over paranoid?

hey guys, so i just got my first laser, its awsome, 100mW from dx the same one described in this thread

laserpointerforums.com/forums/YaBB.pl?num=1232573902

video for laser (not my video) : youtube.com/watch?v=1mF8JKwzxMI

just no fog.

right, so my question is, how safe is this really? i recall reading, "dont looking into laser with remaining eye"...so im scared to play with my laser.

in the video the guy plays with his laser flashing it on shiny surfaces, id love to try that and all, but im super scared that i might accidentally bounce the beam off at an angle that id go right into my eyes.

the laser dot is really bright blinding...im even afraid of burning things as the reflection might damage my eyes, i really dont know what to think :s

so ive just put up my laser, and now saving up to get those shades.

should i be paranoid as i am? or is the laser only harmful if direct eye contact? and are reflected beams safe ( logically speaking i dont expect them to be, but im hoping that i am wrong)

any advise would be appreciated.

thanks.

You can bet it's not 100mW. 80 at most. Yeah, get laser goggles for viewing the dot within ~15 feet, but playing with the beam outside is fine. Just don't burn untill you get the shades, and never use sunglasses!

randomlugia said:

You can bet it's not 100mW. 80 at most. Yeah, get laser goggles for viewing the dot within ~15 feet, but playing with the beam outside is fine. Just don't burn untill you get the shades, and never use sunglasses!

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+1

As randomlugia said, you really want to be over careful with these things rather than hoping someting bad will never happen. Even though a DX laser is rarely as strong as they claim, this laser will still be strong enough to give you permanent eye damage. A single unlucky reflection off a shiny surface (worst case a mirror) and you risk getting a black spot in your vision which does not go away. Even looking at the dot for too long may give you some damage. My basic rule is I do not use 50mW or stronger lasers indoors without eye protection. Sunglasses and welder's goggles will NOT provide protection (they will make it worse as they block out other light so your pupils expand to let in more light --> extra damage). Also, a DX green laser does not have an IR filter, which means invisible radiation may damage your eyes without you realising. I think the scare of IR is overblown as the rays are scattered and weak, but if you are not aware of them they might end up hurting you anyway.
What do you prefer.. spending $25 to $50, or risk losing part (or all) of your sight forever? With eye protection you can also play more freely with the lovely toy that a laser is, as long as you make sure no other people or animals are hit by the light. Trust me, there are more shiny surfaces in this world than you realise.

ok, i got it.

> 50mW indoors ( ~ 15 feet ) = eye protection
outside ( > ~15 feet ) = no eye wear needed

im now considering getting a < 50 mW greenie, so i can play indoor without eye wear with some smoke, wise idea?

question about IR, it disperses/scatters, but even so, does IR reflect off shiny surfaces? or any surface for that matter? am i safe with regards to IR and being behind a laser pointing it indoors with eye protection?

thank you for your replies.

pxshock said:

ok, i got it.

> 50mW indoors ( ~ 15 feet ) = eye protection
outside ( > ~15 feet ) = no eye wear needed

im now considering getting a < 50 mW greenie, so i can play indoor without eye wear with some smoke, wise idea?

question about IR, it disperses/scatters, but even so, does IR reflect off shiny surfaces? or any surface for that matter? am i safe with regards to IR and being behind a laser pointing it indoors with eye protection?

thank you for your replies.

Click to expand...

Well that's my take on it anyway, some people are more careful and many people are more careless. One more thing: several people including me have measured how effective sunglasses are in blocking different wavelengths, and it appears that a good pair of sunglasses block blu-ray ~405nm just as effectively as proper protective glasses!

I don't use eye protection with my 50mW greenies (of which I have 4) when I just play around with beams indoors.. but I probably should cause you have to be very careful with any mirror/glass/metal/shiny plastic surfaces as they may reflect enough to damage your eyes at this strength. The 50mW from LEDshoppe are also often overspec (some have been reported to be >80mW!) so if you get one of those, you might want to be extra cautious. I never point near reflective surfaces with >30mW when I'm not wearing protection.
As far as I know IR does reflect, but the amounts coming from a 50mW are waaay less dangerous than the green beam itself. The only thing you have to worry about with IR at this strength is if you look at the lens with the pointer on. You can do this without hitting yourself with the green beam, but the IR will hit you and might cause a minor black spot in your vision.
50mW green is great Very visible dot at large distances, even in strong sun. Slightly visible beam indoors and very very clear beam at night/through smoke or steam.

^^ I think its also worth noting that sometimes the IR beam stays quite well focused.
Find something that blocks out all the green but passes IR and you can use a video camera to see IR its outputting.
If its still a well focused dot your eyes will most likely need to be ridiculously close to the green beam to get damage. However, if you are using shades the IR will go strait through them and your not protected from it at all. I say you get both goggles and a filter cause IR filters aren't really that expensive anyways.
Just my 2 cents.

You can find IR filters at optotronics.com

--hydro15

Sunglasses will NOT make it worse. That being said, never use sunglasses as they are not approved for laser safety.

The VERY minimal amount that your pupils dilate will only allow a greater surface area for a beam to enter.

Does the sun look brighter and do more damage when you put sunglasses on?

I agree with hydro15. I don't know much about IR to be honest.

GooeyGus said:

Sunglasses will NOT make it worse. That being said, never use sunglasses as they are not approved for laser safety.

The VERY minimal amount that your pupils dilate will only allow a greater surface area for a beam to enter.

Does the sun look brighter and do more damage when you put sunglasses on?  

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GooeyGus:
According to my research, a pair of quite good sunglasses will block about 78.5% of green 532nm light. My pupils are about 1.5mm in diameter when in strong light and about 6.5mm when in fairly dark conditions.
As far as I can calculate, that makes a surface of 1.77mm² in light and 33.18mm² in darkness. Unless there is something about the eye which I do not know, this means almost 18.75 times as much light enters when in dark conditions compared to light conditions.
If the laser is far away, bad quality or the hit is a reflection from anything other than a 1st surface mirror, the dot will be large enough to hit this entire dilated pupil.
I make that out to mean that, without sunglasses, the laser is about 5 times as strong, but your pupil is hit by almost 19 times less light, meaning there is much less damage than while wearing the sunglasses. PLEASE do correct me on any point I have wrong, I know far from everything and can easily have misunderstood something.

About the sun, sunglasses are aimed at blocking UV. A 173mW blu-ray which is close to UV through sunglasses meters out at less than 1mW, so the UV from the sun will be greatly greatly decreased by sunglasses. Therefore the sun has nothing to do with this. Sunglasses are not targeted at blocking green light.

Seb

they wont be 100 mw, i bought one myself and it is nowhere near 100 mw maybe like 60, maybe my one was a crappy 1