SF Aviator A2 Red LED Brightness Question.

I am considering getting an A2 w/Red LED's. I currently use a E2E with the red filter when outdoors at night, hunting, hiking etc.

My question is how does the brightness of an E2E w/red filter compared to Aviator w/Red LED's?

Thanks in advance,

-Ed

ps. nice forum!

Well I havent experienced the E2e with a red filter on.....yet, the A2 with red leds is more then enough to get me around my neighbourhood at night. So I guess thats one tick for outdoors as for hunting and hiking I would have no clue.

Your E2E is rated at 60LM.Put the red filter on it and you will lose a bit say 10-15 LM.The A2 is rated at around 3LM for there LED's so there should be a huge difference.But that 3LM is plenty to walk around with.Good to about 20 feet

thermal guy said:

Your E2E is rated at 60LM.Put the red filter on it and you will lose a bit say 10-15 LM.The A2 is rated at around 3LM for there LED's so there should be a huge difference.But that 3LM is plenty to walk around with.Good to about 20 feet

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Even with an incandescent light the loss in the filter will be a hell of a lot more than 10-15lm.

LukeA said:

Even with an incandescent light the loss in the filter will be a hell of a lot more than 10-15lm.

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OK lets say 30LM then. Still a hell of a lot brighter then 3LM.

I like my A2 with red LED but I have noticed that it does slightly change the tint of the incandescent lamp. I had always noticed that the tint was not quite as white as my other A2 with white LEDs. This is only noticeable if you put them side by side and not a factor in anything other than white wall hunting. Either way as was mentioned before if you can live with the lower output of the red LEDs verses the incandescent with the filter then the A2 is an excellent choice. It is also worth mentioning that the KROMA while a bit more expensive does have a high/low red , high/low blue and a high low white. Just a suggestion.

I have both. The E2e with a red filter is alot brighter. So if your just sneaking around the red A2 is great. Besides the red LEDs run alot longer on a set of batteries.

BTW welcome to CPF!!!

etgjr said:

I am considering getting an A2 w/Red LED's. I currently use a E2E with the red filter when outdoors at night, hunting, hiking etc.

My question is how does the brightness of an E2E w/red filter compared to Aviator w/Red LED's?

Thanks in advance,

-Ed

ps. nice forum!

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Hi, I have a red Surefire KL1 with F04 beamshaper.

I also have several E2e's with MN03 lamp assemblies. I have a red filter for them.

If I had to guess......... I would say the red filter puts out less than 5 lumens of red light, the red KL1 with beamshaper puts out around 30 lumens.

I've also had a red A2 before and if I had to guess I would say the LED's put out around 10 lumens of red light. It's been awhile though.

I found my stock A2's Red LEDs too bright for moving around the house at night, not to mention an ugly and ringy beam pattern from them.

I decided to polish the LEDs and that solved both issues, the perceived intensity went down and it was much more evenly distributed.

The only other lights I have to compare to are an L2 with Red filter an and a K2-MS. The L2 with filter (High) is considerably brighter than my A2, my K2-MS is about the same.

Thanks everyone for the replys.

I talked to Surefire and they said the E2e w/red filter losses about 10 lumens. I was suprised by that small of a loss, but the eye "sees" red wavelenth differently.

I think I'm still going to give the A2 a try. I think the convenience of the low red and high white beats pulling the red filter of the light.

-Ed

etgjr said:

Thanks everyone for the replys.

I talked to Surefire and they said the E2e w/red filter losses about 10 lumens. I was suprised by that small of a loss, but the eye "sees" red wavelenth differently.

I think I'm still going to give the A2 a try. I think the convenience of the low red and high white beats pulling the red filter of the light.

-Ed

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That can't be right. Since it's that much brighter, that would mean my red KL1 is about 300 lumens. :thumbsdow

I stand by my original statement.

And like I mentioned, I've owned all three.

I agree Ampdude, E2E w/Red Filter = 50 lumens ???????

Well I'm going to do the "right" thing and get an A2, I have three E2E's its about time I spread my wings and got another Surefire model!

-Ed

If you have one of those old 2D army flashlights with the different colored filters in the tailcap, try the red one. The E2e with red filter is a little bit brighter than that.

In other words, not very bright.

Of course that's not the point of the red filter, but just to illustrate the brightness.

Red light isn't useful just because its red, but also because its dim. At 30+ lumens it makes no difference if your trying to preserve night vision or not, it'll kill it and then some.

reminds me of the time we astronomers got together and some idiot no0b brough a 1 MCP spotlight fitted with a red filter thinking its "appropriate" for astronomy...

That's why I love the RA Twisty 85-TR. The Red low puts out an extremely low amount of light.

It's perfect because you gain the benefits of low light output and red output to help keep your night vision at optimal.

As for the Aviator and all that other stuff I've never owned them so I wouldn't know.

If the red beam does not look grey or brown during deep night adapted eyes. Then the light is to bright.

dd61999 said:

If the red beam does not look grey or brown during deep night adapted eyes. Then the light is to bright.

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If it's true red, no matter what it's going to look red.

It takes about 15 minutes for me to see the Red low on my garage door which is 15 feet away in a pitch black room and it still looks red.

shomie911 said:

If it's true red, no matter what it's going to look red.

It takes about 15 minutes for me to see the Red low on my garage door which is 15 feet away in a pitch black room and it still looks red.

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It takes a lot longer than 15 minutes to get into scotopic nightvision

dd61999 said:

It takes a lot longer than 15 minutes to get into scotopic nightvision

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That wasn't my point, red has always looked red regardless of how much my eyes have adapted. Do you have any research or proof that I could read that would back up your assertion?

Under complete night vision most colors look relatively the same but when a colored light, even an extremely dim one you can always tell what color the light is, atleast in my experience.

I don't mind if you're right, I'd just like to know how and why it occurs.