So after having found it on youtube and seeing what looked like a Blue lens... I had to get it. My old Jackson lens was on its way to death and I'm finding the puke green color of the speed glass more and more annoying to the eyes... Yet the constant flipping of the heavy glass silvered lens was starting to kill my neck. Soooo I ended up getting the new balder lens. A little pricey, but the boss has a real nice policy about buying tools where we can have it taken out of the paycheck week by week.
It is The best filter I've ever owned. Ever. I have never gotten to see an original AO cool blue lens but a few of the old timers at work said that it is the closest match they have seen yet. Now they all want one...
Also as advertised the optical clarity is noticeably better than other ADF's, just like running a fixed glass lens... But the more important fact is that it turns Blue.
The shade adjust says 9 to 13 but I think its more like 8 to 14 but because the dial sweeps instead of clicks, you can land in between 2 settings. Right now mine is set at about 11.5 because GTAW is really bright when its blue! ( ~180 amps) The puddle on various steels has a very dull orange hue to the otherwise grey surroundings while the arc and leading edge of the puddle are almost a shade of grey.
GTAW on aluminum looks really strange now, the puddle is a bright silver/blue and the surroundings have a light blue/grey haze. Really hard to describe... bear with me...
GMAW on steel again needed to be turned up due to brightness, again about 11.5 vs the shade 9 to 10 I was running before.
SMAW is where the lens stood out the most. All of the smoke that clouds up the view of the puddle through any other lens is gone. It vanishes. Also missing is the bright yellow sodium flare that I notice through every other lens I've owned. It is replaced with a very pleasing blue/green/grey glow around the very visable puddle. I almost wish we used more SMAW at work... Almost.
Haven't gotten to try it with FCAW yet... Can't wait.
To summarize,
The new jackson balder lens is an electronic AO cool blue lens, and if you are going to buy a new ADF that is the one to get.
Oh and the headgear is really comfy and the over all weight is pretty light on the neck. Much lighter than my old setups.
And no I have nothing to do with Jackson or Balder or whoever owns what, just a welder that found an amazing new toy and wanted to share