I can't read with red light. Not sure what is up with that. I have a little Petzl head lamp with a red led. Works ok, I find it a little fussy in practice. I have thought of getting just a small light for cue sheets, but I have pretty much switched over to gps for night navigation due to my poor night vision. I generally use a princeton tec helmet light on low to read cue sheets. Just have to move my head around occasionally to avoid glare