Wanting another Surefire A2, can't decide on what color LED's I want

ebow86

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I know this is technically an incadescent flashlight, but my question is regarding the LED aspect of the light so mods, if this thread could stay here in the LED forum it would be greatly appreciated, things are real lonely over there on the incan forum and don't get much attention, thanks.

Now, I bought my first A2 aviator last year and absolutely love it, a round body with white LED's. Right now I'm real close to pulling the trigger on another A2 but I really can't decide on what color leds to get next. Now before anyone suggests any links to the many threads on the A2 I just want to say I've seen them all, including the compairson of all a2 colors. I just wanted to give my thoughts here on what colors I'm leaning towards and see if I can get some fresh thoughts and opinions on the matter.

My first 2 choices I'm torn between is red and yellow/green led's. I know the red will be excellent for preserving night vision, and from what I gather the yellow/green is excellent as well. There's alot of people out there that love the yellow/green led's and it really seems like a cool color, but I gotta tell ya, I'm doubtful on how useful the yellow/greens could really be under normal conditions, they just seem SO dim in the screenshots. I mean having a very low level of light is definitely good for preserving your night vision but I need the leds to be atleast bright enough to navigate around dark woods, late night trips to the bathroom, etc, and I just don't know if the yellow/greens are bright enough to be up to the task. I know there's alot of yellow green aviator fans out there so maybe you guys can give me your thoughts and opinions.

I would also consider getting green led's as well, although I'm not totally sure what their specific purpose is for. Do they help preserve night vision as good as red or yellow/green? What's you guys thoughts on the green vs yellow/green vs red? Blue I really don't want to be honest, I don't see any real use I would get from them, I don't hunt or track blood.

Please consider 2 things when making suggestions.

1. Having an A2 for preserving night vision is not a number one priority, the feature is nice and I do want it but I'm only considering these colors that do this because I already have a white aviator and want another color for the cool factor.

2. I know there are some cool new aviator led rings floating around out there but for now I'm only interested in the stock LED rings.

I look forward to what you guys have to say on the matter. Thanks.
 
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Vox Clamatis in Deserto

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I would also consider getting green led's as well, although I'm not totally sure what their specific purpose is for. Do they help preserve night vision as good as red or yellow/green? What's you guys thoughts on the green vs yellow/green vs red? Blue I really don't want to be honest, I don't see any real use I would get from them, I don't hunt or track blood.

I've got a SF K2 Mil-Spec with yellow/green LED's and and an L1 and A2L both with green LED's. All seem to preserve night vision well but I do wish that the Mil-Spec and the A2L had additional lower power settings for the colored LED's. These green tints appear to give me much better visual acuity than the blue or red LED outputs on other lights.

The yellow/green LED's probably peak close to the famous lime green 555 nm that is often cited as the maximum sensitivity of photopic, i.e. bright light, vision. The green LED's peak at a somewhat shorter wavelength, which might be what you want for scotopic, or night vision.

Whether you want a color that your eye is most sensitive to for night vision has been debated ad nauseam here and elsewhere. I will say that the low setting of my green L1 looks plenty bright with dark adapted eyes while walking on a country road but I can look up at the stars and almost instantly appear to have full night vision.
 
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angelofwar

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The red is better all-round, i.e. low-light nav in the woods, etc., since it's a bit brighter, but the YG is better for trips to the bathroom. That's just my summary/$.02. I like to use YG at night around the house and when driving at night, but red when navigating out-side, since the YG seems to get eaten up fairly quickly when mixing with out-doors colors. Hope this helps, ebow!
 

RobertM

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Over the past couple years, I have owned every A2 color variant except blue. I now only have yellow-green and white. Personally, the yellow-green is my favorite. Red was actually my first A2, but I found that the red is the hardest to see anything with. If I had to navigate the woods with an A2 by only its LEDs, I would problem just use my white one, followed by the yellow-green. The yellow-green is bit dim for outdoor navigation, but doable if you had to. I did use my red A2 to navigate through the woods once, but I found that the red was too difficult for that task IMO.
 
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ebow86

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Thanks for the suggestions guys. I got to tell you I really am leaning toward yellow/green, thing is, as I already said, I'm still kind of skeptical on how bright they really are. And when looking at greenled's comparison of led colors it's really hard to get a grasp on what the coloring looks like, and I know that it's accepted that the yellow/greens are the dimmest of the bunch, but when looking at that comparison it just looks SO much dimmer than the rest of the pack, hence my skepticism.

Who out there has regular green led's? Do any of us know what the green led's are specifically targeted for?
 

oldways

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If youre wanting to use it outdoors the Y/G will be too dim.

I have owned and used most all of them and found the aftermarket warm white leds to be best.....especially outside.

Green is useless outdoors to me.
 

kramer5150

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I find the colored LEDs to be useless outdoors... the heavy-toned color tints just wash out much of the details. Dark brown dry dirt versus wet dirt for example... next thing I know, I'm stepping in a muddy part of the trail, when 1-2 feet over is a dry part of the trail I should have traversed.

I'd stick with the whites for general outdoor use. Not sure why you are against the aftermarket upgrade options, but a warm/neutral tint LED ring would serve you better than the OEM colored options and would offer you something your pale-white A2 does not. Although the pale white-A2 should be brighter, as pale whites emit more lumens than warm whites.

I like my A2 in red for night vision preservation and "casual navigation", but its not really a good outdoor light IMHO... the color just washes out a LOT of the details needed for wooded outdoor use. (IMHO).
 
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novice

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May I make a suggestion? I know you want to stick with the SF stock rings, but getting one of Koala's onion rings, and ordering a selection of the different-colored leds he can also provide, would allow you to try out all of the different color options, at a much lower cost than getting a new A2 that might not be the one you actually wanted. I would suggest paying the extra $1 for each led set, and having him do the prep work for you - it saved me a lot of time the second time around.

I don't know what Koala's backlog might be these days. You could also try starting a WTB thread for a used 'onion ring' at the same time, and see which inquiry gets you results first.
 
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