Question about 593.5nm wavelength classification

As most of you know many people consider 593.5nm pointers to be "yellow". After reading the forums over the last week I found that the yellow spectrum ends at 590nm, essentially making 593.5nm not a yellow but orange pointer(as listed on CNI).

My question is, why is this considered yellow? I forgot where on the forums this is but a member explained this was originally considered yellow when it first came out since it was the first "yellow" pointer around.

Any help is appreciated

-Alex

My guess is it's because it's a lot closer to the true yellow spectrum than the orange at 612nm. While I don't have a 593.5 my 594.1 HeNe is definitely an amber color compare to the golden yellow of my 589.

Color perception isn't exactly an objective science. Also, does it really matter if the consensus says it is yellow or golden or orange?

I consider 593.5nm to be yellow without a doubt personally. 589nm is MORE yellow, yes, but 593.5nm is still yellow to me.

Look at a 612nm HeNe next to a 589 or 594 and then tell us what color you think it is.

I put on one of my yellow HeNe lasers and it looks orange.
I then put on the 612 and it appears very yellow compared to the 612.

I've also heard of 633 HeNe lasers being called orange.

^ You could also compare it to 561nm and it will be more orange than anything.

Viewed apart from comparison, I would call it yellow.

I think it's because helium neon lasers were among the first lasers, and it was the first "yellow" to be found. But diffusing it into something, it is definitely orange. I frequently show it to people and use it in presentations and they usually comment on it being orange far more than being yellow.

Color is subjective anyhow, everyone sees differently, and when putting two wavelengths side by side, their appearances change as the eye now has new queues to give it a frame of reference, the light is so intense compared to background lighting your eye is overwhelmed from the extreme stimulation, so it guesses at the color in a sense. But by introducing another at the same intensity, it now has a frame of reference to work off of. It's fun to experiment with this with several close WL lasers at similar powers. Like 532, 543.5, and 561 all at 5mW. They look similar on the wall, particularly the 532 & 543, until you put them together, especially with 561. Same in SPADES for red. 632.8 and 650 are red for sure...until you put 670.5, 675, 680, and 690 on the wall too. Now all the sudden, they're orange. 612? Nah. Add 604 and 607... Now 611.9 looks even more red orange.

Now do the same under fluorescent lighting vs. natural light...The eyes are subjective and easy to fool. (One reason I do my spectral stuff in the dark )

On a separate note....

Sit in a white room with only a powerful green laser on for a few minutes (not staring at the dot, just letting the diffuse light illuminate the room), then turn on the lights and everything looks pink, as it takes time for your eye to recover from the intense green only stimuli (leaving only red un stimulated) so everything in your vision is red shifted for example, until the eye recovers. Do it with all the primaries, & this doesn't happen. Both for similar references as mentioned above, and because of some biology factors I won't delve into here.

The line between yellow/orange and orange/red is blurry. It's impossible to say at what exact length yellow turns orange. It makes it even harder given that colour perception is subjective. This isn't b&w; it's a grayish area completely open to personal interpretation.

ultimatekaiser said:

612? Nah. Add 604 and 607... Now 611.9 looks even more red orange.

Click to expand...

If only I had those to compare

Thank you all very much for all the help!

@kaiser Will have to try that one day

-Alex

Yellow when i think of it is the color of butter. When i choose a paint that is called yellow that is the color chip I'd pull. Then as you add a little more red.. a drop... it gets closer to the gold the 593.4. If you were to pain a rainbow use the 589. :umbrella::rainbow:

To me 589nm already looks kinda orangeish - still has some yellow, but it's more orange than most pictures show.

I've never seen 593.5nm, but I'm willing to bet I'd call it orange.

Where one color ends and another begins is a matter of debate. The monochromatic spectrum being continuous, each wavelength is a color that could be named.

Many charts show yellow as being 577nm-597nm others 570nm-590nm.

Example: What are the wavelengths of the basic colors (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Violet) in the color spectrum?

Think of the colors of the rainbow as the seven white keys on the piano do re mi fa so la ti. But if you change the tuning of one of the notes one way or the other. You have to change all seven. Or it sounds horrible. Like the notes will sound awful. Colors will clash.

Encap said:

Where one color ends and another begins is a matter of debate. The monochromatic spectrum being continuous, each wavelength is a color that could be named.

Click to expand...

This pretty much sums it up. One could argue about it all day and never reach a conclusion.

Atomicrox said:

To me 589nm already looks kinda orangeish - still has some yellow, but it's more orange than most pictures show.

I've never seen 593.5nm, but I'm willing to bet I'd call it orange.

Click to expand...

DJNY has a pretty good comparison of 589nm & 594nm on my review thread of the 593.5 I bought from him.

Look for yourself:
http://laserpointerforums.com/f52/cni-glp-593-5nm-review-90097-2.html

Edit: I personally would call 593.5 orange. To me it dosen't show the slightest hint of yellow, but then again I have never seen 589nm.

-Alex