RED OR GREEN LIGHT
- Thread starter bigsteve
- Start date
Help Support Candle Power Flashlight Forum
angelofwar
Flashlight Enthusiast
Red to keep your night adapted vision and to keep from waking others up. The green is mostly for hunting, and walking through the woods at dusk or dawn so as not to disturb the critters, since miost of them can't see green light.
Moka
Enlightened
lol, moist... =P:devil:
angelofwar
Flashlight Enthusiast
LOL! Most!!! Dang-it!
ti-force
Flashlight Enthusiast
I think that's backwards:tinfoil:
, although red is easier on the eyes than white, the critters that a hunter doesn't want to disturb can't see red. Although, I've read that neither green or red can be seen by said critters. As for a human keeping night adapted vision, and if I'm not mistaken, the military uses mostly dim green light for map lights and such. I could be wrong, but I know first hand about turning a red light on around feral hogs. They can't see it, but if you try that with a standard incandescent or LED (white, yellow, blue or purple spectrum), they will book it right on out of there. They will do this = :duck: .
Last edited:
Red will preserve night vision, but the military uses dim green because the night vision equipment will not see it, compared to red, which will look like a flare. IIRC, the rods in the eyes retina are responsible for night vision, yet are not as color sensitive,(and do not perceive red spectrum light) the cones are color sensitive, and yet not as numerous. The highest percentage of cones are sensitive to the red spectrum, then green, then blue. At night, the red will activate more of the retina than another color, although the cones for the blue spectrum are most sensitive. So, to see best without affecting the rods (night vision), use red. Does that make sense? it's getting late...
ti-force
Flashlight Enthusiast
That makes sense. I knew there was a reason, I just wasn't sure what that reason was. That's what I get for assuming
. Certainly wouldn't want to give away your location.
Surnia
Newly Enlightened
rods are sensitive around the 500nm range, which is about between green and blue (closer to green), which is why greenish colours appear far brighter (two sources of activation), and why they kill night vision. Rods also do not respond above 600nm or so, so anything in the red spectrum does not disturb them. This is why red does not affect your night vision capabilities.
mcnair55
Flashlight Enthusiast
I think that's backwards:tinfoil:
Hunters use a red light,a right pain in the *** goes rabbiting in the field by me at about 1 am with a huge red light.
ti-force
Flashlight Enthusiast
Hunters use a red light,a right pain in the *** goes rabbiting in the field by me at about 1 am with a huge red light.
.... Don't you hate when that happens?
Mr Bigglow
Enlightened
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2010
- Messages
- 406
Red best preserves night vision. In addition to what's already stated, green can be used to reveal red things (say lines on a map, or blood) that will be invisible under red light. I prefer red and blue altho I've been told that yellow-green is the best red alternate of all. Which means I can buy a milspec Kroma, doesn't it?
angelofwar
Flashlight Enthusiast
M@elstrom
Flashlight Enthusiast
That is almost bang on but not entirely accurate, the Rod cells are sensitive to ALL levels of light intensity so a bright red light will still cause Rhodopsin to photobleach impairing your peripheral monochromatic vision...
Obviously green light effects the Rod cells and to a lesser extent the Cone cells due to their 3-way cell distribution (which varies from one individual to the next) of the three types of Photopsin utilized by the Cone cells the largest proportion are sensitive to Long light Wavelengths of 500~700nm (predominantly Red).
Considering our Cone cells are responsible for detail & acuity it seems only logical that this is the reason for the NVG's applied color frequency and use of green ALS's in field for map reading and up close detail work :thumbsup:
*Current school of thought seems to support the application of "significantly" low level white light for non-military and hunting/tracking applications allowing the engagement of both the Cones and to a lesser extent the Rod cells of the eye for night orientation/navigation as a means of avoiding the associated "night blind spot" resulting from peripheral only night adapted vision
Last edited:
MrBenchmark
Enlightened
True, although I can tell you from first hand experience that it isn't as bad with red light as with say white light. But an intensely bright light red light will surely wreck your night vision. (It seems to recover a bit faster though.)
Most people don't really have much experience with this, but your scotopic vision really is color blind - when I look through my telescope, other than the planets (which are just intensely bright), most objects are monochromatic - like looking at a black and white TV, really. Most people are also unaware of how little light it requires to see. I won't say you can see well in low light - you really can't, but what's surprising is that you can see *at all* under really dim conditions.
Why do you care about this, since we have flashlights? I mean, just turn it on and look at stuff, right? Well, if you DO need dark adaptation for some reason, it takes about 30-45 minutes to become fully dark adapted, and only a few seconds of light to lose it. Therefore, if you care about this for some reason (I do - I look at dim astronomical objects that are mostly invisible if your eyes aren't dark adapted) you'll be wanting to use a dim red light if you need light at all.
Anyway, most people don't have any idea about this stuff because urban lighting being what it is, where most people live it is essentially impossible to ever be fully dark adapted.
kaichu dento
Flashaholic
If you'd like to play around with colors a bit you might get yourself one of the coolest colored emitter lights around: the Quark RGB. It's got 4 colors of output and the RGB of course stands for Red, Green, Blue, in addition to the white output. You can vary output for all colors and the light will save a setting for the colored output separate from the white output.any advantages to putting a red ot green lens on a flashlight?
or is it for show only?
darknessemitter
Enlightened
- Joined
- May 14, 2008
- Messages
- 202
I think that's backwards:tinfoil:
The charts I've seen of deer vision sensitivity shows that they should be least sensitive to red light, and should be able to easily see green light. I'm not a hunter, so I'm not sure if there may be some other reason that deer might be less responsive to green light in some situations, but it seems they should definitely be able to see the light. (they don't perceive the color green the same as we do since they only have 2 types of cone cells, but they can still see the light).
Other types of animals may be sensitive to different parts of the spectrum. It seems to me that house cats can see the 630nm wavelenght of typical "red" leds, but I'm not sure about other animals.
ti-force
Flashlight Enthusiast
Yeah, deer can't see red light, so that's best for sneaking into the woods before day break without scaring them away. Like you, I'm really not certain about the green. I've seen information supporting that they can see green and I've seen information stating that they can't see green so I don't know. Maybe they can only see certain greens, or like you said, in certain conditions:shrug:. I do know this: If you shine an incandescent light (or non-red LED), without a red filter at certain animals, they will run away very quickly most of the time if they're uncomfortable with where they are. I have seen the same animals just stand there, but if you use a red filter, they don't even know they're illuminated.
Last edited:
A series of articles worth reading on this subject.
"The Eyes Have It"
http://www.predatorxtreme-digital.com/predatorxtreme/200810/#pg83
"The Eyes Have It"
http://www.predatorxtreme-digital.com/predatorxtreme/200810/#pg83
