Is there a reference to the color of car to laser lock speed anywhere?

[StlouisX50]

I was wondering if there Is there a reference to the color of car to laser lock time?

For example I know Black is probably the best against laser but what is the 2nd 3rd ect. I thought you guys could answer this question best since you have tested various color of cars with various guns.

Stlouisx50

[category4]

Dark blues and dark greens seem to be hard to lock as well. Red, white and lighter colors seem to be easier.

Also I've noticed some guns seem to really love certain colors. The UL's seem to be very receptive to red and the Stalker loves silver!!!

[StlouisX50]

Thanks, I did read a post that was pretty old discussing this, and someone mentioned going to the dealership and testing the laser light. That sounds perfect. They also said the pigment additives make a difference with 906nm light.

[StlouisX50]

So I did some testing tonight with my Stalker Lidar gun and found from 325 feet I could get the following results. Pretty fun to test across from a dealership

Best Rank to Worst on the Kia Soul
(Shooting at the rear)

Black - 4-5 seconds acquisition time
Dark Blue -3 seconds acquisition time
Grey/Silver and orange - 2 seconds acquisition time
White - Instantly to 1 seconds acquisition time

each attempt gave the same results.

The black was very hard to get in the dark and noticed when I shot on the side of the vehicle, I could obtain those nasty 2-3 Mph "Sweep Errors"

Another note, I shot the front from max 50 feet and noticed the norm. Head lights , LP, Fog Lights were the most reflective, following the hood then the windshield. The black mirrors were hard to see a reflection with the video camera. There was a white sticker in the windshield and wow did it give off a bright glow. So from that, make sure you guys take out any white objects in the windshield they are deadly.

[v1user]

Black - 4-5 seconds acquisition time
Dark Blue -3 seconds acquisition time
Grey/Silver and orange - 2 seconds acquisition time
White - Instantly to 1 seconds acquisition time

#&$!. I bet you could pick me off at over several thousand feet. Have you tried anything with how color affects maximum distance at which you can obtain a reading?

[StlouisX50]

No but that too I have pondered in my mind =)

[jimbonzzz]

I don't think anyone has ever performed a conclusive test of color vs. lidar speed lock. Another "dealership test" someone could try would be to use an Ultralyte in alignment mode, where the tone pitch gets higher/lower based on the target (or another gun with a similar feature). They could target several different vehicles and see how the tone changes.

The color of a paint as you see it with your eye doesn't necessarily give you any indication of how much that paint will absorb or reflect infrared. It's almost the same as asking what color will absorb the most radar. It isn't about the color of the paint as you see it with your eye (visible light), but rather the pigments used to color the paint and the infrared properties of those pigments. For example, some blacks may absorb a lot of infrared, while other blacks may reflect a lot of infrared. In fact, there are some blacks that are specifically designed with pigments to reflect a lot of infrared in order to keep surface or interior temperatures cool.

There may be patterns to be found though, which remain true across different vehicle paint of similar colors: perhaps there is one basic/common set of pigments that is used in the majority of automotive paint?

Here's an example to sort of illustrate what I am talking about. In the link below, you'll see a charcoal drawing(a), which is then covered with different colors of paint (b). In (c) thay used infrared photo equipment to show how it would all look to infrared, indicating that the pigments used in the colors which covered the drawing were basically transparent to infrared, while they appeared red/green/purple to the human eye. On the other hand, the charcoal drawing appears to have absorbed infrared.

http://books.google.com/books?id=Z_nT0MQxLaIC&pg=PA154&lpg=PA154&dq=%22cha rcoal+drawing%22+infrared&source=bl&ots=8AJRirtRt4 &sig=x1aFepQoLv6t4E3PoH3Mml--B1M&hl=en&ei=J8rtSonPGpSANpiksIQM&sa=X&oi=book_res ult&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAwQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q =%22charcoal%20drawing%22%20infrared&f=false

Jim

[amg011]

All very interesting data. Thanks STL... My next car WILL be Black. Right now I've got a Pearl White, so your results make me very nervous. Glad I have my LI. It's given me a few saves since the install. (Thanks Cliff). I follow the SOP, get the alert, slow down, turn off the LI. The cops, don't even look twice at me, they just target the next car. I've had LIDAR hits in VA, NJ, MD. I'm not even on their mind.

[StlouisX50]

All very interesting data. Thanks STL... My next car WILL be Black. Right now I've got a Pearl White, so your results make me very nervous. Glad I have my LI. It's given me a few saves since the install. (Thanks Cliff). I follow the SOP, get the alert, slow down, turn off the LI. The cops, don't even look twice at me, they just target the next car. I've had LIDAR hits in VA, NJ, MD. I'm not even on their mind.

You are quite welcome. Seeing the beam reflection with a video camera really shocked me. I only tested the beam reflectivity in the front. But you could really see a difference between each color. The colors reflection matched exactly with the results I got when I shot each color from the flat rear of the Kia Soul.

[NormSky]

The metallic in the paint will play a large a roll as the color. Take a flash light at night on either end of your car to see what is reflective. Most likely it's not the paint.