Headlamp with red light

[SuperTroll]

Red is used Tacticly for it's Light scatering properties not to retain night vision...

The US Military is now transitioning to BLUE btw.

[SuperTroll]

ok, so where is the EDIT button for thunder thumbing mistakes? I mean I DO know how to spell...

[generoll]

yeah, it is a pretty old thread. that of course never prevents anyone from flaunting their wisdom or expressing an opinion.

[Gaiter]

Since i'm in theatre, I always have a blue or red light on me for backstage/dark. I was suprised at how many people asked/complimented me on my walmart white & red headlamp (just like the ones described in this thread). other hikers noticed the white was very bight and said that they would have never thought about having a red light. I had the same problem w/ the switch coming on, so i made sure it was in a pocket facing out, that way it would be noticed if it did come on.
There is a debate in the technical theatre world about red vs. blue as well. A good quailty (IMO) blue has alot of red in it, so that doesn't matter as much, but when you use dicroic glass or another colored item w/ a 'pure' blue that has blue w/ little else in it.

you can ask these companies for a 'lighting gel/filter' swatchbook, they will mail it to you for free, its a swatchbook of all the gel colors that the company makes and its the perfect size for putting infront of a small flashlight
www.leefilters.com www.rosco.com www.gamonline.com

[woodsy]

This is so I can read in a tactical enviroment if I need to and then switch to having white light sometimes. Riding a house sometimes makes a headlamp a good idea

Oh, o.k., thought maybe you wanted it for some 'Black Out' hiking. LOL
I'm surprised you guys don't have these for the purpose you mentioned. ?

[RockyTrail]

Red is used Tacticly for it's Light scatering properties not to retain night vision...

That's not what I was taught in Flight School...use of red light will protect your night vision. It's in any flight manual. And my understanding is that astronomers also use red...But the first time I tried using a red light was flying at 7500 feet on a very dark night over south Georgia....then I realized I couldn't see the red lettering on the sectional (airway) chart!

On a related note, they also taught us when flying at night near thunderstorms (not a real smart idea BTW) to wear an eye-patch (Wiley Post style) over one eye. That way if lightning flashes nearby and temporarily blinds one eye, you can switch to the good eye and not lose control of the airplane. Otherwise you can get into a death-spiral in less than 3 minutes like JFK Jr did waiting for your eyesight to return. Today there is a lot of problems with ground-based lasers flashing up at aircraft, that can be a real danger at night....sorry, back to hiking

[orangebug]

Don't go to a star gazing party with anything but red. At the very least, wait until someone gives you a bit of red cellophane to cover your lamp.

Once you get dark accomodated and start seeing real stars (Peliades, Andromeda, anything by telescope), you will understand why red works and anything else exhales briskly.

[Two Speed]

....then I realized I couldn't see the red lettering on the sectional (airway) chart!

My first LED light was red. Seemed pretty good for retaining night vision, and things were working out pretty well until I decided to think about the next day's hike about dark-thirty or so one evening. Getting a little gloomy, so I broke out the ol' LED, switched it on and the trail was impossible to discern on the map. Turn the light off, barely make it out. Turn it on, gone. Hmmm, spark the lighter, sho 'nuff, the trail was marked with a heavy red line. Not as hazardous as not being able to read the airway charts, but sure had me screwed up for a few minutes.

[Sly]

Has anyon seen/used the (new?) Petzel e+lite?

http://www.ems.com/catalog/product_d...s_petzl+e+lite

Pretty slick!

[Sly]

Here's a interesting article that deals with red flashlights and their effectiveness at maintaining night vision.

See link:
http://www.stlplaces.com/night_vision.html

I'm not so much concerned about night vision. I heard/read that animals couldn't see red light, so you can watch them coming and then snap on the high (white) beam wwhen they get close to freak 'em out!

[ed bell]

Cool Sly. My local outfitter is expecting some after Christmas.

[Jerry Kahil]

I have a Nightblaster by Optronics. The Red LED feature will also conserve battery life, as opposed to the white spotlight it also has. I have noticed that it works with the three AAA batteries that came with it (also made by optronics), but not with brand new duracells. Anyone else have that happen?

[Sly]

Cool Sly. My local outfitter is expecting some after Christmas.

They are cool. I like the adjustable strap and the 360* clip-on tilting base which swivels around to protect the LED's.

I went to REI this afternoon to pick up a package I ordered online and before I got out the door I noticed these and couldn't help but buy one! If you get one, make sure to check it out at the store. My switch seems to be a little flakey and sometimes not all beams want to work, mostly the economy white beam.

The light itself weighs 27 grams and the case 18g

[dixicritter]

I'm not so much concerned about night vision. I heard/read that animals couldn't see red light, so you can watch them coming and then snap on the high (white) beam wwhen they get close to freak 'em out!

Well Sly somebody needs to tell my dog he can't see red lights then, cause he just loves chasing a red dot laser pointer around the house...LOL.

[Flying Monkey]

I'm not so much concerned about night vision. I heard/read that animals couldn't see red light, so you can watch them coming and then snap on the high (white) beam wwhen they get close to freak 'em out!

That IS partially true. Deer can see green and blue, but not red. Red light may be detectable in some other capacity for them, but not in the same way as blue or green. Most other animals (all that I know of) can detect red, and in fact, because of the frequency of red, it is signifigantly more noticable than Blue is. (Hence why the military is moving over to blue lights. Red carries much further than other detectable lightwaves.)

[SGT Rock]

Who says they cannot "see" red. I thought they could just not distinguished the difference in red from any other color - hence an orange vest is just as good when trying to hide from a deer as green, but as far as I know animals can still see it.

[Flying Monkey]

Since i'm in theatre, I always have a blue or red light on me for backstage/dark.
There is a debate in the technical theatre world about red vs. blue as well. A good quailty (IMO) blue has alot of red in it, so that doesn't matter as much, but when you use dicroic glass or another colored item w/ a 'pure' blue that has blue w/ little else in it.

It's my understanding that in typical color filters (gel) a good (read: "true") blue would be a 0,0,225 in the RGB scale, and in fact contain no red. Adding red would start bringing you to violet. And while the typical gel absorbs (in this case) green and red, a dichroic filter would in fact contain no blue, but instead 225,225,0, and would reflect green and red (and for that matter infrared if it's a filter) leaving only Blue to travel through.
Red is going to be much easier to see at night, but will leave you with a killer reverse effect when you turn it off. You will have to adjust back.

[Flying Monkey]

Who says they cannot "see" red. I thought they could just not distinguished the difference in red from any other color - hence an orange vest is just as good when trying to hide from a deer as green, but as far as I know animals can still see it.

Deer lack the proper cones to see red light. We have three, they only have two. A recent grouping of deer cone studies has helped us understand our own color sight much better. Rather exciting, really.

“Deer have photopigments to sense two colors and allow for determining the range of hues between those colors. Research has shown deer to have photopigments that can detect colors in the blue and green range. Input from rods may also be used by deer to further discriminate colors. Of course deer may not interpret colors in the same manner humans do, but it makes sense for deer to have sensitivities to blue and green colors. Determination of various shades of green may be useful in identification of edible plants. Blue light discrimination aids vision in low light conditions.-- From this website: http://www.realtree.com/community/fe...ail.tpl?ID=299

Here's another one:
Findings of the Study
The results of our study confirmed that deer possess two (rather than three as in humans) types of cones allowing limited color vision (Figure 1). The cone that deer lack is the “red” cone, or the one sensitive to long wavelength colors such as red and orange. This suggests that wearing bright colors while hunting does not affect hunting success. This does not mean that these colors are invisible to deer, but rather that they are perceived differently.

Deer are essentially red-green color blind like some humans. Their color vision is limited to the short (blue) and middle (green) wavelength colors. As a result, deer likely can distinguish blue from red, but not green from red, or orange from red. Therefore, it appears that hunters would be equally suited wearing green, red, or orange clothing but perhaps slightly disadvantaged wearing blue.
http://www.qdma.com/articles/details.asp?id=48

[SGT Rock]

Wait a sec there Flying Monkey, that quote you posted contridicts what you just said:
"This does not mean that these colors are invisible to deer, but rather that they are perceived differently."

and

"Deer are essentially red-green color blind like some humans."

Now I know some people that are color blind, but they can still "see" a red light, they just couldn't tell you it is red.

[Sly]

Who says they cannot "see" red. I thought they could just not distinguished the difference in red from any other color - hence an orange vest is just as good when trying to hide from a deer as green, but as far as I know animals can still see it.

OK, this isn't where I originally read it and I was mistaken in my wording... apparently animals aren't disturbed by red light during night time observation...

http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-2372(195911)40%3A4%3C591%3AOONABR%3E2.0.CO%3B2-5