405 Danger Perception?

[oic0]

I picked up a couple 405nm "5mw" pens. Of course I expect them to be overspec. The dot however is nowhere near painful. On non fluorescent surfaces it looks like a cheap keychain red except the dot has a lot of halo. On fluorescent surfaces its still not overly bright, even at close distances. It does however have a visible beam outside at night (very dark and humid).
My main question though is about perception of 405. With my greens it's easy. Its hey, thats uncomfortably bright, I should be very careful with it. With my 405s I don't know if they actually are just really weak or if its lack of perception on my part.

Worth noting, they have no effect on black trashbag. Don't know if its lack of power or poor focus. One of my greens blasts through the same trash bag in about a second, the other melts it.

Gee I wish I had an LPM.

 

[Grix]

405 has the lowest visibility of all the common wavelengths. It is normal, and you should still be careful with it.

 

[shadowscion]

I picked up a couple 405nm "5mw" pens. Of course I expect them to be overspec. The dot however is nowhere near painful.

My main question though is about perception of 405. With my greens it's easy. Its hey, thats uncomfortably bright, I should be very careful with it. With my 405s I don't know if they actually are just really weak or if its lack of perception on my part.

405nm is very close the to the low end of our visible spectrum, but just because you can't see it, doesn't mean its not there, be careful!

Please have a look through this thread;

http://laserpointerforums.com/f38/strange-things-about-blu-ray-405nm-20042.html

 

[oic0]

I forgot, I am UV filtered with my glasses, that could contribute to the lack of brightness. By their complete lack of burning power (can't even shine through a translucent black trash bag, much melt or burn it) I'm going to guess they are probably 20mw or less but since I can never be sure I'll treat them how I treat my ~50mw greens. I would never truly trust them to be totally safe though unless I saw a LPM reading of <5mw.