Study on effectiveness of different Camoflage patterns

[Rizzo]

I noticed, that there has been much discussion on what pattern is best. In summary it seems that this depends a lot on season, sourrounding territory and personal perception on the specific pattern. As most of the camouflage patterns are developed by national military for use in their average homelands, they don´t fit well in other locations. Unfortunately this discussion will always find new arguments for and against the various available patterns. My interest now is not to find the perfect over-all-camo, but to compare some of the widest used patterns in various settings.

Therefor I developed a rating in points for various distances and different surroundings (considering seasons). My intention is to get to know how you all see (and rate) effectiveness on different used patterns. I made a table on ms-excel to fill in ratings and would be very pleased if many of you would give me a little time on that and fill in your personal ratings for me. So I can do a wide ranged summary of all points to see how this community thinks (statistically) on what pattern ist most effective. Just send me a personal message, so I can send you the table to work with. I will give you an update on what the study shows some time later on.

I mostly concentrate on patterns like Flecktarn, DPM, Woodland, Multicam, different digital pattens and some more. A complete list is shown in the mentioned excel-table. If someone thinks that there is anything missing, wrong or unintelligible, please feel free to tell me.

Oh, yes... to get a small imagination of what I am talking about, my rating system is based on following points:

Rating points are:
1 Point: no effect - pattern color points out clearly,
2 pts.: bad - pattern only fades marginal into surroundings environment,
3 pts.: average - pattern gives some protection from direct visibility,
4 pts.: good - pattern breaks silhouette und gives good coverage,
5 pts.: excellent - pattern almost melts completely into surrounding environment

This rating is now splitted in 3 further categories as there are:
a) nearby visibility [under 25 meters / 27 yards],
b) medium range visibility [25 - 100 meters / 27 - 109 yards] and
c) wide range visibility [100 - 300 meters / 109 - 329 yards]

Every rating is used in a specific terrain and season as there are:
I. Woodlands - various types of forests and woods, tense bushlands
II. Graslands - plains and fields, open areas with gras, bushes, sparely trees
III. Urban settings - concrete, walls, streets, houses etc.
IV. Desert - sands, rocks, low vegetation
(considering possible differences during seasonal nature-environments - see table)

[Rizzo]

Some guys chose "other" than the listed camo-patterns. Can you name them, please? I would love to know on what patterns I should put my focus on, too.

[Korneil]

Do you want our rating based on our experiment with the cammos?

Here is mine amyway
I use CADPAT.
Summer: I give a 5. It is perfect in summer. It melts in the backgrounds in most forests, grasses and bushes. It works within 25m if you stand still.

Fall: In fall it drops dramatically. If you are in a region where there are lots of leaf trees you are almost doomed to a 2. In a conifer environment it keeps a 4.

Winter: Here again in a conifer surrounding you are OK but it gives a 3 to 4 at 25+ meters depending on the density of trees. Your better to mix some white clothing or completely dress in white. In a leaf trees environment you look like a Xmas trees, without lights.

Spring - Early: If the grass hasn't started to green up and the leafs to grow CADPAT will be quite visible within 100 m, between 2-3.

Spring - Late: As soon as the leafs are out you ok you go gradually from 3 to 5, from 100- m to 25- m.

In the region I live, eastern Québec north of St-Laurence river, CADPAT is the best year round pattern because we have lots of conifer. In winter it is preferable to have white pants and/or upper CADPAT.

During a game, There were 2 guys chasing me and I decided to run accros a dirt path and hide in ferns. When I cross the path they saw me quite eaily but as soon as I got in the fern they lost visual contact with me. They were within 50 m, maybe even 25m. Of course they knew where I was, approximatlively. But I managed to take one out by surprise. Thanks to CADPAT.

[HUA?]

Cadpat TW (Summer/Late spring) - 5/5 @ 25m+ : In any other season, usually a poorer choice, unless as mentioned above.

Cadpat AR (Fall/Early spring) - 3/5 @ 25m+ : A decent pattern, but lacks the ability to mesh well with any type of greenery. More of a true desert pattern than any type of temperate forest fall/spring substitue. I would prefer Marpat over Cadpat AR

Multicam (Fall/Early Spring) - 5/5 @ 25m+ : Works medicore in other seasons, as its name implies.. a good all rounder.

Woodland (Summer/Spring/Fall/Winter) - 3 to 4/5 depending on season @ 25m+: I still think that as a general non specific pattern, woodland is hard to beat for versatility.

Im not as familiar with the British patterns/Danish/German as I dont see them as much in field action. So I will leave my inexperienced comments to someone else who is in an area that has more people wearing those BDU's.

[Rizzo]

Here an interesting image i found on the net...

[Rizzo]

@Korneil: yes, that´s great. To get to know how your personal experience is will help.

Anyone else with experience on using different patterns and able to rate them in a similar way?

[Lerch]

Originally Posted by Rizzo

Here an interesting image i found on the net...

Interesting, except that's more a dark CADPAT than MARPAT.

[War-Lock]

I voted CADPAT, cause i guess i don't have enough money to have a closet full of diffrent camo to try out :-D

But i find digi-cam a great freind in the game of concelment, it breaks up the outline of the player very well... :borg:

Also it all depends on how well you can stalk and concel yourself, i remember a few games dudes in OD green could stalk up to people very well, it's all about those little tricks of the trade and keeping in mind a few tricks that might get you booked in war! :kill:

Googles can and will reflect light, your pimpin' gold DE will heatscore you out! and "fuck i shoulda wore gloves camed up my albino skin!

And my money goes to CADPAT. :salute:


War - Lock :twisted:

[Goldman]

You may want to have each"reviewer" or whatever list what environtmental conditions they play in.(Read: Boreal Forest,FIBUA on greenland, quarry, etc),Otherwise these ratings are useless.

[Rizzo]

No matter what pattern you wear, if you have the sun in your back it won't work well anyway [see image]

[Rizzo]

...interesting how a civilian hunting pattern (realtree predator?) works with its white parts when sunlight in background...

[The Waco Kid]

On personal experience & a little experimentation I favour Multicam if you trying to have one pattern for the maximum number of diiferent environments.

Of the listed patterns the only one I have not used myself is CADPAT although I have seen it on the game field, I'm in the UK where CADPAT is quite a rarity.

British DPM: Easy & cheap for a British player. Works very well most of the year round in mixed woodland although it does appear quite dark in the autum/fall when most of the tones a red/light brown or in spring with very green new growth. Pretty awful in urban settings though. Desert DPM is not to bad against brick rubble as an alternative.

Canadian CADPAT: This appears very green during the winter season here. Noticably more so than DPM or US woodland. The rarity in Britain of this camo makes it difficult to get a year round view.

German Flecktarn: Quite popular with UK skirmishers. Excellent all round woodland pattern, probably a little more effective than DPM in the autum and in urban environments but not massively so.

MULTICAM: Outstaning in the late autmn & winter. It just looks like dead leaf litter when worn with khaki gear. The "airburshed" effect seems to work & take on the predominant shade of the surrounding environment.
As a multiple environment pattern it's probably the best so far and is easily superior to DPM & Flectarn in urban & semi-urban sites we I've used. Many of the UK urban skirmishes are in old fortifications that are partially overgrown or age marked which is a spot on match for MC.
However the downside is of course the cost of the gear in general & availablity.

US ACUPAT: I like the cut & style of the uniform but it just appears to grey in every forested site I've seen it. It even seems to stand out in the winter when you might expect the lack of greenery to reduce the contrast. I think it's a reasonable urban scheme but more suitable to concrete heavy areas.

US MARPAT: Highly effective in all kinds of undergrowth year round. If I had to pick a purely woodland pattern to use I'd probably go for MarPat. As good as Flecktarn in urban may be better, more effective than DPM certainly.

Other (US woodland?): Still a useful pattern. As good as DPM or Flecktarn in a lot of situations. Cheap & plenty of kit to match.

[RC Collins]

I have 4 sets of BDU's, three of which made by Propper- US Woodland (great in summer), US 6 color desert "chock chip" pattern (discontinued) (great in spring and fall), Black (indoors), and white (snow) (it's German I believe, waterproof material). In summer I usually just wear a OD t-shirt since I use an Alice harness, so all my mags hang from my pouches at my waist (I'm nice and cool and light on my feet while all you guys with assault vests and full mil-spec gear are sweating your asses off lol...). I find that that camo doesn't really come into play so much, it's stuff that reflects light, or your own movement that gives you away more. That's my 2 cents on that...

[Rizzo]

I got 8 complete BDUs in different patterns and some others more in parts (mostly the shirts/jackets).
Bad thing I broke my Camera yesterday just before I went to take some more pictures in the woods... now I will have to do without a new pattern BDU for the next months and look for a new cam :sad: But I hope to get some more images up here... maybe some friend will lend me his cam.

[linkster]

camo works best in the shade, keep yourself in the shade of a bush (not IN the bush, the
sun will show your head, unles your lieing down) or the grass under a tree are perfect for hiding