Smith makes some good stuff.
I do not have a pair of Smith's myself, but I've tried a few, and I'm familiar with what they make. I will likely get a pair at some point. I recommend glass lenses for fishermen, always, which pretty much limits you to Smith, MJ, Costa, and maybe Ray Ban? Anyone else still making glass? All of those make plastic lenses too, so pay attention to what you're buying. The polarization is simply better in glass. Stressed plastic alters the polarization angle of light, reducing the effectiveness of the polarizer.
And as high a VLT as you can get. Your gray MJ's were MJ's darkest lens, great for off shore and full sun, not great for woods, morning, or evening.
Now to the nuts and bolts. Smith has led the market in low light (high VLT) lenses. The ignitor series. Costa has it's Sunrise lens and MJ has it's HT, and both are excellent, but Smith is higher in VLT than either. However, the Ignitor lens color was part of their Chromapop series, which, until recently, only came in plastic lenses (Costa did the same thing, leaving MJ as the only way to get a low light lens in glass). Both Smith and Costa have now changed that. Smith introduced the Chromapop Glass series in 2018 and is expanding it's lineup. Right now, the ONLY model they carry which has the ignitor color in a glass lens is the Guide's Choice model. You can get it in an ignitor lens at 40% VLT, in glass. Go somewhere and try on that model. If it fits, order it!!!! I am thinking that's my next pair of fishing glasses... I find it highly likely other models will add that color, as several models now have Chromapop glass (just missing the ignitor lens color).
For reference. VLT's.
<8% - welding helmets, lol.
8-12% - VERY dark, high sun lenses. Your MJ gray lenses are 12% I believe. The boating/beach world. Most of these will be gray base, if they have a mirror, most likely blue or silver.
12-20% - kind of all round lenses, still best during daytime, but you'll still wear them in partly cloudy type days or under the occasional tree. Good driving lenses. Most amber/copper/rose colors fit here, and if they are mirrored, it's often green or red.
20-30% - Work fine in the sun, but you'll still wear them on fully cloudy and even rainy days, and fine under a full canopy during daytime. But they'll come off an hour before dark, indoors, etc. Also good driving lenses. Costa's sunrise and MJ's HT colors fit in this range. Rarely mirrored. Usually light green, light pink, or light amber.
30-50% - true low light lenses, best for fishing. Really it's only Smith with it's ignitor in this space.
>50% - You're giving up polarization effectiveness, as by definition, 100% polarized means removing 50% of light. In the category of night lenses here.
