waterproof laser brightness

[InfinitusEquitas]

99% sure it's not IR filtered... I was thinking of ordering it myself, but decided against it since it's kind of big for pocket carry.

If you are going to do burning with this laser, use darker colored matches, and be very mindful of reflections. From a distance of a couple of feet, 50mW of IR in specular reflection shouldn't pose much danger but can't be good for you either. With IR the danger to your retina is primarily from thermal damage, and that's not very likely, but even so not worth risking IMO. Considering the overall output of the laser, definitely wear goggles rated for 532nm...

 

[JBTexas]

Yes, Trevor is sending me some good ones (532 goggles) that I bought off of him. They will get here B4 the laser does.

Believe me, I intend to be VERY careful. I don't seem (?) to be as interested in "burnin stuff" as most people. I'll only do it once or twice just to see it happen... I will be very careful w/ the focus, etc.

To tell you the truth, I am kind of ... "scared" ... of hi-power lasers. I mainly want to just be able to see the beams.

So any further lasering I do... whether it is DIY or commercial... I imagine I will get low-moderate ones. I figure the Gatlin will be my "nite sky WOW laser" for visibility, but when I go to red, blue, violet (yellow and cyan? when I can afford them, when hell freezes over), I will probably try to stick to 20mw to 50mw.

I'd LIKE a "rainbow" posse of ~ 5mw - 10mw - 20mw "pens" of all colors.

Okay... EVENTUALLY I am going to "have to" get > 1 watt 405 or 445 ... maybe ...

 

[InfinitusEquitas]

Good luck getting a 1W+ 405nm. Max is around 800mW and most diodes can only be pushed to ~700mW.

Personally I don't really like to burn either, and also enjoy lasers primarily for the beams. A 200mW green beam is very impressive to most people, 99% of whom have never seen over 5mW.

The biggest disappointment I've had so far has been with red lasers in the 650/660nm category. These guys don't produce much of a beam. ~280mW of red appears about as bright as 10-20mW of green.

The lasers that do leave me somewhat paranoid are the 445's 1W+... for some reason even from a safe distance they leave an aftereffect from looking at the dot. For outside use though, they are very impressive.

Biggest showstopper I have I have so far is definitely the ~800mW 405nm Hopefully I'll be able to afford the yellow and cyan in the future too, but for now I have my sights set on this: http://laserpointerforums.com/f50/637-nm-red-guidesman-201mw-build-63080.html

 

[JBTexas]

Yes- I've read the tech-stuff on blues, the phototropic effects, possibly altering DNA (?!?!!)

It will be a LONG time B4 I get a hi-power blue - if ever. If I ever do a DIY blue, I imagine I will stick to lower power ranges.

It just takes ONE accident...

 

[InfinitusEquitas]

Oh I know... I had a close call with a blue laser twice... I'm 100% certain that had I not been wearing goggles one of those times I would have had damage to my eyes.

Another time I was testing specular reflections with red lasers, took out one of my 445's and and turned it on... Of course I was wearing goggles for red lasers at the time not blue:banghead:

Luckily the theoretical max that could have reached my eyes was ~10mW, most likely 3mW of blue light. I blinked and kept my eyes shot... had basically the same effect as flash blindness from a camera flash at night, but that incident also left me super paranoid.

Blue does have specifics hazards associated with it, but I really don't think there is much more danger vs other wavelength.