Tritium

koolranch

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I got my first bit of tritium kit (key fobs) and I was very surprised at how dim they are. I mean they do have a constant emission in the pitch black but it not as bright as I thought it would be. What was you first impression?
 

CaptainRogersUK

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Ssupposed it depends which brand tritium they are, but I will monitor this topic as I am thinking of some key fobs right now, also very interested in the new tritium key hole markers too :)
 

koolranch

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I bought from a reliable source on the marketplace. Great people, packaging ect. They are constant just not overly bright. I'm slowly getting used to them.

ubu4e2e5.jpg
 

Th232

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The size also matters. The smaller tubes are mainly useful as locators, but I can use my tritium sphere from B@rt as a nightlight once my eyes have adapted.
 

Helmut.G

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I got my first bit of tritium kit (key fobs) and I was very surprised at how dim they are. I mean they do have a constant emission in the pitch black but it not as bright as I thought it would be. What was you first impression?
Expecting them to be clearly visible in complete darkness, but not much more, I was quite surprised how bright they really are when I looked at real Tritiums for the first time. (3x23mm tubes, i.e. relatively big)

You have to realise that the human vision works in an overwhelming range of lighting conditions.
With fully night adapted vision a 0.1 lumen flashlight will light up a medium sized room if you bounce it from the ceiling.
In normal daylight conditions you would not realise that the same flashlight is even turned on without looking directly into the front end.

Small tritium tubes are of course much, much dimmer than that.
 

Eric242

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I bought from a reliable source on the marketplace. Great people, packaging ect. They are constant just not overly bright. I'm slowly getting used to them.
From your picture everything appears to be quite normal. Your problem is mostlikely the way a lot of people are taking pictures of their lights with tritium vials installed. Due to certain camera settings they make it look as if the vials are bright enough to be seen glowing in daylight which they are not. Looks cool, is totaly unrealistic and sucks if you have never seen tritum vials on you own and base your expectations on that.

Eric
 
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lookshiny

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I have a H3 Watch from KHS (although with blue vials). Obviously size does matter, but also the color and thus the correlating wavelength of that color. Green has the brightest emission of light. I know that mb microtec produces some good quality vial, but not sure how one would go about acquiring them. You could also try light sources that are based on Strontium aluminate, although they do require a light source to glow, but are much brighter at first.

Hope that helps!
 
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koolranch

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Thanks for all the posts! I have been offline for a while and wanted to update you all with my thoughts. The trits are great for locating items. I have one attached to my light and it works great in the middle if the night. I agree with the post you have shared. To be honest I really am happy with the vials. I think I will try a larger one that would be more of on night light. What size would you recommend?

Steve
 

YummyBacon!

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I'm surprised no one has mentioned trit color affects how bright they appear with Green being the brightest
color generally followed by yellow. The ever popular Ice-blue are much dimmer by comparison. If you really
want a "bright" trit the 18mm Green sphere's sold by Bart are great as suggested above.
 

OldGreyDog

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I have a couple of Inovatech 'Firefly Super Kit Markers' (green) and they are brighter than I expected... Came with flexible cables with screw closure and they look to be well made and robust - very pleased with them... I have heard that the green ones (of any brand) are the brightest colour, in fact almost twice as bright as some of the other colour options...
 

yoyoman

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There are ways to photograph trits so they look bright. Long exposure times and light painting. Control is an overcast day and the trits, especially the big green ones, are just about glowing. Then a shot in the dark. Finally, a lttle light painting. It isn't easy - you can see that I had too much light in the middle (which made the trits seem darker) and I didn't finish the row.
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koolranch

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Yoyoman, you have an incredible collection! Who else has a collection like this. Thanks for sharing.
 
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yoyoman

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Thank you. Take a look at some of the threads like "Show your lights with trits!" and you'll see some real stunning lights and collections.
 

CaptainRogersUK

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I find the niteeyez trits qquite handy, their blue is particularly good on my patrol jackets zip and also patrol torch..yoyoman loving that torch in the middle with trit's at the tail and of the flashlight was that a custom one on here, if so any more available?
 
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