The ultimate camouflage comparison - NATO (KSK, Bundeswehr, US Army, USMC...) | Phantomleaf

[@prdubi]

This was a monumental effort, I commend you for doing it and thank you again.

[@epiggroup]

Thank you!!!

[@user-vv6sy2ox4q]

I have been a soldier for 20 years and served in rainforest, desert, african savanna and eastern european environments wearing 6 different camouflage patterns. This is the most professional and comprehensive camouflage testing I have seen outside the military, very well done. I agree with your assessment on the phantomleaf wasp II z3a pattern in this test. Personally I favor large camouflage patterns over the smaller digital size patterns. If I could make a suggestion, I would like to see a further test done with the following patterns, DPM, WWII Denison smock, 59 pattern Denison smock, Rhodesian camouflage, WWII SAS camouflage, a Waffen SS camouflage (e.g. oakleaf), German Splinter pattern, 44 Dot pattern, Leibermuster pattern, Swamp pattern. Keep up the good work, I just subscribed after seeing this video.

[@epiggroup]

Thank you very much for this comment! We will note everything I try to do more comparisons

[@rogergoldfinchelectrical4159]

I'd be interested to see how the Waffen SS Palm & Clump performs. I believe that it is the only camo with particular pattern elements designed for particular areas of the human body (assuming the repro factory gets the cutting right!) Also curious about Atacs Ucon, Rhodesian, WWII SAS, British DPM and one of Cramer's macro/micro patterns. But in the meantime, thank you for your hard work. Very interesting and a lot of 'food for thought' :)

[@David-vg1wl]

This has to be the best video I have seen on the topic of camouflage comparisons! Thank you!

[@epiggroup]

Thank you!!

[@PolenarTactical]

Wow, this was a lot of work. I didn't watch the whole video, just skipped to certain parts to compare camos. It's a really good video with a lot of useful information. My advice for the video would be, to try to make it a bit faster and shorter by reducing wait time during the comparisons. I know that there is a lot of information to convey but i feel like the average attention span of youtube viewers is going down these days

[@epiggroup]

Thank you very much for your honest feedback - you are right with the audience but we wanted to provide as much information as possible to support and help the guys out there risking their lives every day.

[@NamLe-jq3oq]

Just an interesting side note, the Multicam Tropic is purported to be one of the prototypes camo variants that came out the Phase IV Camo Improvement Effort in 2014. The (US) Army wanted a camouflage family to replace the failed UCP and thereby contracted 4 companies (Crye Multicam, Hyperstealth US4CES, Brookwood, Kryptek) and Army's own All Over Brush camo to create a 4 variant family = Transitional, Arid, Woodland/Tropic and the Urban variant. Supposedly, after not being selected for the Army's program, Crye elected to create a modifed variant based on the original (with Multicam Arid) and sold it on the market. US4CES was sold to Mexican Marines, Brookwood got out of the Camo business as the story goes. Of all the interesting variants, I would love to see how Woodland All over Brush (Either Phase 2 or 3) would have worked compared to the commercial variants but I do understand that it's very difficult to acquire them. Edit: I changed the name of the company ATACs to Kryptek (I forgot they are not the same company)

[@epiggroup]

Thank you very much for the great background information 🫶🫶.

[@michanu]

Gutes Video! Danke. Ist vielleicht die Adventszeit aber die schwebende Einblendung im weißen Mantel erinnert mich an einen bärtigen Weihnachtsengel 😜

[@epiggroup]

Das ist ein bärtiger Weihnachtsengel 👼👼

[@bretto9616]

This was a great video, the dedication and time you put into it was superb, thank you for putting this together. I was searching for SLOCAM, M05, and CADPAT comparisons and got this. I am now a subscriber. My take on the results: The Phantom Leaf Wasp II Z3a is an absolute next level camo, especially with the 3d. I have never heard of it before but it is so good that it is not just number 1 on the list, it is in an entire league of its own. Rounding out the next 3 on my list would be M05, Slocam, and Flecktarn in no real order, they were all great. And my honorable mention goes to the Novritsch Kreuzotter, a camo designed by airsofters for airsofters and it beat the hell out of a lot of camo's designed for the military, very well done to them. I'd think with any of those 5 you can't go wrong. That said the brass that picks the camo for the U.S. military better get their shit together, our camo performed surprisingly poorly here.

[@epiggroup]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts!

[@LukeBuckingham-j8k]

Wonderful effort. Camouflage is a divisive topic and you have done a nice job creating a useful and level evaluation. Thank you!

[@epiggroup]

Thank you very much for your feedback!

[@danielmoneymaker1068]

That was an awsome demonstration, great video.Thanks for the work you put into it

[@epiggroup]

Thank you very much. Yes indeed. It Was very much work for our Team. 🙂👌🏻

[@HobnailJohn]

Nicely done and very interesting. I would have really liked to see old school M81 Woodland. First, M81 almost feels like the equivalent of a "control" sample in a test a like this. A baseline to compare everything else against. See how much better or worse the others patterns are in comparison. Secondly, one of the more common statements if not outright criticisms of several of the patterns was how quickly they started to appear monochromatic. Even at quite short distances. While I am no expert, I was often lead to believe that one of the major "problems" with the M81 pattern was the scale of the pattern elements. They were to large, designed originally for vehicles and/or for combat taking place at hundreds of yards/meters and as a result was useless at close range. And so militaries developed patterns with much smaller scale elements that were supposed to work better at closer range, and later on be clustered in such a way that they combined into larger elements at longer ranges. And I'll be honest. Watching this video and seeing how rapidly so many of these patterns just blob together into a single color, with the WASP patterns doing a better job but still kind some times doing it. I can't help but wonder if we were closer to the bullseye 40 years ago, at least partially, and having M81 in there to compare side by side would have gone a long way to confirming or refuting my suspicions. Regardless of whether or not you fed my particular species of brain worms however, this was a monumental effort and very well executed.

[@epiggroup]

Thank you very much, really appreciate your thoughts and look on this. The hardest part was to choose the patterns and we really love m81 - but we had to do a cut somewhere so we focused on NATO as well as newer patterns. If we will do something like this again we will add m81 but then we will need much more mannequins, the time slots for same light conditions were so short even with 22 patterns 😂😂

[@easygroove]

And French CCE -. which IMHO is much better in Disrupting Human Shape(compared to M81) + Swedish M90 which surprised me how good it works best regards

[@jakubsenohrabek2308]

Yeah i need to see the M90 aswell

[@dod0573]

Gut das ihr euch auch die Mühe gemacht habt das ganze auch in englisch zu machen, Respekt!👍

[@epiggroup]

Danke!

[@kenmilne5987]

Good effort. I am no expert but it seems to me that a lot of these so-called multi-terrain patterns like multicam or mtp are really just semi-arid patterns. You will never get a true multi terrain pattern until you get one like an octopus skin - changes in tune with the surroundings. FWIW the best overall seem to be the Phantomleaf patterns, Slocam and good old fashioned Marpat.

[@epiggroup]

Thank you! Agreed 👍

[@cwilliams808]

It’s because it’s easier to darken camo that’s too light than vice-versa. You can always rub dirt, wear dark kit on top of uniform, or add vegetation to your “multi-terrain pattern” to make it blend better.

[@johnwalton5576]

Excellent video, and serious respect to you all for the huge amount of effort you put into to it. My only gripe is that I wish you could have obtained a new example of OCP, because your example was faded big time.

[@epiggroup]

Thank you! Yes that was sad, we really tried to get a new one but in Germany it’s is almost impossible

[@DarkSmithBunny]

Amazing! this must have been a humongous effort and well done for that! I am puzzled by the choice of the German Army to switch to Multitarn, as it seems it just doesn't work as well as the traditional Flektarn. However, I understand that most NATO armies are sticking to similar decision to look more united and most importantly to try and minimise cases of friendly fire (as seen in the Ukraine, even though the two combatants are using notably different pattern they still put colourful tape on their equipment, testimony that in a real theatre, identification of friend or foe is not as simple as it thought) A notable mention could be the Italian pattern Vegetato, that could work well in a woodland environment. Mind, more so for commercial pieces, as the issue kit for the Italian army is rather yellowish in hue (probably due to the Mediterranean environment that they are designed for) and that when faded they become near to sand/dust in colour (and they fade really quickly!! :O) Also the issue kit has varied greatly over the years due to batch changes and contracts shenanigans, typical of the Italian procurement. But if one looks for a good quality commercial piece some of them have a good pattern and colouration in my opinion. In my opinion the bias towards the Phantomleaf patterns are totally justified, even if sometimes brightness and hue might not match perfectly, the contrast from dark to light in their pattern shows that it makes up for breaking up the silhouette like you mentioned profusely. It would be interesting to compare them with patterns that have an emphasis on macro elements for contrast in their patterns (such as French CCE, Swedish and Norwegian patterns or similar). As mentioned already, this test could hardly have been carried out in a better way! Keep it up guys!

[@epiggroup]

Thank you very much for this detailed comment 😘😘👍🥰

[@sifusasdo2314]

Cool Video 👍 Thank U for the Info and links 👍

[@epiggroup]

Thx

[@valterXIII]

Just awesome! Thank You. Regards, Denis

[@epiggroup]

Thank you!

[@alessandrovannini8989]

Really good job!

[@epiggroup]

Thank you!

[@SportKrepeng]

Respekt, also der Aufwand!

[@epiggroup]

Danke!

[@LouisaL2008]

Thank you great video

[@epiggroup]

You are welcome!

[@David-vg1wl]

I think it would have been interesting to include the German Flektarn and the British DPM. Some of the current military camouflage appears to be a step back. Talking to current soldiers, nobody likes OCP, and they are even brighter after a few washings and the patterns have faded. OCP might be more appropriate for more urban environments perhaps. Also, interesting that the Nederland's previous camo was similar to DPM and now they are trying a more German Flektarn. I served in the 82nd back in the day where we were issued OG-107 jungle fatigues for the summers and BDU's for the rast of the year. Currently, I'm still in NC and in mostly wooded areas. Participating in outdoor activities in the spring, I like DPM, summers woodland BDU's and in the fall Flektarn.

[@epiggroup]

Well Flecktarn is added, DPM was sadly just another one too much that we really want to have in the comparison but at some point we had to do a cut

[@bafumat]

Excellent.

[@epiggroup]

Thank you!

[@paragonfilms1531]

surprised y’all didn’t include M81 woodland

[@epiggroup]

Yes, we have been asked often about that but we decided to to more modern patterns - we definitly will do some with M81

[@EidolonTactical]

Well done, Gentlemen!

[@epiggroup]

Thank you!

[@mghegotagun]

Glad I got a pencott greenzone set while I could which is getting increasingly rare. A shame multicam sucks the air out of the camo market.

[@epiggroup]

Yeah pencott is really hard to get these days

[@JamesMartin-bu8yu]

I wonder why multicam is so popular. It sucks pretty much anywhere but very specific desert environments (transitional arid). It was designed from the ground up for use in Afghanistan. But it got rebranded as "multicam" after Crye Precision bought it, when there's hardly anything "multi" about it. In this video, it was easily the worst out of every other camo.

[@framiusikcavaudio]

Complimenti per la pazienza e la realizzazione di questo video, ma se e possibile aggiungere la Woodland e tutte le versione della Vegetata Italiana.

[@epiggroup]

Thank you we will think about it in the next video

[@maxlarsen]

I wanna know your conclusion of what was the best camouflage overall, in all your tests.

[@epiggroup]

There is no overall best camouflage - Phantomleaf is very good as a basic camouflage over different distances and can be modified with leaves to be almost perfect

[@WPJsPlace]

Didn’t see CADPAT TW or the new version CADPAT MT

[@epiggroup]

Noted thank you!

[@SurvivalHiker]

I have a darker version of PCGZ from 2022

[@epiggroup]

Thanks for your feedback!

[@deo1243]

Thank you! I watched the whole thing before I spend the money on camo

[@epiggroup]

Thank you!

[@RussianTeakwood]

Any camos that would mix well with pencott greenzone?

[@epiggroup]

Any micro pattern should match well like Phantomleaf or even other pencott patterns

[@RussianTeakwood]

@@epiggroup Danke, waspe z3a ist super 👍.

[@khalilal-bukhari7042]

echt nice

[@epiggroup]

👍👍

[@krystianszczepanskiiii]

super 👍🏽👍🏼👍🏾👍🏻👍🏿👍

[@epiggroup]

👍😘😘

[@matthewbarber4505]

M.I.L.F. - Man, I Love Flecktarn ;)

[@epiggroup]

Jedem das seine :D

[@paulspudman]

I would skip the Dusk testing in the future, there isn't enough difference in appearance between the camos to justify all that work.

[@epiggroup]

Yes, that’s what we thought too, but thanks for your thoughts

[@daromirfirunsson]

Phantomleaf sollte sich mal bessere Bezeichnungen ausdenken. Begriffe wie "Wasp II Z3a" kann man dem Einsatzzweck weder zuordnen, noch kann sich das kaum einer merken, welcher Name zu welchem Muster gehört. Marketingtechnisch einfach grausam. :D

[@epiggroup]

Das haben wir ihnen auch schon des Öfteren gesagt xD

[@LV-42617]

Da gebe ich dir vollkommen recht, das kann sich keiner merken.

[@Ruby_Sterling]

Everybody copied multicam

[@epiggroup]

ok

[@笠原竜-x6f]

Excellent ‼ I have Z3a too. I am satisfied very much ……(。-`ω-)👍💕