By Derek Partridge

Founder of the British International Clay Target Shooting Federation
and Member of Great Britain International Trap Team (bunker)

In 1968, I wrote an article in Gun Digest entitled “Perazzi... the Ferrari of Shotguns”. Just as Perazzi was a pioneering manufacturer in creating guns purely for competition clay target shooting, so HiDefSpex is a pioneer in creating glasses specifically for competition shooters... and both Perazzi and HiDefSpex provide shooters with specialized, top quality products.

In 1953, while competing in the Grand Prix of Paris, my friend Michel Carrega (subsequently 4-time World Olympic Trap Champion and Olympic Silver Medalist) told me: “It’s all in the visual pick-up.” George Digweed (18 times World Sporting Clays Champion) never wore glasses, which he considered to be “extremely annoying”... until the rules obliged him to. Now, he wouldn’t be without his HiDefSpex Panthers... quite a change in attitude, and… he considers his Panthers to be “an unfair advantage”! I agree with him.

I had wondered why HDS were expensive compared to virtually all other shooting glasses. Simple... because HDS are unique and—in several ways—completely different from all other shooting glasses! Let’s set the stage by telling you that in the time it takes to painstakingly manufacture just one HDS Diamond Vision lens... a staggering 48,000 polycarbonate lenses come popping off the mass production line! You can have the most expensive gun and the best ammo... but without optimal vision, that mega-bucks Fabbri or a Perazzi will not perform any better for the shooter than... a $300 Mossberg!

When I started exterminating miniature flying saucers in 1953, there were green lenses and yellow ones... that was it. Today there are so many bewildering colors and shades of colors that it can be laughable, watching shooters in poor lighting conditions, changing lenses in between, and even during rounds—frantically rummaging through cases filled with 20–30 different lenses—in generally unsuccessful attempts to pick “the right” color or shade for the endless variety of changing light and background conditions. Generally, this only achieves utter confusion and consequent loss of confidence. Of course, it isn’t so funny when we’re the ones going through this frustrating process, trying to decide which lens is right at a given moment!

Panthers do not have a vast range of colors, which makes it so much simpler! In fact, they do not even refer to lens “color”. There is just one lens, which has been specially treated with their lens-infused technology to dramatically enhance orange, green and yellow targets. This aspect of their superior optical technology alone took 5 years for founding father, Carlo Pilla and company co-owner Philip (along with brother Ryan) to perfect. Their unique Light Management System permits clay shooters to see the full spectrum of all colors, which is critical to maintain correct depth of field vision for optimum accuracy. The lenses come in three basic degrees of intensity: #15 for bright sunny days, #25 for light clouds or overcast conditions and #40 for the poor light of dark, stormy days. They have now added #65, which is primarily for sporting clays shooters and hunters, when in really dark woodland settings. Lastly, there’s #99, which is for the specialized situation of shooting clays at night, under floodlights. The #99 has just a touch of yellow and enjoys the perfect optics associated with glass (as do all HDS lenses)... but with the added ballistic protection common to all HDS Diamond Vision lenses.

As a shooting journalist, over my 50 years of shooting sporting clays, DTL (ATA), skeet, universal trench, international trap and skeet, I have tried and tested most lenses on the market. I have now used the basic set of 3 Panther lenses in the lighting conditions for which each was designed and can categorically state the HDS ColorTrast technology enhanced orange, yellow and green targets much better than any other lens I have ever used. Not only that, but unlike all the various colored lenses, which turn the background the same color as the lens, the 3 Panther lenses do not change the background, rather... they mute it, thus providing the enhanced target with greater definition and contrast to stand out more clearly against whatever the background is. Even black targets are well defined in low light.

The full, wrap-around shield configuration provides clear, unobstructed vision, wherever your central and peripheral vision can see, throughout the entire lens curvature. I particularly appreciate this, as I always find it distracting to be aware of frames and the metal clips which retain most lenses. Interchangeable polycarbonate lenses are generally attached to their frames by metal retaining clasps, which sometimes cause the lens notches to chip. Panther lenses attach to the frame quickly and easily by their unique, Snap-Tec system, with 3, simple-to-use, snap buttons. On the front of each central snap is the light transmission number of that lens, to ensure the attachment of the correct lens for the prevailing light conditions. HDS lenses also provide 100% protection against all the sun’s damaging rays.

Unlike virtually every other existing polycarbonate lens, HiDefSpex Diamond Vision lenses are completely distortion free, throughout their entire wrap-around configuration. This is yet another unique HDS feature and brings us to one reason, why they are more expensive. Polycarbonate lenses are formed by injecting heated polycarbonate material, under very high pressure, into a mold, then cooling it very quickly... in less than 2 seconds. The combination of the high pressure, heating and cooling, is very stressful to the molecular structure of the material, resulting in slight flaws and optical distortions, which can be seen in the accompanying pictures. Flaws and distortion can cause shooters to squint, which not only reduces focus, but induces eye-fatigue... one of the shooter’s worst enemies.

Polycarbonate glasses cost so much less than Diamond Vision lenses, because they can be mass produced extremely inexpensively, but... polycarbonate lenses are sensitive to stress cracking, which is the last thing you want happening in the middle of a competition. The HDS lenses have a Quarz anti-static coating, which doesn’t attract dust and adds an additional hard coat to the lenses to provide the maximum possible scratch-resistance. And, “to gild the lily”... Panther lenses come with a lifetime warranty against breaking and cracking and will be replaced for a nominal charge of about $50.

Diamond Vision lenses start as a liquid which is poured into a mold, using neither pressure, nor heat. The polymerization process then takes an astonishing 20 hours to form into the desired shape. The result is a lens with zero-distortion and uniform optical properties... in other words: optical perfection. Why would any shooter want anything but perfect, distortion-free lenses? If you can’t see targets perfectly... you can’t avoid missing some of them.

To get technical: polycarbonate starts out with a higher refractive index than the HDS Diamond Vision material. This results in minor mold surface defects being amplified. Polycarbonate also has a lower Abbe index than HDS. The lower the Abbe index, the higher the chromatic dispersion, which relates to the effect on the wavelength of light deviation, eg: as it passes through a prism. The combination of polycarbonate’s high refractive index and the coating used on this material will cause a ray of white light passing through it, to split into a rainbow of different colors on the surface of the lens, effectively reducing the sharpness of the image to the shooter. HDS eliminate this problem, because their Diamond Vision lenses have a lower refractive index.

This time-consuming and costly HDS system was first developed by the military for ballistic armor, where no compromise in optics could be tolerated and where the polymer material had to be not just resistant to shotgun pellets, but—literally—bullet-proof. A demonstration of this can be seen at www.hidefspex.com. High speed impact on polycarbonate lenses results in permanent deformation of the lens, which means you can no longer see properly through it, whereas Diamond Vision lenses absorb the impact without any permanent deformation and the maintenance of good vision. Despite their ability to withstand high speed impact, HDS lenses are 10% lighter than polycarbonate and 20% lighter than CR-39, providing shooters with greater wearing comfort.

Like the lenses, Panther frames are hand-made, not mass-produced and come in three styles: either with a fixed nose piece or one with 10mm of vertical Ratch-Tec adjustment and—for HDS Sport Rx lenses—a large insert, placed behind the shield lens, with a fully adjustable brow bar lift. Sport Rx lenses come with the same 3-choice, ColorTrast technology and Light Management System. The temple arms of all three frames come with the same Ratch-Tec technology, as tiny ball bearings pop into 5 positions, giving users 20mm of adjustment to allow for different distances between their nose and ears. The ends of the temple arms also swivel from side-to-side, providing further comfort and custom-fitting for the wearer.

The previously mentioned unique degree of peripheral vision is enhanced by the design of the frame’s curved brow bar, causing it to wrap around the face, which—especially for Sporting Clays shooters—allows them to more easily visually acquire targets coming in from extreme angles. The combination of the curved HDS frame and lens produces 80% more peripheral target acquisition capability, compared to conventional straight or flat brow bars.

Another benefit of the Sport Wrap frame and lens design is to cut out ambient light entering the eyes from the open sides of conventional, flat brow bar glasses. This unfiltered, ambient light can cause visual distraction, squinting and resultant visual discomfort. The HDS design allows your eyes to fully concentrate on target acquisition, without any visual distraction.

The smallest details did not escape scrutiny by HDS President Philip Pilla during the two years he spent refining all aspects of the Panther design with 15-time World Sporting Clays Champion, George Digweed. Even the nose pad is unique and I found there was none of the irritating—and sometimes painful—pressure of conventional nose pads on the bridge of my nose.

Their ColorTrast enhancement system not only assists the clay target shooter... but makes a positive contribution to wildlife conservation too. It enables hunters to distinguish the distinctive color markings of eg: cock pheasants and drakes and therefore not mistake them for the drabber females of the species and so avoid shooting them, whenever the intent is to kill males only. Naturally this results in more birds laying eggs and so more birds not only for next season’s shooting... but for the whole environment too.

HiDefSpex achieves superior performance by applying science to target shooting sports, which provides their customers with what George Digweed accurately described as “an unfair advantage”!

It’s all best summed up by Philip Pilla’s mission statement: “I have worked very hard to make the best available. We make no compromise in materials or technology.”

In closing, I would challenge anyone to refute my assessment that the utterly unique High Definition Spectacles equal high performance and high scores.