I flashed Myself much more often with a regular helmet than I do with the auto darkening helmet.
My auto darkening lense only has 2 sensors, some have 4. With 4 sensors, there is less of a chance that they will ALL be in a shadow and unable to trigger the darkening cycle.
Your mileage may varry...
I've been using the auto darkening lenses for about 20 years now and would take them over standard lenses any time.
Not only are you less apt to flash yourself since your hood is already down, it is better for your neck/spine since you won't be snapping your hood down as often. The motion itself multiplied by the force of the weight of the hood is not good when repeated up to 1000's of times per day for the rest of your life.
Also, when your hood is down more often you tend to get less sparks from your own work or someone else in the vicinity thus reducing trips to eye doctor to get steel removed from your only set of optical inlets.
In my view they are a major safety benefit over the old standard hoods.
Just my two tin pennies worth.
Have a Great Day, Brent
When I was learning to run a 7018, I found that I flashed myself more with a regular shield than a auto shield too. Those accidental flashes when I free'd the stuck the electrode are the ones that hurt the worst when I woke up the next morning. I have found my way back to a regular shield after I left my shield laying upside down and it was catching spatter and slag from a nearby air arc activity....uggh.
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