How much eye damage from a 5W(or 1.5W) 850nm IR flashlight?

VidnaVidna said:

So I must be fairly stupid, but I purchased one of these for purposes outside of hunting, or photography. An Ilauke 5W 850nm IR flashlight

*Link removed by Greta

For some reason I thought the thing would output some visible light when powered on, and thought I had a faulty device. So I unwittingly ended up looking directly at the IR diodes with my naked eyes...several times, for several seconds each time.

Let's say to give a generous overestimate, I looked directly at the LEDS when powered on 3 times, for ~6 seconds each time. at 1-1.5 feet away. I didn't notice any ill effects afterwards, but I'm assuming this is unhealthy in hindsight?

It's worth noting that while the device is advertised at 5W a reviewer says it's only 1.5W running on a standard AA battery.

What kind of damage does stuff like this do, if it is not immediately impairing, what ill effects can one expect?

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lightfooted said:

Fortunately for you...I guess??? If you had in fact damaged your eyes, the effect would be instantaneous...more or less. I'm not an optometrist or anything so don't take my opinion for more than that. I would take this time to point out that most cell phone cameras (and most digital cameras in general) can see infrared light. This is one way you can safely check the emitter to ensure it is in fact working.

Also something you may not be aware of is that infrared radiation is also known as heat.

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VidnaVidna said:

I just have an android moto G 3rd generation, it doesn't seem to detect IR, unless the setting to do so is somewhere? but I can use the back facing camber pointed at the diodes, to see that they are on, since they do glow red visibly.

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lightfooted said:

Ha! Of course you are using one of the few manufacturers that decided to include an IR filter over the main camera lens "to reduce glare". You should be able to see IR light using the front camera as it is used in the gesture detection your phone is capable of.

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lightfooted said:

Ha! Of course you are using one of the few manufacturers that decided to include an IR filter over the main camera lens "to reduce glare". You should be able to see IR light using the front camera as it is used in the gesture detection your phone is capable of.

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chillinn said:

Isn't it interesting that we'd call that an IR filter, because it filters out IR preventing it from reaching the sensor (and what else would we call it?), but when we put a color filter on our camera or flashlights, what we see is that color, and not the absence of that color. Red filters are red and using them produces red light... it doesn't filter out the red light leaving us with what is left, everything but red. Also, it's strange that we drive on a parkway, but park on a driveway. ;-)

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