You can find many good quality goggles on the market, but sometimes the price of those really worth attention may put you off. Swisseye not only produces glasses that are very good quality, it also offers them at quite reasonable prices. Specbrands.pl, the Polish distributor, provided us with one of their two flagship models – the RAPTOR.
The brand Swisseye was founded in 1998 in Germany. The company offers many models of sports, protective and professional glasses – which include among others – the TACTICAL line, for ballistic protection. From information gained from the Polish distributor, we learned that Swisseye is a brand increasingly appreciated by uniformed forces in Western Europe, while the featured RAPTOR – is one of the most popular models among military officers and the police (used also by the Spanish Air Force and Slovenian army).
The kit that I received for testing included:
- Raptor holder,
- three interchangeable lenses (amber, clear and tinted)
- soft case for the glasses (which can also be used as a cloth to wipe the lens)
- cloth to wipe the lens (with the SpecBrands.pl logo)
- user manual,
- brochure,
- cardboard box.
CONSTRUCTION
The spectacles’ frame is made of a flexible plastic material. The model that I received was additionally coated with Coyote paint.
The overall design has been very cleverly thought out. The interchangeable lenses snap into place as does the nose pad.
The folding side arms allow adjustment in two dimensions (length and angle), allowing you to adjust the glasses to your face.
The arms’ ends have protruding bumps that improve the glasses’ stability.
The RAPTOR glasses meet the standards of eye protection such as STANAG 2920 * and EN 1836: 2005 + A1: 2007 and ANSI Z87 / ANSI Z87 + ** (details about these standards can be found at the end of the review).
The lenses are covered with layers of Antifog and Antiscratch coating and provide protection against ultraviolet rays: UVA-, UVB- and UVC- (400 nm).
USE
The RAPTOR glasses spent a few months with me. During this time, they served as a ballistic eye protection during trainings and airsoft skirmishes, as well as protective goggles while doing household chores and fieldwork.
I have to admit the RAPTORs did great. They are very comfortable and lightweight – you can barely sense their presence on your nose. Thanks to the possibility of configuring the glasses’ side arms, the goggles stick firmly to the head and can be fairly well adapted to different face shapes.
However, after prolonged use the Coyote paint coating in the frames slightly wore off (particularly at the protruding edge, which can be seen on the pictures). Probably, this problem does not occur in the black colour version. It would be better if the manufacturer simply cast the frames in a desired shade of plastic without covering it with a layer of paint.
The three interchangeable lenses allow you to adapt the glasses to current weather conditions. Tinted lenses offer good protection against the sun, while the amber version improves contrast vision on cloudy days. The ‘clear’ lenses can be used in poor light conditions. These glasses also allow for the use of corrective inserts, which can be installed after purchasing an RX adapter.
The lenses offer good protection against various debris, splashes, or airsoft BB’s. I blasted them with bursts from an airsoft replica with a muzzle velocity of approx. 450 fps, at a distance of approx. 0.5 meters. Of course, this is hardly a real-life situation but I wanted to test them really hard.
Firing shots at the same point of the lenses’ surface created some distortion in the material, however, there was no penetration, which means that the lenses provide complete eye protection.
What bothered me however, was a crack that appeared on the upper part of the frame, in the vicinity of the BB’s impact. From the inside there was a fairly large piece of plastic that broke off and thus weakened the frame’s structure.
I would like to mention that there was no direct hit to the frame, the gap must have been created by the tension and vibration coming from the lenses.
And here I’d like to give an important message to all users: you can easily buy a separate frame as almost every other part of glasses, i.e. side arms (also single), nose pads, lenses and so on. This is a huge benefit as it greatly reduces the cost of maintaining the glasses. In the event of damage to the product we don’t need to buy a whole new set.
The SwissEye RAPTOR is a good alternative for reputable and well-known brands, especially in terms of price (compared to i.e. the ESS brand). They provide excellent eye protection and are very comfortable.
Advantages:
+ High-quality materials and attention to detail,
+ design,
+ low weight,
+ can be adjusted,
+ possibility of buying individual components.
Drawbacks:
– excess material on the frame,
– frame coating wears off (CB version),
– frames cracked during endurance test at close range.
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SPECIFICATION:
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* STANAG 2920 – ballistic protection standard introduced in NATO since 1985. This method determines the parameter V50, indicating the speed in m/s, at which there is a 50% probability that shrapnel of a standard weight of 1.1 g will penetrate the ballistic shield.
** ANSI Z87 / ANSI Z87 + is an acronym for the American National Standard International (American National Standards), which covers the basic requirements for eye and face protection aimed at minimizing the effects of shrapnel impact.
The Swisseye glasses brand can be purchased from the Polish distributor Specbrands.pl
/Roger/
Translated by /Siemion/
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