Flashlight and your Eyes

koala

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Mar 5, 2003
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Melbourne, Australia
Hi people,
I am not a medicine student so, I hope someone can give me directions on this.

Everytime I have a new mod, install a freshly charged battery, comparing light output, I can't help meself looking in to the light. Then you all know what get, blur eye with a blindspot for one or two minutes. I am sure everyone of us has the temptation of looking in to the light source with our naked eye.

My question is, how will this affect our eyes? Does it have a permanent effect? I am sorry I am not the kind of person who always fall sick so I can't visit my doctor for his advice. I am actualy getting quite worried about this because I get this blind spot every now and then when I power up my flashlight /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif.

Vince.
 

asdalton

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Do a search for the threads on the dangers of exposure to bright light. In particular, there is concern about the blue or blue-white light that many LED flashlights emit.

I do not recommend staring into any flashlight beam. If you want to see what the beam looks like head-on, try viewing its reflection in a container of water (the toilet works well for this /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif ) That way, only a small fraction of the emitted light is reflected back to your eyes.
 

BlindedByTheLite

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it's not gonna damage your eyes unless you stare it down.. a quick glance wont hurt you, at least not long term.. unless you do it routinely!

and do what dalton says.. view it's reflection! it's actually alot easier to see the filament this way anyways..
 

Kiessling

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too much energy delivered to the human retina will permanently damage your eyes. you will not notice at first, it is a hidden and slow process at forst, quuite dangerous.
it is worse with the lower end of the frequency spectrum, but applies to all light energy. the extreme thing would be a laser in the eye, everyone knows this to be dangerous. well, it is the same for other lightsources, depending solely on the energy delivered.
this is the reason why looking at the sun is not advised.
in short: be careful, be very careful. use special glasses to look directly in the light, such as those used to observe an eclipse.
with LED lights you can always wait until the batteries are almost depleted and look at the luxeon then ...
bernhard
 

RevDavid

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Cool idea Bernhard. I have been throwing my almost dead batteries away, but maybe I could use them for direct macro photography of the Luxeon.

David <><
 

Kiessling

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RevDavid, there are some very cool shots like this in one of the CPF Gear threads, ckeck'em out, they are superb desktop pics!
look here
bernhard
 

brightnorm

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Oct 13, 2001
Messages
7,160
[ QUOTE ]
nukiez said:
...Everytime I have a new mod, install a freshly charged battery, comparing light output, I can't help meself looking in to the light....


[/ QUOTE ]

It's time to conquer your compulsion! Use us as your support group and whenever you feel the urge just saySTOP! and immediately post to CPF for emergency hand or eye - holding. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Brightnorm
 

koala

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Melbourne, Australia
Ok, thanks for the advice guys. I know the reflection trick. I will try to refrain meself from looking in to the light /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif.

Vince.
 

shankus

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Mojave, CA
You can also view bright lights through a CDR disc. The ones without printing or labeling.
 

FNG

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MO
[ QUOTE ]
kiessling said:
RevDavid, there are some very cool shots like this in one of the CPF Gear threads, ckeck'em out, they are superb desktop pics!
look here
bernhard

[/ QUOTE ]

you messed up the link
 

WolfEyes

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</font><blockquote><font class="small">In Antwort auf:</font><hr />
BlindedByTheLite said:
it's not gonna damage your eyes unless you stare it down.. a quick glance wont hurt you, at least not long term.. unless you do it routinely!


[/ QUOTE ]

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rant.gif NO! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rant.gif
 

dougmccoy

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UK
From my experience both as a paramedic and as someone who already has occular hypertension I am in a pretty good position to give you some general advise. The light spectrum at which damage occurs to the human retina is variable from person to person and dependant upon the health of that persons eyes. Pre-existing eye conditions such as undiagnosed glaucoma (just one example)can be easily increased by continued exposure to certain light sources. With some types of light source such as ultraviolet light or high energy beams (lasers)permanent damage can occur as soon as exposure has taken place.

Research now going on has not yet proved (at least as far as I am aware)any correlation between non ultraviolet LEDs and proven eye damage. However as LED technology for illumination tools such as flashlights is fairly new, I would be suspect of any reassurances given by the manufacturers at this time.

In general most non-ultraviolet light from low power sources such as the one to three cell lithium lights is unlikely to cause perminant retinal damage for the period of time you are talking about. However if any of you guys has pre-galaucoma, diabetes, type 1 or 2, you will be familiar with the annual check up of having your retinas photographed. I can assure you from my own personal experience that the flash of a retinal camera is far worse than from any flashlight/headlight I've ever been exposed to,also the after light blinds you for at least two to three minutes. So I would say to nukiez, dont worry unduly but dont get addicted to staring into your lights

Doug
 

Kiessling

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Doug, I disagree. You are right when saying that pre-existing eye problems make it worse, but healthy eyes do suffer as well from high energy applied to the retinas, it might just not be noticeable so quick as with already damaged eyes. And the power of 2 or 3 cell lights cannot be considered minor, even a 5mm LED can be a stress when looking directly at the die.
The flash of a camera you are talking about may be brighter, but it lasts only a very brief time, the total energy being far less than looking into a light for more than a second.
Feel free to do whatever you all want, but I will never ever risk my eyes by looking into the business end of my lights.
bernhard

P.S.: fixed link to bezel shots of lights:
link
 

WolfEyes

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</font><blockquote><font class="small">In Antwort auf:</font><hr />
nukiez said:
WolfEyes, so did you stare in to HID? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif I saw "cool" light effects for several weeks, such as small moving "white pixel" errors. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif
 
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