Oakley 3D Gascan Peepers Review: Pimp But Pricey

3D movies are here to stay, for at least another year. So why are you still picking up crappy disposable specs every time you hit the multiplex? Oakley’s 3D Gascan shades promise better optics — and permanence.

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Colour and light looked better in these glasses than the hand-out pair the theatre gave me. The screen didn’t look quite so muddy. Still images popped more. Even when I looked through the corners of the glasses, next to the frame, the image looked great. They also fit better. They were both more comfortable, and wrapped around my eyes to a greater extent, so I never saw the outside edges of the glasses, which made for a more immersive experience. And they’re damn tough. I tried to scratch them with my keys and failed.

Some of the best things about these glasses are more intangible. When you drop your Real3D specs off in one of those bins outside a movie, they’re typically transported to a recycling centre where they’re washed or recycled, inspected, and then shipped back to theatres again. That’s a lot of interstate transport, and a lot of single-time use assuming many get damaged. I like the concept of buying my own and opting out of that chain. And then there’s the appearance. Most 3D glasses are aggressively ugly, so much so that I’ve even seen hipsters wearing them in public. These actually look like regular sunglasses.

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Oakley promises a lot with these, but to be honest I had a hard time telling enough of a difference between the 3D Gascan and the garden variety handouts to justify the price. In the area it matters most, crosstalk, I couldn’t really tell much of a difference at all. Basically, anytime there was some really fast action onscreen, I picked up on crosstalk. This is a fundamental problem with 3D that even the best glasses in the world aren’t going to fix.

Oakley 3D Gascan
Price: $US120
Oakley.com

Should I Buy These?

Maybe. But probably not. Look, they’re very nice. The optics are better than the movie theatre glasses and they’re damn near indestructible. But $US120, is a lot of coin to drop for a marginal performance improvement. How many 3D movies do you see a year? If your main concerns are comfort, experience and you’ve got a hell of a lot of disposable income, by all means, go for it. But if you’re hoping these will solve the problems of blurry pictures in a 3D movie, you’re going to be disappointed.


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