It’s hard reviewing eye pro because you need a year or two of hard use on them to get a feel for if they’re any good, but the manufacturers change model numbers/names so frequently that reviews aren’t useful after a couple years. I’ve got a year and a half of hard use on these Smith Optics Aegis Echo II’s, using them at my many Mapleseed events, 3 gun matches, and many, many range trips I took during Covid, so it’s time for a review.
Why’d I buy this set of eye pro?
Usually, I run $15 fog-proof cheapies. I treat them like garbage, they get scratched to shit, I throw them out and use new ones. Clarity isn’t great on those cheapies, and the arms are usually kinda thick. Since I wear electronic muffs when RO’ing or running Mapleseeds, I wanted something with super thin arms at the temple. Thick arms with muffs on top put enough pressure on your temples to give you a headache pretty quickly.
ESS Eyewear has the very thin Crossbows, but the only ones I could find were in “copper tint” which I thought looked lame and there are few Canadian retailers. These Smith Optics eye pro cost $20 more, but they came with both a clear and tinted lenses so I got them instead.
Thoughts after a year and a half of hard use
- Super easy to wear all day
- The rubber on the arms now slip back and forth on the metal underneath, which is kind of annoying. Maybe I’ll hit them with a dab of superglue to stop that.
- The case is kind of bulky, but it is nice to store the 2 lens and a cleaning cloth along with some foamy ear plugs
- The lens locking mechanism is really secure, but I get fingerprints on them every time I change them
- The lenses have enough ventilation around them that they never fog on me (even anti-fog lenses will fog if they seal too well against your face)
These are pretty minor annoyances for what I get in return: really nice clarity, a quick switch to tinted or clear depending on the weather of the day, no headaches from smashing the arms into your temples, excellent anti-fog, and a fairly reasonable price. The tinted lenses are a bit too “Maverick” for me to wear while shoot bossing without feeling subconscious about them.
