Difference Between Cylindrical & Spherical Goggles

At the top of a mountain in 6 inches of fresh powder, snowboard in hand, the last thing you want to worry about is whether your goggles are going to fog up or distort your vision. Snowboard enthusiasts encourage beginners to try on a variety of goggles, paying particular attention to the fit and feel of the equipment. Although lens technology in general has greatly improved, most serious snowboarders agree that spherical lenses offer marked advantages over cylindrical lenses in terms of clarity and reliability.

  1. Lens Shape

    • A cylindrical lens is curved only on the horizontal plane. This means they curve from left to right over the curved horizontal plane of your face, but are flat across the vertical plane of your face from eyebrow to cheekbone. Spherical lenses are curved in both the vertical and horizontal plane. They not only match the curve of the face more closely, but they also mimic the shape of the eyes.

    Distortion

    • While cylindrical lenses provide a non-distorted peripheral view, they distort objects above and below. Since spherical lenses are curved on both the horizontal and vertical planes, they eliminate distortion in objects above and below you. They also follow the shape of the human eye more closely and this creates increased clarity in the lens.

    Ventilation

    • Although all snowboarding goggles have some type of anti-fog protection, cylindrical lenses generally have only a basic anti-fog coating. High-end cylindrical lenses have an adjustable, lens ventilation system but since the lens itself is less technologically advanced than the spherical lens, problems with fogging may still occur. With spherical lenses, the shape of the lens actually increases the interior volume of the goggles. This allows for more air flow through the goggles. Additionally, spherical lenses often have the anti-fog coating burned into the lenses rather than just applied as a coating.

    FOV and Eye Fatigue

    • Field of vision (FOV) refers to how much you can see around you. With cylindrical lenses, peripheral vision is more limited and you can always see the goggle's frame. Spherical lenses open up the FOV in all directions. Due to the distortion in the vertical plane of a cylindrical lens, eye fatigue is more likely to occur. A spherical lens removes this distortion and lessens eye fatigue considerably.