Anyone have the link to the company that makes and sells the anti-glare MINI gage speedo and tach lenses?

 

It's "FES", they are vendors here.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...w.fes-auto.com

 

Interesting.

I don't suppose anyone makes just a film to put over the existing lens? Like the anti-glare iPhone screen protectors... That'd be a lot easier and cheaper.

 

I have seen these, they are top notch

 

I have this on my R56. The install is easy and the results are worth it. What a difference!

 

The product being discussed (InvisiLens) uses a material with a true anti-reflective coating, like the type found in camera lenses and prescription glasses. Similar to this:



You can't achieve that with screen protector film. Those films have a surface with a fine texture that scatters light, which helps to prevent mirror-like reflections. They can reduce glare to some extent, but not that well. A problem is that the material not only scatters reflected light, but also light going through the material. That makes the material cloudy rather than perfectly clear. The cloudiness is not bad if the film is applied directly to the surface of an LCD/LED screen, but hold the film a half inch away from the surface (like gauge lenses are spaced away from the dial), and you'll see that everything loses clarity when you look through it.

A bonus is that the anti-reflective coating creates a hard, scratch resistant surface.



Richard (creator of InvisiLens)

 

We also carry these. Actually installed a set last weekend and they really get rid of the glare.

I stock them, just don't have them on the site yet. Call if you want to order.

 

I have this on my tach. It is very nice.

 

But the InvisiLens doesn't make the Tach smile like the lady!!!

 

I have an iPhone and yes the screen protectors are nice, but a royal pain. It took me 5 of them to get two good applications onto iPhones. If one doesn't have a cleanroom it's close to impossible to get a dust free interface. If you aren't carefull you get fingerprints on the adhesive. Yeah they work (somewhat), and yeah they are cheaper, but they don't have the anti-reflective performance of the InvisiLens. Also, if you install a film over a scratched lens, you have a film over a scratched lens! Because these are replacements and are much harder, all those hairline scratches go away and, at night, it's like they aren't even there!

Anyway, the only set I saw sold on the marketplace was from one guy who's car was totalled while the lenses were in transit!

Matt

 

Sounds like you're not using a good quality film. I can apply them bubble-free every time.

 

it's not the film that is the issue, it's the environment in which it's applied.

But this is really going a bit off topic. the InvisiLens replacement lens has the best broadband A/R coating that you can find short of a research lab. There is no effect on polarized glasses like some films have. It's hard, so you you don't get all those fine scratches that cleaning the stock lens leaves behind. Those that have them like them a lot.

Personally, at first I thought that it was a big of a gimmick and not something I was really interested in. But when Richard gave me one to put on my wife's clubbie, I was shocked at how good the difference is. I've drunk the coolaid and am now a believer. Whenever I pull a set out for my 02 with Nav, they get sold and I ship them off. So my 02 doesn't have them and the scratched lenses are dirty and suck.

Also, the stock lenses are a bit lossy. That is there is some haze in the stock plastic that cannot be removed with a film, as it's not a reflection.

Matt

 

Anti-glare coating has been around for about 40 years... and and possibly earlier in aviation (jet fighter glass roof maybe??). In the photography world, high end optical lens makers started to apply Anti-glare coating to their lenses. First it was a single layer, then multi-layers later on.

Less glare = more light absorption, richer, more saturated pictures.

I have a mid '70s Rollei 35S whose lens was made/licensed by Zeiss and it's a multi-coated. With my '90s Zeiss lenses, I've shot against the sun and not get any glare. In recent years, watchmakers have started to use anti-glare on watch crystals. When double-coated (inside and outside surfaces), the crystal can look as though it's not there.

Clean anti-glare coating gently with a micro-fiber tissue. The coating can be scratched.

For the Mini, I always wear my Maui Jim.

 

I originally came up with InvisiLens for my personal use and later (actually not until a couple of years later) made it available to others. I'm all for encouraging people to come up with ideas that work. In that spirit, I'd like to put out an offer to the first person who can do the following.

Apply a screen protector film to half of a stock tach or speedo. Post pictures and write up your impressions. If there is general agreement that the screen protector improves glare and readability over a stock gauge, I'll send you a free InvisiLens set! In other words, if you can demonstrate that it is beneficial to apply a screen protector, then you've discovered something good for everybody and I'll reward you with InvisiLens (which would make an even further improvement).

InvisiLens has anti-reflective coating on both inside and outside surfaces.

A good precaution, although the type of anti-reflective coating used on InvisiLens (and eyeglasses) is hard, bonded to the substrate at the molecular level, and very scratch resistant. It is much more scratch resistant than not having the coating!

Richard

 

I used to build thin film metrology equipement. It was fun to set up the system for UV transmission and show everyone that the cheap plastic sunglasses often did a better job of blocking UV than thier fancy sunglasses.

It's not that I didn't think it would work, I didn't think the difference would be striking. It is. It's freaking amazing. Because marketing is so expensive and the product works so well, that why I threw the FES umbrella over Richard so that we could offer them to the community without getting afoul of the vendor protection on forums.

Way likes them so much that he's selling them (get them up on the web site Way!), and some other vendors have sold one or two. We'd love to have more vendors carry them, so if you sell MINI parts and want to carry them, send me an e-mail at mattr@fes-auto.com

Also, if you subscribe to MC Squared, I think one of the writers in Hawaii just did an install article. I haven't seen it, but I think it's in the current issue.

Matt

 

We need to get Steve at Custom Mini Shop a display, I sure they would sell very well down here