Hi, I recently got my Acebeam W30 (6000k) in the mail and was testing it with a friend. By accident it was moved by my eye quickly at a 2.5 meter distance. Saw the usual spot you get from a bright light for about a minute or so before it was gone, no headache or anything else after the fact.
Should I be in any way worried about this? Not sure if I’m overreacting but I’d rather be safe than sorry
Thank you in advance for any replies
From what I read before buying my first LEP Astrolux WP3 (LEP-R or LEP-M, the same type of LEP, if I'm not mistaken ).
There shouldn't any significant blue laser in the beam. So it's just very high intensity light, that can still harm the eye, but just as much as any very bright light.
The damage should be visible, when you close your eyes, you will see light there (but it should fade). If you take 1.5 millions candela in the eye, I would still "see" the eye doctor 
(well, with my private healthcare plan I can visit eye doctor without additional payment, so why wouldn't I go).
But there shouldn't be any significant permanent damage, so you are lucky this time (from what you are writing).
Make a diffuser for your lep just to be safe, and don't leave the side of someone that have LEP in the hands, so they can't harm you or others.
I made diffuser from Rifle Scope Quick Flip Lens Cover with + Matte Window Film https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/67094/295 around 5-6$ cost with shipping
I would only start worrying if the luxvalues surpass that of bright midday sunlight, this is usually considered 130,000 lux, because our eyes are built to look briefly into the sun by accident and not be damaged.
Going higher than an eye could possibly receive in natural circumstances is no guarantee for damage btw (when the first trains went into service in the 19th century, people were worried about the human body going at 30 mph because humans were never designed to go that fast), but at least you go into unknown territory which is a good idea to avoid.
Some calculations.
I have no W30 but my brandless LEP flashlight from Neal’s gadgets has a brightness of 1 million cd, that is 7.7 times as bright as bright midday sun at 1 meter, at least assumed that at 1 meter the beam is fully collimated. At 2 meter the brightness has fallen to 250,000 lux which is still brighter than midday sun. At 2.8 meter you arrive at the midday sun level of 130,000 lux.
I assumed full collimation at 1 meter, but that is not quite true. I just did a measurement and I measure 370,000 lux at 1 meter, considerably less than 1 million but still much brighter than a midday sun. At 2 meter I measure 220,000 lux so fairly close to maximum collimation (which would be 250,000 lux) and still brighter than midday sun. So I would be worried if I look into it closer than 3 meter distance.
But there is a significant consideration which also is relevant to the situation described in the OP:
A couple of years ago at my school a bunch of 17 year olds bought powerfull green lasers at a local market in Rome when they went there on a school trip and started pointing them around everywhere in school when they were back, during class and during breaks. It took a while before we managed to seize them all so there had been many incidents of shining into eyes of other pupils and even some teachers. I estimate these lasers at at least 50mW, while the official threshold for eye damage is about 5mW. So why did all those people have no eye damage? This is because the damage treshold is based on an eye reflex of 0.25 seconds, which is the time it takes between exposure, realising something is wrong and looking away/shutting your eyes. However the residence time of the beam in an eye when the laser is wildly shined around as pupils do (as opposed to carefully aiming at one’s pupils) is much much shorter than 0.25 seconds, more likely single milliseconds, making it merely annoying instead of damaging.
Similarly, shining around a LEP flashlight will not easily damage eyes unless you purposely aim at someone’s eyes from close up leaving it to the victim’s reflexes to remove the beam from their eyes.
Thank you both, really appreciate the info. As an addition I didn’t look into the light, it was just shun into my eye from an angle (also wearing glasses, can’t see shit at night otherwise - so that must also play a small factor as it must disperse some light away) - I kind of saw it coming the way he was handling it so I think my reaction time was very fast too. I also don’t know if it was the hotspot or just the area around it, as it didn’t actually feel that bright (I did fuck up sometimes with less bright lights, hell - who doesn’t? - these felt way more bright than this). I’m always a bit paranoid when it comes to my health - not obsessive but I tent to be a bit more careful than those around me
The light I screwed up with in the past was the SP36 rated at 6000 or so lumens, right into my eyes at 30 cm range (thanks thunder/lightning mode - very nice). For what it’s worth, I recall this felt more bright than the events of yesterday