DBAL-I2: Red vs Green

[Sparky5019]

Title says it all.

Thus will be on a suppressed MK18 carbine. Experience, pros and cons appreciated.

Thanks!

Sparky

[steyrman13]

Green is more visible...even in bright daylight it can be picked up.

[Fly8791]

Green is more visible...even in bright daylight it can be picked up.

Does the green consume the battery faster? A higher wavelength (green vs red) would require more power correct?

(Sorry but, I don't know anything about lasers)

[andy t]

I had DBAL I2 in green. On a sunny day it was barely visible 8-10 yards away. I also had difficulty making it out at 25 yards on a decently lit indoor range. While I didn't have a chance to compare it to red, I think that for most people it won't matter which one you get.
I also read that green may be more susceptible to low temperatures and require more battery.

[Defaultmp3]

I have found my X400U-GN's laser to be quite visible outdoors during the day during bright sunlight, up to about 15ish yards; on an overcast day, much further. I believe the juice is worth the squeeze, having of run a standard X400 for a couple years prior; IME, the red lasers are great in low-light and/or indoors, but suck outdoors during the day, even on an overcast day. As to temperature concerns, the spec sheet claims that shouldn't be an issue. Also, since the green laser doesn't seem to have a reduced temperature operating range, it suggests that they're not using frequency doubling, so the battery life may be basically the same as the red laser. Frequency doubling was the old technique to generate green laser output, which was also why it was very temperature dependent and had terrible battery life, due to the far more complicated circuitry that utilized multiple diodes, thus being very power inefficient; Surefire apparently figured out a way to manufacture/source a single stage green laser diode economically enough to skip frequency doubling. I believe LDI might have, too, since they specifically touted their new DBAL-PL to have "new temperature insensitive green laser technology provides better visibility and great stability over a wide-range of temperatures"; of course, this might mean that the older DBAL-D²s and I²s manufactured before the introduction of the PL may not have this technology, and still suffer temperature and battery penalties of your typical green laser.

[Ready.Fire.Aim]

I use a DBAL D2 for hog hunting on a suppressed 300Black AR15 SBR. It has a red laser, I prefer it at night.

Mostly it stays in IR mode.

[bp7178]

Surefire apparently figured out a way to manufacture/source a single stage green laser diode economically enough to skip frequency doubling.

IIRC, this is the reason the green X400 was so slow in coming to market. Surefire wanted the technology to be there w/o any limitations. The color output of the X400 green is a little different than most typical green lasers as well.

[TehLlama]

Visible lasers have limited application to me, and the red laser unit is cheaper. That's as far as my decision making process went, since my use for the red lasers are low-light and indoors at most anyway.

[Sparky5019]

Good points. Personally, I tend to see the color green better but have not tried it in a laser application. Not too concerned about battery life, I think that difference is negligible. I'm really curious what people who've had the chance to use both have to say about the visibility of both in sun or indoors.

[GTF425]

The only green laser I've ever used is my DBAL-A2. The high power vis laser is easily visible at 100m outdoors. Indoors, even the low power is too much in my opinion. I'm issued a PEQ-15, and I can use the red vis laser indoors without too much trouble depending on the color of clothing worn on the target. For outdoors use, it's basically only usable for 10m boresighting. And even then, it can be a huge pain in the ass depending on how bright the sunlight is.

Vis lasers actually have quite a few uses in CQB. You can use them for marking dead space/suspected threats to teammates or for movement commands as a TL. For that use, I could see a green vis laser being very beneficial.