Near infrared vs. infrared

[Artist]

I'm confused. I just got a 660nm & 880nm LED from theledman.com and the 880nm side is invisible and called infrared, while the acnelamp 880nm lights are visible and called near-infrared. How can that be? I thought they would be the same thing since they are both 880nm.. Is anyone using infrared (the invisible light) on rosacea?

Artist

[GJ]

'The visible spectrum (or sometimes optical spectrum) is the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that is visible to (can be detected by) the human eye. Electromagnetic radiation in this range of wavelengths is called visible light or simply light. There are no exact bounds to the visible spectrum; a typical human eye will respond to wavelengths from 400 to 700 nm, although some people may be able to perceive wavelengths from 380 to 780 nm.'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visible_light


The Acnelamp folk are confused. Unless you are catwoman you will not be able to detect 880nm.

The light from elixa's 880nm arrays are, as one would expect, invisible. Just beginning to use them routinely.

[Artist]

Oh jeeze, never mind! I just turned on the acnelamp light and looked more closely. Many of the bulbs are not visible. It was hard to tell before because they are mixed in with the visible ones and I've hardly looked at it since we need to protect our eyes from it. How funny. Thanks for the help!

Artist

[sarah]

Hey, why did you a new lamp from theledman.com ? what was wrong with the read and near infrared lamp you had from acne lamp? Are you still having good results with it?

Hope you had a nice xmas
Sarah

[Artist]

Yes my results with the acnelamp are wonderful so I want to cover more of my face with those wonderful rays! The single head covers about 75% of my face I think..the central portion inclucing the cheeks and around the mouth, but I don't think it quite reaches the perimeter of my face or my ears. Purchasing a second acnelamp or the acnelamp double head is very expensive so I opted to add the inexpensive ledman since it has the same bulbs. So, I'll use both at one time to cover my entire face and ears in one 15 minute session per day. Plus I was curious about the ledman. Should be good to travel with, too.

So far the biggest difference is that the acnelamp has red and near infrared bulbs mixed, but the ledman has one big square of red and another square of near infrared next to it. I think mixing the bulbs probably provides a more consistent and even distribution of the combination of rays. The acnelamp is nicer and easier to aim at my face with the flexible head, but you would expect that since it is more expensive.

Cheers!

Artist

[sarah]

Oh rite i understand now, Let me know how you get on with your new lamp. Fingers crossed your still get great results.Glad to hear your still doing well with it. I have ordered the same lamp as you from acne lamp looking forward to trying it out.I will let you know how i get on with it.

Keep in touch

Sarah

[IowaDavid]

What model did you get? What was the cost?

Good luck--I hope you'll be pleasantly surprised.

[Twickle Purple]

You can get a mixed model from the LEDMAN too. Which has the 660 and 880nm LEDs in a pattern that gives a uniform mix.

[Artist]

Really? grrrrr I should have gotten that one.

I got this one for $120

http://www.theledman.net/660880dual.htm

While trying to figure my question out, I learned about mcd from acnelamp. They said "MCD or Millicandela is a unit of measurement of the intensity of light. The higher the intensity the less time you should have to spend to achieve the same results." They also said they are getting a more powerful 630nm red light up to 15000 mcd.

Also, I was totally wrong about how to switch my read lights to yellow on my acnelamp head. Silly me..I was unscrewing the thing to do it. All you have to actually do is pull the top cover off, unplug the red, and plug in the yellow. I'll have to give the yellow a try since I know it's easy to switch out now.

Acnelamp explained it to me when I said I was going to try their yellow head I had ordered, but wanted to get a new lamp to put it in since I didn't want to have to unscrew the bolts to switch it out every day. They said I didn't have to buy another lamp, just pull off the top..no screwdriver needed. I felt pretty silly, but was glad to have avoided more costs.

Cheers!

Artist

[Twickle Purple]

V, the LEDMAN, does up the 'blended' units. You just need to send him an e-mail. He did my red+NIR flex unit this way, as well as my handheld yellow+red.

[Artist]

same price?

[Twickle Purple]

The flex unit was much larger so this was a different price category. The yellow+red would be a different price than the red+NIR because different colour LEDs are priced differently. Also, these handhelds are 96 LEDs. Under $200 would be a safe bet.

[Artist]

Makes sense. Thanks!

Artist

near infrared is merely a phrase used to describe the very beginning wavelengths of the infrared (invisible) spectrum. Up to approx 1064nm...when you get into deeper ranges it's far infrared & heats the water in the skin which is of not benefit to rosacea imo.

Unfortunately many articles/doctors use visible red light (up to 700nm) & near infrared interchangably. They're not the same & anything invisible LED's should be used w/eye protection.