Purple Photon III - UV warning?!

[John N]

I just got a purple Photon III Crystal and noticed it had a warning about UV on the package and on the light. It says:

"Caution. Intense UV light can cause eye damage if viewed directly. Keep away from children."

Huh? So purple has a lot of UV? How much of an issue is this?

I plan on using this with one of the Rav'n Crystals as a marker light on one of my dog's collars. Should I get a different color?

Thanks,

-john

 

[Deleted member 684]

Cyan? IT's brite, easily noticable.

 

[Marty Weiner]

I have a couple in Turqoise. It's brighter than white and the beam is broader. I like them very much.

Marty

 

[Don Klipstein Jr.]

I just checked out the Photon site, and they do now have Photon II and Photon 3 in "purple", which they say is 405 nm.

405 nm LEDs do exist and are often referred to as UV LEDs. Some of the light from them is at wavelengths below 400 nm. Wavelengths a little above 400 nm can also be bad for eyes at high intensity. Violet LEDs are at least as bad for eyes as blue LEDs are, and do not look as uncomfortably bright to look at. It as advised to not stare into them nor let children have them until they are old enough to understand that violet/UV LEDs are not good to strare into.

Another thing - Photon calls them purple, but they are actually violet. Do you know the difference between violet and purple - there is one! (Maybe not in Japanese, which has a smaller number of different color words than English does.) Violet is a spectral hue, while purple is a hue too red to be found in the spectrum.

BTW, there is such a thing as purple LEDs. ETG makes them. They appear to me to be blue-plus-phosphor plus some green-absorbing material in or over the phosphor. The color
is a magenta-ish lavendar. They also make pink LEDs.

- Don Klipstein ([email protected], http://www.misty.com/~don/index.html)

 

[John N]

(Yes, the one I got is the new "purple")

And blue LEDs are bad too? How bad? Should I avoid these colors?

Thanks,

-john

 

[INRETECH]

The problem is that the human eye doesn't see the brightness at the ends of the spectrum; so a LED that is on the edge of the spectrum may not "appear" to be bright and as such the human eye will not close the eyelid or "shy away" from it as it would with other colors that the human eye is more sensitive to

Illumination is not the problem using these LEDs; but staring into them

 

[EMPOWERTORCH]

Maplin have started to sell high powered Nichia UV LED's and I think that a warning is included in the latest edition of thier catalogue.
Any bright light source of any colour or wavelength can harm the eyes. A 5W cyan luxeon can cause black spots in your vision for several minutes if it is shone straight at an unprotected dark-adjusted eye!
I would be interested in getting hold of some of those phosphor-bssed purple LED's though as I've had several people enquire about me making a purple torch for them!