The Green Tint. Is it bad?

[Lord Bear]

The first LED lights I carried were Photons. They came in many colors. I remember green as being touted as "favored by the military". Some recent (excellent by the numbers, more "efficient") LED's seem to be castigated as too green. :ohgeez:
So I wondered on how green works outdoors compared to the warmer LED's. How about indoors? Color rendition seems to be the main factor.
(When talking flashlights, for a baseline, my eyes are aging and I depend on Malkoff's M31/M61 for best visual environment. None of them are neutral/warm/Hi CRI. I suspect best visual environment is more a function of "beam distribution" as compared to "beam focus". My sole warm sample is the HDS HCRI 100 lumen model. Seems like a really good Surefire incan to me.)
:candle:

 

[flasherByNight]

there's a big difference between a light that's designed to be green, and other lights that are supposed to be white, but end up a puke green. or as I like to call them "minty green"

 

[Bronco]

there's a big difference between a light that's designed to be green, and other lights that are supposed to be white, but end up a puke green. or as I like to call them "minty green"

Exactly. There are certain optical advantages to actual green LEDs, color rendition obviously not being one of them. But you'll have a hard time finding many people who appreciate what's supposed to be a white LED that has a sickly green tint to it.

 

[Napalm]

The green tint works fine outdoors. Way better than purple.

Nap.

 

[Sgt. LED]

Agree
Give me a greenish hue over a blueish any day, err night lol!

 

[BBL]

The green tint works fine outdoors. Way better than purple.

Exactly. I started to like green tinted lights, as soon as the purble-tinted lights became common.

 

[carrot]

Agree
Give me a greenish hue over a blueish any day, err night lol!

Same here. Green tinted lights are actually pretty awesome IMO.

 

[Richub]

I had a few green XM-L lights, and they were 'puke-green' in my eyes. I returned them to the store for better tinted ones.

I also have a fairly green Fenix PD10, and my TK45 has a green tint on low and medium.
Somehow the XP-G's green tint isn't annoying me that much compared to the XM-L's green tint. It's obvious in direct comparison, but in real life use I quickly get used to that XP-G green. I never could get used to the green XM-L's though... :green:

 

[Burntrice]

Some look pretty nasty on a white wall but out and about at night you don't notice it at all

 

[Gregozedobe]

Some people who seem to know what they are talking about claim that proper "night vision green" LEDS preserve your night vision better than any other colour LED (at verry low levels of illumination). There have been several threads recently discussing this issue in some detail (some to do with astronomy, another to do with nesting sea turtles IIRC). A search on "night vision green" should find them.

NVG LEDs are quite different to the "white" LEDS that have a slightly green tint as discussed above (I personally have a strong dislike of XP-Gs with the dreaded "cat's **** green" tint).

 

[yellow]

i m no expert on this topic, but has it not been the case - with very early night vision devices - that they could not detect green light ...
... thus using green light has been thought as being perfect for military intelligence
--> today no longer true, so green light --> skipped

and, has been typed already, dont compare geen light with a white led that has a green tint.

 

[Swedpat]

I prefer a green tint before a blue or purple, and find greenish quite nice as long it's very slight. Too much greenish sucks.

 

[Hitthespot]

I've had LED lights in the past that leaned more twards the green side than the blue side. I actually liked them. They seemed warmer and gave better results outside. My Myshondt Nautilus was one of them. However I now have a Olight M20 with a S2 in it that is green and I can't stand the tint at all. It is a different tint of green than any of my previous green tinted lights. I will eventually upgrade the emitter in the light.

I guess my point is that just because a light leans to the green side of things doesn't automatically mean I won't like, but there are obviously green tints that I can't stand either.

 

[Bronco]

The green tint works fine outdoors. Way better than purple.

Nap.

LOL. Alright, I guess I can go along with that. :)

But with the plethora of excellent warm and neutral LEDs currently available, this statement still strikes me as being a bit like saying that you'd prefer to be in a boat with one hole in the hull over a boat with two holes. Certainly true, but still not really the optimal situation.

 

[Lou Minescence]

I find green tint is ok outdoors with no snow on the ground. The green is annoying to my eyes with snow. So when there is snow on the ground, I leave my Quark S2 at home and grab something else. The green tint on my XML TK35 doesn't bother me as much as my XPG S2 Quark.

 

[parnass]

I prefer a cooler tint over a green tint for use indoors.

 

[Napalm]

this statement still strikes me as being a bit like saying that you'd prefer to be in a boat with one hole in the hull over a boat with two holes. Certainly true, but still not really the optimal situation.

Unfortunately the chance of getting a LED right on the ANSI white line is very small (even for the neutral/warm ones). What you'll usually get is either a deviation above the line (green/yellow tint) or under the line (purple/pink tint). For outdoor use (non-snow as mentioned) I'd pick the lesser evil - green/yellow - which tends to produce better contrast / less haze. Remember that those "contrast enhancing" glasses are yellowish - for a reason.

Nap.

 

[DM51]

The green tint observable in some LEDs is probably an attempt to correct the sharp spike in the blue part of the spectrum, and the corresponding dip in the cyan part. Shifting the spectrum slightly towards the longer-wavelength cyan and green may do a little to even out the spectrum, although it's not going to do a lot. It will help in a very minor way to improve the rendition of greens and browns, but the red end will still be deficient and most woodland/foliage will still look pretty dead.

Many people (judging purely on what I've seen posted by members) seem to dislike the green tint. Perhaps it reminds them of the sickly color-cast of fluorescent lighting; perhaps it just looks rather nasty on a white wall. Other people dislike too much blue; and there are some that dislike the warmer tints. It's a matter of individual taste and preference, nothing more, and of whether a light illuminates things in the way an individual prefers to see them.

There's a good thread by Derek Dean on Changing LED Tint With Filters, for those who haven't seen it.

 

[Foxfyre]

A faint minty blue green is ok but please no Atlantic ocean, during a storm, olive drab, old sickly, big loser in the the Luxeon lottery, greens for me. :green: :sick2:

 

[coyote]

"the horror, the horror"

years ago us early CPF'ers called a fugly greenish tint (that was suppose to be white) "catpiss green" and i still do. yuck. i will not accept it, no sir!