hello i am new to lasers and do now own any! i have seen some videos and some tv programs on them and would like to own one....BUT i dont know anything about them...i looked at the Arctic Spyder III. worth the money? what do you guys think?

Well what you should know about lasers is that they are no toys , can blind your eyes instand and you need to learn about lasers before you buy your first 5 mW laser.
And don't buy the ArCRAPtic Spyder III

Welcome to the forum btw , enjoy your stay

yea i have seen that they are nothing to play with .... what would you guys recommend that wont be a waist of money in 2 weeks.... something i wont "outgrow" anytime soon

Buy this 1
LZTN - 532nm 5mW Smallest Green Laser Pointer Key Chain and learn how to respect a laser , I ordered this 1 few weeks ago and i expect it will come this week @ my door

Lol..the first thing that everyone on this site will recommend is really good eye protection. There are plenty of links to different goggle types that match different laser ranges all over the website. Check into these first. Protecting your eyes is paramount when deciding on a laser. I've only been here two days and have read probably 50 threads on different types of lasers and these folks know what they are talking about.

In my personal opinion, a good starting laser would be in the 5 to 50mW range depending on how much research you have done and what applications you depend on using it for. You will see the wide range of lasers in everyone's signatures that they currently own and they range from very small pen types (5 mW) to some of the much larger ones (1-2W) that only experienced laserists should even contemplate owning.

Take the time to read the different forum sections and you'll see what I mean.

can you ever see the beam with out smoke or fog? or is that just in the movies? i would be using it in the construction field and it would have to be visible up to 20 stories.

a 100mW green would be plenty visible

ill check them out thanks

You don't need to see the beam a 5 - 10 mW green laser dot will go easy go 20 stories

If he needs the beam to be visible for that distance, it sounds like he wants the laser to act as a straight edge or chalk line/plumb bob. I don't have the background to know if that will be possible in daylight.

100mW green's beam won't be visible in daylight without some reflecting medium (dust, fog, smoke, etc) in the air. Even 300mW of Red won't have a very visible beam, even in darkness, if the air is pretty clean. I don't have experience with daytime beamshots of 445nm or 532nm above 100mW so I couldn't tell you if they would be enough. 532nm is one of the most visible wavelengths though.

1) get a 5mW pointer, try to avoid 405nm (blu-ray violet) for your first laser because it looks a lot less bright then it is and your eyes won't blink fast enough to protect you from injury at that wavelength. Either red or green should work well. Just get acustomed to pointing it around and noticing how it reflects off of things. This will give you a better idea of what is and what is not safe to point at a laser at (if it is shiny and reflects back to you, don't point at it). 5mW is considered the "safe" laser power level because at that low power your eyes are usually fast enough to blink before real damage is done.

2) Buy a very good quality pair of laser protection goggles for the wavelength of laser you want to buy. "OD" is optical density, and is a measure of how much the lens protects you. Over 100mW you need at least OD2, and over 300mW I would recommend at least OD4. At >500mW I wouldn't feel safe without a lens of at least OD6.

3) Research laser safety principles and familiarize yourself with the risks, not only for yourself but for others in the area.

4) decide upon and purchase your high power laser.

If you want to get a very strong 445nm blue then dont go with the crappy Artic you mentioned, there is the Lazerer 445nm 1W+ (1000mW+) Rifles Series. They are very well built and reliable, and rather inexpensive for the amount of power as well. Owning one of these lasers requires that you understand and maintain the highest level of laser safety. You need a very good quality pair of laser goggles OD6+, and to NEVER EVER point it at anything that can reflect the beam to yourself or anyone else. Even a split second of one of these lasers' beams hitting your eye will cause loss of vision. That's it, blindness in a fraction of a second.

If you want to get a very strong 445nm blue then dont go with the crappy Artic you mentioned, there is the Lazerer 445nm 1W+ (1000mW+) Rifles Series. They are very well built and reliable, and rather inexpensive for the amount of power as well. Owning one of these lasers requires that you understand and maintain the highest level of laser safety. You need a very good quality pair of laser goggles OD6+, and to NEVER EVER point it at anything that can reflect the beam to yourself or anyone else. Even a split second of one of these lasers' beams hitting your eye will cause loss of vision. That's it, blindness in a fraction of a second.[/QUOTE]

Wow, that's powerful. Is a 300mw IR laser powerful enough to do the same damage. I'm considering buying one or maybe a bit more powerful, with a variable beam so you can flood or narrow the beam.
I need the laser for night vision, I'm using a camcorder with nightshoot 0 lux. And need IR laser to light the area I'm filming. I've mounted the camera to 3x9x50 scope and I'm looking for a IR laser that I can mount on the scope.. I'm a complete novice with night vision just experimenting.
Any of you guys know of a laser that would be good enough for this purpose,
Cheers craggrat

IR lasers are actually more dangerous than visible spectrum lasers.

a 5mW IR laser is FAR more dangerous than a 5mW visible laser. So yes, a 300mW IR is enough to blind you instantly, and the worst part... you would NEVER know it was happening until your vision just blacked out.

the 5mW "rule" is based on the fact that your eyes blink fast enough when a bright light is shone into them at 5mW and under. The thing is, only visible light makes you blink. UV and IR do not cause the blink reflex. So, a 5mW laser beam could be reflecting directly into your eyes and you would never know it, never look away, and never blink, until the damage was already done.

You can still use IR lasers for illumination but you must be damned sure it cannot reflect to any eyeballs at all. Also, night vision equipment (incl. nightshot cams) require very very little light to work. I'd try at most maybe a 50mW, and I wouldn't be comfortable being indoors with it without a pair of OD3+ IR goggles on my face. Outdoors, if pointed the oposite way and nothing in it's path for at least several hundred feet... maybe I'd bump it up to 100mW, but only if absolutely needed. The adjustable focus is a good call though, especially when used for illumination. Plus a very spread beam lessens danger level.... minutely.

Sigurthr.
Thank you so much for making me aware of the dangers of 300mw lasers. I'm a complete novice when it comes too lasers. The only experience I've had with them is the pionter type laser I've bought for my children. And I used to tell them not to point the laser into anyone's eye's.
If you go on the YouTube sight you will see videos off guys shooting using IR lasers with Sonycamcorders with nightshoot facility, shooting rats rabbits.
I joined one of there forums and I've built one of theses to do some night shooting myself. I have had two ATN night vision scopes myself, and I must say the Sonycamcorder version is better than the ATN gen 1. Here is a link to a video they have posted showing you the 300mw IR laser. VerminHuntersTV's Channel - YouTube

Here is a link to the site www.nightvisionforumuk.com • View topic - 300mW laser IR test by lads at verminhunters tv the site is for shooters mainly. The guys on the site are a good bunch, interested in night vision but cannot afford the expensive gen2, gen3 units on the Market. Like myself due to a accident I am unable to work. So anything like gen2-3 is far to expensive for me to purchase. But to build a unit for under £150 that work out too 200yds. That's why I joined there site.
But I'm so glad I've joined this forum, it's made me more aware of the dangers. Would you mind if I copy your reply too me and post it on there forum to make others aware of the dangers.
I'm looking at the lazerer 445nm when I've finished this post.
Thanks agian craggrat (Kevin)

Hi sigurthr
I put into google Lazerer 445nm 1W+ (1000mW+) Rifles Series. And it comes up with burning blue laser. I can see why this would be classified as dangerous. I thought the laser would be for IR use to illuminate at night for night vision.
Cheers craggrat

To anyone new.... It would be wise to read " Shot in the eye with a1 watt " stickied in the safty section . It will make you respect lasers fast. Ask Xoul.

Glad to help! I don't mind at all if you copy my post. Laser safety needs to be posted everywhere people who use or think about lasers are.

The wavelength ("color", measured in "nm" (nanometers)) often determines the purpose of the laser. IR is anything above 700nm. IR is subdivided a lot, but the divisions aren't very important for most applications. If you want IR that cannot be seen at all it has to be above 900nm. Many people (including myself) can see 808nm rather well. It appears as a dim red. 808nm, 940nm, and 1064nm are some of the most common wavelengths.

405 = violet, which is NUV (Near UV), makes things fluoresce, and burns the best because of high absorption.

445 = cerulean blue, currently the highest power available in direct diode form.

473 = sky blue, very expensive to produce in an inefficient manner called DPSS.

510 = forrest green, the first direct diode green, we're waiting on real production to start, it could revolutionize the green laser market and drastically affect prices once it is readily available.

532 = standard green, also made inefficently and expensively (at higher powers) by DPSS.

594 = Yellow, either produced by DPSS or HeNe Gas lasers, expensive and unavailable at very high powers.

612nm = orange HeNe Gas Laser, unavailable at even what most people consider "low" power, expensive.

632.8 = orangish red (looks red to me though), HeNe standard color. inexpensive, but always lower than 30mW.

635 = orangish red (again, looks plain red to me), direct diode highly visible red. Medium price, available in high powers.

650 = standard direct diode red (looks blood red to me), very cheap, available in a wide range of powers, was one of the first mass produced diode wavelength.

670 = dark red, usually very low power and inexpensive, iirc was the first mass produced diode available to the public.

Lasers between 500nm and 600nm are visially brighter to humans than any other. I forget the exact peak wavelength, but it is in the mid 500's, I'd say around 560nm. It is my opinion that the 400-500 range is brighter than the 600-700 range. People perceive these two areas differently, and for me 450nm is FAR brighter than 650nm. Heck, 405nm is still brighter than 650nm to me.

That should help you while you're looking through various lasers for sale. It certainly isn't a complete listing though and many manufacturers label wavelengths + or - 5nm. So, a 445nm is a 450nm, etc.

If you want to use high powered IR for hunting (and it does work great!) make sure you pick up a pair of IR Laser goggles that have a high VLT (visible light transmission, which is a measurement of how well you can see out of them). The real danger is having the laser reflect back at you, or someone else. As long as it can be ensured this does NOT happen, lasers can be used very safely.

Hi xenophobe, thanks for the link. It really opens your eye's to the dangers of laser's.
Thanks.

Sigurthr
What a informative post. Putting into laymans terms easy to understand. Thanks, I'm starting to appreciate the dangers and how to. Respect lasers.
Thanks