Black vs transparent mask

[Siku]

I've seen a few discussions here about masks - small volumes and compressibility, as well as the benifits of plastic over glass. I'm hoping I'll find somewhere (in London?) to try a few for fit.

But I'm a bit confused about the benifits of black vs transparent frames and skirt. I've noticed a few people praising black (looks cool?) but surely transparent allows for greater range of vision (even though distorted I can still see shapes or movements through my transparent scuba mask frame/skirt).

I suppose that begs the question of best mask for range of vision, but no doubt there's a thread on that already...

Black, transparent, black... transparent...?

 

[spaghetti]

A transparent mask gives trouble to vision because of reflex, refraction of light and other light related issues. Black skirts prevent this problem.
If you wear a transparent mask yes, you'll have an overall brighter general perception of what's around you, but not a good vision of it because the reflex et cetera will make it harder to focus on things.
More over, if you're spearfishing, dark masks help to hide your face to the fish (they think humans are ugly...).

 

[spaghetti]

Forgot to mention that transparent masks are still good as a recreational/snorkelling mask, due to that pleasant impression of a brighter environment they provide.

But if you need to focus on details for any specific purpose, you go black: it isn't for nothing that spearfishers, military divers, professional divers (underwater welders et cetera) use black masks in 99 cases on 100.

 

[sancarlos]

I also noticed that black silicone seems to be softer than transparent one (at least on 5-6 masks I had a chance to compare, and Spaghetty is right, black masks much more comfortable due to the lack of reflection and scuttered light from the sides transparent masks have.

 

[azapa]

transparent mask skirts end up a dirty yellowy color anyway with time, but I have tried both and they seem fine. Better a low volume well fitting mask with clear skirt than a bad black skirt mask. If you see what I mean ??

What Spago is trying to say, being Italian, is that Black also looks COOLER too

 

[cdavis]

Another light related issue is reflection of light off the inside of the lense of a clear skirted mask. This mostly happens on the surface. Your brain interprets the reflections as movement within your field of vision but not quite exactly where your eye is focused. When spearfishing and looking hard for fish moving, those reflections make make me completely crazy.

Connor

 

[nickridiculous]

Another factor is that a black mask, being a bit darker, can help preserve your dark vision during your surface interval. less sun light leaking in the mask skirt means your eyes won't stop down as much and you'll see a bit more on your drops.

 

[Simos]

It's down to personal preference really and the type of diving you do, most people probably prefer black. Personally I go for transparent masks these days - do try a few different masks on and see what works for you.


If you are in London, you are more than welcome to come to our club, NoTanx. Either drop me a line or just send an email through the NoTanx website - would be cool to meet you and there are lots of masks you can try..
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[DRW]

There's a five-year-old thread with 100 messages on Scubaboard debating clear versus black silicone mask skirts:

Clear Mask Skirt vs. Black Mask Skirt - ScubaBoard

Clear silicone skirted masks were at one time an expensive option for people with latex allergies. I believe they became a mainstream item when the directors of a Hollywood diving movie wanted their female star's face to be clearly visible when she wore the mask.

I remember reading somewhere a forum message written by a convinced black-skirted mask wearer. He pointed out that accumulations of nasal mucus are clearly visible in the nose pockets of masks with translucent skirts.

Personally, I dislike silicone skirted masks. The one time I had to snorkel with one I couldn't wait to get back to my traditional rubber-skirted oval mask. Rubber-skirted mask wearers still have the option of blue-skirted masks, e.g.:

Escualo Ixtapa (Made in Mexico)

Spine Laguna (Made in Russia)

Majorca Sub 101S Mask (Made in Greece)

There are about nine other blue-skirted mask models still in production worldwide.

 

[Siku]

Thanks for all the thoughts guys!

Spagetti, Cdavis, nickridiculous - all good points I hadn't really considered and clear (no pun) arguments for black (phew - I get to look cool without compromising functionality!).

Simos - I've signed up for the notanx day on 6th November. Ginny suggested I come to training day before that so may be up soon. I'll PM you and let you know when I do..

 

[jtkwest]

black vs. clear is debatable i suppose. i spearfish, so i use black. but one thing that is really not under debate here, is the idea of low volume vs. high volume.(is it?) those big fat snorkeling masks from the 70s are limiting for freediving. when the pressure in the mask increases and you have to blow tiny puffs of air- into the mask , in order to equalize the pressure in the mask that increases with depth. a mask like that would take alot more air to equalize. that being said- when i look at terry maas pictures from the early 80's,, all those guys have those old round rubber masks. and they were diving 120ft and shooting huge pelagic fish with those old masks. but it is supposed to be an advantage to have low volume. it must be, because if you see modern pics of terry maas-diving, he has low volume masks these days, (from what i can see- which isnt much- i concede) its interesting that we are debating this, since i thought this was already settled. i pretty much read that low volume black skirted masks were the best, and thats it. i didnt realize this was still debatable.

 

[DRW]

Some members of the diving community like to treat free and scuba diving as pure sciences, prescribing and proscribing whatever gear they judge to be (in)appropriate. The consequence can be that certifying bodies and peer pressure claim the monopoly of wisdom while personal experimentation is equated with risking death. This imbalance is one of the reasons why I prefer snorkelling. When it comes to equipment in snorkelling, there are few, if any, rights and wrongs. All individuals have the right, indeed the duty, to find out for themselves what best suits them.

The problem with the concept of a "freediving mask" is that users have come to expect any mask so labelled to be equally suitable whether the dive they are undertaking is shallow or deep. As I don't really class myself as a freediver, I'm not going to argue for anything other than low-volume masks in freediving, but I am ready to defend, robustly, my own preference for high-volume masks when snorkelling.

This said, the Cressi Pinocchio, the world's oldest diving mask still in production, is a low-volume mask with a nosepiece:

The mask, which dates from the early 1950s, was designed by Luigi Ferraro, who also created the world's first full-foot fins, Cressi Rondines.

 

[cdavis]

Wise words.

Connor

 

[Simos]

Cool Siku - look forward to meeting you.

Don't rush on mask choice - I use a Sphera and a Micro, they're both awesome masks if they fit you well.
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[Simos]

Ps just for the record the main advantage of clear masks is that they don't give you such a terrible tan mark ;-)
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[sross]

This said, the Cressi Pinocchio, the world's oldest diving mask still in production, is a low-volume mask with a nosepiece:

The mask, which dates from the early 1950s, was designed by Luigi Ferraro, who also created the world's first full-foot fins, Cressi Rondines.

Oh dear. A blast from the past!

That dive mask was the first one I ever had. It had blue rubber, a blue plastic frame and the goofy piece of wire in the front. It also had a snorkel that complemented its colour scheme. I got it when I was a kid living in a small town in Ghana & don't even remember how I got it. I didn't buy it, I probably was given it 2nd hand by someone else. It might have even dated back to the 1950s?

I brought it to Canada when my family moved there, then took it to university with me, where it got me through my diver certifications I needed to get so I could work on research projects, then finally died and was laid to rest after a long and eventful life

After that I bought an atrocious black 3-window thingy by Scubapro that had too big a volume even for SCUBA use. Oh well, live & learn. Went back to a series of regular style masks after that.

 

[island_sands]

Black is preferable for me as when you are teaching the last thing you need your students to see is any mucus coming out of your nose after a mask clearing demonstration rofl

the black silicone hides a few sins

 

[DRW]

Black is preferable for me as when you are teaching the last thing you need your students to see is any mucus coming out of your nose after a mask clearing demonstration rofl

the black silicone hides a few sins

My point entirely when I wrote earlier in this thread:

I remember reading somewhere a forum message written by a convinced black-skirted mask wearer. He pointed out that accumulations of nasal mucus are clearly visible in the nose pockets of masks with translucent skirts.

Whoever believed progress was being made by making mask skirts translucent hadn't thought the process fully through. Progress in kit development is always something of a trade-off. The benefits may be immediately obvious, the disadvantages take a little while to emerge, but they always do, in the end. Nothing humanly devised is ever perfect.

 

[Jon]

I ended up teaching an ice (scuba)diving class last winter using borrowed gear- including a clear silicone mask. It's been years since I'd last used a clear mask and I was quickly reminded what a huge pain in the butt they are.:rcard

I had so much glare coming from the skirt of the mask that I ended up with huge blind spots. This made it less than enjoyable to dive with and more difficult than it needed to be to follow my students. I wasn't exactly diving on some bright shallow reef- where the glare would have been 10 times worse. We had a good couple feet of snow cover blocking out a good portion of the direct sunlight and I still had glare. Had it been clear of snow, like we had the year before, the glare would have been twice as bad. :head

I find black silicone to be more comfortable than the old black rubber masks, but I would choose a black rubber one over a clear silicone mask any day.

I think clear silicone masks gained in popularity because many people feel claustrophobic when they first start diving and having a big, bright, mask lets them get over part of their fears when they first start. I've found that as they gain experience, and comfort in the water, many of these new divers switch over to black silicone for all of the advantages that others have stated on here.

Jon

 

[sross]

The photogs who take the shots of models wear black-skirted, low volume masks themselves, which are best for operating a camera, but they put their models in clear-skirted masks so that more light gets through to their face inside the mask. They also often put their models in those old-style oval masks with a big plate of glass in front that lets you see more of the model's face.

Here's an example: http://www.otterbaysuits.com/Images/snorkel4.JPG