Custom Prescription Fat Shark Lenses (RHO-Lens and CustomFPX.com)

I love the form factor of the Fat Shark goggles(I use Dominator V3s), but I have a very high eyeglasses prescription with the works: a high diopter, as well as axis and cylinder.

Fat Shark does make prescription inserts, but they are only available so far in -2, -4, and -6. If you fall anywhere in between, and especially if you have axis or cylinder in your prescription, you’ll either have to cope with a higher power, or make do with a slightly blurry image. Also, if you’re nearsighted, tough luck. Not fun.

I normally fly using contact lenses, but I don’t wear contacts as a matter of habit, so up until now, I could only fly so long as I had a fresh supply of contact lenses.

So my shopping list was basically props and contact lenses to make sure I could to stay in the air!

I’d been on the lookout for custom lenses for a long time. I even came across a few posts on Reddit Multicopter and on forums of people cutting spare old lenses to shape and using them in their goggles, but my prescription is so high that my lenses just wouldn’t fit into the grooves in the goggles.

If anyone is interested, it’s a -9 diopter, so even the thinnest available lenses are still pretty thick compared to lower diopters.

Research led me to two companies that make custom Fat Shark lenses: RHO-Lens and CustomFPX.

RHO-lens makes fairly expensive lenses, as a single pair costs around 140 Euros. They do offer a money back guarantee if the lenses didn’t fit your goggles. I don’t doubt the quality of RHO-Lens, but 140 Euros was a little out of budget for me.

Update: RHO-Lens has since become much more budget friendly and can be purchased for just under 100 Euros with shipping. I have also now tried RHO-Lens and I feel the quality is VERY, VERY good – well worth the price.

RHO-Lens Review

Ralf from RHO-Lens was kind enough to send me a set of lenses in my prescription. The prescription has not changed since I ordered the Custom FPX lenses(review below), but I was blown away at the quality and care taken in these lenses.

First off, when I received them, they were in a nice box and secured with packing peanuts.

Inside the box, each lens was in an individual envelope, and came with a cleaning cloth.

Each lens is in a 3D printed holder which has grooves to slide into the slots in the Fat Sharks, and the holder is labeled L and R for ease of use.

This sort of attention to detail is really amazing on RHO-Lens’ part.

The lenses themselves were clean, spotless, and very sharp.

They slid into the Fat Sharks like butter, and slid out just as easily. CustomFPX did not slide in or out that easily – in fact, they got stuck the first time I put them in, and I was only able to accidentally remove them once when I removed the faceplate.

Putting the goggles on, the lenses looked really well and my vision was very nice and sharp – the lenses were doing their job!

The lenses are not actually glued into the 3D printed case – they’re just press-fitted – so you need to be careful when handling them that they don’t pop out. They’re not flimsy that they pop out just like that, but I applied a bit of force to see and the edge did pop out.

It popped back in just as easily.

The attention to detail and quality in these lenses make them my new favorite lens. If you have a high/unique prescription then I strongly suggest you get some custom made lenses rather than use the stock Fat Shark diopters. Those are very generic lenses and most certainly won’t be as comfortable as using lenses custom made to your eyes.

Note: The guys at RHO-Lens have generously offered FPV Frenzy readers 10% off if they use SN130310 coupon code at checkout.

Pick up a set of RHO-Lens Fat Shark lenses here.

CustomFPX Review

Option 2 is CustomFPX which I found on a post in the Flite Test Facebook group.

CustomFPX made lenses for $45 per pair, no matter the prescription, and charged $15 for standard shipping, bringing the total to $60 per pair.

There was no guarantee detailed on their website like on RHO-Lens, so I sent them an email detailing my concerns, and I received a prompt and reassuring reply from Adrian, the guy behind the company, that the lenses were high quality and would fit.

So I figured, why not give it a shot? $60 made sense financially, too. For me, one box of 2-week use contact lenses(6 lenses per box, so 6 weeks of usage) costs Rs 2100, which is about $31. So either I bought 12 weeks of lenses, or used the same money to get these inserts and never need lenses for FPV again.

From the time I placed the order(you submit your prescription online using a form), it took about 7 days for me to receive a confirmation that the lenses had been manufactured and shipped, and since it was Hong Kong post, I had the lenses in less than 2 weeks.

The lenses arrived well packaged in an innocuous looking envelope:

Inside, there was a packing slip and a little black case with the lenses:

The case contained the two lenses, individually kept in a plastic sleeve, along with detailed care and usage instructions.

The finish and quality of the lenses was excellent, as was the attention to detail.

The lenses felt solid, were spotless, and I held one up to my eye to see If I could see well enough, and it seemed just like my regular glasses.

To make inserting the lenses easier, there are little edges cut into the lens so it can slide into the grooves on the goggles:

The lenses slid in after a little bit of coaxing, and upon trying the goggles, I was very, very happy! I can finally use my goggles without contacts!

The only gripe I have is that it’s fairly difficult to remove the lenses once they’re in. The instructions say to grip the exposed edges of the lenses and gently wiggle them until they’re out, but the lenses are a tight fit and my fingers are not the thinnest, so I can’t really get a good grip on the lenses to pull them out.

I’ll have to figure out a way to do that without damaging them.

Aside from that, though, I’m really happy that I could pick up lenses for a prescription as high as mine that fit into my goggles and let me fly whenever I want to. If you have a high/custom prescription, and were putting off getting Fat Shark goggles, seriously consider these lenses!

You can get them from CustomFPX.com.

Conclusion

Between CustomFPX and RHO-Lens, I would personally choose RHO-Lens – even though they are a touch more expensive, the extra care taken in making the lenses and the ease with which they slide in and out of the goggles make them the winner in my eyes.

Note: The guys at RHO-Lens have generously offered FPV Frenzy readers 10% off if they use SN130310 coupon code at checkout.

Get a set of lenses from RHO-Lens