Noob needs help making a choice between 445 and 473!

Hey all, I'm a noob, all lasers i ever had were chinese, finger size red lasers that were less than 5mW, and 4 years ago i bought 30mW green laser from DealExtreme which got its lens dirty and i couldnt focus it anymore, so i sold it to an idiot friend for the same price I got it for.

Anyway, instead of browsing forums and google for hours i just have few specific questions I'd like to have answered please.
I want a powerful laser, but I also want it to be very bright and visible.. Since 405nm is the most powerful because of its highest frequencies I wanted it for a long while but then i discovered that being VIOLET it doesn't shine far,

I want BLUE, so now im deciding between 445nm and 473nm
I've seen VERY good deals with 445nm laser, I really want power so i will probably go for 1.3W ones, but thing is about those, they are not sky blue, they are between blue and violet which is indigo, so it looks dark blue-ish with indigo and almost violet haze around the dot(at least thats what i see on the pictures), and beams on some pictures also look indigo.. ANYONE who owns both of 445 and 473 what would you recommend I get? I checked out 473nm as well, it is lower frequency not as powerful but it looks so much brighter! And it is since the eye cornea is most sensitive to green color - and since sky blue is closer to green its very visible for humans, and animals, considering they cant see dark blue.. another reason i want 1.3W 445nm is because of its power it looks lighter almost like 473

Anyway, if that wasnt bad enough for the 473nm to have a lower frequency, they also do not come 1W at the same prices! I am sure they are out there, Im sure factories sell them for cheaper to other manufacturers, if anyone is aware of such deals id be glad to hear about them!

PS. I was thinking of going higher than 473 but those only seem to be ionic lasers so far, or if not ionic then crazy money.

LAST QUESTION, I went on some diode selling websites and some diodes are called 9mm, whats the difference between regular and 9mm diode?

If you must only have one here's a comparison:

473nm:
-Better beams
-Lower powers
-Higher Cost
-Less efficient
-Higher wavelength
-Safer
-Unstable powers

445nm:
-Cheap as shit
-Awful large beams
-Lower wavelength (not as nice of a colour in my opinion)
-Efficient
-Dangerous


As for the different between 9mm and 5.6mm diodes, 9mm's can usually produce more power than their 5.6mm counterparts.

A good 100mW 473nm laser is around 400$. A good 1000mW 445nm laser is around 200$.
Compare the differences and see if the extra price is worth it to you. In my opinion 473nm is much better.

why do you say that 445nm is a large awful beam, it doesn't look that way from the pics, and it shines pretty far unlike 405 which we wont even discuss... with 1W of power it may look close to 473, except for the pink haze that you would get... I want a powerful one that could burn stuff and be visible and good with distance, at this moment 473 is too expensive, but when the prices start to go down ill definitely own both!

I own both.
Comparing them side by side:

My 445nm 700mW and 1,7W are obviously the brightest because of their raw power. Colour wise I would call them "blue".

My 473nm 100mW is still very bright, but side my side its a darker blue, I actually prefer it to the 445nm.

I also have a 488nm 14mW Argon laser and that is almost as bright at the 473, and more of a light sky blue colour. Compared side by side the argon looks turquiose or almost green next to the other two.

There are some comparison pics here.

I just tried another pic but its very hard to capture as even the 700mW 445 wipes the camera out, I'll try to post another one soon.

I saw your post and pictures already, I have came to a conclusion about colors, that the higher the power, the brighter the wavelength is going to look, so for example if you add BRIGHTNESS to BLUE it will look something like this:
Blue Haze Blue Haze Blue
Blue Haze DOT Blue Haze
Blue Haze Blue Haze Blue

473nm, if you got your hands on 1W+ the dot would probably look white with sky blue haze like this:
Sky Haze Sky Haze Sky
Sky Haze DOT Sky Haze
Sky Haze Sky Haze Sky

(I know i used cyan instead of sky blue but you get the idea)

basically what i understood from your pictures, side by side is really helpful since we cant really see the colors, and lol i wish there was a pocket ionic laser.... btw why aren't you able to crank up your ionic laser to 1W aren't they able to go up to higher power??

No can't crank the Argon up to 1W its only rated for a few tens of mW.

The 1 watt blues look really bright to the eye and they overexpose the camera which is why they look so white / bright. I did try and get some more shots today in light to try and show you, I'll post them soon.

Pics....

Note how the colours change depending on which two you are looking at:

Just the 473 and Argon on:


All 3 on:


Trying to get better colour rendition by increasing F stops:

I've got a few comparison pics too that may be helpful:



473nm laser is on the top, bottom is 445 turned down a fair bit.



445, 473 and multiline argon.



ML argon, 473 and 445. As you can see, the 473 has a much nicer dot (Ignoring the scatter around the outside as that's a known defect with these lasers)

Better pics, Thanks Dan. My camera sux, I need an SLR.

If you can afford that, I would go with 473nm (or wait for price drop).
But if you want power, then pick a 445nm.

ohhhh Things your pics show it all thanks! you too Aus! Argon is cyan, 473 is pure sky blue, and 445 is deep blue grr, I dont wanna pay so much for the sky blue yet, I will compensate with brightness of 445nm by now by getting 1W+

Thank you very much for the comparison, I will get 445nm for now, and will wait for the 473 to power up a bit and get cheaper, and then i will get it for sure... now I need to research drivers and diodes as my knowledge of those is a total zero, so once im done researching I will either attempt to make it or I will send the parts to one of u guys and pay you for the work, OR ill just buy one from one of you..

Research first!

lol we use 445nm lasers in Bio lab, well we dont really use it its just in our Confocal Microscope, 445nm is enough to excite fluorescent dyes we use to stain bacteria, really cool stuff you should check it out, also the dark field microscopy - simply amazing, im not sure about the wavelength of that light though, i think it might be UV