Exactly. As the Rep from Glistening Perfection said and from I understood, the inductry convention of rating tint is how much light is tranmitted.

30% means 30% transmission and 70% block. This is fairly dark to the human eye.

70% transmission is fairly light to the human eye and wound hardly attract the attention of police.

 

That's the thing.
30% is not legal on front doors.
Possibly legal for back window's but not front doors.

70% would never get you in trouble, but everyone likes to go darker.

 

But the OP said 30% is legal and he was booked because he reads 32%
This makes no sense if the % we are talking about is light transmission, as per inductry standard.

 

According to this its 70% but there is an exemption for medical reasons
http://www.dmv.ny.gov/forms/mv80w.pdf

This is kind of a nice site (if the info is accurate)
http://www.tintlaws.com/ny.php

 

Thanks for that. This clarifies the issue as the Police quoting "30%" is confusing when he should be saying 70%, consistent with the law. So it's clear that NY has pretty strict rules, only allowing 70% tints.

 

Disagree. The law allows up to 30% tint.
The law is stating that 70% of light must pass through. That means (out of a 100%) that up to 30% of tint is permitted. His meter read 32% of tint, in other words that only 68% of light was passing through.
The meter showed 32% since it was likely calculating the amount of light passing through (68%) and then deducting that from a 100%.
Hence on the ticket it read "<70%", or less than 70% light passing through. Hence the fine.
The tint I have is not that strong, certainly not as strong as many, many of the cars driving by me, where I cannot even tell if someone's in the car.

 

I don't see how you can say 30% is legal.
If the ticket is citing you for <70% then 70% is the law.
Per the 2 links I posted above the limit for NY on Front Windows is 70%.

I would bet his meter reads light passing through the glass and not the tint level.
Light passing on your car was 32% which is far less than 70%.
Technically you are illegal.

Yes, most people do 20% and darker.
I personally got tired of that gangster look.
Also, with nicer cars why hide the beautiful interiors.
I still tint for the protection and heat reduction but I just use the lighter shades like 45%.
If I wanted to be legal, I would use 70% which is the CA legal limit (similar to NY).
http://www.tintlaws.com/ca.php

I think you are just misunderstanding the way tint is classified.
Tint rated at 30% lets 30% of light pass (not 70%), so it is fairly dark compared to what is legal.
A cop can tell 30 Tint from a mile away.
50 is harder for him to notice and 70 would be undetectable to his eye.

 

When I say 70% tint, I mean "tinting that allow 70% light transmission".
The amount of VLT (Visible Light Transmission) is how the industry and the law measures tinting. By talking about how much light is blocked simply confuses everyone.

 

Ok got it...semantics in the end I guess.
Bottom line, I had tinting that allowed only 68% light transmission, so he threw the book at me.
My logic was based on 100% light transmission = clear window.
On that basis 30% tint (darkening) = 70% light transmission and legal in NY. That's all. I think we're all talking the same thing. I may be incorrect in my explanation but it works for me.

 

Yes it is semantics but unfortunately this is confusing as it's so easy to mix up 30%/70%.

It is very mean for them to fine you for being 2% over, particularly with 2 tickets.
Looking at the tintlaw.com site, we can see that most states allow around 35%VLT, whereas NY and some others only allow 70%VLT which is a lot lighter.

 

Are you serious that your tint was 68%?
That would be undetectable to the human eye.
If you are right, you should be able to get that ticket signed off and dismissed.

Do you have a picture of your car?
70% is very rarely installed (excpet for WS) so I find it hard to believe that's what you have and more so that a cop would bother you over 68%.

 

This is why I do 40-45% on my cars, no need for undue attention. Plus, the lighter tint is easier for me to see out of at night.

I dont know if its been posted, but the factory glass already has some tint to it, my installer always points that out to me.

2 tickets is a crock.

 

Here's my avatar in bigger pic (driver's window open), plus a few others in direct sunlight so a lot of reflection, but you can see through the windows inside.

 

Judging from Picture 2, there is no way that is 70% (looks more like 35%).
Picture 3 looks lighter, so maybe you have 50%?
What did you installer say it was?
Did they write it on your receipt?

 

I was concerned this might happen posting pics...different angles sunlight, etc.
I purchased 35% (or 65% depending on nomenclature). The police meter read 32% (or 68%). NYS law says it have to have 70% light passing through, so by the meter I was 2% off.