As you browse the wide selection of flashlights available here at Discount LED Lights and Knives, you may wonder why our flashlights offer so many colors. Well, color flashlights are more than just fun party accessories: they also come in extremely handy in various nighttime operations.

In general, colored LED flashlights are used primarily while wearing night vision. This is because regular white light bleaches temporarily bleaches the chemical that allows biological night vision, rhodopsin. It can take up to a half hour for night vision to return to full sensitivity after an exposure to white light, especially the powerful white light of an LED flashlight. As you can see, it’s crucial to use non-white light to extend and preserve night vision.

Fishing enthusiasts often prefer green LED lights. This is because green light doesn’t affect night vision. Additionally, unlike white light, green LED light won’t spook fish and doesn’t attract bugs. DLK’s Dual-Color Hunting Light is a good green-light choice that uses the Cloverleaf system to focus light.

Some people prefer red LED flashlights for night vision. Red LED light typically provides greater contrast, but keep in mind that any red lines on charts maps will be difficult to read. Military operations often use red light, since it is much harder to detect with the naked eye from a distance. If you’d like your nocturnal movements to be tricky to trace, try the v2 6 Chip Dual Color flashlight or Coast LED Lenser’s Dual Color Headlamp, shown  above.
Like red and green light, blue light won’t hurt night vision. This specialized light is preferred by detectives and police units, as the blue light picks up body fluid that is otherwise invisible to the human eye. Hunters may find this application handy as well– a bleeding animal may be easier to track with a blue light.

Green, blue, and red light will all preserve your night vision, so which one should you choose? Well, that depends on your needs. If you can’t choose just one shade, why not choose the Coast LED Lenser 4 Color Recon Torch? That way you can have all three colors and bright white light, too.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 27th, 2008 at 5:56 am and is filed under Hunting Gear, LED Lights, Fishing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.