microcord
Maximum Pace
- Aug 28, 2012
- 1,069
- 535
firmoo.com is a China-based internet dealer in glasses and goggles. Read up about the company and you'll soon see that it hands out specs to bloggers who promise to review them, and you'll also see a lot of bland and curiously unconvincing praise.
Me, I paid money for a pair of goggles. Specifically, this model.
I used the prescription I'd got for a pair of glasses bought in Tokyo a month or so previously. Ordering was easy, PayPal was easy, airing (must we say "air shipment"?) was free, delivery was fast.
The case (marked βΛSTO 邦士度) was (is) enormous. Looking inside . . . I'd hoped that the technology of our advanced and wonderful western neighbour would produce the kind of amazing materials we see in some of the Zoff specs. Well, it doesn't. The black plastic nosepiece was twisted. It was attached to the plastic frame by one screw, the other having pretty much detached itself. The plastic of the frame somehow felt (feels) a bit like the plastic of novelty frames -- I half expect attachment of a large nose and bushy moustache.
I couldn't see how I could straighten the nosepiece and so politely pointed this out in email. After a little bit of amicable miscommunication, Firmoo promised to send me a replacement frame. All I'd have to do would be to move the lens part (the transparent thing behind the curved shades) from the first pair to the second.
I got the second package. I've no idea how to remove the transparent lens thing from the one pair and put it on the other (or anyway without severe risk of breaking something). So I decided not to switch them.
The goggles have (more or less) neutral-density shades attached. There's a set of alternatives. I've no idea how you are to pull out one pair and put in another pair. So I'm resigned to full-time neutral density, and a dubiously attached nosepiece.
The optics are done well. I can see through the glasses just fine. Uh, well, actually there's a lot of distortion, which I imagine is the result of the curvature of the shades. But Firmoo seems to have faithfully implemented my vital visual statistics.
When I stand up and walk around, there's a disconcerting amount of light coming in from below. But when I'm cycling, the angle of my head is such that all's well.
The glasses look as if even the smallest drop would break them, and this means that I don't dare leave home without also carrying another pair of specs. (And I wouldn't want to wear them anywhere poorly lighted.) That's more junk to carry around.
Well, I wore them today and they did the job. They're not all that comfortable: I want to push the frame back toward my eyes; at the same time I want to push the lens away from my eyes. It seems that these are goggles/sunglasses to which a lens is attached as a design afterthought: not the best way to design something like this. Zoff (for example) could surely come up with a better design, for a pair that doesn't threaten to collapse.
Me, I paid money for a pair of goggles. Specifically, this model.
I used the prescription I'd got for a pair of glasses bought in Tokyo a month or so previously. Ordering was easy, PayPal was easy, airing (must we say "air shipment"?) was free, delivery was fast.
The case (marked βΛSTO 邦士度) was (is) enormous. Looking inside . . . I'd hoped that the technology of our advanced and wonderful western neighbour would produce the kind of amazing materials we see in some of the Zoff specs. Well, it doesn't. The black plastic nosepiece was twisted. It was attached to the plastic frame by one screw, the other having pretty much detached itself. The plastic of the frame somehow felt (feels) a bit like the plastic of novelty frames -- I half expect attachment of a large nose and bushy moustache.
I couldn't see how I could straighten the nosepiece and so politely pointed this out in email. After a little bit of amicable miscommunication, Firmoo promised to send me a replacement frame. All I'd have to do would be to move the lens part (the transparent thing behind the curved shades) from the first pair to the second.
I got the second package. I've no idea how to remove the transparent lens thing from the one pair and put it on the other (or anyway without severe risk of breaking something). So I decided not to switch them.
The goggles have (more or less) neutral-density shades attached. There's a set of alternatives. I've no idea how you are to pull out one pair and put in another pair. So I'm resigned to full-time neutral density, and a dubiously attached nosepiece.
The optics are done well. I can see through the glasses just fine. Uh, well, actually there's a lot of distortion, which I imagine is the result of the curvature of the shades. But Firmoo seems to have faithfully implemented my vital visual statistics.
When I stand up and walk around, there's a disconcerting amount of light coming in from below. But when I'm cycling, the angle of my head is such that all's well.
The glasses look as if even the smallest drop would break them, and this means that I don't dare leave home without also carrying another pair of specs. (And I wouldn't want to wear them anywhere poorly lighted.) That's more junk to carry around.
Well, I wore them today and they did the job. They're not all that comfortable: I want to push the frame back toward my eyes; at the same time I want to push the lens away from my eyes. It seems that these are goggles/sunglasses to which a lens is attached as a design afterthought: not the best way to design something like this. Zoff (for example) could surely come up with a better design, for a pair that doesn't threaten to collapse.