What color

[Turboonyx]

What do you prefer? Red or green dot? Pros and cons. Chevy vs Ford.

[rdcinhou]

The human eye picks up GREEN better than RED.
GREEN can be seen easier in daylight, which is why it is used on construction sites to point out items.

RED doesn't show anything but a dot at the destination.
GREEN shows the path to the destination if there is any dust or mist in the air, which is why it is used in astronomy night classes to point out stars and constellations.  It is also used a lot in cinema because it shows the beam path.
Showing the path to you could reveal your location to an enemy combatant.

The human eye doesn't have much of a blink reflex to GREEN, which makes it a weapon for blinding the enemy.

RED for my laser sights and RED dots.
GREEN for my laser pointers.

[Phyffe]

The human eye picks up GREEN better than RED.
GREEN can be seen easier in daylight, which is why it is used on construction sites to point out items.

RED doesn't show anything but a dot at the destination.
GREEN shows the path to the destination if there is any dust or mist in the air, which is why it is used in astronomy night classes to point out stars and constellations.  It is also used a lot in cinema because it shows the beam path.
Showing the path to you could reveal your location to an enemy combatant.

The human eye doesn't have much of a blink reflex to GREEN, which makes it a weapon for blinding the enemy.

RED for my laser sights and RED dots.
GREEN for my laser pointers.

This is a great reply, Rdcinohou!

So in tactical situations a red laser doesn't give away your position as easily (though I did notice its range was much shorter than my green).

But I wanted to ask why you would choose a red dot over a green dot considering neither will do anything different to betray your position?

[rdcinhou]

This is a great reply, Rdcinhou!

So in tactical situations a red laser doesn't give away your position as easily (though I did notice its range was much shorter than my green).

But I wanted to ask why you would choose a red dot over a green dot considering neither will do anything different to betray your position?

For the same reason that your blink reflex doesn't help against GREEN...basically the GREEN dot would "tax" your vision in a low-light situation more than RED.  This is why you see RED illumination on the bridge of vessels (sea-going and inland) at night. You've also probably noticed in the submarine movies the transition to RED illumination when power is low.

I also happen to be a "tetrachromat" so I have a greater perception to RED and GREEN than most everyone.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrachromacy

[Skookum]

[T]he GREEN dot would "tax" your vision in a low-light situation more than RED.  This is why you see RED illumination on the bridge of vessels (sea-going and inland) at night. You've also probably noticed in the submarine movies the transition to RED illumination when power is low.

I also happen to be a "tetrachromat" so I have a greater perception to RED and GREEN than most everyone.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrachromacy

Color advice from one with the superpower of tetrachromacy is about as useful as a normal trichromat offering color advice to a colorblind dichromat.  I had thought human tetrachromats were all female, but it seems just the vast majority are female.

I am under the impression that human tetrachromats have enhanced color perception on the red end of the visible spectrum.  This is typically related with the story of a tetrachromat wife holding up two shades of red and asking her husband which he prefers.  When he honestly replies they are identical (to his trichromatic perception), she insists they are drastically different and derides him for being a fool or incompetent.

However, studies point to the tetrachromat's 4th retinal cone being most sensitive to light in wavelengths between what the normal medium and long wavelength cones are most sensitive to.  The peak sensitivities of our three normal cones are:

• short wavelength cones — 437 nanometers, or blue (on a 12-segment color wheel);
• medium wavelength cones — 533 nm, or chartreuse (yellowish green); and,
• long wavelength cones — 564 nm, or yellow.

The peak sensitivity of the tetrachromat's extra cone is, thus, in the chartreuse-to-yellow band.  Of course, peak sensitivity says nothing about breadth of sensitivity, and the normal long wavelength, i.e., "red," cones can obviously discern red.  Interestingly, no one has an eye component tuned to red.

Rods, which activate in dim light, are most sensitive to 498-nm light, which is spring green (cyanish green).

When the trichromat's photoreceptors are integrated, the eye is most sensitive to 555-nm light, chartreuse, under photopic (bright light) conditions.  Photopic vision uses cones only.  Under scotopic (dark) conditions, the eye is most sensitive to 507 nm (green).  Scotopic vision uses essentially only rods.  Fully dark adapted rods are roughly 100 times more sensitive to light than are cones.  Cones continue to operate in scotopic conditions, but their contribution is de minimus.  Mesopic (dim) conditions, where rods kick in and cones still offer significant input, have the eye most sensitive to about 510 nm (green).

Anytime of day or night, a trichromat's eyes will most easily discern green.  This may explain why the most common night sight color is green.

[boatdoc55]

Good Lord, you guys are about 2000% above my paygrade!!!! I have got to go get some Tylenol.

[rdcinhou]

God, I love this Forum!

Where else can you go nowadays to get into "friendly" intellectual discussions--primarily about CZs and all the peripheral items and issues of the world?

I have to confess, that I didn't know about my being a tetrachromat until my ophthalmologist ran a color test on me as an adult.

It explained a lot of things to me: 

• An episode in 7th grade art class where we were to mix paints to match the teacher's paint color
• Why I could spot birds in the trees so easily for my bird-watcher father
• Why I could see fish below the murky water in our ponds
• Why I can spot snakes in the leaves and grass
• Why I can walk in near total darkness and not bump into things

My hearing, smell and taste are also beyond normal.
I can hear ultrasonics and some subsonics and I'm also a "familial natural short sleeper".

All of these abilities would have been valuable survival traits back when we were hunter-gatherers.

So it is possible that I am less-evolved than modern man, or possibly modern man has devolved.

[Faeruss7]

I prefer green.

Without getting too technical (already been discussed thoroughly), red is best reserved to preserve night sensitivity (which can take up to 30 minutes to achieve), so I primarily use it for low-light utility situations. The human eye typically has the most cones for red, and the earliest devices (excluding night-vision) used red on account of battery limitations.

Green is second best for the amount of cones, and is higher energy. But to achieve the same perception of brightness (compared to red), less is needed. For hunting and defense applications, I find green to catch my attention better than red. Since most animals that are colorblind actually aren’t (they see red and green similarly), I don’t think green is a disadvantage. Additionally, I use WMLs, so the color of my optic is specific to what I pick up best.

Blue is actually more intense than red or green, but we have the least amount of cones to see it. However, blue can be used to signal over greater distances than red or green. Since “colorblind” animals see blue well, I avoid it altogether.

Personally, go with what you see best, as the point of an optic is to maximize your aiming. I have experimented with these colors, inside and outside, with and without WMLS, during twilight and darkness, and what I use is what I prefer. It doesn’t really matter what others are using, as their eyes may be transmitting the light/color differently to their brain for processing.

Essentially, go experiment if at all possible, and pick what works for you and your expected applications.

[Phyffe]

From all of our Hero Members' information that they shared with us (thanks very much), I can see why a red dot may be more useful, specially at night.

One thing I can say with confidence though is that during the daytime, my red dot less than useful, being hard to see past 5 meters in the noonday sun against a white wall. My green laser can be seen at 10 meters under the same condition reliably.

At night, however the point was made that in less than ideal conditions the green laser can leave a trail that can point back to you, so that's a point against.

So, do you think its fair to summarize the pros and cons like this? -

RED LASER

Pro - Does not betray your location
Con - Shorter range in general

GREEN LASER -

Pro - Longer Range / more visible
Con - Can betray your position

RED DOT

Pro - Preserves night vision
Con - No real con

GREEN DOT

Pro - Easier for older eyes
Con - Can degrade night vision

[rdcinhou]

I was waiting for someone else to bring it up, but since no one has...

RED lasers are CHEAPER!

https://www.nrafamily.org/content/laser-sights-red-vs-green-2/

There are NO GREEN laser diodes.  You have to use a special set of crystals that when illuminated in INFRARED will emit in the GREEN spectrum.

This brings a WEAKNESS to GREEN lasers...they don't work well in COLD weather until THEY WARM UP!

[Phyffe]

I was waiting for someone else to bring it up, but since no one has...

RED lasers are CHEAPER!

https://www.nrafamily.org/content/laser-sights-red-vs-green-2/

There are NO GREEN laser diodes.  You have to use a special set of crystals that when illuminated in INFRARED will emit in the GREEN spectrum.

This brings a WEAKNESS to GREEN lasers...they don't work well in COLD weather until THEY WARM UP!

Good point regarding the price, although I think we have the Chinese manufacturers to thank for making "green" lasers more affordable. These days I walk into all the local bazaars and all the cheap and not so cheap laser pointers are already green.

Case in point, I did a quick check on Amazon and the Surefire X400 green laser cost about 15% more than a red one. The regular pricing for the Olight Baldr Pro is about 20% more than the red laser (but it looks like they put the red lasers on sale so now the red costs about $100 vs $160 for the green one).

Interesting point about the temperature, too. Though moot point for me at least since the temperature never drops below 75F here.

Any idea how long it takes to warm up a green laser?

[Claymore504]

I have read all the science about green being easier for the eye to pick up. I have an optic that has both red and green reticle options. I have used nothing but red since I was introduced to rifle optics in the Army. I am just used to it now I guess. It seems green is harder to pick up for me when out in the woods against a green landscape. I pretty much stick with red.

[Skookum]

So it is possible that I am less-evolved than modern man, or possibly modern man has devolved.

Given your wide range of superpowers was your birth certificate issued on Krypton?

I would have guessed, relative to your color vision, that modern man has devolved due to the onset of civilization in the Neolithic removing certain survival challenges.  However, this article —

Evolution of colour vision in mammals, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2781854/

indicates your eyes are more highly evolved.

While the first mammal evolved from a reptile that was likely a tetrachromat, a reptile's 4th retinal cone is tuned to the ultraviolet, rather than your greenish-yellow enhancement.  It seems primitive mammals soon become dichromats, but trichromacy has been the norm for catarrhine primates — apes and Old World monkeys — for about 30,000,000 years.

Catarrhines developed trichromacy because the gene for our longwave (yellow-tuned) cone on thevX chromosome got duplicated more than 30,000,000 years ago.  Then a mutation in one of these two copies altered the photopigment to be tuned to chartreuse instead of yellow.

It's interesting that none of our photoreceptors is tuned to red.  In fact, rods are essentially blind to red, which is why red light is used at night to preserve night vision.  Assuming catarrhines emerged in tropical Africa, where the environment is a sea of greens (perhaps yellowing during the dry season), perhaps tuning into red wouldn't provide much benefit.

[Catfishmoon]

I have tried 5-6 colors of fiber optic for front sights and prefer green.