It is not just about light transmision.
Those specs don;t tell you anything.
How much reflected light is actually absorbed?
Reflected light will cause major damage to your eyes....but hey, there just your eyes right....
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i agree i don't know exactly what those above specs mean, thats just really the only thing the website lists lol.

I do understand that the polarized will basically all horizontal light waves out, leaving you with mainly the verticle hense a polarized filter which in turn takes away any glare.

I don't really go snowboarding...fishing takes too much effort (ok maybe not, but i live in a big city, no lakes in the city) and yeah, i guess all in all driving/normal wear and to make me look cool is what they'll be used for. So i told em to order up the titanium's!

What the polarization does is reduce the amount of reflected light that enters the eye. Of this reflected light, regular Oakleys (for sake of argument) still block out UV rays which are the damaging rays. You may suffer from more glare without polarized lenses but to outright say that without polarization you are "not protecting your eyeballs" is a questionable statement at best. What you are doing is possibly not giving yourself the "best" vision possible in that glare can wash out detail. For some people glare causes eye strain.

As for light transmission, what is the purpose of sunglasses in the first place? To reduce the strength of the light that enters your eyes? To protect your eyes from what is considered the most dangerous - UV rays? To reduce glare? All of the above. To say that light transmission tells you nothing is also a questionable statement at best. If you look at the lens transmission profiles on the Oakley website you will see that all lenses do the following:

1) Block all UV rays.
2) Reduce the strength of light that reaches your eyes.

In addition, certain lenses will increase contrast where it might be considered necessary ... i.e. an overcast day, which is one of the benefits of polarization.

I'm not arguing that polarization can be a good thing, it certainly can. Whether an individual needs polarized sunglasses for $100 more is a judgement call. Regular sunglasses of a decent quality will still block all of the UV rays and protect your eyes. Oakleys certainly will.

Disclaimer: I am not an optometrist, what I have learned is from my own personal research.

I just bought some polarized Ray Bans and I love em.
Great driving sunglasses (my eyes are really sensitive to bright light).

Appreciate that response-not biased and well thought out! I do understand what you're saying/sad and agree to pretty much all of it, only unfortunately in my case the polarized ones would be i think $60 cheaper retail! But either way....everything is all good and either sunglass should kick ass

You will not be disapointed with the Iridium ones. I have been wearing Iridium's for the past 6-8 years. I still wear them golfing. I love them. I alos have the Fires on my "daily" glasses. Almost time for a third pair I think. I want to get the X Metals, but the $575 price tag is a little steep. But they are wicked glasses.
http://oakley.ca/catalog/colors/eyew...4k_24k_iridium

I like the Monster Dogs too. I have a big head, so I need big glasses. Don't know if I am stoked on the camo though...
http://oakley.ca/catalog/colors/eyew...hite_camo_grey

i was originally set on those x-metal twenties....the 24k one's yeah...Nor sure if it's worth it, but you can get them brand new on ebay for about $199US that's like $265cdn....which although you don't get warranty...i'd say is worth it!

For some reason, i never got the x-metals, well i ran outta money the first time, they were gonna cost me $340 thru an authorized dealer...but yeah....then last time i went and looked, a few people said no to the xmetals on me...so i'm on to the a-wire which are hella comfortable with the flex frames, and a fairly classy lookin sunglass! I really wish i coulda pulled those x-metals off, they're such a hot lookin set in my eyes. As well not sure if you can still get them, but they used to have a Juan Pablo Montoya which was a signature series sunglass or something, they were pretty hot!!!

The iridiums are nice. I have owned three pairs of oakleys and my fave was the iridium. I have a pair of splice's right now that I got to replace my stolen juliets *shakes fist at criminals*
mine (black iridium:) http://oakley.ca/catalog/enlarge_two..._black_iridium

[ March 23, 2004, 04:31 PM: Message edited by: Toolman ]

I would go with the iridium

I have a pair of bolle polarized glasses, and a pair of Oakley Wisdom snowboarding goggles with Black iridium lenses (i also have a pair of oakley minutes and fives). By far I prefer the iridiums over all the others

Obviously I dont use them for driving or golf or anything, but a day on the slopes I really like the Wisdom goggles