LED light can damage eyes, French health authority warns

From my days of yore as an offshore sports fisherman here in Japan around the Izu Islands, about 15 years ago, I went on line, looking for searchlights that would get me safely into harbors at night which were bounded by concrete tetrapod breakwaters.

I quickly discovered a blossoming world of portable lighting. An otaku world. LEDs were just starting to come of their own, but the real beasts of portable lighting were the HIDs, one of which I bought because it was handheld, waterproof to 200 meters, and had a single beam of 4,000 lumens, about 4 times brighter than a typical car headlight.

But in finding the right light for my purposes, I discovered an otaku-world of smaller, cheaper, and increasingly better hand-held LEDs, most of which still can not be found in brick and mortar stores.

In reading the article, I was struck by one thing that separates newbies from the more experienced. While the bluish end of the spectrum typically emits a brighter light, it does not light up things with colors as they appear under a more warm-tinged sunlight. Slightly weaker, more expensive, but closer to the sun towards the red end of the spectrum is easier on the eye-strain, and critical for electricians who have to identify colored wires in dark places.

One other difference that separates a newbie from an old-hand, is the attraction to 'throwers' as opposed to 'flooders'. A good thrower will send a visible beam over a thousand meters down range, but typically lights up a target no bigger than a beach ball. Not very useful for the average user, but packs a 'wow' factor.

A hand-held flooder, on the other hand, though they can now light up a couple of football sized fields, is typically much smaller, and casts a very wide, but short range beam. A 'mule' has no mirrored reflector at all, just a bare emitter which casts a wall of light, but only for a few meters. Even a tiny, AA sized mule with a 3.6 volt lithium battery (you can find them on Amazon), will light up a whole room, but because of the small size, will get too hot to hold within a minute or so. Good heat dissipation is the holy grail of good LED light design.

For offshore boating where distance is a must, a thrower is useful. But for looking for something you dropped in or around the car at night, a small flooder, particularly with a warm LED emitter, is just the ticket, and I always keep one on my keychain. A good, small flooder may cost anywhere from ¥3,000 to ¥10,000, with the best leads being designated as close to sunlight in warmth (high CRI) and made in Japan by Nichia. A couple of good on-line starting points to find the every widening variety of hand held lights include Battery Junction and Candleforums.

The article was about indoor lighting, and I did remember the cold, blue light of 'kekoto' (fluorescent bulbs) common in Japanese households when I first came to Japan about 36 years ago. Coming from America, I was used to the less efficient, but warmer-hued incandescent bulbs. I have since switched to LED, but like the article suggested, chose warm, incandescent looking LEDs. Expensive, but in the long-run, worth it for the eyes and the environment.

Interesting article and followup from Steve Martin. I'm a bit nerdy about lighting myself.

If you ever want to light up a garden, read Steve's post carefully. You need a lot of light of the right types to do it. A solar powered thing on a spike isn't going to illuminate your big sakura tree. Watch out for blueish solar garden lights too, common with the ones that boast about high power. They will make your place look like a haunted house, not an urban resort.

For computers and phones, there are apps which change the display to reduce blue at night time. If you have to work at night on documents, not colour-critical stuff, give them a try.

kohakuebisuToday  10:31 am JST

Thanks for the kudos, kohakuebisu.

Your 'haunted house' metaphor was spot-on (ha, bad pun on my part). Alas, I will never be able to afford to live in a place that has a garden. Spent my wad on lights. ;-)

That HID beast I referred to is a Polarion PH40 https://polarion-store.com/ph40/ ... a very warm 4300k light that can be kept on for an hour or more without being too hot. But at ¥200,000 pop, I won't be buying any more of those pups.

Although I am a bit of an otaku for lights, I am new to using an iPhone, and was pleased to see a 'warm' setting for night viewing mode, similar to what is on my mac. Good advice.

I am wondering which is more effective for reducing the chance of macular degeneration ... using a warmer tint to the computer / smart phone device, or wearing the yellowish UV blocking sunglasses advertised for heavy computer users?

After re-reading my post, caught a few spell-check errors, and wish I could have added a bit more, for example how the fashion for a bluish tinge in car headlights is not a very bright idea (another pun intended).

Wish we could touch bases. You can find me on Quora at https://www.quora.com/profile/Steven-Martin-2 or Facebook at NipponnoSteve.

Long-lasting, energy efficient and inexpensive, light-emitting diode (LED) technology has gobbled up half of the general lighting market in a decade, and will top 60 percent by the end of next year, according to industry projections.

It seems to have gobbled up 100% of all the lighting at Aeon, that's all they have.