Is 200 lumens "dangerous"?

I just got a 200 lumen drop in LED for a maglite and it seems really bright when looking directly at it. I mean like REALLY bright!

Is it "dangerous" to the eyes? Should there be any caution for like letting kids get a hold of it and using them as lightsabers and practical jokes?

Whether a light can cause permanent damage to one's vision probably depends on several factors; I'm guessing the most important of these is the lux output of the light (as well as the distance from the light to the recipient, obviously).

I think a good rule is the following: if you're not sure whether a light could cause damage, assume it can. I don't think it's a good idea for anyone who might be tempted to look into a light to have control over any light more powerful than a cheap pen light. That being said, there's no reason a child can't learn how to use and be responsible with a light, but that depends largely on both the kid and the teacher.

Probably doesn't cause any permanent damage, I go by the rule factor of 5-10 lumens per year old with kids (5 lumens per year if their irresponsible, 10 lumens if they listen)

Not sure what repeated short term damage will do to ones eyes, 200 lumen OTF will give me a headache if my eyes are night adjusted.

a ten year old can play light saber with 100 lumens, 50 lumens if there pinning each other down and holding the light in there siblings eyes.

If a visible broad-spectrum light source (that's not a laser) is bright enough to make you wince, that reaction alone should be enough to protect your eyes ... unless the kid also likes staring into the sun or some other odd behavior.

Unless the rugrats are practicing interrogation techniques on each other or daring each other to stare into the beam at a distance of 2 feet, I wouldn't worry too much about 200 lumens.

200 lumens isn't that bad. If it was, I would say a majority of CPF would be blind.

As far as I remember they were not made to be used to point on people faces lol

Its not the lumens that hurt, its the lux.

IE: Looking at a floody 200 Lumens would be more like noticing a table lamp was on....you might see spots if you stared at the table lamp, but no eye damage really.

Looking at 200 lumens focused into a small circle the size of your pupil would hurt...and you'd instinctively squint/turn away, etc.



Putting it another way...~ 500 lux is the RECOMMENDED MINIMUM amount of illumination for tasks such as reading. Lux is equal to lumens per square meter.

The reflector in a MAG does concentrate the beam tightly- probably will not do any perm damage but not recommended for direct in eyes. Individuals can react differently to light to the eye, and if someone has an issue at the back of their eye it can trigger a reaction inclusive of light bleeding (although will clear up within a week). At a distance of more than 4 metres the light source should cause no issues.

That's right "ice" man, I AM dangerous.

whether or not its dangerous depends on the duration of exposure. Your optical mice seems pretty harmless but if you were to stare at it closeup nonstop for five hours I guarantee you that you'll permanently lose some sensitivity in that eye. On the other hand, getting hit by a 2000 lumen LED light panel for a couple seconds you won't notice much of a difference

TEEJ said:

Its not the lumens that hurt, its the lux.

IE: Looking at a floody 200 Lumens would be more like noticing a table lamp was on....you might see spots if you stared at the table lamp, but no eye damage really.

Looking at 200 lumens focused into a small circle the size of your pupil would hurt...and you'd instinctively squint/turn away, etc.



Putting it another way...~ 500 lux is the RECOMMENDED MINIMUM amount of illumination for tasks such as reading. Lux is equal to lumens per square meter.

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To expand on this, direct sunlight is 32,000 to 130,000 lux, according to Wikipedia. Staring at the sun can cause eye and brain damage because it overloads your retina and causes it to release chemicals which can damage surrounding tissue (nerves). Indirect sunlight is 10,000 to 25,000 lux, which is safe. So basically, don't look directly at any light that is more than 25,000 lux and you should be safe. Or just avoid it all together.

We should encourage people to not pick up a flashlight and shine it into their eyes. Just common sense. No?

I wouldn't let kids play with my high powered lights unless I knew they were going to be safe or if I was right there to watch them. You could always give them some dimmer ones to play with. In their minds that will probably be good enough lol

Bullzeyebill said:

We should encourage people to not pick up a flashlight and shine it into their eyes. Just common sense. No?

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This is America (Here at least), and in THE USA, we need to put warnings on hammers that tell people that if they hit themselves in the head with with the hammer, it could cause serious injury or death.

We also put signs on restaurant doors that say "No Dogs Allowed", and then in parenthesis; (Except Seeing Eye Dogs).

I figure the world might be better off w/o the people that hit themselves in the head with a hammer due to a lack of warning not to, and that the blind guy with the seeing eye dog will not see the No Dogs Allowed sign anyway...so a note to him on the sign saying his dog's OK would not be noticed either by the blind guy, etc. If the DOG could read, fine.



So, common sense about NOT shining a flashlight into eyes might be optimistic...and could lead to more kids being blinded, and then bringing their seeing eye dogs into places where the signs say no dogs allowed, and being unable to read the warning on the hammer, or the hot coffee, etc....which is of concern as they didn't have the sense to not look into the bright flashlight beam either....and now are vulnerable to self inflicted hammer strikes and burned laps too.

Bullzeyebill said:

We should encourage people to not pick up a flashlight and shine it into their eyes. Just common sense. No?

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Coast not only encourages it, but goes so far as to angle a mirror at you inside their packaging, with a "test it!" arrow pointing to the switch.

leon2245 said:

Coast not only encourages it, but goes so far as to angle a mirror at you inside their packaging, with a "test it!" arrow pointing to the switch.

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at the very least, i think that their packaging has a "do not look directly into led" or something of the sort...I smell a lawsuit coming lol..."because it's a mirror, it is NOT directly at the LED. the disclaimer never said anything about indirectly viewing, and it's even on the package to try it out"

Also, i'm not sure, but i think that it may have been changed from the older packaging to read "do not shine beam into eyes"

So haw many lux would a focused Maglite be for 200 lumens?

My Malkoff'd 2D does 23k+, outdoing my Hound Dog.

I think 200 lumens is too much to give it to small kids. Incandescent AA or AAA Maglite is a good choice in my opinion.

rasmasyean said:

So haw many lux would a focused Maglite be for 200 lumens?

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I think the mag only goes up to ~ 131 lumens....so we may never know.



The cd is pretty high though, as when focused to throw, the mag projects those 131 lumens pretty far, I'd guess close to ~ 33k cd (Mag 3 D, etc)