Is there variation in visible light brightness in non-IR filter lasers?

[Dane]

Hi, I just joined this forum to find help with improving my experience with lasers. I've always had a few shoddy Chinese lasers laying around but never knew that there was a difference between them and quality lasers. Now that I've been trying to get more serious into lasers I now know that there are major differences with construction and components like having IR filters or not. However, I did not learn this until it was too late as I ordered another shoddy laser off of "Gadgetinthebox.com" a week ago before I learned this. It is a 200 mW 532nm green laser. I now know that there may be as little as 5mW of true visible green light output and as much as 195mW IR without any IR filter.

What I was wondering was, does anyone know if there is a significant difference in brightness of two shoddy lasers of different mW?Would a shoddy 50mW 523nm pointer and shoddy 200mW 532nm pointer appear to be just as bright because the difference is all Infra Red or is there contrast in the visible green light?

I do have 532nm LSG by the way if anyone would like proof. Though I did learn that wearing them while using lasers without IR filters can be more dangerous as the decrease in light dialates the pupils and allows more IR to pass through and burn your retnas causing damage.

On a side note, it has been a full week since I have ordered the 200mW 532nm laser off of "Gadgetinthebox.com" and they still have not shipped it. Does anyone have any previous experience ordering from them?

Thank you!

 

[BShanahan14rulz]

You have probably found the "cheap webcam or phone camera" trick for seeing IR. Shine laser through goggles, look at "dot" with camera.

Generally speaking, adding an IR filter will barely affect the 532nm component of the beam. Also, the difference in brightness between different green lasers is proportional to the 532nm power output (not including IR). I.E. if you have one green laser brighter than the other, it is putting out more power in the form of 532nm electromagnetic radiation.