers seem to absolutely Rave about Leica they&#39;re the only store that I see like dedicated Leica stores all around again they don&#39;t actually make their own spectacle lenses they&#39;re made by a separate company in France but I believe that they are working very closely together and I think it&#39;s kind of interesting because it&#39;s probably the one brand out there that carries the weight that Zeiss does in the optic space but at this moment in time I have no clue what Leica lenses are like I actually have a pair on order and I&#39;m going to be testing them soon so make sure to subscribe for that I think we&#39;ll both find that really interesting to see how the Leica lenses perform against the Zeiss that I typically wear and one thing that actually really struck me is that Leica make lenses specifically for photographers with apparently a different Design Within the lens for viewing your camera and viewing this well I should say specifically the viewfinder of your camera that is really interesting for now I&#39;m going to leave Leica here I&#39;m not going to categorize it because I just don&#39;t know enough about them they only relaunched in 2019 and there&#39;s just not enough information out there for me to really give a firm opinion but I&#39;m quite excited to find out how they do perform and finally we have Maui Jim now Maui Jim in my opinion makes some of the best prescription sunglass lenses in the world and some of the best sunglass lenses in general you know even without prescription I think Maui Jim deserved the place in this list and I think as non-prescription sunglasses Maui Jim are definitely in the 4K category there&#39;s no question about that the lens designs by the way are actually borrowed from Shamir so Shamir create lens designs used by Maui Jim which is another interesting fact for you I&#39;m going to put them on balance in the HD category so there you have it I think that is my final tier list we&#39;ve got Zeiss Essilor Hoya and Shamir in the top category those are the ones you really want to look out for Maui Jim iot if you&#39;re looking for something more specialized wrote and Stark I don&#39;t really see a reason to buy them nowadays over the other four in the top category Seiko Nikon not bad but again no reason to choose them and Pentax and Kodak kind of avoid unless you have to but what do you think of my tier list do you wear lenses from a brand that I featured in today&#39;s video or do you not even know what lenses are in your glasses if you don&#39;t I&#39;d encourage you to find out and maybe give one of these a try and see if you can notice the difference I&#39;d be really interested to hear your thoughts and leave them in the comment section below if you found this video helpful or interesting give us a like And subscribe to the channel for more of the best eyewear content on the internet and I look forward to seeing you in the next video thanks guys bye-bye [Music] [Music] foreign [Music]

Transcript for:Spectacle Lens Brands Review

Transcript for:
Spectacle Lens Brands Review