Picked up a ten pack of 405nm laser pointers off ebay as gifts. (and to try out my new Laserbee AX.) I thought I was reading it wrong. Some are 75mw!
I was stunned.
thats nothing new really but yes many dont realize the danger they think they buy cheap and get low output lasers, shining a laser over 10mW u dont want a direct hit in your eye but there is no control of that what they make in china the labels says 5mW usually but thats just to fool customs..
405nm lasers are nasty, they can be focused into a very fine burning spot 25 feet or more away, dangerously fast at burning things too, get hit in the eye and it's toast before you even know it happened. I guess that could be said for most lasers though, just this wavelength in particular scares me more than the others for some reason.
Just the same. I was at a restaurant with girlfriend after high school prom and there was a teenager with his friends shining a 405 into water glasses. I shielded her eyes because I couldn't be sure just how powerful it was.
Though less popular on ebay, red pointers are almost just as hard to distinguish different power levels for me by sight and can potentially be a problem too. I have a 660 pointer from china that smokes match heads through a lens (~20mw?)
Picked up a ten pack of 405nm laser pointers off ebay as gifts. (and to try out my new Laserbee AX.) I thought I was reading it wrong. Some are 75mw!
I was stunned.
Most Ebay 650nm I've purchased are over 100mW and the 405nm are over 60mW. This is why they will both easily light a match if you pull the top cap and focus the lens especially if it is like those I have written about in my inexpensive pen tutorial.