BOLLÉ PHANTOM+

Bollé has been around a long time; over 130 years. They know a thing or two about eyewear, and make some awesome sunglasses and eyewear for skiing.

Bollé has a superb lens called Phantom, which is their photochromic (light adaptive) lens and used in many of their goggles.

They also offer something even better, Phantom+. This takes all that’s great about the Phantom lens, but gives it a boost with an advanced polarising film.

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We test and review so you can get the best information available about the kit you’re interested in, to help you make informed decisions. Hey, we all want a big grin on our faces when skiing, and the right kit can make a massive difference.

We’ve been testing the Phantom+ lens in the Bollé Northstar goggle for a season and you can watch the review below.

POLARISATION

Polarised lenses are often used in sunglasses, and for good reason. The polarising film can really help when driving, fishing, sailing or any other activity where you encounter reflective surfaces, such as roads and water.

Light from the sun is not polarised – the waves are orientated in all directions. However, once the light hits a reflective surface some of the light becomes polarised, meaning that the light wave oscillates back and forth along the same plane as the surface it reflects from (typically fairly horizontal). This reflected light causes glare.

If a polarising film is created to only allow vertical light waves through, then the reflected glare is reduced. This works by blocking the horizontally oscillating polarised light waves which bounce back up off the shiny surface.

Think of a dog carrying a stick in it’s mouth – the dog can’t get through the gap in the fence as the stick won’t fit through sideways; the stick is the polarised light and the fence is the polarising filter in the eyewear.

These filters really help when fishing to see the fish in the water, can reduce surface glare for sailors and make driving in bright conditions more pleasant with reduced glare.

Can glare be a good thing?

When skiing or snowboarding, it’s not quite so simple, unfortunately.

Snow and ice can both look pretty similar but you can normally tell which bits are icy as more light is being reflected off the surface, so they appear shiny compared to the snow (more glare). If you use a normal polarising film on goggles then you reduce how easily we can differentiate between snow and ice.

This is where Phantom+ gets clever, using a semi-polarised film (50% polarisation).

Bollé is able to make the spaces in the polarising filter (the gaps in the fence) bigger, so you get some of the reflected light through, but not all. This really enhances how well you can pick out differences in the snow surface.

The best of both worlds – enough reflected light to see changes in the snow surface without the bright, distracting glare that can stop you seeing properly and lead to eye fatigue.

Snowsport goggle models from Bollé with Phantom+ lens are Northstar, Laika, Maddox, Nevada and Scarlett.

So that’s how Bollé boosts their Phantom lenses so they earn an extra little + symbol. But what is their standard Phantom lens tech?

PHANTOM TECHNOLOGIES

The Phantom lens combines four advanced technologies from Bollé, which can really enhance your on-snow experience.

The material the lens is made from is called NXT, which was originally used by the armed forces in jet canopies and helicopter windshields. It is tough!

Optical clarity

Optical clarity is key when designing performance eyewear.

NXT allows Bollé to create lenses with fantastic visual acuity, while still being lightweight (14% lighter than an equivalent polycarbonate lens). One of the benefits of a lighter lens is that you can increase the coverage without adversely affecting comfort, giving you a greater field of view (FOV) and improved protection.

Photochromic performance

Photochromic lenses are now common place, but one downside is the time it can take to transition from light to dark tints or vice versa, and some lenses may only cover 2 lens tint categories.

There are 5 lens categories from S0 to S4. S0 category lenses let the most light through, while S4 lenses let the least amount of light through.

Phantom lenses change tint quite rapidly. Bollé quote the change from a category S1 lens tint to S3 tint in 30 seconds. When skiing I tested this to see how rapidly the lens changed tint.

Lens tint transition speed

I tested the tint change on sunny days and the air temperature was around freezing.

I kept the lens covered so no UV was impacting the tint. Then I put the goggle on, removed the cover and timed to see how long it took until my eyes could be comfortable in the bright light. This was repeated on various days. It consistently took around 20 seconds for the lens to darken enough for my eyes to be comfortable.

One of the beauties of this photochromic lens is that it covers such a broad range of conditions. I used it for pretty much everything from bright blue sky, sunny days to cloudy, flat light days with snowfall.

Stability

Another issue you encounter with light sensitive lenses is how they behave in cold temperatures. If you’re in the mountains in winter this can be an issue.

The main problem is when it’s very cold. In these conditions photochromic lenses can remain quite dark, even when it’s really cloudy, leading to a lack of definition and issues picking your line down the slope.

Bollé uses something they call LTS technology to help eradicate this issue. LTS stands for Low Temperature Sensitivity. LTS is designed to ensure the Phantom lenses react the same across all three lens tint categories, S1 to S3, whether the temperature is -25°C or +5°C.

I never had an issue with the lens being too dark on cold, overcast days, so it seems to work. I know this is not very scientific, but I want to know if the technology works in real-life skiing situations, and it does.

If you want to find out more then visit the Bollé website or pop into your local snowsports retailer.