How do YOU see 405nm?

405 beams appear etremely dim to be, much dimmer than a beam of 660 with the same power. They become interesting when striking flurorescent surfaces though, but apart from that, 405 looks about as dead to me as 780 from cd burners.

Razako said:

The beam of a lower powered 405nm looks sort of grayish. With higher powers or fog it looks purple. The spot itself looks pure violet.

The spot of a 445nm looks deep blue and the beam is deep blue with a hint of purple.

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That's how I see it too. the beam on my 45mw looks gray with a hint of purple where my 165mw 6x is definitely violet. The dot is either a blueish white on a fluorescent surface or a deep violet on most everything else.

~130mW at present - There's no blue at all in mine... pure violet (except on fluorescent surfaces). However the central dot does look like a very bright "pastel" violet with a deep purple "halo". In the dark the color looks more deep and rich than anything I've ever seen.

Weird stuff about the beam: Very occasionally, in a brightly lit room I've been surprised to see the beam out of the corner of my eye, but only when I wasn't thinking about it... the first time was when I first got the laser and was incrementally adjusting the output (was <100mW at the time).

The laser was on and pointed at the ceiling at a 90 degree angle to my line of sight, at the far right of my peripheral vision. I was talking to my wife when suddenly I was aware that I very clearly saw the deep purple beam as if illuminated by light fog, but the beam looked wide. I was so shocked I stopped what I was saying and turned to look, surprised that I could no longer see the beam.

I asked my wife if she saw the beam and she thought she had seen it too.

Even stranger, I've tried over and over to see the beam with my peripheral vision but I can't reproduce it when I'm trying. If I ever see it out of the corner of my eye it has to be when I'm not trying to. Like it's only visible by my subconscious. Kinda creepy... :thinking:

Heres me pointing my 45mW 405 pen at GF's Doll the result can be quite intreguing:



Isn't it a beautiful color? Doesn't look like its 405nm Light at all~! Looks like a true white laser.

-Sal

I just got a 200mw 405 today. I can't focus on the dot the way I do with other wavelengths it looks blurry and the color is like a mixture of white or silver and violet. The beam is a very dark purple with a hint of pink. A friend of mine stopped over and said the dot looked dark purple and not white at all.

Hi new to the forums but i have to post a simple question - how are you guys seeing the beam without googles? imho, and im not trying to stir stuff up, but even a glimpse of the beam or the dot can damage your eyes forever. i use 2 pairs of googles (yes im that paranoid) and even then it is still bright enough for me to close my eyes at times. yes i know i probably have some sort of visual sensitivity issues but i cant bring myself to look at the dot without protection and obviously the beam is invisible with protection so im curious how you guys are doing it. are you recording the beam/spot and viewing later or viewing as you do it?

You can view the Beam from the side with absolutely no problems. The spot from a < 100mW viewed briefly from 10+ feet away on a non reflective surface is unlikely to cause damage

well problem i have is atm i only have a 400mw blu ray so very risky to view it at all. i have ordered a couple of cheap greenies but i just wasnt sure about the safety aspect of viewing the beams with/without protection. in most of my videos the beam is not visible at all yet im really eager to see if it is actually visible in various conditions and was wondering if it was at all safe to do it, so thanks.

Maybe you guys can help me. I bought a 405nM Laser here from a Forum Member. It was advertised to be around 400mW. Maybe i expect to much but is the Beam really nearly invisible in a dark Room?
Batterie is charged. It would be nice if someone could post a picture to compare. I get a LPM in a few weeks. Thanks for any help!

Dawinzi said:

Maybe you guys can help me. I bought a 405nM Laser here from a Forum Member. It was advertised to be around 400mW. Maybe i expect to much but is the Beam really nearly invisible in a dark Room?
Batterie is charged. It would be nice if someone could post a picture to compare. I get a LPM in a few weeks. Thanks for any help!

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The beam of my ~700mW 405nm is less visible than my 5mW Z-Bolt pointer. I may make some pics with my friends cam tonight. Mine isn´t able to recognize it.

DJNY said:

The beam of my ~700mW 405nm is less visible than my 5mW Z-Bolt pointer. I may make some pics with my friends cam tonight. Mine isn´t able to recognize it.

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Thanks, some pics would help a lot.

Dawinzi said:

Maybe you guys can help me. I bought a 405nM Laser here from a Forum Member. It was advertised to be around 400mW. Maybe i expect to much but is the Beam really nearly invisible in a dark Room?
Batterie is charged. It would be nice if someone could post a picture to compare. I get a LPM in a few weeks. Thanks for any help!

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If you have glasses, try taking them off. A lot of glasses get a UV filter coating on them. It can obstruct your view of a 405 laser.
405 is pretty dim though, its at the far edge of what our eyes easily perceive.

Dawinzi said:

Thanks, some pics would help a lot.

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I doupt that the other cam is better in photographing 405nm.

I´m also very bad in guessing the power of a 405nm laser. Maybe with some burning around, but I don´t see a visible difference in the 700mW I have and the 530mW I had.

Is your 400mW able to do this?

>> http://laserpointerforums.com/f38/thank-you-dtr-60155.html#post850691 <<

well my videos that i made of my 400mw the beam is only visible in one of them and that was because of the angle. it seems angle is everything.

I see it just like how I got my Camera to take it. I got these awesome shots (there just straight shots to No long exposure) Last Night off my laser I just got Yesterday, I'm really Happy. Heres the review.
http://laserpointerforums.com/f52/jayrob-host-glutton-built-review-60606.html

if i point my 5mw 405nm laser on a white paper i see a blu/white dot
if i point it on another surface i see it more violet...