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Anonymous12/10/25, 10:25No.2853038Functional Vision in the Dark
Everyone post your tips, tricks, and knowledge about how to best see in the dark, and how to best utilise your scotopic vision.
This includes discussion of lighting and how to best use it, and IR/thermal/nacht vision options.
I'll start:
Your scotopic (night) vision takes about 20mins to reach highly effective performance, and up to an hour to reach peak performance - so it's important that you preserve it!
Facts about your vision that you can use to your advantage:
>your eye has two main types of photoreceptors: cones and rods.
>cones are sensitive to colour and most of your fine detail relies on them, they are NOT sensitive to contrast or movement
>rods are sensitive to contrast and very sensitive to movement, they see ONLY contrast: dark vs. light and never in fine focus.
>cones are grouped in the centre of your retina, directly behind your pupil and lens
>rods are non-existent in the centre of your retina, but are spread around the outside, off-axis from your cornea, making survival possible because it is your peripheral vision that you rely on for reflex if anything suddenly moves in on you
>in scotopic vision your cones fail and you rely entirely on your rods, this is why in low light everything looks grey or black & white
>this also means in the dark anything you try to stare directly at (if you think something is lurking out there in the moonlight) you won't be able to see, you're basically blind to anything you stare at
>look away slightly, using your peripheral (rod) vision and even though you couldn't read a chart you will get more information and immediately identify if something is moving
cont'd
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Replies
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Anon12/10/25, 10:26No.2853039
Some tips about lighting:
>narrow spectrum lighting helps preserve your night vision compared to white or wideband light sources, red is quite popular but it has some drawbacks (good contrast, everything in the woods looks gray or black, red light is visible from much further away than higher frequencies)
>green is good to maximise your visibility because we're most sensitive to it, not visible from as far away
>blue makes blood look inky black which helps with tracking game, scatters considerably in foliage, fog, an atmosphere and least visible from far away; added bonus that it penetrates water better than other colours if you need to see through a water surface.>t. majored in lighting design, optics, and photometry
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Anon12/10/25, 10:41No.2853040
I have wondered because putting black paint beneath your eye reduces glare directly into the eye thus improving vision if putting white paint under the eye would improve it? Then I remember I am toilet bowl white so probably not. Blue eyes help. Other than that from memory I think you are correct I do recall direct vision being limited in the dark.
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Anon12/10/25, 15:21No.2853061
I use a headlamp
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Anon12/11/25, 00:34No.2853148
Cool thread and hope it grows.Also going to post a stupid comment in honor of internet shit posting lore bumping“I like putting my rod in between your moms cones”
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Anon12/11/25, 00:37No.2853149
Oh also, are you saying if I don’t want to be detected to use green light rather than red light? Some of my flashlights have both options but I’m not a fan of green for whatever reason
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Anon12/11/25, 00:52No.2853155
If the moon is out and you are still and observing, often times all you really need is a big ass lens. Sit out in a meadow with a full moon and some 8x40 nocs and you will be amazed at what just those larger lenses can pick up.
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Anon12/11/25, 01:48No.2853161
Really just this plus a headlamp like the princeton tec sync where the red light is a distinct position with off on either side, or one of the USGI angle flashlights with filters. The old school bulb is pretty nice and not too harsh on the eyes and the red is nice for not nuking your eyes.
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Anon12/11/25, 11:28No.2853193
Most recent camping trip went on a night hike first time ever, with only a single red LED keyring torch as a backup in case I got stuck. Barely needed it, the star light was enough to see the trail. Apart from walking through one spider web it was kino af trudging through the wild in darkness. Got up to a vantage point/lookout, beautiful view of the surrounds and the constellations.Will do again.
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Anon12/11/25, 23:50No.2853282
good thread, i hope it survives a week or more. too bad i don't have anything to contribute. i'm a knife/flashlight guy for 10+ years and i've only used white light. now you're making me scroll through aliexpress again for something i don't think i need...
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Anon12/12/25, 15:43No.2853382
interesting thread, i was just reading about something similar how living in civilization theres so much light pollution that our eyes never get to fully switch from cones to rods even at night, and how this is presumeably bad for our health..
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Anon12/13/25, 10:20No.2853563
these are my night vision toys
>Bushnell Equinox z2 IR monocular scope/camera
>FLIR Scout TK thermal scope/camera
>Supercheap Kmart brand video camera with IR night mode
>external IR lamp because the camera's own lamp is weak and only really useful indoors
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Anon12/16/25, 20:32No.2854098
Just live in the desert. For up to the 5 nights surrounding the full moon in desert backcountry you can walk freely without any light assistance. Some tight shaded canyons can be dark but open areas are light enough to even have color. Pic is not a sunrise but a moonrise of the full moon, and just a regular pic not a longer exposure or anything.
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Anon12/30/25, 15:49No.2855797
ßump
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Anon12/31/25, 15:06No.2855951
I have pale blue eyes so it's easy to see in the dark. Conversely it's not great in sunny weather and takes me as few days of bright sun to stop squinting.This is white person stuff I'm talking about, if you know you know. Fuck the cowardice of the scientific community not studying these things but basically if you have brown eyes you can see better in bright weather and if you have blue eyes you can see better in the dark. I know this because seeing in the dark is easy through these pale blue eyes.
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Anon12/31/25, 15:14No.2855953
PVS14 and a Crye NightCap.
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Anon01/01/26, 01:15No.2856000
I have visual snow syndrome. My vision is dog shit in the dark. Feels bad man.
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Anon01/11/26, 23:07No.2857280
Keep a patch over one eye, so that when darkness falls, you have an eye already adapted to lowlight conditions.