Red dots are cool, but have you tried green dots?
Right in the dead center of the visible light spectrum at about a 555 nm wavelength, the green light that’s found in ZeroTech’s (and most other brands’) green dot optics is the precise color that the human eye is most sensitive to. We see a green dot about six times more easily than a red dot.
There’s a little AI overview from Gemini explaining why green light is more visible, and also explaining part of the reason why a green dot appears clearer to most people. Not only can you run it at a lower brightness setting to make it look just as bright as a red dot on a higher setting, but the shorter wavelength of light contributes to a sharper, crisper, more precise dot projected onto the glass.
In particular, if you have any level of astigmatism, which apparently close to half of all adults do, a green dot may eliminate the “bloom” or “starburst” or general fuzziness or mirroring (a red dot can look more like two, partially-overlapping dots to some people) that’s often experienced with a red dot.
On a sunny day, the difference is massive. Picking up and seeing a bright, crisp green dot is much faster and easier than a red dot. It’s huge for Dan and me on the range in the central Texas sun.
Most users also report it being easier on the eyes and reducing eye strain as compared to a red dot. That’s largely because the perceived brightness is higher so you can generally run a green dot at a lower actual brightness setting than a red dot.
Historically, green dots haven’t been as popular because the green emitters were substantially more expensive and sucked battery power much faster. In the last couple years, companies like ZeroTech have effectively resolved these issues and now offer green dots at the same or close to the same price as their red dots while delivering a whopping 50,000 hours of battery life from a single CR2032 coin cell.
That, combined with features including shake-to-wake (the dot puts itself to sleep when it’s still for a while, then fires back up near-instantly when it’s moved) and batteries that can be swapped without removing the optic from the firearm both decrease the need to swap batteries and make it even easier to do so.
Okay, okay, green dots aren’t all sunshine and unicorns compared to red dots. There are two scenarios in which a red dot may be preferable:
- On a very green background. The closer the color of your target is to the color of your dot, the less visible your dot will be.
- In dim lighting conditions or at night when shooting with night vision or clip-on thermal optics. While the dot’s brightness is easily user-adjustable or auto-adjusts on some models, a green dot at its lowest brightness setting could, in some circumstances, still appear brighter than you’d prefer. Due to a red dot already appearing 1/6th as bright as a green dot, it can work better for you in low light situations.
Check out my short video above and, if you haven’t tried a green dot before, now’s the time. HERE are some green dot options over at ZeroTech Optics, where you can also snag 20% off their entire website with coupon code SNW20.