Which type of mirror to use

radokristof

Hi Everyone!

I have started developing my mirror. However I couldn’t find exact information about which glass will look the best. Should it be acrylic or anything else? The transmittance should be 50/50 or more like 70/30?

Thanks!

j.e.f.f

@radokristof Between glass and acrylic, if you have a smaller mirror, then it probably doesn’t matter, and acrylic should save you a bit of money. On a larger mirror, you might see some distortion due to the acrylic flexing.

Transmittance depends on the brightness of your room. If the location of your mirror will get a lot of natural light, then you’ll want a higher level of transmittance. If it’s in a darker location, then 20 - 30% transmittance will be fine.

lavolp3

@j-e-f-f said in Which type of mirror to use:

Transmittance depends on the brightness of your room. If the location of your mirror will get a lot of natural light, then you’ll want a higher level of transmittance. If it’s in a darker location, then 20 - 30% transmittance will be fine.

I can’t really agree on transmittance. Isn’t 20-30% much too high for a darker room?
The glass I have in mind as one of the best experienced is Pilkington MirroPane ChromeSpy.
It has a transmittance of 8% and I hear that’s very good for rooms with natural lighting…

My current view:
Two values are important in terms of glass: Reflectance and transmittance.
Highest possible reflectance is always best as I would assume. Values of >60% are good. The more the better
Transmittance of < 10% is best for darker rooms
Transmittance of > 5% is best for lit rooms.

Please correct me if I’m wrong…

j.e.f.f

@lavolp3 I guess it depends on the glass itself. I’m using glass from Academy Glass (https://www.academyglassandmirror.ca/) with 20% transmittance and in a dark room picture is very clear. When the room is bright, sometimes it’s difficult to see the smart display stuff.

radokristof

Thanks!
In general it is a dark place where the mirror will be placed (in the anteroom), it has no window, but because of this, we turn on the light almost always when we are there. So I don’t know what will be better. But it depends on screen brightness also, right?
I think in general when the lights on, it is considered as a normal room.

dazza120

@radokristof yep also the location, bathroom get the glass when the bathroom steams up it won’t scratch as easy as the acrylic, I’ve gone for pilkington mirrorview 50/50

lavolp3

@radokristof I have a mirror in quite a dark room installed, where usually we have lights on.
I use a glass called mirastar in this
Reflectance 58%.
Transmission 3%.

In this case the transmittance of 3% is well enough. All of the modules can be seen very well although I have to admit that I have played with the css styles making all the brightness levels a bit brighter. When lighting is on the monitor frame can only be seen when you look very closely.
However, I’m not completely satisfied with the reflection of the glass. There is a brown tint to it and the mirror looks a bit too dark.

Hopefully today I’ll pick up my new Chrome Spy then I have a comparison.

@j-e-f-f I was hoping that at least these values are comparable since they are physical ones and should not be limited to a glass brand.

j.e.f.f

@lavolp3 said in Which type of mirror to use:

@j-e-f-f I was hoping that at least these values are comparable since they are physical ones and should not be limited to a glass brand.

Heh! Like most things in life it appears that standards are seldom very standard!

MickyVi

@lavolp3
ciao lavolp3,

it’s the same one I bought, I picked it up yesterday, but I’m not that satisfied either, did you find any solution about it?

I’m quite disappointed with this, it took me several weeks to develop and two weeks to get the glass ready. :-(

Ciao

lavolp3

@mickyvi Ciao Micky,

Meanwhile I am using a mirror provided by Goldjunge_Chriz though one of his mirror distribution activities. I think the chrome spy is nearly as good and better than the mirastar.
Very important is the monitor. You need to play with brightness (as low as possible), contrast (as high as possible) and ( in my case) also the control of each rgb color to get best results for the black background.

Also don’t forget that you can set brightness of the text to a higher level via css.

But none of the mirrors i have used are even close to an actual mirror. It is different.