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How does PROSPEK test its lenses, and who does the testing?

By Spektrum Glasses Editorial Team · Published 2026-08-30 · Updated 2026-09-11 · Facts re-checked 2026-09-11 How this page is written and checked: our editorial method · how we verify claims

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Short answer

PROSPEK’s clear and yellow lenses are tested by COLTS Laboratories, an A2LA-accredited lab (ISO/IEC 17025, certificate 1612.01), which measures spectral transmittance per ANSI Z80.3 and reports the filtered percentage at specific wavelengths. The orange and red lenses were measured in 2026 by our lens manufacturer’s optical laboratory using the same wavelength-band method.
  • COLTS Laboratories (A2LA-accredited, ISO/IEC 17025, cert 1612.01) tested the clear and yellow lenses under ANSI Z80.3.
  • Clear lens: 91.6% visible-light transmission, UVA/UVB filtered over 99.99%, 63.0% filtered at 420 nm.
  • Yellow evening lens filters 98% of the 400-500 nm band and 98.3% at the 460-480 nm band.
  • Orange and red lenses were lab-measured in 2026; neither is suitable for driving.
  • The ANSI Z80.3 pass covers light transmittance and color, not reading-power accuracy.

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Who does the testing

PROSPEK’s clear and yellow lenses are measured by COLTS Laboratories, an independent optical testing lab accredited by A2LA (the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation) to ISO/IEC 17025, certificate number 1612.01. The relevant report is O-SPG111015, and the test method is spectral transmittance measured per ANSI Z80.3, the standard covering how a non-prescription, fashion-eyewear lens transmits and colors light. The orange and red lenses were measured separately, in 2026, by our lens manufacturer’s own optical laboratory, using the same wavelength-band method: light of a known wavelength is passed through the lens and the lab records the percentage that reaches the far side. We do not publish the name of the manufacturing facility, consistent with how we handle supplier information generally, but the underlying report and the resulting percentages are what our published copy is built from. Every percentage in our marketing traces back to one of these two lab reports. If a number does not appear in a lab report, we do not publish it.

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The clear day lens, measured wavelength by wavelength

The clear lens used across PROSPEK’s daytime reading and plano styles filters 99.99% of light at 400 nm, 95.1% at 410 nm, 63.0% at 420 nm, and 33.1% at 450 nm. The filtering tapers as wavelength increases, which is why we always state the specific nanometer band rather than a single blanket percentage. A number like ‘99% of blue light’ with no band attached tells you almost nothing about what was actually measured. UVA and UVB are both filtered at greater than 99.99%. Visible (photopic) light transmission is 91.6%, meaning the lens itself looks close to clear rather than carrying a heavy tint, one reason the same lens is used for a printed page and a screen without shifting colors. For comparison, a lens can look equally clear to the eye and still filter far less of the same band. One of our own clear-lens frame families measures roughly 52% average across that band with 100% UV filtering, well below the figures above, which is exactly why a lab number, not the appearance of the lens, is what should be quoted. The clear lens group also passed ANSI Z80.3 transmittance and chromaticity testing, all samples tested, at the ISO/IEC 17025-accredited lab, filter category 0 (cosmetic lens). That standard governs how the lens transmits light and holds color. It does not test the accuracy of a reading lens’s magnification power, and we do not describe our lenses as ‘ANSI certified’ for that reason: the pass covers optics, not diopter grinding.

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The yellow evening lens

PROSPEK’s yellow evening lens, used in the ELITE and ULTIMATE lines, was measured in the same COLTS report, which labels the sample ‘amber’ on its own letterhead. Our copy calls it yellow because that is the color it appears. It filters 98% of the 400-500 nm blue-light band, 99.9% of high-energy visible (HEV) light, and 98.3% specifically in the 460-480 nm band. Visible light transmission is about 65%, noticeably more tinted than the clear lens, which is the tradeoff for filtering more of the band it targets. The lab measurement tells you what the lens filters, at which wavelength. It does not, on its own, tell you what that filtering does for any one person’s evening or sleep. See the evidence discussion below.

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The orange and red lenses

The orange pre-sleep lens filters 99.96% of light across the 380-500 nm band, and the red night lens filters 99.83% across the same band, both measured in 2026 by our lens manufacturer’s optical laboratory. Orange edges out red on blue-band filtering; red’s distinguishing property is that it also cuts well into the green range, past 500 nm, which orange does not. Neither lens is suitable for driving. The heavy tint that filters that much of the visible spectrum also removes enough overall light that road use is not appropriate, day or night. These lenses are built for the period right before sleep, indoors, not for the road.

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What lab testing does not tell you

A spectral transmittance report is a precise measurement of what a lens filters, at which wavelength. It is not a clinical study, and we do not treat it as one. The independent research connecting blue-light-filtering lenses to outcomes like sleep or visual comfort is limited and mixed, and it is worth reading alongside our own numbers rather than instead of them. A 2017 study in PLOS ONE found commercially available blue-light-filtering lenses reduced a calculated blue-light hazard measure by roughly 10-24%, which is an optical calculation, not a measured sleep or symptom outcome. A November 2025 meta-analysis of three randomized controlled crossover trials in Frontiers in Neurology (n=49, actigraphy-measured) found sleep onset, total sleep time, sleep efficiency, and wake-after-sleep-onset were all non-significant, with the authors describing only a possible small benefit left open rather than a demonstrated effect. A January 2026 review in Therapeutic Advances in Ophthalmology similarly found minimal or no significant impact on contrast sensitivity, color discrimination, or task performance versus standard lenses, describing the efficacy question as still debated. We publish the lab numbers above because they are ours to measure, document, and stand behind. We are equally direct that the broader outcome evidence, industry-wide, is not settled.

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Where these numbers come from

Every measured figure quoted here is transcribed from a third-party laboratory report, published in full with the wavelength band and the report number: lab results. Our rule for what may appear on this page at all is on how we choose what to publish.

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