Oakley Standard Issue, a division of Oakley, Inc has released a new lens system at the 2014 SHOT Show.  The new lens system is called Prizm, and comes in two shades, TR22 for brighter days and TR45 for lower light situations.  The lens systems are unique in that they pull out the color of targets, both steel and cardboard while they also diminish the colors of the background.

Developed in conjunction with the Army Marksmanship Unit using their direct input as to what colors they wanted to see better, Oakley was able to come up with the Prizm system.  “The Prizm technology utilizes the adjustment or “tuning” of dyes in order to heighten specific colors as it relates to both the sport application and environment of the user.” from the Oakley SI press release.

TR45, TR22 and Clear for comparison. (From top to bottom)

The Prizm lenses also block 100% of UVA/UVB and violet-blue up to 400nm, they are ANSI Z87.1 2003/2010 and MIL PRF 32432 compliant for their impact ratings.  They are also made with an anti-fog, scratch resistant hard coating.  They will be made with the same high quality, optical grade polycarbonates.

Having worn the lenses, and seen both their demo and been able to wear them in the outdoors, I can say that there are colors that definitely pop, while others fade to the background.  One color that really tends to stand out is tan colors, like cardboard targets.  The Prizm system makes the target much clearer while diminishing the greens that we tend to have behind out targets here in the Northwest.  Oakley SI has really done their homework in terms of finding a lens system that will really be useful to shooters.

They new lenses are going to be available in M-Frame 3.0, Flak Jacket and Radar frames, and are due to be released in late January 2014.  A full review of the lens system will be coming soon.