 its worth 2000 if you wearing tinted eye protection and can see further than the glare!!!!!!!
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 I think the tent colour debate is well overcooked, especially when applied to the highlands where there's enough space for everyone. My own tent is blue - thats the only colour it comes in. I'd have prefered green but its not really an issue.
On the hill, the "block" of a green tent is almost as discernable as a coloured tent. Furthermore, a coloured tent can be nicer inside.
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 Mine is sky blue, so if I camp on a ridge....
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One tent on it's own, pitched discretely, makes little difference regardless of colour.
It's when you get half a dozen or more pitched together they begin to intrude on the landscape - and then it matters little what the colour is!
From a photographic point of view though, commercial pictures are usually best with a splash of colour in them. Apart from anything else, the colour attracts the eye, drawing attention to whatever the photo is illustrating.
A plain landscape may be more aestetically pleasing, but as Chris says, it's not so popular with editors (nor advertisers)
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 Looks like we all agree that magazines and manufacturers prefer photos of bright tents. So Chris's earlier comment - "Companies make bright tents because people want them!" - might not be as straightforward as it first seems. Do people want bright tents because that's what they see in the mags, and that's what editors/manufacturers want them to see? Is it commercial pressure which prevents TGO from practising what it preaches? Is TGO (as it would like us to believe) setting the tone for the rest of the backpacking industry to follow (lightweight for instance), or is content style and direction determined by industry?
John
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| Edited: 15/11/06 20:45 |
 To qualify my comment "companies make bright tents because some people want them". Reading backpacking/mountaineering books and other outdoor magazines reasons given for bright tents are safety, brighter inside and easy to find with the first being the most common. Companies certainly like bright colours for advertisements - they want their products to stand out. And sometimes companies know that the bright colours in their adverts won't sell well - they just attract people's attention. One company told me that green and dark blue waterproof jackets were their best sellers but they would never put these colours in adverts as they were too dull. Some people do want bright colours though - they have complained in the past about the lack of bright colours in the Paramo and Buffalo ranges. I'm sure some people do see bright colours in magazines and think I want that - but I doubt many people do that. In terms of tents I'm pretty certain of this as most of the tents I see in the wilds are dark green.
In terms of words there is no commercial pressure on me at all as to what I write. I'm completely independent. Of course I - as with any gear tester - can only write about the gear companies make and supply for test.
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"In terms of words there is no commercial pressure on me at all as to what I write. I'm completely independent."
Again Chris, my slightly provacative posts aren't aimed at you.
"most of the tents I see in the wilds are dark green."
Do you mean most of the tents you don't see are green? :-)
I wonder why some manufacturers don't do green if green is the colour of choice for wildereness camping? Three years ago when I it was time to buy new tents (2 person extended porch and one person) I was really impressed by Lightwave, but the ultralight range were only available in blue. I went with a Hilleberg 2GT and a TN Laserlite (followed by an akto) all green, sorry to not have supported a small company who I really liked the look of.
I guess wild campers are most likely the same crowd as lightweight backpackers. Green is colour of choice for wild camping, so Lightwave makes blue tents for their ultralight range. (The Crux range I can understand being bright colours).
I'm afraid I've drifted away from the original thread (TGO's response to Hamish), but more questions have been raised than answered.
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All the Lightwave Ultra tents - their lightest models - are now green. Maybe they discovered that was the colour people wanted.
I'm sure there are many tents I don't see because they are green :-)
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 I tend to agree - stick with green unless your in the artic.
To save chris' blushes I've noticed that an flourescent Nallo crops up from time to time ...
... and always in pieces associated with our glorious leader, CM !!!
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.jpg) Yellow tents are good in snow for the lazy backpacker.
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erm...I'm not lazy.
well i suppose i am a little bit.
Cos when i pitch on a very exposed area 2500ft+ asl and its litterally blowing a gale i dont wanna have to get up, get dressed when im toasty warm and adjust my tents position or re-peg 2 of the guys that have ripped out(cos there are only 6 in total) and get soaking wet,freezing cold or worry about it folding flat on my face and waking me up and disturbing my sweet dreams.
so yes i'm lazy but i do have 16 guy points on my Red Crux and 18 on my Yellow eureka so if two pegs pull out ive still got more than two TN quasars put together to keep me all snuggled up and the tent off my face.
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I don't think Jonno was talking about tent pegs!
I frequently camp high up year round (often at 4,000 feet in the Cairngorms, with a variety of tents, often tent models. I only have problems with pegs pulling out if the pegs themselves are inadequate. In strong winds the problems are usually poles bending and flysheets flapping.
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my point Chris was most GREEN tents that are on the market...no names mentioned only come with 6 or 8 guy points, while most of the tents which are yellow or orange or even red come with multiple guy points 12+.
As they are specifically designed for extreme weather conditions and to take constant wind and snow loads.
thats my point.
For example if TN made the Quasar ETC with the same guying configuration as a F10 vortex/TNF VE-25/CRUX X2 Bomb etc i may have kept the one i owned and not Ebay'ed it.
We can argue this subject until the cows come home but i think it all boils down to "Each to their own"
Drew
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