Pictured are 2 Beachcombers, one in neutral grey and one in HCL bronze. I actually have 2 more in HCL bronze. One pair I wear as "beaters", one has slight frame damage (well, paint/coating damage) but perfect lenses, and one is perfect as is stowed away. 2 others in the picture are Kilohana, one in HCL bronze and one in Maui Rose. I have 2 other flawless HCL bronze ones stowed away, plus a great condition pair of frames (no lenses) that I plan on getting some Fuze lenses put in. The Kilohana are the lightest of them all, and swapping the glass lenses for plastic will make them even more featherlight.
All except for the neutral grey Beachcombers, I've bought them all off eBay and poshmark for about $100 or less (often much less) each. The neutral grey Beachcombers I bought new for about $250 (check on eBay for new or mint ones and you'll see that even that's a bargain), and those came from freaking Moldova. I'm still looking for a good condition used pair for "beaters", but all that I've seen for many months were either trashed or way too expensive (usually both). I'd kinda like a pair of black Beachcomber frames to put HCL bronze lenses in because although I like the "espresso" colored ones the HCL bronze ones come in well enough, black is definitely sexier. Except in Tucson in July when the frames can get a bit hot.
Definitely fantastic optics. The glass lenses anyway, I can't speak for any of their plastic types (I'm sure they're great, but no plastic is better than glass - yet). I actually prefer Serengetis though.
(as you can see...)
It's debatable, and possibly subjective, but I think the optical edge goes to Serengeti (they were founded by Corning, after all, and still use Corning glass). It might be the tinting though, which I certainly prefer from Serengeti over Maui Jim. The contrast enhancement of the "Drivers" lenses is amazing, if a bit unnatural, making the world look so boring when you take them off. Maui Jim's HCL bronze does a great job with contrast enhancement too (HCL meaning High Contrast Lens) too, and is far more accurate (or rather, less inaccurate) in presenting the world to you, but I find myself wishing they were just a bit darker, particularly this time of year. The HCL bronze is definitely my favorite Maui Jim tint. I honestly don't care much for the neutral grey because it really dulls colors, but they're exceptionally dark, which is good this time of year. Serengeti's 555nm grey green offer far better contrast enhancement than other grey green lenses I've tried (Ray-ban G15, Vuarnet, Sunglassfix replacements), in that they don't just tint, they let in a bit more of certain spectrums to enhance bright colors where other lenses just tint them. The difference between Serengeti's grey green and Ray-ban's G-15 (who apparently pioneered it, or at least made it popular) is surprisingly dramatic. I do not like the Maui Rose. They make everything look like rose-colored puke.
I'm 40 and still have 20/20 or better vision, so I protect my eyes from the Arizona sun. And when my vision finally starts going, I'll have plenty of great frames to choose from for prescription glasses.
Call up Maui Jim. They'll fix those for cheap or possibly even free. They do offer free nose pieces and temples straight from their website, but I don't know if the temple piece means the entire arm or just the rubber/plastic on the ends. Apart from getting some nose pieces I've never used their customer service, but everything I've read says they have by far the best in the business.
