Help me choose an LED color

I'm trying to decide what color led would be best for my Dad. I'm going to buy a CMG Infinity for him to walk to his deer stand in the dark.

I've heard green is the top choice for Military and blue is the choice for hunters. What are the pro/con of each?

I think that the human eye is optomized for green. AFAK that's why the night vision stuff all has a green tint to it. I've also read that deer can't see the green lights, but I have no personal experience. Green is the one I would pick for your stated purpose.

Surefire claims that red will not spook game. I have watched rats at night with a red light -- they never knew I was there.

Surefire also claims that blue makes a blood trail easier to follow by increasing the contrast of the blood on the foliage.

I have CMGs in both colors (ok, all colors) and for walking at night I would say go for the green. But of course, as all things CPF, why not both /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

DasFX

Green (cyan) = brightest to human eye
red = only color to preserve night vision
blue = helps track game by illuminating blood
amber (yellow) = best detail definition of the non-white colors
white = only choice that allows true color perception

Have you ever tried to spot blood with blue light? If so, what did you use? I gave it a test last year and could find no special color of light would give good results. The police use a UV light with a reactive spray, but that isn't feasible or practical for hunting.

I've not tried it. I'm just reporting what I've gleaned here as best uses for various led colors.

Unless you have a very specific use or application, white is simply the best - as stated before, any other color will
affect your perception of colors

Our adapter sales pretty much break down to:

White - 95%
Red - 4%
All others - 1%


The part on TV with shows like CSI of using a UV light to trace blood is simply "Hollywood" - the proper way is to spray Luminol which reacts with the Iron in the blood and then see it glow

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INRETECH said:
Unless you have a very specific use or application, white is simply the best

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For "general purpose" I'd agree with that -

BUT for me - for white to be effective I seem to need quite a bit of it - a dim white light is great for close quarters use - but for walking outdoors - I think my minimum is around the Ultra-G, Dorcy 1AAA, and ArcAAA light level.

However my eyes seem to see better at lower light levels with yellow/amber light - especially for detail/definition - this may be my personal bias, or just my eyes - but there seems to be some support that yellow seems to enhance contrast and definition - and minimizes glare.

I have walked outdoors with a Photon yellow - with reasonable confidence and I seem to see about as well as an Ultra-G (white) - the main reason I'd choose the Ultra-G over the Photon yellow is that the beam coverage on the Ultra-G (and Dorcy 1AAA) is noticably wider - in this case = better.

But as always this is just IMHO and YMMV.

some threads that may be relevant -

LED Colors and Vision (pics)

joys of a DIM flashlight

Dorcy 1AAA #2 (vs ArcAAA vs Ultra-G vs Dorcy #1)

We often get the same question every show - "Which color is the brightest" and its a hard one to answer, the datasheet says the CYAN is the brightest, but neither the light meter or the human eye is linear, so its not a fair question

At one of the Gun shows, we had a customer come to the booth and want to know which color would allow him to see the numbers at night stamped in a VIN plate - since he worked security on parking lots; I had no idea - the closest thing that I could think of was the serial numbers on guns

He walked over to the next table and just borrowed a couple of pistols; tried all the colors - and was very happy with AMBER (Yellowish color), so for his application he was satisfied

Blue will make blood in the dark show as dark spots.... but will be horrible for seeing where your going... I have a R/O luxeon that is on the orange side, it looks orange, and color contrast is very good...

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UnknownVT said:...However my eyes seem to see better at lower light levels with yellow/amber light - especially for detail/definition - this may be my personal bias, or just my eyes - but there seems to be some support that yellow seems to enhance contrast and definition - and minimizes glare....

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This has also been my experience. I use an amber LS headlamp for trecking through the woods, and can switch to 5mm white for up close work (amber has the best color rendition of any monochromatic color, but is still nowhere near as good as white).

It also works well at low light levels, although I'm not sure whether it preserves night vision as well as some other colors, or whether it's just so soft on my eyes that it relaxes them.

Amber also seems to have a penetrating capability. I can see through windows into dark houses better with it than white (less glare).

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Lux Luthor said:
This has also been my experience.
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Amber also seems to have a penetrating capability. I can see through windows into dark houses better with it than white (less glare).

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Thanks Neil - appreciate that corroboration.

As an ad-hoc and admittedly UNscientific experiment - I went about my house late last night comparing my yellow Photon I - LED transplanted to a 20 for $20 body with a good but not new 2032 and my "stealth" dim 20 for $20 white LED running on a " new " single 2016.

It's not that I cannot see with the dim white, it's just that using the yellow there just seems to my eyes more contrast and definition - eg: printing seem to jump out - in comparison - when switching from the dim white to the yellow.

I don't know if they are exactly the same intensity level - hence the UNscientific nature of this - but they both switch OFF the sensor of an automatic nightlight at approx the same distance - both about 6" away - so they are both dim.

That kind of surprises me since it was black printing on white background - one would expect more light to be reflected from the white light by the white background - to create more contrast against the black - but not so, the yellow light seems to me to give noticably and significantly more contrast and definition/sharpness.

However until I see more definitive and scientific explanation of this - I will continue to place the caveat that it may well just be my bias, eyes, or conditioning and YMMV.

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Amber also seems to have a penetrating capability. I can see through windows into dark houses better with it than white (less glare).

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My limited use of a red CMG Infinity indicates that red is very poor at penetrating through windows. That may be one reason why red is good if you don't want to be noticed.

FWIW, unless I misunderstand the physics involved, I would think that green would be the worst color for navigating in a woodland environment, as I would think that green vegetation would just absorb the light. The only reason you see military usage of green lights is to not burn the NVDs.

As a detective I had used alternate light sources for crime scene work, but it involved filters that were carefully collimated for specific wavelengths. "Blue" is just too broad to expect worthwhile results from unless it just happens to fall in the near UV range, but then you'd not have much visible light generated. I will admit that my knowledge and experience is a bit dated and may be superceded by current technologies and methodologies.

Anyway, white or red seem to cover my needs.

I would have thought that green would be reflected more than any other colour by foliage (as it is in the daytime).

Also, any UV light will make green plants look red! It looks kinda wierd.

I always use a dim red bike tail light (7 LEDs) for looking at charts and stuff when using my telescopes - red doesn't destroy night vision.

It seems that yellow shows up contours a bit better so you don't trip up while walking, and white is good if you want to see everything in the beam, but don't expect it to keep night vision at all!

I also have a blue photon and I'm building a cyan luxeon with stepper motor generator so I never need new batteries. I like blue for the novelty, but some say it helps the crooks to be "discreet" because waving a blue light around looks just like a flickering TV from a distance. I don't know this from experience!

Edit: Wow, this was my first ever post.

White is the best overall color by a long shot.
Cyan(blue/green)is not too bad and is good for beating night vision detection.
Straight green may drive you to annoyance.
Red is great for night vision and not being noticed at night by others-but only for close up.

Since it is a gift I would stick with white, unless he is into flashlights already.