Turquoise VS White

From my Q&A web page:

Q: Green LEDs are more efficient and brighter that white LEDs. Why not just use green LEDs instead?
A: The answer to this has to do with how our eyes perceive light. We perceive colors based upon REFLECTED light. Light is reflected off of the things we see and our retinas pick that up. Our retinas (the back of the eyeball) are only sensitive to 3 colors - red, green, and blue. Our brain combines these 3 colors to make all of the colors that we "see".

If you are only using a green light to look around, 2 things happen:
1) Your eyes cannot distinguish any one color from any other. Green and white items appear green (they reflect back all of the light sent out) while red and blue items will appear black (they don't reflect any of the green light). In-between colors will appear in shades of lighter or darker green depending on how much green they reflect. In essence, you have reduced your vision to black and white (or to be more accurate "black and green").
2) Your ability to see green is greatly reduced for a short time after long exposure to the green light because your eyes get so "used to" the green light. For example if you were to use a green light (and nothing else) for reading in a dark room for an hour and then turn on a white light, your eyes would not be able to see green - they would only see the red and blue for a while - red and blue make magenta, so EVERYTHING would appear to have a magenta tint for a while. This won't hurt your eyes, it'll just take a few minutes for them to get used to seeing everything in white light again.

In essence, our eyes are designed to see the full range of colors in the spectrum, so why no let them do their job most effectively? This is why I use white LEDs instead of single color LEDs.
 
Hi Witsend
Shortly after receiving my Arc AAA Turquoise in December, I took it and my Arc AAA LE for a night walk in the woods. I carried one in each fist and alternated from one to the other. The Turq was far superior at lighting up the stems and twigs I was wading through, but the White LE was very effective and its beam permitted a more detailed understanding of the trail 30 feet ahead. I found them both about equally useful, which was a bit disappointing and perplexing. So back at home, I checked the batteries and found that the Turq was at 0.9 volts! With a fresh cell it was dramatically brighter. In the end, I was amazed how good the Turq was, and I would certainly choose it over the white for night walking in the woods...if I could only take one (but may that never happen).
 
There has been some discussion on the bikecurrent list about using the cyan luxeons as bike headlights. Seems that the maximum sensitivity of the low-light receptors in your eyes (rods?) peaks at about cyan.
 
For anyone who has been dissapointed in the low light output of the white CMG Infinity, but wants the longer life the CMG offers, compared to the Arc-AAA, the turquoise CMG puts out *much* more light than the white one, to the point that I'd say it's by far the most 'useful' CMG color. The green GMG is quite bright also, but color distortion is much worse than the turquoise. IMHO, the white CMG is too dim for most pratical applications. But the turquoise CMG Infinity does produce enough light for practical use. Because the white Arc-LE puts out so much light, compared to the CMG Infinity, although less than the turquoise Arc-AAA, I prefer the white Arc-LE to the brighter turquoise Arc-AAA. That will be 2 cents, please.
rolleyes.gif
 
thanks for the input-MORE PLEASE.
On the low light receptivity to the blue end is that effective if there is more ambient light (ie. you can see something but want to see it better)?

Gandalf in regards to your bill for $.02 please keep a running total and when it gets to $5.00 send me a bill {consider this fine print,only valid on my topics, 1 transaction per topic, not valid within 375 miles of a US border, only valid for residents of Minnesotta}
 
So, what I'm reading here is that green/cyan colored lights work fairly well in foilage; there may be some truth to my 'pea green LED light humor' in "CPF Special Edition Tacticle Jungle Flashlight"........
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Gandalf:
the turquoise CMG puts out *much* more light than the white one<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Gandalf -

I've seen you write about this before... and I respect your opinions. The problem is, I have both a white Infinity, and a turquoise one. They are both "new" versions, and with new batteries in each, there is no question that for me the white one is the more usable of the two. I can just barely read comfortably by the turq one, while the white one produces more than enough light to read comfortably. Add the fact that the colored one has much more pronounced rings, and the white one easily wins in all catagories. Maybe we have drastically different units - and the two I own are the only two I've seen, so I can't make a general statement... but those are my observations. For me, white wins for sure. Same goes for the Arc AAA's. I've tried the colored ones, and I find the white so much more useful, that I almost never use the colored ones except for the novelty (or night-vision retention) aspect.

YMMV.
 

Latest posts

Top