Camo Comparison (lots of pics)

[Titan]

I have decided to do my best creating a comparison between the different types of camouflage. Now understand I am human, and this information is coming from my experiences and what I have learned. If you do disagree with something I may have said, please either state it in here or PM me civilly about it. I hope this educates you about the types of camo I present, and helps you decide what is useful where you play.


Now this picture is just to show you some types of camo against each other. In this picture is Flecktarn, MARPAT, woodland, and Air Force OD circa 1970's- early 1980's, and Army OD circa late 1950's


Here is Flecktarn against both types of OD


Woodland, MARPAT, and Flecktarn


Flecktarn and Woodland


Woodland and Air Force OD


Flecktarn and MARPAT


Woodland and Army OD


Multicam and ACU (Red Dragon field, fall, around noon)


MultiCam, Flecktarn, WoodLand, ACU, TriDesert and MARPAT(Red Dragon field, fall, around noon)


Woodland, ACU and MultiCam (Red Dragon field, fall, around noon)


ACU in foreground, I believe solid tan in the background. (Red Dragon field, fall, around noon)


Woodland (Sprindfield mid-march 2007 Op:BA2)


MARPAT and woodland
(Sprindfield mid-march 2007 Op:BA2)


DESPAT (somewhere in Iraq, late 2004, early 2005)


CADPAT


Multicam(MC): Probably the newest camo to start seeing use here in Ohio is multicam. Many people like and appreciate MC for its adaptive qualities to multiple environments. While MC is a tan based camouflage it retains the ability to blend into green areas. In an area such as Ohio, this is a great property. Due to the changing seasons, Ohio tends to always have a mix of colors in the forests, giving multicam users the ability to not only blend with the greens but also the browns. MC accomplishes this by a complex mix of tans and greens, that can trick the human eye into blending the colors with what ever is next to it.

Flecktarn(Fleck): Flecktarn is from Germany, used officially by the DBW (DeutscheBundeswehr). I have found that it is a rather useful camo, it is able to blend rather well due to the blotch pattern of colors. The shades of green car able to blend in with the foliage rather well around Ohio, especially with the varying shades of green used. The reddish brown is also rather effective among the leaves and tree bark. MARPAT, which is used by the Marines, was influenced by Fleck with the colors and pattern (just imagine the blotches pixelized). Fleck is very useful in Ohio, but if you run into an area with lots of brown, it may not be the best.

MARPAT:Marine Pattern, this is also a relatively new camouflage to the market. It was designed as a digital, pixelized replacement for the aging woodland pattern previously in use by the Marine Corps. The digital pattern was incorporated to break up the figure of the human body more so than previous patterns, such as Woodland BDU's. MARPAT uses green brown tan and black to blend into the surrounding area. Being a green based camo it will serve you best in a green environment.

DESPAT: Also a Marine pattern, it has be used in both Iraq and Afghanistan very effectively. DESPAT replaces the older TriDesert or DCU bdu's and replaces them with a digital pixelized pattern. DESPAT is designed to break up the human figure in the desert sands and in the urban environment of stone, and other earthy material houses common to the Middle East. In Ohio, the uses for DESPAT are not many. In the winter, and among dead grasses and other light tan or brown colors, DESPATs will do its best. DESPAT can become effective in Ohio if matched with the proper gear and proper concealment.

ACU: The Army's latest camo, it is their universal bdu. This is not to say that ACU will preform perfectly in every area, but it will do well in many areas. ACU is usually call moon camo due to its shades if green, but the light shades of ACU allow it to get dirty and blend more into the environment. When other patterns get muddy, it may ruin the pattern, making it stand out more. ACU on the other hand, becomes darker and tends to blend more into the environment. ACU is also very breathable, I often prefer using my ACU to Fleck because the fabric is lighter and cooler. While ACU may not make you disappear as you play over the course of the day you will find it becoming more effective.

CADPAT:CADPAT TW: This stands for Canadian Disruptive Pattern Temperate Woodland. It is based upon four specific colors: light green, dark green, brown, and black. It works very well when the surroundings consist of darker green colors, but the downside is that it is not flexible to other terrain patterns. It resembles MARPAT in that it consists of “pixels” that are designed to disrupt the enemies aim, depth perception, and the users outline. In a recent test, CADPAT was rated number one by NATO soldiers for use in tropical and temperate settings, with a 40% less chance of being sighted from 200 meters away than Olive Drab. (Brought to you by BounDByLighT)

Woodland: Coming of use in the 1980's this was a replacement for both olive drab and tiger stripe patterns. This pattern uses large blotches of solid colors (tan, brown, black, and green) to try and blend the user into the surrounding foliage and trees. The pattern tends to be to dark in many areas, if there is light coming from behind the user, or they are around some lighter shades of green, the Woodland tends to stand out. Woodland is a good starter camo because it is easy to find and is always relatively cheep. Woodland is also relatively easy to build a load out around, and it is always a good idea to have a set of woodlands because you never know when you may need a spare set of camo.


TriDesert (DCU's):The cousin of the woodland BDU's it uses the same pattern with different colors for use in a different environment. TD uses light tan, brown, and light brown to blend the user into their surroundings. TriDesert was used during the 1st Gulf War, and at the beginning of the 2nd. It was intended for desert warfare, so it does not fare well in the woodland environment of Ohio. It works in much the same areas as DESPAT, in the winter, and among dead grasses and other light tan or brown colors. DCU's can become effective in Ohio if matched with the proper gear and proper concealment.

Tiger Stripe: COMING SOON w/ pics

[Casino]

Also, someone should make a informational sticky on this subject with all basic styles of camoflauge, definitions, and pictures to match. I dont even know all the acronyms for the different types of camoflauge. Also explain the different brands and in general what type of camoflauge would work best at most games. It would be really helpful to do something like this, so you would never have to worry about posts like this. (It would help me alot too).

Thanks alot for doing this. I believe CADAT and DPM are two others that you might want to add. Another suggestion is possibly add links that supply each type of camoflauge that are trusted retailers and explain the different brands (which ones to avoid/look for) and what is the best fabric type (i.e. 50/50 nylon polyester). I know you probably already have another billion suggestions so just take your time.

Hope these suggestions helped and thanks for your hard work.

[India]

I will sticky this, but please limit responses to only concise, useful information, otherwise it will get messy. I also reserve the right to prune this thread of any irrelevant messages. If a message of yours gets deleted, don't take it personally; it just means that it didn't contribute to the overall knowledge base. I'll probably delete my own message after a while.

[Spectre]

I am fully aware that this is a thread compiled in a short amount of time in order to fill the requirements of educating people about the varieties of camoflauge, but I think it could go more indepth, and prove to be an invaluable resource to both seasoned veterans and new members alike.

What you should do is compile a simple list of the varieties of most common camoflauges used here in the Tri-State area and have a line up comparison much like what you did in the first few pictures, only this time, be more systematic about it. Take pictures of each field, within each season, with the same line-up of camoflauge, for the sake of relative comparision versus field of play. I say this because each field that I have visited in the central to lower Ohio area exhibits different natural characteristics. For instance, Reddragon appears much more dark brown and tan based in the late Summer, Fall periods then say Springfield, where as Springfield will exhibit rich vegetation almost throughout the year excluding winter due to the high rain fall. Having a seasonal line-up of each field in Ohio (and this does not have to be a one man/group operation) for each season will allow players, and teams, to choose their prefered loadout for each game.

In addition to this, show the different prone, kneeing and standing positions within each enviorment to further the attention to detail.

Other things to consider are:

Vegetation type
levels of light exposed to
terrain (is it hillly, flat, more urban like, village like)
moisture
temperature
details on the fabrics used
comparisons or reviews of the variety of manufactures
Rig loadouts and compatibility.

[nextmayor]

Originally Posted by Titan

...TriDesert was used during the 1st Gulf War, and at the beginning of the 2nd. It was intended for desert warfare, so it does not fare well in the woodland environment of Ohio.

I was under the impression that 6 color desert (chocolate chip) were used in the 1st Gulf War, with tri-colors coming out shortly there after, because of the deficiencies of chocolate chips in a true desert setting.

From what I know chocolate chip was designed for American style rocky deserts with scrub vegetation and tri-colors were designed for a more traditional desert.

I've used tri-color quite extensively and found they are not as bad in a woodland setting as would be expected. Especially, down low where a player can blend in to dead / dry vegetation. In the real world, you will see a number of special operators blending tri-color and woodland BDU's to take advantage of brown / tan ground and green bushes and trees.

[Titan]

Originally Posted by mr_kong

Please give credit to original sources...

Everything but pictures is original as typed by me yesterday, using my knowledge. If you have something you feel I need to cite please let me know. Any things you see wrong in my posts please PM me with what needs to be fixed!

DESPAT and DCU's updated/ changed

Spectre if you want to do tat be my guest, but to provide all that was not my intention, nor my desire. I wanted to create a simple basic guide. I do not have the time or ability to do that any time soon. If someone has a type of camo they want included they can PM the write up to me. I would like this thread to be used mainly for questions, any comments or things to be added or corrected, please PM me.

[Decoy]

As far as some of the extra's Spectre was talking about, one of the biggest factors with any camo is the gear that you wear. US Woodland and DCUs abilities can easily be enhanced or destroyed with the color of gear that you wear.

Attached are a few select images (all at Springfield) of mine. The first two are DCUs with OD green gear. The third is Desert DPM with OD gear, the picture was taken in the winter-spring at Springfield.

[mr_kong]

Excellent pattern comparison site

http://camotest.de/gallery/index.php

If you can't figure out the German, there's something wrong with your thought process.

[Texx]

Note: I am going to close this thread for the time being as it is being groomed for stickyness. Titan, I would suggest you consider preparing the rest of this thread on Word for the time being, line up your pics, and then PM a mod to open this to allow you to edit. Please do site sources if you can.

Thank you. Texx.