The Facts
- Fact: 80% of everything we perceive comes through our eyes making the sight connection to your specific surroundings and target is extremely critical to your success
- Fact: Every environment has its own visual characteristics and clues
- Fact: If you are using the “one lens fits all” approach, "blue mirror is for offshore, green for inland," or even manipulating just one aspect of the color spectrum... you're using outdated technology
The Advantage
Each lens is a product of 1000’s of hours of field research and developed to our rigorous standards by the world’s leading precision optics experts. Capitalizing on the advances in color research science, PBO lenses are designed to enhance color and contrast in specific environments providing greater detail and revealing more than what’s perceptible by the naked eye. PBO is a substantial leap forward in the science of sunglasses.
The Payoff
The payoff is simple; the clearest, most technologically advanced sun optics ever made. Each lens is purposely designed to give you the highest optical performance in every situation so you can make the most of every opportunity. You spend a lot of time and treasure pursuing your undeniable passion. Your eyesight is your most important advantage. You owe it to yourself to demand the best.
What you need to know about PBO
Hook and Bullet PBO has established a new standard in sun lens optimization. The result is a choice of 17 lenses specifically engineered to optimize your perception of the outdoors. There are several key aspects of manipulating a sun lens to protect your eyes and to perform optimally is a specific environment. These are:
UV Protection
The Science: Ultraviolet is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength from 10 nm to 400 nm. The human eye can perceive light, and thus colors, from approximately 380 nm to 700 nm wavelength.
We’re all aware of the damage UV rays can do to our skin, yet few of us realize the effect UV rays can have on our eyes. Your eyes are 10 times more sensitive to UV than your skin, but only 7% of the population is aware of the risks of UV to their eyes.
UV protection is achieved through a chemical applied to the lens that will block UV-A, UV-B and UV-C rays. It works equally well on clear lenses as it does tinted lenses. UV400, denoted by the “CE” logo on your Hook and Bullet frames ensures you that the lens is ISO tested and blocks 100% of ultraviolet radiation below 400 nm.
Mirror Coating
Mirror coating may be the most misunderstood aspect of sunglasses. The “color” of the mirror is often confused with the color of the lens. In the world of optics, the color of the lens is dictated by the tint not the mirror.
In our industry there exists a marketing myth that tries to convince you that the color of the mirror dictates the function of your lens. You might have heard, "You need a blue lens for offshore, green for freshwater…" This was good marketing but poor science.
Mirrors can be extremely beneficial in a sun lens as they reflect light rather than absorb it. Mirrors can affect some aspects of your sight picture, however, the mirror mostly influences aesthetic appeal, i.e. fashion. The styles and colors of mirrors come in a wide variety of choices. For PBO, the science of a lens is what takes place behind the mirror.
Color filtration
This is one of the key differentiating aspects of PBO. How our eyes and thus our brains perceive color, contrast, texture, vibrance, hue/saturation, exposure and many other aspects of the world can be enhanced through color filtration manipulation. These subtle changes have a tremendous impact on your sight picture. Analogous to a musical instrument, we use Color Spectrum Modeling to tune each PBO to give you the best sight picture of a particular environment. The result is lenses categorically grouped by pursuit providing more detail and revealing complex textures, subtle highlights, hidden shadows, and vibrant colors.
VIsible Light Transmisssion
The percentage of visible light (light in the 380 nm to 700 nm range) that is transmitted through a lens is what gives the perception of how light or dark a lens is. VLT not only plays a big role in your comfort and eye fatigue, but it also one of the first characteristics our team uses when choosing the correct lens for a particular environment. Living the Hook and Bullet life, you see a wide variety of environmental conditions. Each has its own unique demands when it comes to creating the perfect sight picture. For example, you would not choose the same lens for blue marlin where you are exposed to the intense sun and reflection of being offshore as you would fishing for rainbow trout in a shaded Nevada river.
Polyamide Lens
PBO lenses are made of Polyamide, a high performance engineered synthetic nylon fiber. This material favorably impacts all aspects of lens design and usage. Durability, protection, weight, and the ability to work well the demands of PBO were critical to choosing Polyamide. However, none of this would matter if clarity was overlooked.
The Science:The Abbe value of a lens material determines how much chromatic aberration the lens produces.
In simple terms the amount of aberration directly impacts the amount of blur. Thus, in layman’s terms, we usually think of the Abbe value as it scales the clarity of a lens. The higher the value, the clearer the lens. For example, a polycarbonate lens has an Abbe value of around 30. While very inexpensive to produce, is a very poor choice of a sun lens because of the low Abbe score. Optical glass on the other hand scores high on the Abbe scale but has significant drawbacks to the outdoorsman such as weight and likelihood to shatter if dropped. Science dealt us a good hand with the advent of Polyamide. It has an optical clarity that exceeds glass with the strength of being an impact resistant lens.
engineered for
every conceviable theater
Embrace your obsession!
PBO Series
OFFSHORE
The harsh sunlight radiating off of waves from all angles reflecting off a white deck makes the blue water pursuit one of the most visually challenging environments in the world. Having the ability to distinguish the subtle difference between cross chop and a bill or dorsal fin behind a teaser can be the difference between a great day and a very expensive boat ride.
PBO Series
Inshore and Flats
Whether you’re sight casting for redfish or picking off bonefish on the flats in Walker’s Cay, the PBO Inshore and Flats series ensures you the clearest target acquisition available at the blink of an eye. Reading shadows, texture and contrast are the name of this game.
PBO Series
Freshwater
The freshwater game is changing and your vision has never been more important. As one of our crappie pros tells us "Clarity and the ability to see beyond the water’s surface is the difference between a fun day on the water and lean'in on'em!"
PBO Series
Hunting and shooting
The PBO Hunting and Shooting series is all about rapid target acquisition. Your time is limited. Make the most of every opportunity!
PBO Series
LightPro*
PBO LightPro* Technology by ZEISS is a revolutionary lens that offers the benefits of polarized sunglasses while allowing a clear view of your electronic panels. No more dark displays!
Does Environment really make a difference?
Long before the lab coats with their advanced computer modelling algorithms got involved, it was an optical illusion that validated our path. By definition, an optical illusion is when your visual system perceives something arguably different than reality. For example, in the image to the right, square B looks considerably lighter than square A. However, the color on both squares is precisely the same shade of grey. The shadow cast by the green cylinder varies the colors surrounding square B and tricks your brain into believing squares A and B are different colors. In an outdoor environment, something as simple as a shadow cast by a tree on a river can alter your reality
Can a shadow change your perception of color?