Reviews

Smith Optics Elite AEGIS Arc Multicam

Operator7

Eye protection in Airsoft is critical. Without it you’ll risk losing your valuable and vital eyesight. The worst accident that can happen in Airsoft is not breaking an arm or a tooth, but rather losing an eye due to inexistent or poor eye shields. So an eye shield should be your very second purchase, right after you bought yourself an Airsoft gun.

Of course just like buying an Airsoft gun, you’ll notice there’s huge selection of eye protection that will range from goggles, sunglasses, glasses, masks, to mesh goggles.

Now if let’s think about each one for a while:

Goggles tend to fog up on winter and can become rather hot and bulky for summer (except in a sandstorm where they are extremely useful), even if you buy a good pair of goggles, they will always be rather large and cumbersome.

Sunglasses will be useless in low light environments, so you might have to buy a pair of protection or safety glasses with clear lenses, making you spend twice the money.

Some masks have integrated eye shields, but they mainly serve for CQB, since they’ll be hot in the summer and will surely fog up on winter unless they have some ventilation system.

Then, there’s mesh goggles, which as the urban airsoft legend says could cause a BB to shatter and fragments will slice and dice your eyeballs as they can go through the holes of the mesh mask…  Well perhaps not as dramatic as that, but we’ve all seen BBs shattering on impact on some surfaces when fired at close range, so I personally wont risk on this kind of protection cause you just never know…

Finally there’s the Aegis Arc from Smith Optics Elite which in my view offers the best of both worlds: sunglasses and protection glasses.

BUILD QUALITY AND EYE PROTECTION

These eye shields are divided in two parts: the frame and the lens. The frame is made of a plastic compound that is both flexible and strong.

You will notice that on the frame there are two latches or pivots that hold the lens in place. Once you push these up, they will allow you to remove the lens from the frame simply by pulling it down.

Smith Optics called this system the PivLock Interchangeable Technology, and its purpose is to change your lens on the fly as fast as it be done and believe me it takes only a few seconds. Say you start an airsoft game by day and it will only end at night, or you were expecting a cloudy day at the field but soon it turns out to be quite sunny. You can quickly change lenses in these scenarios so it’s like having two protection glasses.

Also the way the frame wraps around my head and the material used helps the glasses stay in place when running, even if I’m sweating. Also the rubber used on the nose piece has a great grip and this is a critical place where most glasses will slip especially if you are sweaty.

Now the lenses are of course of ballistic grade and they meet US Standard MIL-PRF-31013, ANSI Z87.1-2003 and EN 166 standards, which is in short is more than enough for us airsoft players.

Taking a closer look, both lenses show a number, which is proof that you’ll own a pair of ballistic protection glasses, since this is part of a serialization protocol used in ballistic helmets production that ensures backward tracking and management of all the products produced by a certain company and to their testing.

If these lenses withstand a shotgun projectile impact then they will most certainly cope with thousands of impacts from BBs in Airsoft, so you can consider these as a long term acquisition.

Also, these lenses provide added protection to the eyes since they cover such a wide area, any BBs shot at you from the side will most definitely be deflected by the wide angular lens. And the fact that the shape of the frame and lens get so close and snug to your face means that there’s also lesser probability that a stray BB will enter and get in contact with your eyes via the gap between your face and the lens.

The curved shape of course helps to the added protection but it doesn’t get in the way of your vision, since it was engineered to correct distortion created by this curve, giving me a wide angle of unobstructed clear vision, unlike many goggles and masks out there.

The Aegis Arc lenses have also been treated with a fog and scratch resistant coating. The anti-fog coating works beautifully. As for the scratch resistant, note that it's not anti-scratch, it does its job and prevents many scratches, especially from incoming BB impacts. However, I have seen some scratches appear after two or three months I’ve been using and abusing them. Nothing too much visible, but they will appear. One of the nicest things about the Aegis Arc is that whenever you want, you can just replace your lenses with a new one.

For those sunny days these lenses provide 100% protection from harmful UVA/UVB/UVC rays, which is also very important to have if you work outdoors or train a lot in the sun.

Finally, in case you need to use these with prescription lenses, Smith Optics also offer an interchangeable RX system that is designed for both the OTW Goggle and Aegis Eyeshield use.

FEATURES AND CAMO

The pack I’m reviewing is the Field Kit, and it features the Multicam frame, two interchangeable lenses (a clear and a gray), a strap, the small carrying bag and an anti-fog wipe. There is also an option for a yellow lens that you can either buy or order together with you glasses.

Anyway, I really like the strap, which helps me a lot since I am a very distracted person and I just keep losing stuff because I can’t remember where I leave things.

So the head strap allows me to remove the glasses when needed and instead of just placing them somewhere and just forgetting about them, they are on me all the time, protecting my investment simply from losing them somewhere on the field or on the parking lot.

The Multicam pattern is very nice addition to AEGIS, since the frame now totally blends in with your Multicam helmet or cap.

One of the nice things I’ve been noticing is that they also blend nicely when I’m wearing my A-TACS AU loadout, so it should blend even better with the newest A-TACS FG!

CONCLUSION

When using these on the field, I couldn’t help noticing that they are really light and very comfortable, adapting very well to my face. It’s like they’re not there most of the time. And this is the most important aspect to me: to have eye protection and to barely notice you are wearing it because it won’t give you any trouble for being cumbersome, or heavy.

If you want to be both protected and look cool, the AEGIS Arc protective glasses are indeed the way to go. They provide certified impact and UV protection and interchangeable lenses at a very reasonable price: around $90, or £69.99 in the UK or around 70€.

Pros

  • Ballistic resistant is cool to say and better to wear.
  • Multicamed!
  • Interchangeable lenses design is a no brainer
  • Lightweight and very comfortable

Cons

  • None

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