I've read other cases of people seeing below 400nm and seeing 808nm as a deep red. One explanation is that everyone's eyes have slightly different limits but 400-700nm fits the average of most human eyes. Explanation 2: laser diodes have an emission spectrum wider than just a singular wavelength, so maybe you're getting a glimpse of the emission in the "visible" range. Explanation 3: while you might see traces of light <400 or >700, you're not seeing additional colors, just dimmed versions of violet or red, maybe the visible spectrum stops where different colors stop being perceived. Or option 4 you could be a teenage mutant ninja turtle
I've checked my 808 nm with a spectrometer and it's definitely not outputting anything detectable below 800 nm.
I tested my wife's eyes with the spectrometer and she told me she couldn't see anything above 800 nm.
So, it looks like there are a few documented mutations in the L cones of the eye (the ones that see red), but there's not a lot of work written about those mutations. I think it might be likely that some people can see deeper into NIR than others for genetic reasons. My whole life I've been extra sensitive to sunlight, and maybe that's part of the reason why. My son is the same way, so I bet that if it is some sort of genetic mutation, he's got it too.
It looks like the UV thing is different. The S cones (the ones responsible for blue light detection) are sensitive to wavelengths lower than what the eye can see, because the lens reflects some of the shorter wavelengths. My right eye's lens was damaged when I was a teenager, but healed so that I can now see a little better out of my right eye than my left (it was the opposite case for me throughout my 20's and 30's). Maybe coincidentally, or maybe not, my right eye is much more sensitive to UV LEDs.
Alot of times surfaces can react with laser light to make it visible, my 2W 845nm laser dot is just barely visible in a dark room for this reason afaik
React through some sort of fluorescence? I think I can rule that out, since I've checked my IR sources through an optical spectrometer. Fluorescence under UV is far more common, and might account for the UV reaction. Bright UV light, to me, always looks blurry. Even 405 nm laser light appears diffuse to me when otherwise apparently focused into a point. Perhaps something in my eye is fluorescing, maybe even my eye's lens, making UV light appear as hazy flashes.
I know for a fact I can see 808nm and some can’t. However I struggle more at short wavelengths. 405nm is visible but a blur which i know some have the ability to see properly. I have wondered if there is a correlation between those that see <420nm as a blurry spot and those that can see near ir. Our ultimate limits of our vision will depend on when we observe grey light. This is when there is enough photons to excite the rods in our eyes but not enough to activate the cones responsible for seeing colour. For this to work your eyes need to be adapted to a very dark environment for a while. And then exposed to a very dim light source.
Can you see 808 nm? Do you personally know people who can't see the same light sources others can see under the same conditions? I guess that's what started me down this road, so probably you've already been there.
My wife thinks I'm crazy but I swear I can see an extra band in a rainbow. To me it looks like there's a faint white band past the violet.
Try a 365nm led and a diffraction grating, I see it go from bluer to more violet and bluer again.
For what it's worth, to me 355nm is a gray spot (likely some sort of fluorescence) with a blue blur around it.
Very interesting. UV, including 405 nm just looks white to me.
I haven't looked at my UV sources through a grating yet. That'll be the next logical step. It sounds like a lot of you have already noticed the same things. I won't be too surprised to find out that there is some sort of known physiological explanation for everything I'm observing that just isn't yet common lay knowledge.
