SF A2: greenLED's comparison of LED colors (with pics)

greenLED

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A2: greenLED's comparison of LED colors

A lot has been said about the SureFire A2. The most comprehensive treatise of the A2 is this thread by js (followed by Part 2). If you're hungry for more, you need to visit Atomic Chicken's Index of A2 threads.

Despite all this information, though, a thread comparing all available A2 LED colors side by side was missing from CPF. To fill this void, I contacted several fellow CPF'ers and SureFire and borrowed their lights for this shootout. This wouldn't've been possible without them trusting me with their lights (names and proper acknowledgements are below). :bow:
  • The setup:
All A2's used in this comparison were using fresh batteries. All testing was done indoors, as I didn't want to take borrowed lights outside and risk any damage. I won't refer to the overall design and features, since all that has been covered ad naseum elsewhere. Camera settings are mentioned in the appropriate sections.
  • LED comparison:
Please note that, because of the nature of this light (LED/incan hybrid) and the reflector's design, the outside of the beam will have artifacts, regardless of what LEDs are used. Also, these are indoor observations. I know from experience beam aritfacts are unnoticeable at a distance of 10m or so while outdoors and walking around.

Even though I've been vocal against "wall hunting", I doing exactly that for this review. :grin2: I expect all mention of beam imperfections to be moot when using the light "for real" (which I intend to do - a lot!).


Part I: Comparison of A2 LED colors:



The A2 family:
(owner names in parentheses)
  • blue (SureFire, sent to me by Stuart)
  • green (rscanady)
  • orange (souptree)
  • red (bullzeyebill)
  • red TCH3 modded (oregonshooter)
  • UV (PoliceScannerMan)
  • yellow/green (Y/G) (dragoman)
  • white Nichia LED - stock (greenLED)
  • white SMJLED mod (lasercrazy)
  • white snow LED mod (bwaites, mod by Milkyspit)
  • white THC3 LED mod (bwaites, mod by Milkyspit)
This thread (2006), and this one (2007) have polls indicating which colors are more common. The first poll deals with stock color options, while the second poll includes options for mods as well as stock colors.


Most pics were taken with 0"3 speed and 4.5 aperture. The orange A2 LED's were shot using different settings (see below for details). Although you'll see the tints of white vary a bit because I neglected to force a white balance, relative brightness should be comparable. In all paired pics, the stock LED is on the right. The wall we were shooting on is white.

Let's start with a family shot. From left to right:
SMJLED, green, stock, red, Y/G.

a2ledcolorsuw0.jpg



Here are a couple of pics including the blue LED A2:



Pic to the left: Nichia, green, blue, red THC3 mod
Pic to the right: green, red THC3 mod, blue, Nichia


Green LED:
(Owner: rscanady)



The white-balance is off and makes the stock LED look purple in the first pic (to the left); the tint should be the "angry blue" we're used to seeing in white Nichia LEDs. As with other colored 5mm LED's, the beam is of the green LED A2 is full of artifacts. Despite this, the LEDs are very bright and provide ample illumination for any task. Color rendition is not superb, but my depth perception was not hindered (as it is for some people when using red LEDs). Gotta love the color! :grin2:

We did a comparison shot (middle pic) between my "green" ArcAAA (thanks, Larry!) and rscanady's green A2... my green ArcAAA actually looks turquoise compared to the green A2. :confused: You can also see how much brighter the green A2 is (the batt on the ArcAAA is new). The third pic to the right is a side-by-side pic of green LED and red THC3 mod.


Red LED:
(Owner: BullzeyeBill)



The beam is made of a central hotspot and an outer ring, with a darker void in between both areas. This is more or less typical of the red LEDs I've seen. This is one of the brightest A2 LED colors. The tint is a very deep red that I liked a lot.

As I slight side note, Bullzeye has been running li-ions on his A2. I do not know if that's had an effect on the LED output at all, or whether that is a function of my eyes perceiving color intensity differently. Also, I'd like to mention my wife tends to lose depth perception when using red LED. I'm not sure if that's because of the changes in contrast or color rendition, or what, but I thought I'd mention it.


Red THC3 LED mod:
(Owner: oregonshooter)



The beam on the red THC3 LEDs is much smoother and tighter than the stock red; I liked this difference. The THC3 LEDs also look slightly orangey (when you look into them, not when actually looking at the beam projection), whereas I remember the stock reds being a deeper red. The LEDs on this unit are not sanded to smooth out the beam, which is somewhat unexpected in colored LED's.

You'll notice the red THC3 mod seems slightly dimmer than the stock red LEDs. I did use the same camera settings, so I am not sure if this is because the white balance on my camera changed and that affected how the pic came out (for example, the pic with the red THC3 shows the blueish tint typical of the Nichia, while the pic of the stock red didn't capture that). Also, I took pics of the red THC3 mod a few weeks after I returned the stock red A2, and my memory could be faulty at this stage.

Given the above, take the brightness comparison with a grain of salt. The differences in tightness and smoothness of the beam are to be trusted, though.


Yellow/Green (Y/G) LED:
(Owner: dragoman)



Man, this is a weird color! It took me completely by surprise when I first saw them. My first impression was: "Damn, these things are worthlessly dim!" But, once your eyes are dark adapted, the Y/G LED's are plenty bright.

The more I used the Y/G, the more I liked it. This color could very well be one of the most useful LED colors out there; no NV gear needed! After a while of using and comparing this color to the others, I can say that the beam/brightness is more useful than some of the other LEDs, and color rendition is not bad at all! Since I already have a white LED A2, this would be the one I'd chose next.

The beam pattern is very interesting; the LEDs are very blotchy. However, as VWTim very cleverly pointed out when we were testing the lights, that's part of what makes them so useful! The beam is so irregular, that it smooths itself out - there really isn't a discernable pattern to see. It sounds counterintuitive, but it's not. Just like sputtering a reflector smooths out a beam, I think the blotchiness of the Y/G LEDs add to a very useful beam.


Blue LED:
(Supplied directly by SureFire, through Stuart)



Blue LED A2 to the left, and stock Nichia to the right, and some pics comparing blue LED against green and THC3 red:
blue vs. green - blue vs. THC3 red



For some reason the camera made the blue appears a bit brighter than what I actually saw. Nevertheless, I was surprised at how bright the blue LED's are; I'd rate them second only to the green LED's (and by close margin). The beam has the usual artifacts found in other colored LED's, but nothing a little sanding can't fix. ;)

From what I hear, blue LED's are intended to be used by hunters, to track blood at night. I cannot vouch for that use, but there's a funny story on the SF website about someone using their blue LED A2 to light up a party with hip-hop artists Redman and Big Daddy Kane. :laughing:

The tint of blue on the unit I had was very deep; it'd work great for signaling, if anything just because it's not very common to see blue markers out there (just be careful not to be confused for a Law Enforcement unit). I'm not sure what the spectrum of these LED's are, but it worked fine to bring up fluorescent effects on some glo-rings and hi-viz yellow zipper pulls I have.

As a final cautionary note, I get headaches when using blue LED's for some time (for reading at night, for example).


Orange LED's:
(Owner: souptree - posted October 2007)

Here's souptree's
original thread on this particular LED mod. Unfortunately, I had to change shooting locations and I was not able to properly reproduce the beamshots using the original camera settings. The first set of pictures was taken at 1/30 speed and 3.5 aperture. The second set was taken at 1/15 and 3.5. The first set most closely resembles what I my eyes perceived, but I'm also posting the second set for your reference. From left to right you have Nichia white-orange, Y/G-orange, and Nichia white-Y/G-orange:

Exposure 1:




Exposure 2:




First, let me address the difference in LED color between orange and red. The beam on the left here is the orange A2, and on the right is a red CMG Task light:



They say a pic usually speaks 1000 words, but not in this case. I could easily distiguish between both colors, but my camera was unable to capture the differences. I am not sure what the wavelengths of these 2 LED colors are. To my eyes, the CMG Task Light is a deep ruby red color, while the orange A2 is, well... orange! It's quite a beautiful and unique LED color.

I think red provides too much contrast between objects, and that was not the case while I was walking around with the orange LED's on. In other words, the depth perception provided by the orange LED's was better than that provided by the red LED I have. It almost reminded me of walking around with an amber LED.

This particular mod is fairly bright. I had enought light to navigate around the house and poke behind bushes outside. The orange color seemed a lot brighter than my Y/G A2, but dimmer than my white A2.


LED Color rendition:

I kept camera settings constant for all shots (except for the orange LED's), so you could also gauge relative brightness. For all LED colors, you'll see a zoom-in and a zoom-out shot (from about 2.5m from the wall). You'll noticed the Y/G shots are underexposed with the settings I used first. I went back and re-tock those pics - that's why there are 2 of pics for the Y/G at each distance (that way you can also gauge brightness relative to the other colors, as well as color rendition).

Zoomed-in shots:

From left to right -
control shot (room's fluorescent lights on)
green, red, red THC3, stock Nichia, Y/G (underexposed), Y/G (better exposure), blue, orange:





Zoomed-out shots:

The same line-up, same distance, but zoomed out shot of green, red, red THC3, stock Nichia, Y/G (underexposed), Y/G (better exposure), blue, orange:



The white Nichia (stock) takes the prize as the best color rendition (but read the comparison of white LED's below for the full story). Y/G would be next, then green. Red and blue give the worse color rendition of all; I can't decide which one is worse. Color rendition with the orange LED, as you can see, is not superb, but I believe it's slightly better than with red.

Overall beam pattern:

I let the camera take over the exposure speed on this one. I kept aperture constant, but didn't bother to remember what it was. :p I took the pics from about 5m away from a white wall. You can use the zoomed out color rendition shots to give you a better idea of what a flat object would look like from a distance.

Again, these are green, red, red THC3, stock Nichia, Y/G, blue:




I hope the Y/G shot clarifies what I was trying to describe before about beam quality. I'll let the rest of the pics speak for themselves. These are zoomed-out versions of some of the above pics (green, red THC3, Nichia, blue, and orange in the last line):





The orange beam was relatively uniform when compared to the Y/G, blue, and green units I tested before; it also seemed much broader than some of the other colors I've used. I hope the different exposures give you a better idea of what the beam pattern really looks like.


Overall brightness/beam smoothness rating & comments:

The brightest of all LED colors was green, followed by blue, white Nichia, red, orange, then Y/G. You can see that the Y/G is almost lost among the other A2's. I should reiterate that once your eyes are dark adapted, the Y/G LED's give out plenty of light to work with.

Notice how the patttern of the 3 red LED is somewhat overlapping in the previous pics? I'll speculate SF makes an effort to orient the LEDs so there is some collimation of the beam patterns. This, of course, depends on the LED color (some are inherently blotchier than others) and the A2 unit (my A2 seems to have better "centered" LEDs than rscanady's white unit, for example).

If the blotchyness of the LED beam bothers you, a little sanding can help smooth out the beam. This is how leukos' green LED A2 looks like after sanding, and here is Oregonshooter's thread has pics of sanded stock red LEDs, and red TCH3 mod.


Part II. Comparison of white LED A2 units:


White LED units in this comparison:
(owner names in parenthesis)
  • stock Nichia LED (greenLED)
  • SMJLED LED (lasercrazy)
  • snow LED (bwaites, mod by Milkyspit)
  • THC3 LED (bwaites, mod by Milkyspit)
The line-up, from left to right-
THC3, snow, SMJLED, Nichia



I let the image to the left a little overexposed so you could see the difference in brightness better. The second pic was taken with the same settings as the shot above showing all color LEDs; it shows the beam edges much better. Again, the white-balance of my camera was a bit off; Nichia LEDs are the usual angry blue, but they came out as purplish in the pics. :confused:

At one point while doing this review, I had 2 stock white A2's available. While there was a noticeable difference in the beam pattern of both; one of them was slightly less blue, and the LED's hotspots were more "focused" than the other. Other than this, they seemed equally bright and useful.

It was very hard for me to gauge differences in brightness between these, since I don't have a light meter, and beam patterns and tints are different. Judging by my eye-meter, though, I'd say the THC3 is about as bright as the SMJLED (maybe a bit dimmer), but this may be an effect of the warmer yellowish tint - a clear deviation from the blue tint of all the other LEDs.

The snow LEDs seemed brighter and the beam was much smoother than the stock LED's. One thing I've noticed with snow LEDs is that they are not "white" as people say. Instead, they have a rather large "hotspot" (a misnomer, as there isn't really a defined central "hot" spot) with a faint and even light-blue tint. The corona is not as yellow as in the Nichia LEDs. Overall, I think this gives the "whiter" appearance, but IMO, they still have a (faint) blue tint.

The overall winner in terms of apparent brightness and beam smoothness is the SMJLED. By far the brightest, smoothest, widest beam of all the white LED's I compared. A definite improvement in beam quality over the stock Nichias. Here's a picture for you to judge by yourself:



The snow LED has a similar smooth beam, but it has a slightly more concentrated hotspot than the SMJLED. Nichia has the tightest hotspot of all, with the angry blue we all love to hate. The THC3 beam is also fairly smooth.

If I *absolutely had* to mod my A2, it'd be with SMJLEDs. Those who like warmer tints, however, will love the white THC3 mod, which have a slightly yellowish tint to them, but matches the incandescent output nicely and you don't see the colored aura evident with other colored LED's (see below for pics of the aura).

I'll leave the A2 LED modding to Milkyspit and others who know their 5mm LED specs and have the ability to tweak the resistors for maximum LED life, etc.


Color rendition, close up -
Control shot (room's fluorescent lights on)
THC3, snow, SMJLED, Nichia






Color rendition, zoom out -
THC3, snow, SMJLED, Nichia




Being white LEDs, this is almost a no brainer - the best LED for accurate color rendition is white, and I think all the lights I looked at do a good job at this. However, if I had to rank them, the SMJLED is the winner, followed by the snow LED (which are still, to my eyes, blueish), THC3 (with it's yellowish tint), and Nichia (points off for being angry blue). The zoomed-out pics give you an idea of what an object would look like from about 5m away.


Beam pattern -
THC3, snow, SMJLED, Nichia




The most concentrated beam pattern is that of the Nichia, followed by the snow LED, and then the TCH3 and SMJLED (both are about the same spread). Like I mentioned earlier, I think the slightly yellowish tint of the THC3's give the appearance of them being dimmer than the SMJLED, but I really can't tell which one would be brighter. Both are fairly free or artifacts and illuminate a wide area well.

If I were to get picky(-ier), I'd say the snow LED are an improvement over the Nichia because of their smoother beam and much lighter blue shade (almost undistinguishable). I should point out that the slightly yellowish tint of the THC3 LED's match the tint of the incandescent lamp, and there is not discernible effect on the incan beam (this is most apparent with the green and red LED's, and I mentioned the "aura" around the incan beam on the snow LED mod).

In real life, however, none of these differences are likely to matter. In a pinch I'd use any and all of these lights without a word of criticism. The ultimate choice falls onto the owner of a particular light. I can only hope this review helps people choose what they want their A2's to do for them. Me? I'm happy with the stock Nichia, thankyouverymuch. :)


Are new style A2's (round body) brighter than old style (square body?

People have been asking me about brightness differences between "old" and "new" style A2's, but none of the white A2's I've seen have been different in terms of brightness. However, here's a thread by Illum_the_nation showing these differences may indeed be observable. The question was raised again by socom1970, and DM51 posted some pics comparing old vs new style A2's. DM51 also posed a plausible explanation for the observed variation:

I suspect results will vary considerably from one individual light to another - possibly more than any variation there might be between old and new lights in general. This would depend on the uniformity of the LEDs themselves, and any variations in the manufacturing process.
I've asked SF several times if they've changed the LED's in the A2 and the answer has always been "no, we're using the same type of LED". This may or may not exclude changes in LED ranks, but I won't speculate on that.



Part III. Comparison with other LED lights:

A pic speaks a thousand words.

From left to right:

L1p, L0p (couple of weeks of pocket use on the batteries), Mag Soli (33mcd + button cells mod), SF U2 (lowest level), CR2 Ion (on low), CR2 Ion (on high), custom CR2 by tvodrd (with MM+ RYOJ, on low and then high):





Part IV. Incandescent beamshots (with a LED twist, of course):


As I've mentioned before in this review, the LEDs give the incandescent beam a distinct colored aura. I hope these beamshots show what I'm talking about. Whether they interfere at all with real use it's up for grabs (I don't think they do), but since this is a wall hunting review, might as well post the pics. :grin2:

For these pics, I used automatic aperture. The colors are not exactly what I saw on the wall because the white balance was on auto and whatnot, but you get to see the colored "aura", which is what I'm trying to document.

The lineup:
Nichia, green , blue, red THC3 (with incan beam on regulation), red THC3 (with incan beam off regulation)



The color and beam characteristics of all incandescent lamps were pretty much identical (which, again, is not clearly shown on the above pics). I noticed a couple of particularities that I'd like to mention about the incandescent beams once you incorporate the LED tint:
  1. The green LED A2 seemed dimmer than the white LED A2. I can't say whether this is because of the influence of the green LEDs projecting an odd tint onto the incandescent beam and shifting its color (and, thus, altering my perception of brightness), or an actual result of a dimmer lamp. I observed a similar effect with the red THC3 mod.
  2. The snow LED A2 had a noticeable blueish aura surrounding the incan hotspot. I think this relates back to those LEDs having this really diffuse (wide, smooth area) light blue corona. I hypothesize the incan's hotspot is not large enough to cover the blueish remaining from the LEDs. Sorry, no pic available, this comment was from the very first round of reviews and I didn't take pics of this.
  3. I did not notice any blueish tint when comparing the stock white LED A2's, neither could I tell any difference between the beams of these two lamps.
  4. The warmer tint of the white THC3 matches the tint of the incan bulb perfectly - look, Ma, no aura! :D
I also compared the A2's incan against my E2e (with MN03). The A2's beam is tighter and much whiter than the MN03's. I still have to do further comparisons between these two lamps, and also against my Pila GL3 and GL4. :devil:


Part V. Modifications:

The most basic modification of the A2's LED's would be to sand the LED acrylic domes with fine-grit sandpaper to get rid of the beam artifacts. Examples of such mods are linked above for your reference.

For more advanced LED transplants, I'll leave the A2 LED modding to Milkyspit and others who know their 5mm LED specs and have the ability to tweak the resistors for maximum LED life, offer different LED colors and specs, etc. An example of such modding is souptree's orange LED A2 (which has been reviewed here).

Most recently, fellow CPF'er Atomic Chicken has designed A2 LED replacement rings. There are 2 "flavors" (so far): "simple" replacement LED rings, and the more advanced, uC-controlled, multi-mode, multi-LED replacement rings. JS posted great a review with links to the original product development and sales pages in case you're interested.


Part VI. Some afterthoughts and acknowledgements:

Having used Black Diamond hybrid headlamp (first-gen Gemini) some time ago, so I wasn't too blown away by the A2 as a hybrid light concept. That's not to say I wasn't impressed by it, though! I think the LED's brightness is "just right" for nighttime work and navigation (I think some LED colors may actually be too bright). The incandescent beam is very bright, white, and smooth, and the LED's add to the versatility of this light. I've said it before, and I'll repeat it here: if there was a SF light I'd own several of, it'd be the A2.

I know outdoor shots would be nice to have, but I wasn't about to take people's lights for a stroll out in the park and risk damage or losing them. If want outdoor shots, see EV_007's thread for more pics of a green LED A2 in action (with incan and outdoor shots).
  • Acknowledgements:
Many thanks to rscanady, bwaites, bullzeyebill, oregonshooter, dragoman, lasercrazy, souptree and Stuart at SureFire for letting me borrow their precious lights and making this review possible. Oregonshooter and rscanady even sent their lights a couple of times so this review would be complete! I appreciate all these fine gentlemen trusting me with their lights and making this review possible. :bow:

I'd also like to thank VWTim very much for helping me take the pics and sharing his thoughts. Carrot is responsible for me getting me hooked on wanting an A2, and for making me buy a special edition A2-BK-WH. It's all his fault! :nana:

:thanks: for reading! Please let me know what you think and if there are any thing I can clarify from my writing, forgot to include, or I got plain outright wrong. :grin2:
 
Last edited:

carrot

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Re: A2: greenLED's 4-way comparison

Nice comparison, greenLED!

Does the green LED one look as ringy as they say the colored LED A2's look? Or is it pretty smooth as-is?

Sorry for making you buy another light! ;)

(As my dad would say... "you need another light like you need another hole in the head." Well... my brain's been thinkin' of gettin' a sunroof...)
 

leukos

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Re: A2: greenLED's 4-way comparison

Yes, the stock green LEDs have a terrible ringy beam, but nothing a little sanding can't fix: :naughty:

a2_053.jpg
 

Somy Nex

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Re: A2: greenLED's 4-way comparison

nice review :thumbsup:

a red LED A2 is on my list to get, but i've not been able to find the funds for one yet...

(btw, I think that A2-WH-BK might've been my shelf queen/spare unit before I sold it off to B737driver. i hope you treat my former baby well :mecry:)
 

rscanady

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Re: A2: greenLED's 4-way comparison

The green one is mine, and yes it is very ringy when wall hunting. It sort of reminds me a little bit of a biohazard pattern.

Thanks for the write up, nice to read.

Ryan
 

greenLED

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Re: A2: greenLED's 4-way comparison

Biohazard pattern! That's what the beam looks like. You're absolutely right. Didn't really bug me when shining the light across the room. The ringyness on all the LED beams is more pronounced towards the outside, which end up being on your peripheral field of view once you start shining the light at a distance.
 

dragoman

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Re: A2: greenLED's 4-way comparison

My Yellow/Green LED A2 has the same ringy biohazard pattern......and in nuclear green!

dragoman
 

greenLED

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Re: A2: greenLED's 4-way comparison

dragoman, do you have any green LED light to compare the color rendition and depth perception against your yellow/green A2?
 

js

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Re: A2: greenLED's 4-way comparison

greenLED,

Thanks for this worthwhile contribution to the CPF A2 literature!
 

greenLED

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Re: A2: greenLED's 4-way comparison

js said:
Thanks for this worthwhile contribution to the CPF A2 literature!
:eek: I appreciate your compliments, js. My comments are a mere drop in the bucket of your outstanding A2 treatise. :bow:
 

bwaites

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Re: A2: greenLED's 4-way comparison

Nice job greenLED!

I really noticed the beam artifacts in the yellow/green when I had a chance to compare one with a stock white. That said, and after talking with js who had a chance to do some "real world" testing with the yellow/green, the yellow/green might be ideal for lowlight/night vision saving uses.

The biohazard pattern is a perfect description, BTW!!

Red always gives me depth perception problems, while true blue really messes with my eyes and almost hurts!

Bill
 

batman

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Re: A2: greenLED's 4-way comparison

so if i was in the dark would the Yellow/Green LED of the A2 appear brighter than the red LED A2? According to the linked literature the foggy answer is yes but many people also say the yellow/green LED is too dang dim to be of use compared to the red. I can't decide which one to buy.
 

seery

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Re: A2: greenLED's 4-way comparison

Bill - I've been reading every link I come across regarding the A2 in red and yellow/green for best output and best retention of night adapted vision. Are there any links you could pass along that expand on what you and JS found? I thought red was the answer but seems yellow/green could be better. Thanks.

bwaites said:
Nice job greenLED!

...and after talking with js who had a chance to do some "real world" testing with the yellow/green, the yellow/green might be ideal for lowlight/night vision saving uses.


Bill
 

dragoman

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Re: A2: greenLED's 4-way comparison

GreenLED - no I don't have any other green led lights to compare it to, although I am on the lookout for a green X5...... ;)

As far as retention of night vision, the Y/G LEDs do not affect my night vision at all. I do agree, based on what I've seen, that the Y/G ones are probably the dimmest LEDs of the bunch, but that doesn't bother me. They are still plenty bright to walk around a dark house with. No so much use outside though.

Color rendition - obviously the light itself tints things......I do have trouble regarding the true colors of things, but I think that would be true with any colored LED (don't have any)

Depth perception - not affected at all when I'm using the Y/G LEDs....

Hope I answered your questions....

dragoman
 

greenLED

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Re: A2: greenLED's 4-way comparison

Dragoman, you should let me borrow your Y/G A2.
Looking for a red LED A2 also.
:)
 

dragoman

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Re: A2: greenLED's 4-way comparison

will be sending it to you when I get my green tritium vials from the group buy for your Easter Egg mod....

U can play with it then....

dragoman
 

Bullzeyebill

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Re: A2: greenLED's 4-way comparison

My A2 beam with red leds running is very ringy, sort of like a bulls eye target. Center is solid red, next ring is dark, next ring is red, next dark, next red. My CMG Infinity with red led is beautiful, no artifacts, while the blue green led is ringy, ringy, ringy.

Bill
 

lasercrazy

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Re: A2: greenLED's 4-way comparison

I have an A2 that's been modded with the SMJleds laying around if you want one more to compare. PM me if interested.
 
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