I wanted to tackle this glass project from more of a scientific than a showy way, and to include as much comparison footage as I could so everyone can judge the glass for themselves.

THE CONTENDERS

Name: PDI Optical Non Glare Glass (Known on Pinside as PDI Glass)

Site: http://www.pinballdecals.com/NonGlareOpticalGlassPage.html

Info: Sourced from a mysterious German manufacturer by Pinball Decals, Inc, this state-of-the-art glass gets universally positive reviews from anyone who sees it on a pin. Some deep-pocketed collectors have outfitted their entire gamerooms with this glass! While praised, it is scarce and expensive. Even forgetting 6 months of wait times, sheets cost $360 each shipped to the US if buying less than 5, which is huge sticker shock when a standard sheet of pinball glass can be found for around $50 locally. Is it worth it? I hope my post and videos help you to decide.

Name: Bob's Ultimate Pinball Glass (Known on Pinside as Ultimate Glass or Phoog glass)

Site: http://pinballglass.com/

Info: Phoog came on the scene a few weeks ago, touting years of experience with glass in the US (specifically Arizona). His product advertises similar anti-glare and anti-reflective properties but at close to half the cost (around $200 shipped). The other noticeable difference with the Ultimate glass is it is much thicker than standard glass, and has a 1" bevel along the sides so it can still fit in the glass channel. Phoog says the thickness of the glass helps in sound dampening from the playfield, and also contributes to the lower cost - apparently it is easier to find high quality anti-reflective and anti-glare glass in bigger thicknesses.

THE DETAILS:

I enlisted the help of new Pinsider MutterFudder and his sweet little gameroom - ToM, CV, and AFM were all tested with the different types of glass. Everyone be sure to thank MutterFudder for volunteering 3/4 of his pins, and direct all high-dollar offers for his gorgeous collection to him specifically

MutterFudder purchased a sheet of PDI glass last year and installed it on his AFM. I brought the Ultimate glass and video equipment with me, and we swapped between the two types along with a nice sheet of standard glass. I wanted to capture similar shots from all the machines, so I could put them side-by-side in this post and let people decide for themselves (in glorious 1080p HD) which glass was right for them, and for their wallets. I left the Ultimate glass with MutterFudder, and I'm hoping since he has that glass on one pin, PDI on another, and standard glass on a third, that he can chime in with some subjective conclusions after having the different kinds of glass for a while. I will also have some subjective opinions, but I only have one machine (Twilight Zone that I actually bought from MutterFudder last year), as well as PDI glass for it (which I also bought from MutterFudder... he's like my Pinball Pimp).

THE TESTS:

All videos are embedded at the end of the post.

Attack from Mars:
With "Standard" pinball glass
"Bob's Ultimate" being installed on AFM, close-up on bevel
With "Bob's Ultimate" pinball glass
With "PDI" pinball glass

Wrong Crowd Productions was nice enough to donate a couple of PinZero DMD Glare Guards to include in testing, so I made a video to illustrate just how nicely it goes with anti-glare glass:

Theatre of Magic:
With "Bob's Ultimate" pinball glass
With "PDI" pinball glass

Cirqus Voltaire:
With "Bob's Ultimate" pinball glass
With "PDI" pinball glass

A few thoughts:
Both PDI and Phoog's glass are quite good. PDI has some qualities not present in the other types of glass, the videos make it clear the PDI glass has the least amount of glare and the least visible reflections of any type of glass tested, but Phoog's glass has less reflections and glare than standard glass. The bevel is really not noticeable during gameplay, but the mirroring/doubling of some toys/ramps along the edges of the playfield are visible. After playing pinball all day with the different types of glass, I can see the value in a "budget" PDI brand like Bob's Ultimate, but the PDI glass really has no equal so far. Hopefully that changes in the near future!

Hopefully these videos have been helpful, and I tried to write up enough to be informative without being TOO wordy. I might have failed in that regard!

Thanks very much to Phoog and Bob's Ultimate Pinball glass for sending a sample to be tested, as well as to MutterFudder for the use of his pins. And thanks to Pinside for being a friendly, informative, and knowledgable forum for us crazy Pinheads to hang out at! Stay classy, Pinside.

-Pzy/Luke

Link formatting got kind of screwed up, not sure how to embed YouTube videos without them ending up at the end of the post. Luckily the graphics on the video show clearly what each one is, and I'll try cleaning up the post a bit

Here's a link to a YouTube playlist with all the videos:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF34CFBDDDFA8E040

I wanted to include some info about JJP's upcoming Invisiglass, and I e-mailed Jack, but he didn't get back to me with any technical info about the glass. He did say he was hoping to show it off soon, so hopefully we get to see what it's all about!

I did my write up and videos with the intent of just kind of leaving it up for people to digest, and I'm glad most everyone has gotten a good idea about the differences between the glass.

As for the camera angles... The tripod stayed the same. It was in the same position, and the camera was at the same angle for all the shots. Camera settings were locked down, and all the videos were taken in the span of a few hours in the early afternoon (consistent daylight). Some of the comparisons are zoomed in a bit, in a case like the PDI glass I wanted to be sure to show that there WERE reflections, but the treatment of the glass makes it very hard to see unless you're staring right at it. Honestly, your first impression is the one that counts the most. You can search for reflections and glare and nitpick all day, but the "winner" is going to be the glass a new guest to your gameroom comments on.

The square light reflected in the top left of all the AFM shots is from a skylight, which was the reflection I was attempting to highlight.

I'm glad to see Phoog has stepped up, and not only lowered prices but is offering an alternative bevelless glass! It's a great thing to have merchants and buyers working together in a friendly, well-maintained forum like Pinside.