Helmet Opinion

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I am looking for a new helmet, my old eyes are just having a difficult time seeing what the heck I am trying to weld, even with my current helmet at a shade 9 I can barely see what I am working on. Doing a little research I came across this helmet :Darkening Radnor® Jetstar Cobra™ Auto-Darkening Welding Helmet With 4" X 5" Variable Shade 7-14 Solar Powered Lens  Maybe by dropping a couple shades I could see better. Could there be any variation in the darkness of a shade 9 from one manufacturer to another?Anyway, any opinions would be appreciated.
Reply:Hey bs I have the same problem.... I have a very cheap hood, I thought that was the problem..I read some posts and kinda figured out it was the light coming in the back of my hood....I was using more light to make up for it ...alls it did was make it worse....soooo...I make sure that I don't have a bright lite behind me.. and it seemed to help...I have no idea if I'm right or not it worked for me...  keep up the good work!!!Marty
Reply:I started out with a Jackson fixed 10 shade for MIG. I eventually bought a cheap $60 variable ( 9- 13 ) AD hood. It works fine for MIG but the uniformity and clarity of the lens leaves something to be desired. Once I started TIGing, I found the cheap AD would not allow me to see well enough when doing TIG around 50 - 60 amps. It wasn't so much the brightness even though I felt that I could go down to an 8 if I had it but more that it wasn't clear enough in the detail. I wound up buying an Optrel Satellite with 5-9 and 9 -13 shade and fixed grind mode. Now, at 9 shade, I can see 50 amp TIG MUCH better and do use between 8 and 9 occasionally. The uniformity and clarity is amazing. I use the Optrel for everything, MIG, TIG and Plasmacutting  I doubt that the cheaper non brand name AD hoods match in shade for the same number. The shade number on an AD hood is merely for comfort and matching is not that important. AD helmets will protect to the maximum UV/IR filtering even in the light state.PS. I did use my old fixed shade the other day with MIG because it was close by and I was too lazy to get my Optrel and realized that the clarity and shade is just fine, much better than my cheap AD. I did start my bead a little off though
Reply:Thanks for your information, I really think I could weld better if I could just see what the heck I was doing.