Brightness of a 300mw Laser?

[Flashanator]

A newbie question. Was woundering if you can get an idea of how bright say a high end 300mW laser pointer is? Can you measure it in candle power? A 300mW has to be so much more brighter then the sun at point blank range.

:huh:

 

[Jamesmark72]

Would depend on the color.

 

[Aseras]

I have a 1.1 watt IR pointer that's barely visible. a 200mw red looks almost the same a 5 mw red, which as about the same as the 1.1 watt 808nm laser I have looks.

A 300 mw green is blindingly bright green to the point of seeing spots, but I often see spots after a 5mw on a reflective surface like a presentation screen.

blue during the day isn't impressive, but at night it's almost as good as a green.

 

[Aseras]

I can read in the dark with 5 mw green. A 200mw red doesn't let you see much of anything but a red spot. a 300mw green at night is enough to light up a house and see very well inside.

 

[nero_design]

It's exceptionally bright. A 300mW dot is simply too dazzling to be safely viewed up close due to specular reflection concerns. It will look visibly brighter than a 200mW and will seem to be identical to a 400mW even though there's a power variation between the two. In this range of output, you need to almost double the output in order to see a comparable difference.

Unless using such a laser for astronomy or signaling, you should be VERY careful with viewing lasers at this power and higher because of the danger potential. I just received a 350mW laser from Techlasers to review and I am not prepared to experiment with it until I get home as I have no safety glasses here.

300mW is pushing the boundaries of safety in other aspects such as reflections over distances but it certainly gives a visible beam in fairly bright conditions too if you are close to the aperture, and the dot is virtually as bright as a Class 3B can get before you move into Class 4 territory since 300mW and 400mW look much the same to the eye due to the way the eye perceives green frequency light wavelengths.