One of my son's friend had this laser he paid $50 for it and he wanted me to play with it. This laser is the brightest dang laser I have ever seen. It's so bright that when you shine it on a license plate on a car at the right angle it damn near blinds you with a wall of light. It's so bright that it looks like the beam has misty green rain inside of it since the color is green. You can shine the beam up in the air and it goes farther than anything I have ever seen. It will laugh at 400yds like it was 20yds. I want one. LOL!
You should read up on the dangers of lasers before you go buying something. They can blind you in an instant without protective laser glasses. A good source is laserpointerforums.com.
Yea I know how bright and the dangers associated with them. I still want one.
You can get a green laxer pointer (5mA) for about $25 online shipped from here in the U.S. (assuming you live here). The green ones are more visible to our eyes (as you found out) than the red ones.
I use one as a finder on my telescope. They are also fun just for use as a pointer. You should assume that most cheaper ones aren't UV protected so don't shine them directly at anyone (or animals for that matter).
You can see the beam at night but you can more easily see the dot (than a red one) even in the daytime.
Post a review when you get one! If you order now that should be in about 3 days :)
I have one I got from T-Mart for about $35. Amazingly bright, and has a key-lock at the rear. Lasers over 5mA are technically illegal in the USA, but that does not seem to stop T-Mart from shipping them.
THey are a little spooky in terms of the damage they can do to your eyes. My understanding is that if someone shines a 150mA laser at your face, you can't blink fast enough to keep it from blinding you. So don't shine at reflective surfaces, my friend.
Yea I don't think I should of shined it at the license plate. Eyes feel wierd. So maybe I don't need one. But they are cool.
Langcjl and I got a (supposedly) 100 mA green laser from T-Mart for about that price a while back. Actually, Lang (I think it was Lang) got his and did a video and after seeing that I couldn't get over to T-Mart fast enough. I have had so much fun with that damn thing. It encourages me to behave like a 14 year old. I think E1320 got one even more powerful for not too much more $$.
Also; I don't mean to be a safety-nag but with my laser at least, one wrong bounce off anything shiny can be very bad news. Additionally, most of these inexpensive green lasers don't have an infrared filter (mine does not) and the infrared levels your eye cannot detect can often be double or more of the rated green laser output. I might be describing it wrong but whatever they do bad to your eyes is permanent.
I say supposedly 100mA because these cheapies usually always over-rate them but whatever it is, it's a lot because the beam is huge. It also seems like the beam is getting fatter the more I use it. At around 50 yards the spot is 3 or 4 inches wide.
Foy
This is the one you want I can't believe they still have them for $35.
It ships from Brookline NY so you will get it in a couple days.
This thing is no joke get some safety glasses. It lights matches and cigarette butts, cuts black electrical tape and trash bags cuts them like a knife through butter. It will reflect off of low level clouds at night 2-3 miles up. I turn the streetlights off with mine.
This is as close to 200mW you can get for this price. It uses 16340 batteries and it eats them up quick. Be very careful with this thing it is not a toy trust me.
I want it! (I know I can't have it - but I still want it)
I will buy this someday :D
I think it is a good self defense weapon, around my home there are some known thief and police doesn't do anything even with evidence...
I wonder about this one. It runs off of a 18650.
I wonder if i stuck a reflector on it with an emitter glued to it to disguise it as a flashlight if it would make it through customs.
Any laser from ebay is like playing the lottery if your in the US. Anything over 5mw is illegal to sell. If you notice the ad doesnt even state the output power. The model number would insinuate that it is 50mw but if you recieved a 5mw you would be stuck with it. That is if customs didnt decide to keep it.
I think mine is rated 250mw
The blue and purple lasers are the ones that throw out an unusually high amount of UV rays. People who buy blue lasers wear special goggles when using them. I don't think the green ones have that UV "flare" that the blue ones have.
Someone please correct me if I'm wrong...
I will correct you then hehe. Green lasers use a process known as DPSS to create the 532nm green wavelength. The process begins with an IR 808nm(not UV) laser diode. Most cheap green lasers do not have an IR filter in the end to remove any IR that gets through this process.
Most blue or violet lasers use a diode that directly emits the color which means no IR.
Green laser pointers produce excess infra red laser light. It's because they use an 808nm infra red semiconductor laser to pump an even deeper infra red 1064nm crystal laser, whose output is then fed into a frequency doubler to produce the green 532nm laser light.
cd520 and Tido, Infrared light can cause heat damage to the eye, and you can't see it, so you don't blink. But it takes a concentration similar to the 'regular' visible beam of the laser to do that kind of heat damage.
Blue lasers emit UV rays that are not only invisible, but are not concentrated in the beam of the laser, rather my understanding is that they 'flare' and sort of surround the beam. UV rays (remember seeing UV protection labels on your sunglasses?) cause photochemical damage to your eyes that can accumulate over a period of time. Its a lot different than heat damage, and a lot more difficult to detect. Blue lasers are cool but they scare me a lot more than red and green lasers.
Photochemical eye damage occurs mostly with short wavelength (blue and violet) lasers.
The most typical blue laser you will see emits 445nm. There is no mystery sub 400nm piggy backed emission to the beam. Actual UV band starts at 400nm. Blacklights emit 350-371nm UV. Now a violet laser at 405nm is pretty close to UV. Personally I wouldnt be worried about it unless your taking directs hits from the laser lol.
that sure looks tempting. what kind of glasses do you guys recommend? thanks.
These have been tested by folks and work great. I have a pair myself. I couldnt find the same dealer on ebay that I purchased mine from but the link is the same goggles. They work great for blue, violet and green lasers. Do note with green lasers that do not have an IR filter built in those goggles will not block 808nm IR.