When the latest powerful Luxeon III LEDs came out in red, red-orange, and amber at 140-190 lumens, a few people had hotrod flashlights built, at least in red and red-orange.
I have an Aleph 3 in red-orange at something like 120-140 lm, and a cyan Aleph 3 that I calculate should be doing something like 80 lm, if memory serves.
I use these lights to look at things in the field in front of my house around 100 yds away. The cyan is a little brighter at that distance with unaided eyesight, and a lot brighter with binoculars. But there can be a severe haze problem with the cyan -- lots of backscatter. The R/O doesn't seem to scatter much at all. It doesn't seem to have anything to do with the apparent brightness of the lights -- dimmer white lights have way more backscatter than the R/O.
I am thinking that reddish light is just not a good color for a thrower. The cyan is excellent, but then there is the haze problem. I got to thinking about those bright ambers: maybe human eyes would be more sensitive to that part of the spectrum, but the wavelengths should still be long enough to avoid the scatter that is such a problem with cyan.
So what do you guys think? Would a hotrod amber light be a good haze-cutting thrower? Anyone built a light with those LEDs?
Scott
I have an Aleph 3 in red-orange at something like 120-140 lm, and a cyan Aleph 3 that I calculate should be doing something like 80 lm, if memory serves.
I use these lights to look at things in the field in front of my house around 100 yds away. The cyan is a little brighter at that distance with unaided eyesight, and a lot brighter with binoculars. But there can be a severe haze problem with the cyan -- lots of backscatter. The R/O doesn't seem to scatter much at all. It doesn't seem to have anything to do with the apparent brightness of the lights -- dimmer white lights have way more backscatter than the R/O.
I am thinking that reddish light is just not a good color for a thrower. The cyan is excellent, but then there is the haze problem. I got to thinking about those bright ambers: maybe human eyes would be more sensitive to that part of the spectrum, but the wavelengths should still be long enough to avoid the scatter that is such a problem with cyan.
So what do you guys think? Would a hotrod amber light be a good haze-cutting thrower? Anyone built a light with those LEDs?
Scott
