What is the Best Colour to Preserve Your Night Vision?

Many tactical flashlight owners wish to know what light is best to preserve their night vision. They don’t want to give away their position at all times, but simply using their lights means pausing to allow their night vision to recover before moving on.

So, what colour light affects your night vision the least? Well, the answer is: It depends.

Let’s look at the science behind this answer…

For years, red was thought to be the very best light for the preservation of night vision. In fact, our car taillights are red for that very reason.  This decision was made largely based on the fact that red lights were used in darkrooms to develop film.

However, there is science behind red light being a good preserver of night vision – if not quite as conclusive as once thought.

The rods – the portion of the human eye that allows us to see in low light – are not as sensitive to light in the red portion of the colour spectrum as they are to others. So, it follows that red cones – the portion of the eye that sees the colour red – could pick up red light without sacrificing night vision.

It’s a logical conclusion, but it doesn’t quite work that way.

Regardless of the colour used, whether it is blue, red or green, the chemical in the eye that allows night vision – rhodopsin – is quickly broken down. The issue rather than colour is brightness. So, in order to preserve your night vision colour is less important than intensity.

But relying strictly on your night vision has its drawbacks such as:

- Not being able to see directly in front of the eye.

- Not being able to distinguish colour.

- Reduced detail recognition.

So, what is the answer? You need a tactical flashlight that can cycle through the various colours in the spectrum and allow you to vary intensity as needed.

Fortunately, the Klarus XTQ1 can offer you that capability. By adding the colour filters you can cycle through white, green, red and blue. Allowing you to alter the intensity – the most important aspect to retaining night vision.

Klarus Light designs and manufactures some of the most exciting, practical and innovative LED torches on the planet with ultra-high Lumen output.

How to start a fire with a flashlight

You never know when you could find yourself in a situation where you need to make a fire. Whether you’re stuck in the woods or need to create a signal somehow, knowing how to build a fire could be the difference between life and death!

These easy and simple to follow instructions will show you how to use your flashlight to start a fire. When building a fire always be careful and only use this method in an emergency situation.

Step 1 – Items

- Flashlight
- Tinder or dead grass and leaves. Just something that will ignite safely
- Secondary tinder: a pile of dead grass for the campfire
- Common sense!

Step 2 – Break the glass cover

Break the glass cover of your flashlight and get all the glass out of it. Do not damage anything else.

Step 3 – Take out the bulb and break it

Break the glass of the bulb, but be careful not to damage the filament inside.

Step 4 – Put it back in the flashlight

Screw the remains of the bulb back into the flashlight.

Step 5 – Place tinder

Put the tinder or dead grass and leaves into the top of the flashlight. Make sure to fill it to the top.

Step 6 – Turn it on

It may take a few tries to work, but it should work in the end if you’ve done it right.

Step 7 – Move the fire

Move the fire over quickly to the secondary tinder on the ground. This should create a larger fire!

There you go, you’ve built a fire using your flashlight! 

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How to play flashlight tag

Flashlights don’t only have to be used for protecting yourself against attacks or finding criminals in the dark, they can also be used to play the fun, after-dark game – flashlight tag!

Flashlight tag is a great family game, plus it’s simple to play and requires very little equipment.

Staying up late and playing in the dark turns a simple game of tag into an exciting adventure that will be remembered long after.

What you’ll need:

- At least 2 or 3 people, with 4 or more it’s even more fun!
- An open area
- A dark night
- A Flashlight

Safety guidelines:

When playing games in the dark, especially with younger children, it is important that you be extra careful about safety.

Check for hazards

Before it gets very dark outside, scout the playing area for potential dangers:

- Holes
- Low hanging branches
- Logs and other tripping hazards
- Tables and other obstacles

Set the boundaries

Before you begin the game, make sure all the players know where the boundaries are and how far they can roam.

Agree on a signal

Decide amongst yourself on a code word to yell or some other signal that children can use if they feel unsafe or scared. Using the signal should bring the game to a halt.

Use common sense

Never play flashlight tag, or any other running games, near a campfire or where there is traffic.

Let’s play:

- Choose one person to be “IT”
- “IT” gets the flashlight
- “IT” closes eyes and counts to 50
- Everyone else runs away
- “IT” opens eyes, turns on the flashlight and searches for the others, who can continue to run around
- When someone is found, “IT” shines the flashlight directly at that person and calls out their name
- The found person then becomes “IT”

Playing flashlight tag is a fun, lively game, with players frequently changing their hiding places during the course of the game, which adds a fun twist.

Klarus designs and manufactures some of the most exciting, practical and innovative LED torches on the planet with ultra-high Lumen output. For the best in LED Torch technology, Klarus is the brand. 

Flashlight History

From the beginning of history, people have always needed portable light sources. Torches, candles, oil lamps and kerosene lamps were designed to be carried around, but they could be dangerous because flame was the source of light. Inventions of incandescent electric light bulbs and of dry batteries at the end of the 19th century enabled a solution for this problem.

The first dry cell battery was invented in 1896. It was an improved variant of the previous version in the way that its electrolyte was a paste instead of liquid. Because of that, it could work in any position and it would not break or spill that easily. It was a perfect power source for a portable light source.

In 1899, English inventor David Misell invented the first flashlight. It had three D batteries placed in a tube that acted as a handle of the device. Batteries powered a small incandescent electric light bulb and a simple contact switch turned light on and off. They were called “flash” lights because they could not throw light for too long and you had to turn them off to “rest” from time to time. Early flashlights ran on zinc-carbon batteries that could not give constant current for long periods of time.

The first flashlights did not sell too well because of the behaviour of the batteries and because carbon-filament electric bulbs were inefficient. Replacing of carbon filament with tungsten and improving of batteries made flashlights a more useful device, which increased its popularity and it started to replace lamps with flammable fuel. By 1922, there were several different designs of flashlights. There was classic cylindrical variant, a lantern-shaped version that could be left to stand, a reflector type for lighting a greater area and a small pocket variant. Different varieties and usefulness were reasons of the high demand, which resulted in 10 million flashlight users by the same time.

Modern flashlights generally have similar parts and work basically the same. They most commonly use incandescent light bulbs or LEDS. Incandescent light bulbs have a tungsten filament in a glass bulb in the atmosphere of a vacuum or of gas xenon, argon or krypton; noble gases that reduce evaporation of filament and with that make lamp last longer.

Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) are electronic elements, semiconductors that emit light. Types that are used in flashlights are of white high-power kind. They are much more efficient than incandescent light bulbs and last longer. As a source of energy they mostly use batteries, but they can use accumulators or super-capacitors, they can be charged by solar power or mechanically. They are made like key rings or pens, as headlamps on helmets, with clips for mounting on rifles and as high power reflectors. We have them on mobile phones and in hundreds of other variants.

The flashlight is an object that basically started as a novelty and then turned into a necessity with thousands of possible uses. Pretty impressive, right?

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What are High Tech Military Flashlights?

Military operations often need special equipment. Since some special operations take place in the dark, flashlights are needed. Special high tech versions must be used in many cases to offer both illumination and give signals as well. They are used by the military as a unique method to provide a line of sight when using weapons as well as helping in the field.

What Do High Tech Military Flashlights Look Like?

The one distinct feature is that they often come in combat camouflage colours. The military flashlight typically has a tan shade or a deep green camouflage colour. Some come in standard black. The reason for these shades is so that the devices can blend easily into several different backgrounds. Special operations sometimes need to be concealed and these colours provide perfect concealment.

What Kind of Light Do High Tech Military Flashlights Emit?

They can emit light that is up to three times brighter than usual flashlights. This gives service personnel the ability to see action more clearly. This can make or break an operation where service personnel must gain intelligence from afar. Some devices emit red as well as white light. Red light is not bright and can be used to see without giving away your location.

What Are the Differences Between Ordinary Flashlights and High Tech Flashlights?

One main difference is the source. High tech flashlights use LEDs to emit the light needed. Traditional bulbs are fluorescent. LEDs can cover a larger square footage while being more energy efficient. Light sources in modern devices tend to be LED rather than fluorescent.

Where Can High Tech Military Flashlights Be Used?

They are designed to work in a variety of temperatures. Due to the variances in operations and different places that warfare and training take place, they must be able to work in arctic weather, as well as in desert climates. They can work in sub-zero temperatures as well as in extremely high temperatures Military equipment should be heavy duty and able to withstand harsh treatment. They are standard issue and will be used for several years by soldiers before being replaced.

Military tactics are often aided by specialized equipment. One of the smallest and most widely used is the flashlight!

Looking for an affordable, yet reliable flashlight? Place your order on Klarus Light today!