A week with the Encrhoma colorblind glasses
It’s been over a week since I started with the Enchroma colorblind glasses. My dad got me a pair as a belated birthday gift and I really dug them. I liked them so much I wanted to use them indoors, which unfortunately as I got the Apollo sunglasses version they didn’t particularly work well inside.
I ended up ordering a pair of the indoor glasses as I discovered very much to my sadness that I spend far too much time indoors, writing, reading, and otherwise staying out of the sun. I got those yesterday. Here’re my thoughts.
First off, unfortunately I’m not one of the people who breaks down into tears from seeing color. I’m not your ideal reaction video. I mostly just notice that things look different, and unfortunately I still can’t pass a colorblind test. I can differentiate colors a lot easier though.
Outdoors is damned pretty with the sunglasses version, and pretty with the indoor versions of the glasses but not as much. From what I’m reading this means I’m either going to start seeing things better in about a week or I’m so colorblind that the indoor glasses aren’t going to do much. That’s sad but ok as I can return them in the next 60 days or so.
As someone who’s been red/green colorblind my entire life I tend to think that things now look wrong and garish. My outfits and house especially. The wall in my living room I thought was mostly grey with hints of blue I see it’s blue with a hint of grey. My baby who I thought was pale is a pink little monster.
I was at a friend’s house on Thursday and gave her fiance who I thought was more colorblind than me a shot at the sunglasses. I wish I’d been recording as the string of joyful profanity at seeing a spectrum heretofore unseen was a testimonial I’d wanted to be exclaiming.
I want to jump and down and testify they’re working. I really do. It would be nice if “colorblind” weren’t in the adjectives that I have to present myself with. But at eight days in I think I may be one of the 20% that the glasses don’t do wonders for. I mean I can tell what colors things are significantly better, so at least there’s that.
The indoor versions of the glasses have significantly less effect for me than the sunglass versions. I tried the indoor ones outdoors and while red is much clearer, green doesn’t stand out in 500 shades like it does with the outdoor pair.
I will note though that the indoor glasses tend to feel like I’m seeing color better over time however so that’s odd.
On a note – the indigo in the sky disappeared at four days on the other glasses. I’m trying to remember if I was in my car every time I saw it because I discovered the window tint looks indigo on one of my windows. I’ve also discovered that LED outdoor billboards can look extremely weird and off.
It feels a little like the outdoor glasses work by enhancing the red and green spectrum, and the indoor glasses work by boosting the blue. Weirdness.
Anyway, continuing to test ’em.
