Smith Guide’s Choice Sunglasses Review

One of my favourite places to fish has been heavily logged over the past decades leaving logs stuck in the bottom of the lake at all angles and depths. It’s a great place to paddle and fish but it’s a minefield for boat props and rudders.

Polarized sunglasses are required to not smash into anything, see the fish, and not wrap lures around all the logs. This is a problem for me. I prefer to wear photochromic sunglasses, lenses that change tint with the light.

The Smith Guide’s Choice sunglasses are polarized, photochromic and bump colors and definition with their ChromaPop tech. they have wide lenses and templates for better coverage, anti-slip nose and template pads and Italian spring hinges.

This frame has other lenses as well in blue, green, brown, black around 12-14% VLT (Visual Light Transmission) or yellow with 30% VLT as well.

Details

ChromaPop

One of the main features of many Smith sunglasses is their ChromaPop technology in the lenses. It’s supposed to make colors show up clearer with more definition. Does it work?

Smith says, “The eye has trouble distinguishing colors where the blue and green as well as the green and red wavelengths cross over.”

“ChromaPop filters these crossovers, allowing for greater definition, natural color, and clarity.”

When I first put the Guide’s Choice on I noticed a huge improvement in the color and definition of everything. Greens and blues are a lot of what I look at being outside on the water or in the woods and they are all a bit more saturated. It’s still natural color just a little ‘more’ of it. Green’s are greener, blues are bluer.

It’s not like look at an HDR photo thought, with the colors all pushed to the max. It’s just a slight increase but a good one.

Smith tunes the ChromaPop to the type of environment the lenses will be used in. Snowboard goggles will be used on the snow, with some rock and trees around. Biking glasses are in the trees with lots of green and brown. Fishing glasses are on the water with a lot of blue and bright sun.

For being on the water and fishing these water tuned lenses let you see through the water better because of the polarization but they also help separate the water colors from other things. Logs, vegetation, and most importantly, fish are more defined and easier to see under the water.

Polarized + Photochromic = Polarchromic

Polarized sunglasses reduce glare. This can be reflected light off the surface of the water, off wet vegetation, or the road when it rains.

Polarization is required on the water. There’s just no other way to see properly. If there’s too much glare, that’ll be reduced. If you need to see through the water for obstacles or fish, they help so much with that too.

But most polarized lenses are dark. They filter out a lot of glare and a lot of light. This is great in the middle of a bright sunny day.

When it’s cloudy or you’re on the water at sunrise or sunset, it’s not as bright. There are some sunglasses out there that have lighter lenses but are still polarized. I’m not fond of carrying around extra gear. I’d rather sunglasses that can go from sunrise to sunset.

Enter Photochromic lenses.

Photochromic lenses tint automatically when the light is brighter. The change in tint happens in only a couple of seconds and it’s very smooth. I never notice it on the Guide’s Choice.

The tint change on the Guide’s Choice goes from category 2 to 3 (11-20% VLT). Categories in sunglasses goes from 0 to 4. 0 being completely clear up to 4 for glacier travel, open water, and too dark for driving. 2 is perfect for overcast days or under cover in the trees and 3 is great for brighter sun and out on the water. I find I rarely need cat 4 as it’s quite dark.

I would love to see a version of these that tint cat 1 to 3. Cat 1 is great for dark, dusk and darker days. It would really make these all day, every day sunglasses. 2 to 3 still handles all but those darker times of day.

After wearing photochromic sunglasses, I can’t go back. Pair that with polarization and they are the ultimate lens.

Leash

I prefer my sunglasses on my face at all times. They are the most secure there and actually serving their pupose to protect my eyes and see better. But there are just always times when they need to come off. All but the tightest frames have always fallen off my head if I forget their there and move too fast. Leashes just don’t work well with beards.

The Guides’ Choice comes with an integrated leash that’s removable. It’s made from thin, line wire, I think made out of plastic. The cord is quite stiff so it easy to loop around your head.

The temple pads that are built into the leash are tough to get back into the glasses. I like that their tight so they’ll stay in place. They’re aren’t the easiest to take on and off though. I used pliers to get the other pads out and the leash attached.

Fit

Smith says the Guide’s Choice is a Medium-Large fit with Medium-Larges lenses. This seems accurate to me. I love the large lenses with lots of coverage. I’ve got a good size noggin and they were on the wide side. I like my sunglasses quite snug so they stay in place. With the glass lenses they are slightly heavier than plastic lenses.

The spring hinges feel really good. They expand slightly sliding them on but aren’t too tight. They feel solid and tight at the end of the opening range.

The nose and temple pads are a Megol rubbery plastic. They are grippy and keep things in place well. I find they slide down a little on my nose when I’m sweating a lot but I think if the arms were slightly tighter with my head they’d be perfect.

Conclusion

The Smith Guide’s Choice are one of the best sunglasses you can get for fishing, and really just wearing all the time. The price is a fry from the plastic gas station sunglasses but the quality and technology in the lenses certainly warrants a higher price tag. Having polarization and photochromic lenses is very rare and difficult to do. The ChromaPop color puts Smith sunglasses into a class of their own.

Highly recommended.

MEC has the Blue Polarized ChromaPop Lenses for $274 CAD (not PolarChromic)

Corbett’s Ski has the Grey Polarized ChromaPop Lenses for $179 CAD (not PolarChromic)

SkiWest has the Brown or Grey Polarzied ChromaPoop Lenses for $274 CAD (not PolarChromic)

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