Photographers often find themselves outdoors when working or creating so therefore on sunny days, a good pair of sunglasses is essential. Now, there are countless options out there when it comes to sunglasses, but what about ones designed by photographers for photographers?
Kolari Shades is a new venture by the company well known for making IR filters, Kolari Vision. Using their background and knowledge from the photographic industry, Kolari Vision is introducing high-quality sunglasses specifically tailored to photographers’ needs.
At the moment, Kolari has launched a pre-Kickstarter of sorts. They are essentially allowing folks to pre-reserve the discounted crowdfunding campaign price now for $1. Then when the Kickstarter launches, each reservation will receive a 40% discount for the sunglasses. There is no release date planned yet for the Kickstarter however.
Kolari Shades feature high-quality materials such as titanium frames and corning gorilla glass with anti-reflective, anti-smudge coatings as well as UV and IR blocking technology. Interestingly, they also say the shades are anti-facial recognition.
Frames can be either gold or gray and there are 5 different lens options: Basic (UV Block, 90% IR Block), Basic Polarized, Ultra (UV Block, 99% IR Block), Ultra Polarized, and Ultra Gradient.
Reserving the frames for $1 on Kolari’s pre-campaign website will entitle you to the 40% discount, which makes the discount price (depending on the lens option selected) $119 – $179 (MSRP $219-$339).
“Kolari Shades are the only sunglasses built by photographers, for photographers. Featuring ultra-strong Gorilla Glass—the first glass strong enough to meet FDA impact resistance requirements for eyewear—our all-new sunglasses provide unparalleled sharpness and color neutrality while also blocking harmful IR light from reaching your eyes. Topped with our renowned scratch-resistant, anti-reflective coatings and housed in a titanium frame, the Kolari Shades boast exceptional clarity and durability with a premium feel.” – Kolari Vision
The company has been creating products in the IR photography space since 2008 and as a small startup team, they say this allows them to invest more back into invention and innovation.
Head over to this link to see the reservation page for the Kolari Shades.
If you are interested in finding out more about the company and its other products, head over to the main website page linked here.
Interesting idea. What I use are those old un-cool string eyeglass holders that let you hang the sunglasses around your neck. Just pull the glasses off and drop them, raise camera to eye, and see a nice bright viewfinder.
David, I am fully with you. I let my glasses dangle from my neck on a string. It’s so uncool that it’s about to set a trend. What’s more? Well, no worries with regards to high eye point viewfinders etc.
Ok, this only works if you still have ok vision or use diopters as needed.
Much ado about nothing. All sunglasses by major optical companies block UV 100%. Any sunglasses, made of glass, blocks UV 100% as that is a natural property of glass. Only CR39 plastic needs a UV dye since all high index plastics block UV 100%. IR is not something an average person needs to worry about as it would take an intense exposure to do damage such as working with lasers at Lawrence Livermore Labs. In a normal environment we are fine and have been for eons. I am an eye doctor and I have been wearing Polaroid Brown C with back surface ARC for going on 52 years. Polaroids naturally block all UV and light reflecting off horizontal surfaces that we interpret as glare.