Purple/blue fringing clear silicone mask

[Diver2fun]

Hi all,

I've been using my frameless atomic mask for a while now, and in general I really like it.
However sometimes in bright lightning conditions I'm seeing this weird color distortion (it's similar to a extreme version of purple fringing in photography terms, for lack of a better word). When snorkeling it's very prevalent as well. Could it be because of the clear mask skirt? Is there anything I can do to darken the skirt?

 

[Neilwood]

What you are seeing is most likely chromatic aberration which is a result of physics and will happen to an extent any time light passes through a lens (cameras beat this by using various materials and lenses to correct the aberration). The red and blue light are diffracted by different amount so they show up at your eyeball in slightly different places.

You might get better results with a dark skirted mask ( I don't recall having similar issues with my black skirted masks) or by getting a mask with coatings that help with the problem but I guess you would only know that by trying it out. See if you can borrow a mask for a dive or two.

 

[Doc]

Or it could be the Peyote, hard to say.

 

[kelemvor]

When I was using a clear skirt mask, I would see all kinds of reflections and other oddities in my peripheral. Although I never saw a purple fringe, it's easy for me to imagine what you're seeing. Mostly this was only a problem near the surface on sunny days.

For a variety of reasons, I ended up replacing the mask with a black skirt mask and it eliminated all those problems. There's a lot of hoopla around black gear on scubaboard. Most of it I think is comical. However there is a real benefit to having a mask with a black skirt.

What happened to the mask in your profile photo?

 

[Diver2fun]

Yeah it's chromatic abberation, it's the same as fringing. It really looks like this picture:

I'm not using drugs

It's definately most prevalent near the surface. I'm just wondering if a black skirt would make any difference, maybe it's due to the optical design of the atomic frameless? I can't be the first to see this right
These masks are quite expensive and I hate to deal with the fogging issues all over again with a new mask. I replaced my profile pic masks a long time ago, I had problems with the straps and the atomic frameless has a way better field of view.

 

[Divectionist]

Get the black skirt version, I have two of the Atomic Frameless, great mask and I've never seen any colours that should not be there. It's a very clean glass. You'll always have a less distracted view out of a black skirt mask.