SAN ANTONIO – The ads for the HD Vision sunglasses make them look like a clear winner, claiming to enhance color and clarity and significantly reduce glare.
Do they work?
Impromptu testers gave mixed reviews with some saying they could see more clearly but others saying the lenses were too bright or too yellow.
"High definition is a term that is used pretty loosely," said Homer Martinez, optician with the University of the Incarnate Word Rosenberg School of Optometry.
He agreed to give the $10 "as seen on TV" amber lenses a look.
"Any kind of yellow color in front of the eye will make things look a little brighter," he said.
Using a photometer, he found the claim that the glasses protect from harmful UV rays is true.
He also noticed an anti-reflective coating on the backside of the lenses.
But for battling glare, he said he looks for a polarizing filter.
Using a surface that simulates glare, the image of children crossing a street became clearly visible when looking through polarized lens sunglasses. However, when looking through the HD Vision glasses, the children were not nearly as visible.
"I don't see that it changed the image hardly at all," Martinez said. "If these are retailing for $10, I think another $8 will get you polarized lenses."