I’m looking for a couple of cheap either head torches or handtorches (preferably both really) with a red light mode for preserving night vision. The main thing is easy access to the red light through either a dedicated button or simple driver mode - I don’t want to accidentally ruin my night vision. It’ll all be for close work so I don’t need much in the way of output - I’m even considering painting a 348 with red nail varnish if that’s a suitable solution.
Does anything spring to mind?
ZL H502pr
Zebralight and cheap do not go together.
Why not just get a red diffuser for an existing light, such as the convoy version, very cheap, compact and durable.
I bought this for fun, 25$ has low/med/high so always starts on low but havent got it yet so cant say what its like, but should be a fun light if u like colors.
Buy yourself a low budget light and put one of these in it.
Can’t say I did it myself. I bought some 450nm blue led’s from the same seller.
Put one in a “sale” light and it gives me the creeps every I turn it on.
The alternative is to buy a cheap red light ,
But you’re really buying an orange light ,
The zebralight photo red will make almost all red lights look orange ,
The redest none zebra light I own is the Princeton tech quad tactical
I’m an astronoma & I’ve spent years looking for a proper red head torch ,& this is the best I’ve found until I got the zebra it’s the best red head torch out there until you put it on next to the zebra. Even a white head torch will save your dark adaption if it’s dim enough.
But regarding the zebra pr , I’ve tested it extensively in my shed with blacked out windows & even on H1 full brightness ( about 100 lumens ) I can sit in the shed & see every thing & when I turn the headlight off I am still dark adapted within a couple of seconds.
Another good thing about the Princeton tech is that unlike many other similar lights it comes on in dim first compared to the others coming on brightest first.
The Nitecore NU30 has a red light mode.
The beam looks a bit orangy
I’m not fussed about beam colour unless it affects night vision - my sole aim is doing some relatively close work but being able to still see when I turn the lights off.
I’ve looked at the Convoy diffusers but I’ve used plan ones before and found them a bit clumsy - they fit, but a slight knock takes them off.
Replacing the LED is beyond my ability.
NU30 looks like a fair shout. And I remembered I’ve got a couple of NC lights with a red mode (MT1C and an EA11 that I can’t find - the former’s output seems really week though.)
I’m a bit surprised there aren’t more options though, but I’ve got something to be getting on with I guess.
You might be surprised how easy it can be.
Yeah, a lot of “red” is actually on the orangey side of it (eg, “traffic red” or “Portland orange”), but you can get “deep red” LEDs, sometimes mislabelled as “IR”, which are more of a cherry-red.
Pound for pound, they won’t look as bright as regular red LEDs simply because they’re already on the trailing end of eyeball response. That’s also why “green” LEDs for typical power-on indications, tend to be on the yellowish end of green, to be brighter and more visible. If you want green-green, you need to specify “deep green”.
I noticed that some buses, either New Flyer or Novabus, forgot which, have side-exit LED lights that are in fact a nice rich deep-green, not the usual yellow-green ones.
Here ya are. Go crazy…
Astrolux K1 keychain light, dedicated button for the red light/UV light
LRI Photon for a key chain light. They also make a Proton Pro AA light but its old school. I got away from red because I could do more with a really low white.
I do have a couple red filters I use sometimes.