Here is my Jet Black 5, with dark tint. I live in Arizona, so the tint comes in real handy with the high temps.

 

No, no metallic reflections. As I recall, the Huper Optik (maybe Optik) has no metallic particles. Look at the pic above; you can see right through the window to the other side. I don't like tint where others can't see you.

 

Znod, I like your tint, it matches you paint color nicely. Reason why I tinted my windows, is so others can't see in my car, plus I wanted it to go with my paint color. Everyone is different, I like both.

 

I just got my car tinted last week with LLUMAR brand tint. LLUMAR is warrantied for life against defects and you can take it to any shop that deals with them if you have a problem. I did 15% on the rear window, with 20% on the other windows. Turned out real nice with the Alpine White. Definitely gives you that VIP feel to the ride.

 

There are three types: Metallic, Dyed and Ceramic.

FormulaOne is the way to go. Huper is great, but their tint is barely visible, if you want privacy as well as performance. Any darker than Huper40 and you get ghosting on the film. Stay away from Madico Ceramic. Lots of defects. Metallics do cause cell phone reception problems (and radar detector performance as well). After all my research, I went with Formula One Pinnacle 35% 5 windows. It's ceramic, sticks well to the dot matrix (the little black dots around the rear and quarter panel windows), blocks UV as well as Huper, lifetime warranty and its a flat type of tint. No bronze or mirror like finish. Goes well with silver cars IMO.

 

Yes, dark tints look good, but I like to see who is pointing their pistols at me (and who's not) in Phoenix.

 

Huper Optik deets

Huper Ceramic 30 Huper Ceramic 50
Light Transmission - 34% Light Transmission - 50%
Light Reflectance - 11% Light Reflectance - 10%
Shading coefficient - .47 Shading coefficient - .59
Solar Transmission - 23% Solar Transmission - 42%
Infrared Rejection - 85% Infrared Rejection - 68%
UV Light Rejection - 99.9% UV Light Rejection - 99.9%
Solar Energy Rejection - 61% Solar Energy Rejection - 49%
Glare Reduction - 62% Glare Reduction - 45%

I am having the 30% installed on the rears but VA law requires no less than 50% on front windows. The total installed cost is $100 more than the dyed film.

 

Llumar 35% all the way around. This is my second time with Llumar, as I had it on my old E39. I love it!

One thing you should do, when getting your windows tinted, is to ask the shop to "microedge" the tint along with window's edge. Standard jobs leave 2mm of gap between the tint and the windows edge. It's not as clean. When they microedge it, they get it to the very edge of the window so the tint actually looks stock! Some places may say it's too hard to do and it can peel over time, but that's BS. I had it done on both cars and never a single problem. Just go to a good place and ask them to do it. If you ask for it, they'll be surprised you even know about it and probably take more time on your car.

 

I have the same tint (Huper Optik Drei) that you do - it is a good balance between UV/IR protection and visibility...

Jon.

 

Always tint. The cockpit of my car is my personal space. I like to keep it personal thus the dark tints I always have. I think it just looks good.