LED Colors?

[Solscud007]

Ok after getting my latest light, the SF PKEF turbo K2 Kroma, I began thinking of the uses of the LEDs.

RED: is used to low light and to preserve your natural night vision. Also for photo labs for B&W photography development

BLUE: is used for hunting? I read somewhere that blue light shows blood on grass and plants better than other colors

IR: self explanatory, for clandestine black ops missions haha.

Green: no idea why you would need green LEDs.

Yellow/Green: I heard these are NVG friendly? I dont understand why that is so important? if you have YG leds, wouldnt that give away your position if you were operating in the dark and didnt want your enemies to see you looking around with LEDs, hence why they make IR filters and IR LEDs to see in the dark with NVGs.

UV: i dont see these offered on SF lights, but they help night fishing supposedly.

Can anyone help clarify these for me? am I missing anything?

 

[darknessemitter]

Ok after getting my latest light, the SF PKEF turbo K2 Kroma, I began thinking of the uses of the LEDs.

RED: is used to low light and to preserve your natural night vision. Also for photo labs for B&W photography development

BLUE: is used for hunting? I read somewhere that blue light shows blood on grass and plants better than other colors

IR: self explanatory, for clandestine black ops missions haha.

Green: no idea why you would need green LEDs.

Yellow/Green: I heard these are NVG friendly? I dont understand why that is so important? if you have YG leds, wouldnt that give away your position if you were operating in the dark and didnt want your enemies to see you looking around with LEDs, hence why they make IR filters and IR LEDs to see in the dark with NVGs.

UV: i dont see these offered on SF lights, but they help night fishing supposedly.

Can anyone help clarify these for me? am I missing anything?

Green and in this case yellow/green are intended to be less visible to nightvision goggles. This is not really meant to avoid detection from an enemy, since it is not totally invisible to NVG's, and it would also be visible to anyone watching with the naked eye. Its primary purpose is to cause less glare for a friend who is using nightvision goggle right next to you.

Blue is sometimes used to increase contrast while tracking a blood trail since blood appears totally black under blue LED's. Blue LED's can also be used with orange goggles for viewing some types of fluorescence, somewhat similar to UV.

 

[KeyGrip]

For what it's worth, blue is useful backstage during live theatre. Yellow-green also, for some reason, is good for reading maps in low light.

 

[orcinus]

Green is used for map reading (better dynamic range, makes your eyes perceive the markings and shadings on the maps better) and hunting (animals supposedly react less to green light).

Blue is used for blood and general leak detection (if UV isn't available).

Red is for preserving your night vision, as you wrote.

Yellow/orange can be used for higher visibility in fog (those wavelengths penetrate it better).

Yellow/green - doesn't make any sense at all.

 

[LED_astray]

Here are three links I saved related to light color and vision. You might find them interesting.

Flashlight Reviews:
http://www.flashlightreviews.com/qa/monochrome.htm

Quickbeam, here, on night vision:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showpost.php?p=203959&postcount=10

and, at EDC Reviews:
http://edcfeatures.blogspot.com/2006/12/on-leds-and-color.html