Night Vision - Color LED's what works for you? - Head Lamps

[Wise Old Owl]

I saw something last night by accident, I am a huge fan with red light as my eyes can adjust from night vision after half an hour to see better at night using a head lamp... but red doesn't bounce or reflect off of rocks, it just illuminates. Green appears to offer a better return at night off of objects. The difference appears when someone else is holding the light from a different angle. I was looking for support here I can build the better headlamp, SO although I have been brought up to say a red light in a darkroom is best, the Green might be better for hiking..... Thoughts anyone? diag.JPG

[Country Roads]

I like green light a lot. I take my morning walk in the dark during the winter months and I like the light I get from the green light. It seems to have less glare and I can see the pot holes in the road and places that the road is uneven a lot better.

[Slo-go'en]

I love my green lantern head lamp! Especially in the snow. It doesn't have nearly the back glare white light has. Green also has the advantage of being the color the eye is most sensitive too and being monochromatic, helps perserve night vision like red does.

I have two green lights - one is single 500 mw LED run from 4 AAA batteries using a 4 current setting, switching regulator and one a standard multi LED headlamp which I changed out a couple of the white LEDS for some ultra bright green LEDs. So it does red, green, white and green/white.

[Wise Old Owl]

cool posts - can anyone back this up with info or reading stuff?

[Snowleopard]

cool posts - can anyone back this up with info or reading stuff?

More information than you ever dreamed of can be found at the candle power forums:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/forum.php?

Our eyes are most sensitive to green light. The most efficient color of LED lights have varied. It used to be that red LEDs were most efficient (more lumens per watt). Current white LEDs are pretty good. The best source for this is data sheets on individual LEDs. A dim red light is best for preserving night vision but rather poor for seeing details. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_v...l_night_vision
.

[TheStu]

So what would happen if you combined red and green LEDs? Do you get the benefit of both?

[4eyedbuzzard]

So what would happen if you combined red and green LEDs? Do you get the benefit of both?

People would hang ornaments and tinsel on you.

[Wise Old Owl]

As I fall off the chair laughing it struck me that you are truly wise.....

[leaftye]

I'm totally with you on red/green lights being better for night vision, but I don't think it's worth the trouble when there's white LED headlamps that put out lots of light and work for many hours. The one I'm waiting for will be made by these guys:
http://www.spark001.com/index.aspx

It will be called the SD5 and uses a pair of AA batteries, puts out 500 lumens and weighs 110 grams with batteries. It should run for over 150 hours on the lowest setting that puts out 8 lumens. I prefer around 50 lumens for night hiking, and this thing should run for around 24 hours at that setting. My favorite thing is that I can use its batteries as backups for my gps.

In any case, if you're still interested in some reading material, I can look up some relevant books and send them to you.

[Snowleopard]

I'm totally with you on red/green lights being better for night vision, but I don't think it's worth the trouble when there's white LED headlamps that put out lots of light and work for many hours. The one I'm waiting for will be made by these guys:
http://www.spark001.com/index.aspx
...

I agree. That spark headlamp and other interesting spark lights seem to be available from http://www.sbflashlights.com/Spark-c22/ for $80 to $110, expensive but less than I would have guessed. Usually 50 lumens is more than enough, but more can be useful for route finding after dark in the winter or night xc skiing.

[leaftye]

Wow, it seems that Zebralight is coming out with some new headlights next month that put out up to 750 lumens at its maximum setting while also having a 0.1 lumen setting that's capable of nearly 2000 hours of battery life.