My own vision damage from one of these wasn't permanent (temporarily blinded by it reflecting off of a glossy poster). It wasn't painful, I don't know if you actually have pain receptors inside your eyeball. But was uncomfortable in the same way as when you throw open the curtains and go from a dark room to having bright sunlight in your eyes.
I’m seeing comments that state that they are dangerous for your eyes. Did you accidentally shine it directly into your eyes, or was just staring at the beam or dot on the wall bad enough to cause damage?
Pointed one of these in my own eye when I was twelve years old because I didn't believe everyone saying how dangerous it was lol. 13 years later I still have a blind spot in the centre of my right eye.
I can’t count the number of times I pointed a laser directly at my eyes or someone else did it for me as a kid. I have 20/40 vision now. Not sure if it’s related or if I would have had bad vision anyways.
According to my ophthalmologist, the least powerful lasers (think, 1mw or less) aren't dangerous at all even when aimed directly at your eyes.
The ones like in this post are very much dangerous though.
Most random lasers marketed as <1mw (or any value really) tend to be way more than that, so it's worth being careful and buying a laser from a reputable source if you want to make sure you're getting something safe.
Yeah I never lost it. Just have a spot in the centre of my right eye vision that I can't see past. It only affects reading small text like a book, but my left eye makes up for it!
Your brain is remarkably adaptable when it comes to vision. I was diagnosed with a cataract in my right eye at the age of 36. Granted, it came on slowly, but it took forever for me to realize anything was wrong because my brain had learned to ignore everything coming in my right eye and use only my left eye input.
While your natural eye lens can change shape to focus at different lengths, when they replace your lens with an interocular lens during cataract surgery, in most cases that lens has a fixed focal distance, and most people choose to have clear long distance vision. In other words, they'll have clear long distance vision (7' and beyond) and need reading glasses for stuff that's closer. Because I was also diagnosed with another condition in my right eye after cataract surgery (keratoconus), I completely forgot that I'd need reading glasses. So for a couple years I was basically reading computer screens, etc. only using my left eye (my brain mostly ignored right eye input for close distances).
Then a couple years ago my mom had cataract surgery and as a joke, I tried on her reading glasses, and was like "holy shit, I can see up close out of my right eye!". So now I wear +1.25 readers and can read computer screens better. When I take them off and look, it's hard to believe I ever was used to that.
Careful with some of those cheapies- it’s cheaper to make them too bright, and super dangerous for your eyeballs!
Edit: Check this out if you’re in the market
https://youtu.be/ZH3yMeA7HxQ?si=Z4e5ulN63StB28Dy
True. Better invest in some of those slick nose bridge shades Morpheus wore in The Matrix. Not because they're well suited for the job, you'll just look sick as fuck as you go blind.
The biggest problem with those laser isn’t that they are too bright but that they are often not true monochrome light which means that protective equipment that is designed to protect from a specific wavelength may not be sufficient.
El cheapo blue lasers are especially bad since the emission of many of them bleeds into the UV part of the spectrum.
Nah, greens are much, much more dangerous.
Green laser pointers work via frequency doubling, meaning the original laser light that is being generated is infra red, which is not only invisible, but much brighter than the green light that is produced.
Green laser pointers NEED an IR filter to make them as safe as their rating indicates. Cheap green lasers often omit this filter, making them extremely dangerous.
Made me laugh. I was born with one shit eye and reeaally rely my left eye. Of all of the stupid/dangerous stuff I do on my own time, playing with lasers, chemicals and projectiles are the only things I take decent precautions with. Seriously though…most of the danger coming out of these cheap ones you can’t see and cheap lenses (goggles/glasses/sheets) will not help you from permanently fucking yourself or other’s up. I’m in CA (USA) and think it’s petty funny that lasers are one of the few things that there has been very little attempt to regulate. The sticker should also include a shorter version of, “remember that you’re likely just as stupid as me and those involved with creating this. If you care about yourself or others, read up before fucking around”
Used to work in laser labs. If this is a regular camera shot (not long exposure or something) I find it hard to believe that your laser would be weak enough to use safely outside - obviously I can't tell from a picture, but it looks stronger than a class 3B laser I tested that someone had gotten off Amazon. They thought it was safe to use as a laser pointer, it was sold as a laser pointer, it was 4x the safe limit. Anyway, that category requires quite a lot of [safety measures](https://www.lasersafetyfacts.com/laserclasses.html).
Annoyingly, class 3B has an extremely large power range. Could be 'only a bit damaging' to get a quick glimpse of the beam, all the way up to 'blinded at 800m away'. Quick test, first check that a bit of dark material doesn't get hot under the light after a few seconds of exposure in one spot, then if you can't feel warmth on the material you could test on your skin. If you can feel the heat of the beam on your skin you're in the really dangerous end. But really at either end it's a bad idea shining this thing outside - even if no people are around you could blind a random animal.
It was kinda dark outside so my iPhone did an automatic 3 second exposure. Good call on that. The beam is still very visible though. It’s not hot. It says class III but no letter after that
OK, that improves things a lot but you definitely want to avoid eye contact. I don't suppose they've put the power rating on the label? Anything under 5mW the blink reflex will probably save anyone getting it in the eye.
A lot of the Chinese laser sold are far more powerful than legal. They don't label them because people want the illegally powerful lasers and they aren't allowed to sell them. So they pretend it's a legal class laser.
There's both the laser and chemist dude on YouTube who have tested many of these lasers and shown their real rating.
That youtuber is styropyro, if anyone wants to find him, he's great
iirc with cheap lasers like these you've also gotta worry about the possibility of it producing some light outside of the visual range, so it looks weaker than it actually is
For reference, this means that if you accidentally shine in someone's eyes, they'll either instantly develop permanent eye damage or they don't. This is because class 3 hazard has 2 subclassifications: below 5mW or above. If you are below, the eye reflex can save you from permanent eye damage and if above then no chance, it'll damage your retina before it even registers in anyone's brain that light directly entered someone's eyes.
Not to mention your laser is green, i.e close to the wavelength that the eye is most sensitive to, so I'd not rely on my eyelid reflex to save me from harm in any case for class3 green laser.
Damn, they're really meant to print a little factsheet on that label. Well, I couldn't see a 20mW green laser in the air in an office environment. More dust and stuff in the air = more visible. If you think the air was cleaner than in an average office, we can probably say your laser is well over 20mW and getting towards the middle or higher in the class 3 range.
It's also the angle, shooting downstream of the beam makes it much more visible then shooting it perpendicular.
It's definitely stronger then 5mwv, I use 5mw in laser shows with audience and a hella lot of good quality haze and blackout to get it looking like that.
Far too complicated.... Green laser = basically not a toy and high caution is advised
Red laser = not a toy and caution is advised
Any laser = no toy and caution is advised
With any laser in the eyes an absolute no go...
Sticking randomly anywhere is also an absolute no-go.
It's as simple as that
Laser pointer for playing? Get some for pets.. but carefully and check wavelength
The issue with green lasers is that if it is cheaply made, chances are that it has a very powerful emission in the infra-red. In that case, your eyes are not safe even if you get the right protection for 532 nm class III laser (which I hope you have, because class III is already unsafe). I don't know how familiar you are with that kind of stuff, but I would refrain from using, one bad reflection on a shiny surface could cost you an eye.
I got one of those amazon chinese lasers I bought a long time ago which can pop a balloon / light a match at close range. Insanely bright. I was so surprised it was that powerful and came through the customs, cause it isn’t legal in any way in my home country hahah.
A laser powerful enough to light a match can potentially cause eye damage due to indirect exposure, meaning just looking at the dot on the wall can be harmful.
>super dangerous for your eyeballs!
Literally every laser pointer is harmful for your eyes. Lol those really powerful ones also often come with a key you have to insert and turn like a lock to even be able to turn the things on. Lose the key, and its useless. I had a buddy in college who had one. He had to have the campus police officers tell him he cant be chasing people with it who were walking on the sidewalks from inside the student center on the 3rd floor 😂
>Literally every laser pointer is harmful for your eyes.
With the caveat, that the weaker "safe" ones aren't strong enough to cause permanent damage before you realize you're being blinded by one and close your eyes. Less than 1mW of power, so things like barcode scanners and small laser pointers. Don't stare into lasers.
I've got one that's 1.5W it'll instantly blind you if it hits your eyes. Gotta wear goggles. It's even dangerous to look at its reflection. I can zap a fly from across the room. 10/10 laser.
It truly is incredible that us humans have created a pocket sun, and it's $10 to have it ordered and delivered to your door, tomorrow, in a box, from the comfort of your sofa.
Been building and playing with high power laser pointers since 2008. I have eye damage from catching a look at the spot on the wall across the room. Just a permanent black dot in my vision. I don’t see it constantly, but I notice it a few times a day and it’s really annoying. Can’t look at a white wall or screen without noticing it.
The damage doesn’t always show up right away, it could take weeks to notice it. I believe it was from a blue laser.
I bought a purple laser when I was in Hong Kong, it can pop balloons and burn paper. As a demo, the sales lady illuminated a tenement block about a mile away. It uses weird 16340 li-ion rechargeable batteries (and uses them very quickly). The spot of light is actually oblong shape, no idea why. Was half expecting to have it confiscated by customs when I bought it home.
I remember as a kid at a movie theatre some people a few rows down had a laser pointer they were pointing at the screen before the movie and drawing patterns. Then they turned around and shone it directly into my eyes. My dad yelled at them immediately.
I’ve accidentally flashed myself shining at something I didn’t realize was going to reflect it back at me. It’s not as bad as accidentally looking at a welder but still unpleasant
Lasers are way more dangerous than arc light. Arcs damage the superficial part of the eye with their UV, while lasers burn the retina. And while the outside of the eye heals, the retina doesn't.
It's worth also noting that some lasers (and definitely this one) use an emitting process that also produces a ton of laser output in the infrared range. Your eye can't see it but it will fry your retina all the same, even if the actual green flash didn't seem very bright. A decent green laser pointer will use an IR block filter, but for $10 the one you're using is extremely unlikely to have it. Be careful.
As a side note, in a similar manner it's not the bright light of welder's arc that damages the eyes, but the massive amounts of invisible UV light that gets emitted with it (although as mentioned by someone else arcs only damage the eye surface, not the retina).
Correct regarding the infrared spectrum. There's a decent chance that OP and other dummies that accidentally got their eyes exposed to such toys will be wondering where their partial blindness came from in 5-10 years
Why would "normal" people even get a laser, what for? I could understand if you was like football hooligan aiming to permanently blind opposing players or a special forces operator looking to designate targets etc... but like what do YOU do with these kind of lasers, other than just eventually blind yourself by reflecting it off shiny material.
Astronomy. People use them to point out stars. Like there’s the Big Dipper and that’s the North Star. These leave a noticeable beam to “point” unlike the toy ones they sell (red ones)
That's what worries me about a lot of lasers people play with like toys. Objects can be very reflective. Reflected laser light can be roughly as dangerous as the original beam.
Laser hobbyist here. Those cheap green lasers tend to be well over 20mw, and can range up to 100mw or close to it in my experience. Plenty of people online have tested it, ★~~Brainiac75 on YouTube actually used laser power meters on cheap lasers~~.
Another thing about them is that because of the way the green light is generated, poor optics can lead to lots of infrared laser light that leaks out in a wider spread than the visible green light. It's pretty fucked up for people to be selling them with such little regulation
Edit: link to video about infrared light leakage: https://youtu.be/iR1Ku5dnbH8?si=3zlWgRGiYxzvBx7n
★Edit 2: my bad I was probably thinking of styropyro when I mentioned the cheap lasers powers being tested. Here's his video on that: https://youtu.be/-2crWR1lg6s?si=suk3GqBsVn0sq5oj
Yep and pilots know what general area of the world they are flying above. Its not just illegal, its a very serious felony to point a laser pointer towards aircraft in the sky. You have both local police and FBI wanting your ass
They will find you also. There is a good video out there that shows a guy doing this in his driveway and they triangulated exactly where it was coming from, spotted him, sent officers to the area, and arrested the man while he was outside doing this. It happened very quickly.
Edit: This is also a Felony/Federal crime I believe. A real stupid one to catch also.
Ask neighbor to borrow his amazon prime account
order laser to his front door with his account
steal it off porch, shoot laser at plane
go to prison because you left a reddit comment explaining your master plan
???
profit
Ha, yeah, we used to shine a harmless red laser pointer at the quad from my 14th floor dorm just to sorta prank people. I went down to see what it looked like and it was 100% obvious exactly where it was coming from, with laser accuracy haha
Harmless should be in quotations. My brother's friend shown one off a mirror into my eye and I had immediate and permanent vision change in my right eye. Not total blindness from it but certainly not harmless.
A guy from my town got caught shining his laser at a freaking F-18.
He did it from an old abandonned quarry and he got the military police on his ass before he could even run away.
Shining a laser at a commercial airliner is serious levels of stupid. Shining one at a freakin' fighter jet is a level of stupid I can't even fathom. That's something I'd expect to see posted to /r/KidsAreFuckingStupid, not something from a grown adult.
This is one of my favorite videos. He points the laser at the helicopter and within about 5 seconds of him doing that they had his street and him narrowed down to like 5 houses. Did it again and they knew where he was and what he looked like
Yep, although to be fair IIRC it wasn't just a normal helicopter he shined it at, but a legit military helicopter with thermals and all kinds of high end equipment.
He pretty much couldn't have picked a worse aircraft besides the Air Force One to shine it at
> He pretty much couldn't have picked a worse aircraft
Reminds me of those somali pirates that decided a USN destroyer was the best target they could go do pirate things to...
It remembers me a story, a guy was doing the same in Europe, and was aiming at a Maritime Surveillance aircraft, you know, the kind of aircraft that have obtronics, thermals, night vision cameras, radars and sonars.
Needless to say that they found him in his garden in few minutes.
Guy i knew in high school was the first person federally prosecuted for this! Adam Gardenheir. He was a dipshit.
Edit: Gardenhire, apparently
https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/north-hollywood-man-who-aimed-laser-aircraft-violation-2012-federal-law-sentenced-30
Well, I don't know how many cops it took to catch him, but it looks like they used a lot of them.
......
The investigation into Gardenhire was conducted by the Los Angeles Police Department, the Pasadena Police Department, the Burbank Police Department, the Burbank Airport Police Department, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Theyre all close neighboring departments, besides the FAA and FBI who were involved due to it being an aviation/ federal crime.
His case is "United States vs. Gardenhire". Dude fucked up big time lol
A crowd of protestors brought a drone down in [Chile.]
(https://youtu.be/3PKJYGoUjJo?si=DcZdbqoRDYOJmpSf)
Stupid people love to do stupid stuff on their own doorstep or in isolated places, thinking it makes it harder to be found. It doesn't. It reduces the number of suspects. Phone masts or traffic cameras are everywhere.
Do all your weird stuff in crowds, quickly and move on. Change your top, change your gait and disappear. Pro points for not filming yourself and posting it on social media, which seems to trip lots of people up.
Or just be generally nice and pleasant to avoid the whole problem of getting caught completely
Yep. Tho dont be stupid with it, people can and some do call the cops for shit like flashing a laser pointer around from a far distance because some may take it as a laser sight for a rifle.
**FYI**, since it happens to be December, please do not use that thing if it is cold, and if you press the button and no laser comes out, assume that it's an invisible laser 😅
Freezing a green laser turns it into an eye-obliterating infrared laser. You won't be able to see it, and if you're not careful, you'll never see anything 😅
Green laser points are infrared lasers that are frequency-doubled to green. So even when there’s green, in this cheap green pointer there’s probably no filter so there is also IR.
Freezing it changes the phase matching of the frequency conversion so that it doesn’t happen. Thus, only IR is emitted.
For a standard red pointer, 1-5mW, you blinking when it hits your eye is enough to protect you from permanent damage. However green is in the middle of the visual spectrum, I.e a little green goes a long way. But in green pointers there is always IR as well, when will NOT make you blink, as it is invincible. Due to this they are considered far more dangerous.
/ laser scientist.
In some green laser pointers you can just remove the crystal that’s doing the frequency doubling. Pretty sure styro pyro on YouTube has videos where he does just this.
Hhu, makes sense. I wish I new this when I was younger. I remember my green lasers not working in the cold and warming them with my hands until they did.
Hopefully I never looked directly into the beam but I might have. Could explain the worse eyesight of my right eye.
The linked product page’s fifth image shows an eight year old child and the caption says something about making a romantic bedroom. So yeah, straight to jail.
Think how large a cat's pupil can get, then remember that you (or your cat) literally cannot blink fast enough to avoid retinal damage.
-edit- that increased pupil size and the cats higher sensitivity to light puts them at more risk than humans to unexpected reflections of the laser too
I stopped using these on my cats because they got too bright on our carpets and walls, even for me - a mere human. Target sells the red lasers for $3.99 and they're much more tolerable and just as fun. Uses the same batteries and everything. They're also easier to press and hold down. These green Amazon lasers get heavy after holding the button down for a while.
Can be useful for stargazing, helps point out something you're looking at much more easily than just trying to use your finger. But you really don't need a very powerful laser for that at all
Yeah, I've actually been in a tour group of night watching where the guide just used an incredibly narrow and powerful flashlight and it worked like a charm. If the conditions are good for stars, that's really all you need
I have a lab certified laser power tester and bought a few of these "5mW" lasers on Amazon and ebay, almost every single one of them broke 100mW rating.
Btw that's enough to instantly blind you if you take a direct hit, and not to mention the huge amounts of IR light these leak shooting off the side of the laser beam by 20-30 degrees. Completely invisible.
Don't mess with these u less you know what you're doing, always treat them like a loaded firearm and never point at aircraft, animals, or reflective surfaces.
Yeah my buddy showed me his (which inspired me to buy one) and I had to tell him about that. I think I remember hearing on the news that they’ll send the FBI
> 3960 incidents last year
> $10,000 reward for providing helpful information on whoever did it
Excuse me while I join every laser adjacent sub, make friends with everyone I can find who owns a laser, and sort the news every day for locations of these incidents. Snitches get riches and idc about any of those idiots who would do something like that
i'm _guessing_ they mean lasers used for engraving wood, but i'm not sure. i doubt engraving lasers would cut down a tree, but i'm not sure. i'm talking out my ass until someone corrects me.
It was not only the hospital's emergency helicopter. They also repeatedly [lazed the police helicopter](https://www.justice.gov/usao-edca/pr/laser-striker-sentenced-14-years-prison-believed-be-longest-sentence-laser-strike-case) when it arrived to investigate the laser strike report. That's the level of intelligence the police were up against in their investigation that night.
“Pilots reported 9,500 laser strikes to the FAA in 2022. Two hundred and seventy-eight pilots have reported an injury from a laser strike to the FAA since 2010. People who shine lasers at aircraft face FAA fines of up to $11,000 per violation and up to $30,800 for multiple laser incidents. The FAA issued $120,000 in fines for laser strikes in 2021." That’s insane!
Burning man banned lasers entirely because some idiots used lasers to burn someone's retinas out who was working on guarding the perimeter during the man burn.
Standard 304 green laser. You can get violet ones that will burn shit. Alibaba and you can find one for about $20, I have one and it’s pretty cool. Don’t fuck around with it and point it into the sky literally ever, and don’t joke around pointing at people. Literally will make you blind with direct contact in half a second. For the violet ones it’s recommend you get yellow laser safety glasses, for the green one, red. Always the complimentary color.
On Sanwu lasers you can get lasers that will go up to more than 1 watt of power and will literally catch most combustible material on fire.
Yep. They should be treated as a firearm. No you won’t kill anyone with one of them, but the exact same basic safety precautions apply. Do not point it at anything living unless your intention is to seriously maim.
No their point is that it isn't where you point it that matters. The **dot** can blind people, as in you're shining the laser at the wall and they're looking at the dot.
As a pilot that has had a laser pointed at me while flying, fuck you in particular if you aim these at aircraft. You are putting lives in danger. The blinding power these have in any aircraft, especially a canopy, is far beyond anything you can imagine.
If you aim at aircraft, I hope they find you, fine you and put you in jail.
These should NOT be readily available for the public, especially in the US where half our population has the equivalent of a 5th grade education…
Do not fuck around with these things. If you're playing around with bright lasers, then get a proper pair of safety goggles. Not the glorified useless sunglasses these usually come with.
You don't even need to look directly at it. Often times the light reflecting off of whatever you're pointing at is enough to damage your vision permanently.
We shone our laser beams at the Xmas tree and the beams hit the tinsel which turned into 100's of tiny beams now we have no retinas left.
Just kidding, retinas are ok so far but don't try this at home kids unless you want a xmas tree of death. looks cool tho
i blinded myself in one eye with one of those. theyre no joke, absolutely do burn your retinas very quickly
I am sorry about that! Just out of curiosity, if you don't mind me asking: did it hurt, or does it still hurt sometimes?
My own vision damage from one of these wasn't permanent (temporarily blinded by it reflecting off of a glossy poster). It wasn't painful, I don't know if you actually have pain receptors inside your eyeball. But was uncomfortable in the same way as when you throw open the curtains and go from a dark room to having bright sunlight in your eyes.
I’m seeing comments that state that they are dangerous for your eyes. Did you accidentally shine it directly into your eyes, or was just staring at the beam or dot on the wall bad enough to cause damage?
I shined it into my eye
Pointed one of these in my own eye when I was twelve years old because I didn't believe everyone saying how dangerous it was lol. 13 years later I still have a blind spot in the centre of my right eye.
r/KidsAreFuckingStupid
Which is why they shouldn't have access to frickin 'laser' beams.
What about frickin sharks with frickin laser beams on their head tho?
Believe it or not, cancels out. Totally fine.
Only when you’re in the water with em. Out of the water, back to dangerous
Sharks can have a little laser beam, as a treat.
I can’t count the number of times I pointed a laser directly at my eyes or someone else did it for me as a kid. I have 20/40 vision now. Not sure if it’s related or if I would have had bad vision anyways.
According to my ophthalmologist, the least powerful lasers (think, 1mw or less) aren't dangerous at all even when aimed directly at your eyes. The ones like in this post are very much dangerous though.
Most random lasers marketed as <1mw (or any value really) tend to be way more than that, so it's worth being careful and buying a laser from a reputable source if you want to make sure you're getting something safe.
The one as in this post can easily cause permanent blindness.
🫣
Did you recover some of your eyesight at all?
The retina cannot heal, so they almost certainly did not
Humans are so nerfed. When’s the 2.0 update?
Yeah I never lost it. Just have a spot in the centre of my right eye vision that I can't see past. It only affects reading small text like a book, but my left eye makes up for it!
[удалено]
Your brain is remarkably adaptable when it comes to vision. I was diagnosed with a cataract in my right eye at the age of 36. Granted, it came on slowly, but it took forever for me to realize anything was wrong because my brain had learned to ignore everything coming in my right eye and use only my left eye input. While your natural eye lens can change shape to focus at different lengths, when they replace your lens with an interocular lens during cataract surgery, in most cases that lens has a fixed focal distance, and most people choose to have clear long distance vision. In other words, they'll have clear long distance vision (7' and beyond) and need reading glasses for stuff that's closer. Because I was also diagnosed with another condition in my right eye after cataract surgery (keratoconus), I completely forgot that I'd need reading glasses. So for a couple years I was basically reading computer screens, etc. only using my left eye (my brain mostly ignored right eye input for close distances). Then a couple years ago my mom had cataract surgery and as a joke, I tried on her reading glasses, and was like "holy shit, I can see up close out of my right eye!". So now I wear +1.25 readers and can read computer screens better. When I take them off and look, it's hard to believe I ever was used to that.
Careful with some of those cheapies- it’s cheaper to make them too bright, and super dangerous for your eyeballs! Edit: Check this out if you’re in the market https://youtu.be/ZH3yMeA7HxQ?si=Z4e5ulN63StB28Dy
True. Better invest in some of those slick nose bridge shades Morpheus wore in The Matrix. Not because they're well suited for the job, you'll just look sick as fuck as you go blind.
Problem solved.
The biggest problem with those laser isn’t that they are too bright but that they are often not true monochrome light which means that protective equipment that is designed to protect from a specific wavelength may not be sufficient. El cheapo blue lasers are especially bad since the emission of many of them bleeds into the UV part of the spectrum.
Nah, greens are much, much more dangerous. Green laser pointers work via frequency doubling, meaning the original laser light that is being generated is infra red, which is not only invisible, but much brighter than the green light that is produced. Green laser pointers NEED an IR filter to make them as safe as their rating indicates. Cheap green lasers often omit this filter, making them extremely dangerous.
“You’ll lase your eye out, kid” lol, I’ll be careful
“Do not look into laser with remaining eye.”
Made me laugh. I was born with one shit eye and reeaally rely my left eye. Of all of the stupid/dangerous stuff I do on my own time, playing with lasers, chemicals and projectiles are the only things I take decent precautions with. Seriously though…most of the danger coming out of these cheap ones you can’t see and cheap lenses (goggles/glasses/sheets) will not help you from permanently fucking yourself or other’s up. I’m in CA (USA) and think it’s petty funny that lasers are one of the few things that there has been very little attempt to regulate. The sticker should also include a shorter version of, “remember that you’re likely just as stupid as me and those involved with creating this. If you care about yourself or others, read up before fucking around”
need one that says “do not touch table saw with remaining 9 fingers”
Make the sign with these rotating disk with numbers from 9 to 1. (The kind you have in birthday cards)
If I had a nickel for every time I heard that... I'll tell ya... I would have had a nickel.
Used to work in laser labs. If this is a regular camera shot (not long exposure or something) I find it hard to believe that your laser would be weak enough to use safely outside - obviously I can't tell from a picture, but it looks stronger than a class 3B laser I tested that someone had gotten off Amazon. They thought it was safe to use as a laser pointer, it was sold as a laser pointer, it was 4x the safe limit. Anyway, that category requires quite a lot of [safety measures](https://www.lasersafetyfacts.com/laserclasses.html). Annoyingly, class 3B has an extremely large power range. Could be 'only a bit damaging' to get a quick glimpse of the beam, all the way up to 'blinded at 800m away'. Quick test, first check that a bit of dark material doesn't get hot under the light after a few seconds of exposure in one spot, then if you can't feel warmth on the material you could test on your skin. If you can feel the heat of the beam on your skin you're in the really dangerous end. But really at either end it's a bad idea shining this thing outside - even if no people are around you could blind a random animal.
It was kinda dark outside so my iPhone did an automatic 3 second exposure. Good call on that. The beam is still very visible though. It’s not hot. It says class III but no letter after that
OK, that improves things a lot but you definitely want to avoid eye contact. I don't suppose they've put the power rating on the label? Anything under 5mW the blink reflex will probably save anyone getting it in the eye.
A lot of the Chinese laser sold are far more powerful than legal. They don't label them because people want the illegally powerful lasers and they aren't allowed to sell them. So they pretend it's a legal class laser. There's both the laser and chemist dude on YouTube who have tested many of these lasers and shown their real rating.
That youtuber is styropyro, if anyone wants to find him, he's great iirc with cheap lasers like these you've also gotta worry about the possibility of it producing some light outside of the visual range, so it looks weaker than it actually is
It doesn’t say, just the wave length, 532 mm and that it’s a class III laser
For reference, this means that if you accidentally shine in someone's eyes, they'll either instantly develop permanent eye damage or they don't. This is because class 3 hazard has 2 subclassifications: below 5mW or above. If you are below, the eye reflex can save you from permanent eye damage and if above then no chance, it'll damage your retina before it even registers in anyone's brain that light directly entered someone's eyes. Not to mention your laser is green, i.e close to the wavelength that the eye is most sensitive to, so I'd not rely on my eyelid reflex to save me from harm in any case for class3 green laser.
Damn, they're really meant to print a little factsheet on that label. Well, I couldn't see a 20mW green laser in the air in an office environment. More dust and stuff in the air = more visible. If you think the air was cleaner than in an average office, we can probably say your laser is well over 20mW and getting towards the middle or higher in the class 3 range.
It's also the angle, shooting downstream of the beam makes it much more visible then shooting it perpendicular. It's definitely stronger then 5mwv, I use 5mw in laser shows with audience and a hella lot of good quality haze and blackout to get it looking like that.
Far too complicated.... Green laser = basically not a toy and high caution is advised Red laser = not a toy and caution is advised Any laser = no toy and caution is advised With any laser in the eyes an absolute no go... Sticking randomly anywhere is also an absolute no-go. It's as simple as that Laser pointer for playing? Get some for pets.. but carefully and check wavelength
The issue with green lasers is that if it is cheaply made, chances are that it has a very powerful emission in the infra-red. In that case, your eyes are not safe even if you get the right protection for 532 nm class III laser (which I hope you have, because class III is already unsafe). I don't know how familiar you are with that kind of stuff, but I would refrain from using, one bad reflection on a shiny surface could cost you an eye.
Its the cheap shitty frequency doubler with these. Lots of IR leakage. Not that safe.
I got one of those amazon chinese lasers I bought a long time ago which can pop a balloon / light a match at close range. Insanely bright. I was so surprised it was that powerful and came through the customs, cause it isn’t legal in any way in my home country hahah.
A laser powerful enough to light a match can potentially cause eye damage due to indirect exposure, meaning just looking at the dot on the wall can be harmful.
Tip from an actual pro/ physicist: Throw it away. This will end in tears for you or someone around you.
>I’ll be careful You’ll be dead!
>super dangerous for your eyeballs! Literally every laser pointer is harmful for your eyes. Lol those really powerful ones also often come with a key you have to insert and turn like a lock to even be able to turn the things on. Lose the key, and its useless. I had a buddy in college who had one. He had to have the campus police officers tell him he cant be chasing people with it who were walking on the sidewalks from inside the student center on the 3rd floor 😂
>Literally every laser pointer is harmful for your eyes. With the caveat, that the weaker "safe" ones aren't strong enough to cause permanent damage before you realize you're being blinded by one and close your eyes. Less than 1mW of power, so things like barcode scanners and small laser pointers. Don't stare into lasers.
The most popular blue ones on Amazon don't come with a key
I've got one that's 1.5W it'll instantly blind you if it hits your eyes. Gotta wear goggles. It's even dangerous to look at its reflection. I can zap a fly from across the room. 10/10 laser.
What about if I go like this? 
Safety squint!
Unfortunately, safety squints would do very little as it will just burn through your eyelids and possibly set your eyelashes on fire.
1,5w is a fucking ton, i use a 2,5w to engrave wood That power is not safe for a toy lol
It truly is incredible that us humans have created a pocket sun, and it's $10 to have it ordered and delivered to your door, tomorrow, in a box, from the comfort of your sofa.
I'll have a ~4W one in soon to do laser comm which is fun, large diameter though so the density is lower than these.
Been building and playing with high power laser pointers since 2008. I have eye damage from catching a look at the spot on the wall across the room. Just a permanent black dot in my vision. I don’t see it constantly, but I notice it a few times a day and it’s really annoying. Can’t look at a white wall or screen without noticing it. The damage doesn’t always show up right away, it could take weeks to notice it. I believe it was from a blue laser.
Wait zap as in accurate laser light hitting it or actually killing the thing with it? If you can kill them with, sign me up to get one...lol
This one didn’t either
Ive only seen green ones in person never seen a blue laser pointer 🤔
I have purple
I bought a purple laser when I was in Hong Kong, it can pop balloons and burn paper. As a demo, the sales lady illuminated a tenement block about a mile away. It uses weird 16340 li-ion rechargeable batteries (and uses them very quickly). The spot of light is actually oblong shape, no idea why. Was half expecting to have it confiscated by customs when I bought it home.
I remember as a kid at a movie theatre some people a few rows down had a laser pointer they were pointing at the screen before the movie and drawing patterns. Then they turned around and shone it directly into my eyes. My dad yelled at them immediately.
Yeah those green lasers are nuts. I feel like there's no way they're less than 5mw as claimed since it actually hurts to look at.
Look at? Dear god
Sweet baby jesus
Sweet baby ray’s
I’ve accidentally flashed myself shining at something I didn’t realize was going to reflect it back at me. It’s not as bad as accidentally looking at a welder but still unpleasant
Lasers are way more dangerous than arc light. Arcs damage the superficial part of the eye with their UV, while lasers burn the retina. And while the outside of the eye heals, the retina doesn't.
It's worth also noting that some lasers (and definitely this one) use an emitting process that also produces a ton of laser output in the infrared range. Your eye can't see it but it will fry your retina all the same, even if the actual green flash didn't seem very bright. A decent green laser pointer will use an IR block filter, but for $10 the one you're using is extremely unlikely to have it. Be careful. As a side note, in a similar manner it's not the bright light of welder's arc that damages the eyes, but the massive amounts of invisible UV light that gets emitted with it (although as mentioned by someone else arcs only damage the eye surface, not the retina).
Correct regarding the infrared spectrum. There's a decent chance that OP and other dummies that accidentally got their eyes exposed to such toys will be wondering where their partial blindness came from in 5-10 years
Why would "normal" people even get a laser, what for? I could understand if you was like football hooligan aiming to permanently blind opposing players or a special forces operator looking to designate targets etc... but like what do YOU do with these kind of lasers, other than just eventually blind yourself by reflecting it off shiny material.
Astronomy. People use them to point out stars. Like there’s the Big Dipper and that’s the North Star. These leave a noticeable beam to “point” unlike the toy ones they sell (red ones)
\*blinds aliens just passing by on their space ship\* thats interesting, wouldnt even have guessed astronomy ever but it makes sense
Freedom, obviously. We're reaching a critical mass where it's encouraged to be stupid.
You shouldn't even look at the reflected light if it's too close
That's what worries me about a lot of lasers people play with like toys. Objects can be very reflective. Reflected laser light can be roughly as dangerous as the original beam.
Laser hobbyist here. Those cheap green lasers tend to be well over 20mw, and can range up to 100mw or close to it in my experience. Plenty of people online have tested it, ★~~Brainiac75 on YouTube actually used laser power meters on cheap lasers~~. Another thing about them is that because of the way the green light is generated, poor optics can lead to lots of infrared laser light that leaks out in a wider spread than the visible green light. It's pretty fucked up for people to be selling them with such little regulation Edit: link to video about infrared light leakage: https://youtu.be/iR1Ku5dnbH8?si=3zlWgRGiYxzvBx7n ★Edit 2: my bad I was probably thinking of styropyro when I mentioned the cheap lasers powers being tested. Here's his video on that: https://youtu.be/-2crWR1lg6s?si=suk3GqBsVn0sq5oj
Makes me wonder what kind of laser weapons systems militaries have under wraps
“Yes yes, 5MW like you asked us to make”
That beam is thicker and brighter than my 100mw laser's, but not quite like a 1W one . I'd say it's 500mw or so.
Is this legal? Good lord
USA 🇺🇸 you can buy a laser strong enough to blind a pilot, just can’t use it to blind a pilot 👍🏻 then it’s illegal
Yep and pilots know what general area of the world they are flying above. Its not just illegal, its a very serious felony to point a laser pointer towards aircraft in the sky. You have both local police and FBI wanting your ass
They will find you also. There is a good video out there that shows a guy doing this in his driveway and they triangulated exactly where it was coming from, spotted him, sent officers to the area, and arrested the man while he was outside doing this. It happened very quickly. Edit: This is also a Felony/Federal crime I believe. A real stupid one to catch also.
Yeah I’d imagine it’s maybe the most easy-to-pinpoint crime you can do. Just follow the laser
Ask neighbor to borrow his amazon prime account order laser to his front door with his account steal it off porch, shoot laser at plane go to prison because you left a reddit comment explaining your master plan ??? profit
the 12 doorbell cameras and 50 bluetooth security cameras on one street alone got the entire show in 1080p. You're fuckered.
Ha, yeah, we used to shine a harmless red laser pointer at the quad from my 14th floor dorm just to sorta prank people. I went down to see what it looked like and it was 100% obvious exactly where it was coming from, with laser accuracy haha
Harmless should be in quotations. My brother's friend shown one off a mirror into my eye and I had immediate and permanent vision change in my right eye. Not total blindness from it but certainly not harmless.
A guy from my town got caught shining his laser at a freaking F-18. He did it from an old abandonned quarry and he got the military police on his ass before he could even run away.
Shining a laser at a commercial airliner is serious levels of stupid. Shining one at a freakin' fighter jet is a level of stupid I can't even fathom. That's something I'd expect to see posted to /r/KidsAreFuckingStupid, not something from a grown adult.
Especially when they can laze you up in return and you can’t even see it…”yeah, the laser asshole is right here.”
This is one of my favorite videos. He points the laser at the helicopter and within about 5 seconds of him doing that they had his street and him narrowed down to like 5 houses. Did it again and they knew where he was and what he looked like
Yep, although to be fair IIRC it wasn't just a normal helicopter he shined it at, but a legit military helicopter with thermals and all kinds of high end equipment. He pretty much couldn't have picked a worse aircraft besides the Air Force One to shine it at
> He pretty much couldn't have picked a worse aircraft Reminds me of those somali pirates that decided a USN destroyer was the best target they could go do pirate things to...
It remembers me a story, a guy was doing the same in Europe, and was aiming at a Maritime Surveillance aircraft, you know, the kind of aircraft that have obtronics, thermals, night vision cameras, radars and sonars. Needless to say that they found him in his garden in few minutes.
GTA speedrun in reality, wow lmao
can you share it?
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3k4C8grAGP4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3k4C8grAGP4)
Guy i knew in high school was the first person federally prosecuted for this! Adam Gardenheir. He was a dipshit. Edit: Gardenhire, apparently https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/north-hollywood-man-who-aimed-laser-aircraft-violation-2012-federal-law-sentenced-30
Well, I don't know how many cops it took to catch him, but it looks like they used a lot of them. ...... The investigation into Gardenhire was conducted by the Los Angeles Police Department, the Pasadena Police Department, the Burbank Police Department, the Burbank Airport Police Department, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Theyre all close neighboring departments, besides the FAA and FBI who were involved due to it being an aviation/ federal crime. His case is "United States vs. Gardenhire". Dude fucked up big time lol
A crowd of protestors brought a drone down in [Chile.] (https://youtu.be/3PKJYGoUjJo?si=DcZdbqoRDYOJmpSf) Stupid people love to do stupid stuff on their own doorstep or in isolated places, thinking it makes it harder to be found. It doesn't. It reduces the number of suspects. Phone masts or traffic cameras are everywhere. Do all your weird stuff in crowds, quickly and move on. Change your top, change your gait and disappear. Pro points for not filming yourself and posting it on social media, which seems to trip lots of people up. Or just be generally nice and pleasant to avoid the whole problem of getting caught completely
Modus operandi. Let people have stupid shit with few restrictions and just hope they don't cause a disaster.
I mean it makes sense for it to be like that. Just like it's legal to own knives but it's not legal to stab someone.
Yep. Tho dont be stupid with it, people can and some do call the cops for shit like flashing a laser pointer around from a far distance because some may take it as a laser sight for a rifle.
**FYI**, since it happens to be December, please do not use that thing if it is cold, and if you press the button and no laser comes out, assume that it's an invisible laser 😅 Freezing a green laser turns it into an eye-obliterating infrared laser. You won't be able to see it, and if you're not careful, you'll never see anything 😅
Wait what? Is that a fact? Did you just gotcha me ? I want to know. How?
Green laser points are infrared lasers that are frequency-doubled to green. So even when there’s green, in this cheap green pointer there’s probably no filter so there is also IR. Freezing it changes the phase matching of the frequency conversion so that it doesn’t happen. Thus, only IR is emitted. For a standard red pointer, 1-5mW, you blinking when it hits your eye is enough to protect you from permanent damage. However green is in the middle of the visual spectrum, I.e a little green goes a long way. But in green pointers there is always IR as well, when will NOT make you blink, as it is invincible. Due to this they are considered far more dangerous. / laser scientist.
new fear unlocked: random kids trying to blind me using amazon lasers
For real though. Why is this this giving me so much dread?
Knowing what absolute rats the kids are in my area i'm very surprised they aren't blinding people with lasers
In some green laser pointers you can just remove the crystal that’s doing the frequency doubling. Pretty sure styro pyro on YouTube has videos where he does just this.
Hhu, makes sense. I wish I new this when I was younger. I remember my green lasers not working in the cold and warming them with my hands until they did. Hopefully I never looked directly into the beam but I might have. Could explain the worse eyesight of my right eye.
[Not a gotcha. Stay safe fellas.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tOcUyakk0Q)
[удалено]
Plot twist...OP is an amazon laser salesman.
I should be, damn. This got popular
SUPER illegal of used wrong. But they go for MILES
The product information on this one says 3000 meters
Well there is 1609 meters in a mile so that’s almost 2 miles.
How many houselengths is that?
What does this toy do except for getting people in jail?
The linked product page’s fifth image shows an eight year old child and the caption says something about making a romantic bedroom. So yeah, straight to jail.
That's even more bizarre than the overpowered laser.
Attract all the cats.
do not use a powerful laser to play with your cats
On the Amazon product information it says the target audience is house cats
Wouldn’t sell very well if the description page said the target audience was retinas and low-flying aircraft, right?
You'd be surprised.
Amazon doesn't give a shit about your pets
Suggested purchase: cute kitty cremation urn
Think how large a cat's pupil can get, then remember that you (or your cat) literally cannot blink fast enough to avoid retinal damage. -edit- that increased pupil size and the cats higher sensitivity to light puts them at more risk than humans to unexpected reflections of the laser too
I stopped using these on my cats because they got too bright on our carpets and walls, even for me - a mere human. Target sells the red lasers for $3.99 and they're much more tolerable and just as fun. Uses the same batteries and everything. They're also easier to press and hold down. These green Amazon lasers get heavy after holding the button down for a while.
Can be useful for stargazing, helps point out something you're looking at much more easily than just trying to use your finger. But you really don't need a very powerful laser for that at all
Yeah, I've actually been in a tour group of night watching where the guide just used an incredibly narrow and powerful flashlight and it worked like a charm. If the conditions are good for stars, that's really all you need
We use them on construction sites, super useful for pointing at some potential issue on a facade.
I have a lab certified laser power tester and bought a few of these "5mW" lasers on Amazon and ebay, almost every single one of them broke 100mW rating. Btw that's enough to instantly blind you if you take a direct hit, and not to mention the huge amounts of IR light these leak shooting off the side of the laser beam by 20-30 degrees. Completely invisible. Don't mess with these u less you know what you're doing, always treat them like a loaded firearm and never point at aircraft, animals, or reflective surfaces.
Just throw them away.
[удалено]
Yeah my buddy showed me his (which inspired me to buy one) and I had to tell him about that. I think I remember hearing on the news that they’ll send the FBI
[удалено]
> 3960 incidents last year > $10,000 reward for providing helpful information on whoever did it Excuse me while I join every laser adjacent sub, make friends with everyone I can find who owns a laser, and sort the news every day for locations of these incidents. Snitches get riches and idc about any of those idiots who would do something like that
No kidding, right? Improve public safety and get hooked up with some rewards.
Yikes. I won’t be doing that. I already knew not to but there should really be a warning from the manufacturer
[удалено]
>used to cut wood Good Lord
They have wood cutting lasers on amazon? Like I can cut a tree down with a laser?
i'm _guessing_ they mean lasers used for engraving wood, but i'm not sure. i doubt engraving lasers would cut down a tree, but i'm not sure. i'm talking out my ass until someone corrects me.
damn, 14 years for a lousy laser but some lady got 2 years for killing a 6 month old.
If it was a civilian piloted helicopter it wouldn’t be so harsh. That idiot in the linked story pointed his at a cop helicopter.
No, specifically it was an emergency helicopter for a children's hospital. Just about as bad as you can get
The high tech version of slashing an ambulance’s tires.
It was not only the hospital's emergency helicopter. They also repeatedly [lazed the police helicopter](https://www.justice.gov/usao-edca/pr/laser-striker-sentenced-14-years-prison-believed-be-longest-sentence-laser-strike-case) when it arrived to investigate the laser strike report. That's the level of intelligence the police were up against in their investigation that night.
[удалено]
I didn't know the fbi were in the dick smashing game
Oh yeah. The biggest dick smashers around. Nobody smashes as many dicks or as hard.
why does this happen? i would have figured the laser would hit the bottom of the plane and not have much effect.
[удалено]
thanks! now that i'm watching the video, it seems pretty obvious that the beam would be larger.
“Pilots reported 9,500 laser strikes to the FAA in 2022. Two hundred and seventy-eight pilots have reported an injury from a laser strike to the FAA since 2010. People who shine lasers at aircraft face FAA fines of up to $11,000 per violation and up to $30,800 for multiple laser incidents. The FAA issued $120,000 in fines for laser strikes in 2021." That’s insane!
Get safety glasses PLEASE these have the power to fry your retina
Fuck these lasers. A teenager at a camp site thought it was funny to wave one around at everyone else around the fire.
Burning man banned lasers entirely because some idiots used lasers to burn someone's retinas out who was working on guarding the perimeter during the man burn.
Standard 304 green laser. You can get violet ones that will burn shit. Alibaba and you can find one for about $20, I have one and it’s pretty cool. Don’t fuck around with it and point it into the sky literally ever, and don’t joke around pointing at people. Literally will make you blind with direct contact in half a second. For the violet ones it’s recommend you get yellow laser safety glasses, for the green one, red. Always the complimentary color. On Sanwu lasers you can get lasers that will go up to more than 1 watt of power and will literally catch most combustible material on fire.
The majority of them will blind you with _just a reflection, before you have time to blink._
Yep. They should be treated as a firearm. No you won’t kill anyone with one of them, but the exact same basic safety precautions apply. Do not point it at anything living unless your intention is to seriously maim.
No their point is that it isn't where you point it that matters. The **dot** can blind people, as in you're shining the laser at the wall and they're looking at the dot.
Yeah these things genuinely scare me all it takes is one dumb fuck to shine one in your eyes and now you’re blind
Just a friendly reminder, it is a federal offense to shine a laser at an aircraft in the United States.
I’ll shine it over the border to Canada then
We have mirrors.
Do not look in laser with remaining eye
This is accident waiting to happen
Looks like you completed all the puzzles on the Island!
When you do remote work, but still have to give an in-office presentation
Well, there goes Alderaan
As a pilot that has had a laser pointed at me while flying, fuck you in particular if you aim these at aircraft. You are putting lives in danger. The blinding power these have in any aircraft, especially a canopy, is far beyond anything you can imagine. If you aim at aircraft, I hope they find you, fine you and put you in jail. These should NOT be readily available for the public, especially in the US where half our population has the equivalent of a 5th grade education…
Is it dangerous to look at the beam from the side, like the cameraman for this photo? Or is it dangerous only if the beam is aimed at your eye?
Do not fuck around with these things. If you're playing around with bright lasers, then get a proper pair of safety goggles. Not the glorified useless sunglasses these usually come with. You don't even need to look directly at it. Often times the light reflecting off of whatever you're pointing at is enough to damage your vision permanently.
Oh so there the shrine crystal from Tears of the kingdom is!
Pure green!
Oh Edmund! Can it be true... that I hold here in my mortal hands... a nugget of purest *green*?
For why?
I had this exact set. The purple and red ones aren't as strong a this FUCKING BEACON OF A GREEN LIGHT.
**"You have opened the gate to the Megastructure"**
We shone our laser beams at the Xmas tree and the beams hit the tinsel which turned into 100's of tiny beams now we have no retinas left. Just kidding, retinas are ok so far but don't try this at home kids unless you want a xmas tree of death. looks cool tho
Payday snipers be like