I was hooked the moment I saw Brass Eagle's Xtreme 280 goggles.  Countless years I have longed for a pair of goggles that didn't restrict my field of vision.  When I saw the first Ad in APG I started bouncing up and down like one of the Bundy Kids watching 'The Facts of Life.'   Man, I couldn't wait to get my hands on a pair.  My poor old Vents Predators, much beloved though they are, were just about worn out.  Next time I was in the paintball shop I picked some up.

     My first impression when I pulled them from the box was that they were a bit on the bulky side.  That's pretty much true.  Forget wearing a hat of any sort with them. But it's a small price to pay for the advantage of being able to see more of the field at one time than your opponents.  Second, I was concerned about the lack of 'armor'.  The 280's covered the face and forehead well enough.  But not the cheeks and throat.  I cured this forthwith by removing the 'armor' from my Vents and securing it to the 280's with small black zip-ties.  The end result looks very cool and provides plenty of throat and cheek protection.  I believe that Brass Eagle/Leader are developing 'armor' for the 280's.  I see this as a lame way to bilk more money out of players by selling them something extra that should have been included in the first place.  We are talking about protective equipment here, not optional goodies.  I should inform you that adding this 'armor' could be interpreted as a violation of some goggle modification rules.  It would be well advised to bring any modifications you make to the attention of the refereeing staff if you are participating in a tournament.  Some loser might try to get you disqualified for 'tampering' with your safety equipment.

     I was a bit worried about the lack of a thermal lens.  I'm a firm believer in thermal lenses going way back to JT's first offering.  Those thermal lenses helped me out in a tourney in some really bad weather.  While everyone else was fogging up, I was kicking butt.  I decided to give the 280's a try anyway and I experienced not a single wisp of fogging.  It will take some more exposure to worse conditions to establish if the 280's are prone to fog or not.  I only experienced two problems during play, only one of them was the fault of the goggles.  The first one was that the 'armor' I added interfered somewhat with my normal range of head movement.  The culprit was the Vent's throat armor I added, which was just simply too long.  Trimming it back cured this.  The second was also somewhat on a personal level.  I ball up really tight when I'm firing from a bunker.  I really snuggle up to my marker.  The end result was that the cocking block of my Minicocker kept smacking me in the lens.  This resulted in dozens of tiny scratches marring the surface of the lens.  The scratches were caused by the knurling on the back of the stock WGP bolt.  The sudden smack on the goggle lens is also somewhat disconcerting during play.  It will just take some getting used to for me to remember to back off from the gun a little bit.  This won't be a problem when I'm using the Vector.  I took a couple of lens hits wearing the 280's that day.  No splash through.  Clean up was not too difficult.  I did however make the mistake of using the fields wash bucket to scrub the 280's after taking a pretty bad hammering from an idiot with a F/A Rainmaker.  Unfortunately the water contained soap that resulted in etching of the lenses which became apparent a couple of days later.  This necessitated replacement.  DO NOT USE SOAPY WATER TO CLEAN POLYCARBONATE LENSES! ! !

     The Pro's:  Awesome range of vision.  This is one of the first products I have seen that offered a player a truly tangible advantage over his opponents.  You see more, you understand the game dynamics better, and you are less likely to 'miss' someone who is closing in on your flanks.  Less tangible is the energy you save from not having to constantly 'pan and scan' the field.  This allows you to focus better on present situations.  I didn't notice any restriction of my breathing while wearing the 280's.  My old Vents tended to make it a bit harder to draw breath.  The 280's would easily fit over a pair of glasses.

     The Con's:  No thermal lens.  But then again, you may never need one.  It looks like the 280's have plenty of ventilation.  Insufficient 'armor' protection.  You gotta protect yer Melon.  I've taken neck shots before and it ain't fun.  No choice of color at the present.  Lens was not as easy to remove as touted on the box.  Bulky.  It's difficult to put a real cost on that but wearing the 280's makes your head a bigger target and you may have some problems operating in tight areas.  The extra armor I added made it difficult for me to look down at my chest or glance back at my pods.  Hopefully BE/Leader's armor will not give the same difficulty.

     The Final Say:  Get over your Brass Eagle hang up and get a pair.  Rig up some extra 'armor' and get ready to see the game from a whole new perspective.  These babies do give you an edge.  In paintball, what you miss, may not miss you.  Don't be surprised if you start seeing 280's on the heads of pro teams.  That's my prediction.