Outdoor Master Falcon Ski Goggles – Test and Review

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Budget ski goggles with high end ski goggle performance and style.

Manufacturer and Model: Outdoor Master Falcon Ski Goggles
List Price: $109.99

Summary

The Outdoor Master Falcon is a high end high performance ski goggle at a budget goggle price. It comes with 2 Zeiss SONAR lenses for high def vision in any light condition. It uses a magnetic lens change system for easy swapping lenses in seconds. It has a stylish cool flat cylindrical lens look. This is one of the top ski goggles you can buy for $100.

Outdoor Master Falcon Ski Goggles Review and Test

The Falcon is the latest flagship ski goggle from budget brand Outdoor Master. I was really impressed with the Ultra XL they came out with 2 years ago. It delivered Oakley and Smith level performance at a budget price. They built on that with the Falcon and came up with something even better. The Falcon uses Zeiss SONAR lenses that work great in any light condition. I jumped at the chance to try out the Falcon goggles as soon as I could get my hands on a set.

My set of Outdoor Master Falcon goggles are the Black Frame with VLT 17% Zeiss Uniform ML Super Silver lens. The second lens is a VLT 91% yellow lens. All Falcon’s come with this yellow second lens. A variety of lens colors and straps are options are available. There are several replacement lenses available for different light conditions.

Features Overview

The Falcon is a cylindrical lens goggle that uses a magentic lens swap system. It is a large fit goggle that is OTG compatible. It has all the expected features such as triple layer face foam and dual layer lenses with anti-fog coating. It comes with a microfiber bag for storage and cleaning along with a hardcase. The hardcase is an updated design that is easier to fit larger goggles in with the extra lens.

1 – Style

The Falcon is a cylindrical lens goggle with a frameless design. It has a very clean design with almost no visible frame. There is a small edge along the top where there is some Outdoor Master branding at the center. There is a small bit of frame across the nose. The band is black and white with some Outdoor Master branding and some falcon graphics that are not too overdone. They are a very sleek goggle design. The Falcon’s look like you would expect a $200-$300 ski goggle from Oakley or Smith to look. Nothing about them looks low budget at all.

2 – Lens Clarity (9.5/10)

The Zeiss lenses that come on the Falcon are a step up from what we have seen from Outdoor Master before. This Outdoor Master Ultra XL was really good. The Falcon’s are just a bit better in almost every way. The lenses are crystal clear and give you a bit of visual pop when looking through them.

3 – Field of View (9.0/10)

The field of view for the Falcon is good for a large fit set of ski goggles. It is equal with other popular goggles such as an Oakley Flight Deck or Smith I/O. I can see a small amount of the bottom frame when viewing out them and about average amount of top frame. The sides wrap around far enough that I can just barely see the side edge if I try hard. They give a good panoramic view. There is no tunnel vision at all wearing the Falcon.

4 – Flat Light Performance (9.5/10)

The Falcon is available with a variety of lens options. They use the Zeiss SONAR color filtering. Everything has a bit of an orange tint when viewed through the VLT 17% silver lens we have. This is similar to the Zeiss lenses that Anon used a few years ago and the Zeiss VIVID lenses that Giro currently uses. On the mountain they do a good job of bringing out snow terrain features. They give you the visual pop that higher end goggle lenses like ChromaPop and PRIZM give.

In indoor lighting the orange color filtering is very obvious on the silver lens. You can see in the image below compared to the light yellow lens.

All Falcon’s come with a 91% yellow lens that does a really good job on the dark flat days. The best lens for overcast but not too dark day would be the 45% Fuscia lens.

5 – Anti-Fog Performance (9.0/10)

Outdoor Master uses a new anti-fog coating for the Falcon called “Vapor Shield”. They have a large amount of vents on the top and bottom of the frame along with double layer lenses to help combat fogging. The face foam is triple layer with a soft moister wicking inner layer. They do a good job of keeping fog away. I have not had even a hint of fogging while skiing with the Falcon’s so far.

6 – Lens Swapping (10/10)

The Falcon’s use a 10 magnet system to hold the lens in place on the frames. I personally prefer magnet only goggles. Adding extra latches or other means to hold the lens isn’t needed. The lenses on the Falcon can be swapped very quick even while wearing the goggles. You do have to pull the corner of the lens decently hard or bend the frame a bit to get the lens to detach.

The only place to be careful with magnet swap goggles is on the chairlift. Dropping lenses while swapping them can be a problem. I recommend waiting until the top or swap before you get on at the bottom.

See the below video for how to swap the lenses.

7 – Comfort (8.5/10)

The frames have triple layer foam with a soft inner layer. The foam and frame have a stiffer feel to them that reminds me of a set of Oakley Flight Deck or Fall Line. They are a more stiff aggressive feeling goggle to go with the cylindrical lens look. They are not as soft feeling feeling goggle like a set of Smith I/O’s. The foam does a good job of sealing up against your face.

8 – Helmet compatibility

I tried out the Falcon’s with Outdoor Master’s new Elk helmet. They work together okay without much goggle gap. The brim is very small on the Elk compared to other helmets. The Falcon works better with the Outdoor Master Diamond which has a larger overall profile to it. The Falcon’s are a large fit goggle with a thicker profile frame. They work best with helmets with a larger brim that will cover over the top of them.

9 – OTG Compatible

The Falcon’s are OTG compatible. They have notches in the side frame plastic so they can slide on and off of glasses easily. Cylindrical lens goggles put the lens closer to your glasses lens than toric or spherical goggles do. They can have a little more tendency to fog up when worn with glasses but not much. It still really comes down to what look you like better.

9 – E-QuickHue Photochromic Lens

Outdoor Master also sells a version of the Falcon goggle with their new E-QuickHue photochromic lens. This is not an ordinary photochromic lens that might vary the VLT by 20%. This lens has a solar powered LCD overlay that can darken or lighten the lens almost instantly from 15.2% VLT to 54.3% VLT. This is a huge VLT range for one lens.

The downside to the E-QuickHue lens is that the small solar cell and circuit board take up a sizable chunk of your field of view in the middle.

See our review of the Outdoor Master E-QuckHue photochromic lens to learn more about that option.

Recommendation – Buy or No Buy?

If you want ski goggles that look and perform like $250-$300 ski goggles but only want to spend $100 then check out the Outdoor Master Falcon. It has great performing Zeiss lenses in a stylish flat lens look that leave you wishing for nothing on the mountain.

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