Transitions Optical Transitions VI Lenses

Photochromic Glasses Give Us Radical Transparency

Here's a riddle: How do you wear a pair of photochromic glasses without looking like a hopeless dork?

Trick question! This cannot be done. The mere act of putting on a pair of photosensitive specs means you've officially crossed the line into point-of-no-return nerddom. Cancel your dates. Take up LARPing. Get tickets to Comic-Con. Buy some hentai. You're rolling 20-sided die and not coming back.

And on that day you take the plunge on a pair of UV sensitive specs, the Transitions VI would be a good choice. This coating promises 30 to 40 percent faster shifts in tint and better UV protection than earlier versions of this 20-year-old technology.

For the most part, the lenses darkened rapidly in our tests, taking about a minute and a half to go from completely clear to full tint. Switching back to clear, once inside a dim room, took a little longer: eight minutes.

Transition claims its lenses get darker faster in hotter weather. We didn't notice any difference whether the climate was 80 degrees or 55 degrees, but after an hour in the freezer the lenses took a good three minutes to become fully dark in full sunlight.

Arctic expeditions aside, the most likely scenario for using them is while making a Fun-yun run to 7-11. On that rare day that you scurry outside, these spectacles will let you venture out beneath that big yellow ball in the sky without fear. Talking to a girl without making a spectacle of yourself is a different story.

WIRED Lenses get darker faster than Point Barrow on the Winter Solstice. Provides UV 400 protection.

TIRED Sorry, you will not look cool wearing transitions. Ever.

• Manufacturer: Transitions Optical
• Price: $100 per coating