Mantracking /Sign cutting lights

Recently I've taken a strong interest in tracking and signcutting with my SAR organization. The head tracking instructor swears by tracking in low light using colored lights to highlight features differently in the terrain.

This got me to thinking about buying some colored lights to practice with. I'm hesitant to spend the money because I'm color blind and don't see reds, yellows, and greens like everybody else does.

This gives me advantages and disadvantages. While I don't see the same color everybody else sees...because I see them differently, I'm prone to picking up details others miss...it's well documented that many color blind people are better at seeing through the natural camo of animals for example.

Because of my color deficient eyes, I wonder how the different lights could benefit me in different ways than a normal person, or hinder me. They could help me overcome any deficiencies that my disability brings into the mix. Unfortunately there's not a lot of solid research done on this and I'm slowly coming to the conclusion that the only option is to try it all out and see what works for me...the typical approach for color blind people since there are so many different types of color blindness...and in differing severities.

Okay, I'm getting off topic. Do any of you SAR types know of any good, inexpensive colored LED flashlights which are good for mantracking or signcutting?

Right now I'm looking at the following:

• Inova X5 Tactical (4 seperate flashlights: white, blue, red, green). This is the most expensive but it's what's been recommended. ( http://www.amazon.com/Metal-Tactical-Fla...0606&sr=1-1 )
• Gerber RECON D.I.A.L. (like the infinity ultra with a rotating filter) Not powerful but cheap and compact. ( http://www.amazon.com/Gerber-22-80016-Re...0561&sr=1-1 )
• First Alert FX-1B. 10 different colors, different display modes but runs off AAA batteries and isn't made any more (hard to find)( http://www.amazon.com/First-Alert-Multi-Color-Flashlight-FX-1B/dp/B000ZMEYTG )

Any of you have any other options or opinions?

I have only tracked actual people with NVGs which is a whole different story, but I track game constantly.

I would recommend a Browning Black ice multi-colour LED headlamp used WITH a high lumen output white LED handheld.
The black ice gives good hands free operation, which I like when tracking through thick brush and trying to protect my face and keep my balance.

You get white LEDs x 3(fairly bright)
green- good for map reading and shows up depressions in the ground well(footprints)

red-mostly to preserve night vision and as a good light to use when trying not to spook game(deer don't see well in this spectrum)

blue- this is what I mostly use to track, as blood jumps out at you when viewed under blue light. Shadows fall more noticeably as well allowing you to see trails etc more clearly.

They are not terribly expensive lights, and you can find them all over Edmonton.

But... hunting is different than SAR. Unless the guy is bleeding.....

For experimental purposes, try a US Army or Navy surplus flashlight. They come with different colored lenses.

Do you have a "normal" flashlight - a MagLight perhaps - and some B/W photographic filters? Or know someone who does (or did) B/W film photography and has a few filters you could borrow? Reds, yellows, greens, blues, there are tons of B/W colored filters available - just hold the filter over the flashlight lens and test to see what you can or cannot see using that color.

Walmart or Target will have some inexpensive flashlights that come with colored filters. Not great, but would get you the general idea.

Thanks for the feedback Taurus. I'm not a hunter (not yet anyhow) but mantracking is very similar in principal...and even easier many times. Animals are careful...people are clumsy.

I'll check out those brownings. now that you mention it, I'd heard they made animal tracking lights but it didn't come to mind this time. I think Gerber has some too but they're UV blood lights only. The one light on my list (the 10 color one) I found on eBay ultra cheap just now so I may get it just to try since it wouldn't cost me much more than buying some cheapies. Plus in my case, I may benefit from using colors that are of no benefit to the average person...and this will help me discover that (if I order them).

At $60 a pop, the Inova's are nice lights but to buy 4 wouldn't be practical or anywhere's close to my price range.

Putting a filter on my mag light is an option but the problem with most of my lights is that they are all LED and have bad hot spots in the center of the beam...which is super bad for mantracking. I've seen the beam pattern of all the lights I referenced in the original post and while some aren't very powerful, all are very well dispersed.

I just hope the theory that color blind people have better night vision is true...I've never really put that to the test but now I have a reason to.

If anybody has any other suggestions I'm game to hear them...even if I order these lights I'd still like to try a few brands even if I have to beg or borrow to do so.

you have a unique situation there dude. How well do you see from NVGs if you are colorblind? any difference looking at things tinted green?

The Gerber tracking light is called a carnivore. I think its o.k but I can do just as well with blue LED. Sometimes people get too focused on trying to find blood when tracking game when they are missing other obvious signs. Thats why I like the ability to switch colors. sometimes what you see under blue is totally different when you look at it under red light. (like a map)

good luck with the searching. Just another bit of gear to go nuts over trying to decide on

I did a lot of reading on color blindness last night. I have since I was first diagnosed but never in this context until yesterday.

Turns out that color blind people can be better hunters because we look more for shape than color which helps us defeat camo and natural cover...likely how the genetic trait survived all these years.

It also turns out that during WWII it was pretty much unheard of to have arial photo's viewed/analysed without a color blind person on the team also examining the photos...for pretty much the same reason...we just pick up different things.

The nightvision thing is a bit more sketchy. The idea is that with with one part of the retina weakened, the other parts step up (like a blind person hearing better)...not sure how true that is though.

Makes me wonder. I hope it makes me some kind of tracking savant though I know that's highly unlikely

I've never used NVGs but I may get the chance soon. I've been told they're not very good for mantracking and are only really useful for military use where you can't use flashlights to pick up sign. For my use I can have as many lights as I want so NVG isn't really practical...especially if I'm using a pair and somebody flashes me with their flashlight...I've heard that's not fun.

You might want to consider the coast four color recon:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index....rentPage=search

Mogg

Not sure if this is significant for this discussion.

An eye doctor, I belive his name is Kyama?, wrote a book called What Fish See. In it he describes the use of color filters to duplicate various underwater conditions to anayze how fishing lures look underwater.

BUT one point he makes in passing is that to get true colors you cannot just use any filters over a flashlight. Just because you have a a filter that looks red or yellow to you, the light it produces when light passes through it may not be what you think, especially if the light itself is not pure white.

I heard him give a lecture in which he described how hard it was for him to find the right filters, pure white lights, etc. - most being either a bit blue or yellow. Of course he was being ultra scientific and mesuring wave lengths, etc.

Important? A nitpick? Dunno.

Before you drop coin on a multi-color LED flashlight, test your theory and optics with $1 blue and red LEDS from countycomm - see http://www.countycomm.com/light10.htm. $2 + shipping/handling (plus whatever else you can't resist on countycomm) should give you an idea what you can see and what you can't under blue or red light. I'm not sure where to get green or yellow LEDs but hopefully they aren't far off in price. I did see some somewhere, probably the same place they stock black light LEDs for following blood and rodent trails etc.

I also bought a cheap red light filter on lighthound.com that slides on over the end of a Fenix model Cree LED light - not sure if they have other colors but the red light is pretty good for preserving my night vision. They have these http://www.lighthound.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=3523, RedBlueGreenYellowOrange sized for something called a PentagonLite, (I suspect they refer to a 90 angle head light like they carry at CountyComm), but for $16 you could try them on your LED light and at least try the different color spectrums.

Good idea but a $2 buy from countycomm becomes $20 (or more) when shipping to Canada. I told myself a long time ago I'd never buy from countycomm unless they stop shipping with UPS exclusively.

Colored LEDs (just the diodes) are easy to come by but are to impractical to try in the field...especially at night. I could play at home but I don't think it would be the same or show me what I want to know...especially since I'm still just learning about how to use these lights to supplement mantracking technique.

I ended up ordering the multi-color flashlights from eBay...they were too cheap to pass up. I got 2. Even if they don't work out for me, I know plenty of people who I could pass them along to and easily get my costs back. If they work I'll have a backup which is nice since these are hard to find new now.

I've also been reading up on how LED lights can be bad for night vision because they are too white or a little blue. There's actually studies which prove that the slightly yellow light of an incandescent bulb is better for focusing on stuff at night because of a lack of blue in the spectrum...I guess we naturally have a hard time focusing on blue light.

I do tracking for SAR and color blind as well. I started using yellow and amber tinted glasses on occasion and I can see detail that I would have normally missed.

I just got the eBay lights in the mail and despite my concerns about lack of quality I'm fairly impressed.

They are full metal construction with o-rings and seemingly water resistant switches. The lens is an actual lens which focuses the beam so there are no hot spots...the optics are not flawless but it gets the job done. The instructions rate the white light at 60 lumens...pretty good.

There are 10 modes (7 colors, 2 sequenced modes which scroll through the colors, and a sleep mode)...all colors are bright enough to use during the day as long as it's not too bright out.

I might get a chance to try it out on a Mantracking exercise next week...in the meantime I'll try to take some action shot pictures or a short video.