Preserving your night vision is essential to performing mission-critical tasks in low-light settings. This is why it's so annoying to be blinded by an oncoming car's high beams, or accidentally get flashed by the beam of a friend's flashlight on a nighttime hike. Suddenly your coordination is reduced to nil and you're stumbling around seeing stars — not exactly optimal when you need to move quickly and precisely.

Many flashlights offer low or “moonlight” brightness modes for close-proximity nighttime use, such as map-reading or taking inventory of gear in a backpack. Some even adjust light output intelligently based on surroundings. However, white light tends to be more detrimental to night vision than other colors. This is why SureFire developed the new Aviator compact flashlight with dual-color output — a 250-lumen white light, combined with either red, blue, amber, or yellow-green alternate mode.

During normal use, the new SureFire Aviator acts like an ordinary light. Press or click the tail cap to produce 5 lumens of white light in low mode, and immediately repeat for 250-lumen high mode. A Total Internal Reflection (TIR) lens creates a soft and even beam pattern. To change to the alternate color, twist the self-locking selector ring, and use the controls normally. No filter or cap necessary.

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If you're wondering which color is most useful for your needs, SureFire explains the color choices accordingly:

• Amber – 20 lumen high / 5 lumen low – Improves contrast and does not degrade scotopic or night adapted vision.
• Blue – 4 lumen high / 0.4 lumen low – More clearly defines shapes in the outdoors and helps identify blood and hydraulic fluid.
• Red – 39 lumens high – Improves contrast and aids in reading red-light-readable topographic maps.
• Yellow-Green – 39 lumens high / 0.3 lumens low – Complementary to the color spectrum used in most cockpits.

The Aviator is housed in an anodized aluminum body with stainless pocket clip and weatherproof O-ring seals. It runs on one included CR123A battery, measures 4.18 inches long by 1.06 inches diameter, and weighs 3.1 ounces. The SureFire Aviator is available at an MSRP of $299. For more information, visit SureFire.com.

Written by Patrick McCarthy