15mW green VS 100mW red

Greetings,

I have been reading the forum for a while but now I am opening this thread to ask for your opinion and feedback.

The Wicked Lasers Nano Series product features a 15mW green laser and a 100mW red laser version. My doubt is, how exactly do these two lasers differ? Do they have similar brightness given that they have such a different power to wavelength ratios? Are these powers enough to actually cause skin burn or perfectly safe on the skin? If so, which one burns more?

I am aware that most people around here dislike Wicked Lasers branding but I am asking this more in terms of understanding than any actual brand support.

Thanks in advance for your help and time! Much appreciated.

They have similar brightness, but green is a lot harder to produce because you need to pump and IR laser diode into multiple crystals to create green light, while red is just a diode. The red will burn a little, and both are SUPER OVERPRICED!!!

Hope this helped,
Kilter

Thanks for the reply. So the red burns a little and the green doesn't burn at all?

Also, are the beams from these two visible at night or only with fog?

The red will burn, the green wont, You'll be able to see the green's beam more clearly than the red (if at all)

At 15mW of green, the beam will be visible at night, however it will not be a bright beam. 100mW of red will be hard to see at night. The red will burn decently, the green will not. Both are overpriced

Do both need the use of glasses during responsible usage? WL informed me that they would recommend the glasses for the red but not entirely needed for the green. Is this correct?

Just a +

i think they went with low powered versions couse of the build in irc so that you can leave it on without pressing the button to be on the save side for people not familiar with laser runtimes.

+ new WL comming out soon ^^

Smeerworst said:

Just a +

i think they went with low powered versions couse of the build in irc so that you can leave it on without pressing the button to be on the save side for people not familiar with laser runtimes.

+ new WL comming out soon ^^

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Sorry I didn't understand your reply. You mean that we don't need to use glasses with the Nano due to the low power? Also that +, will the Nano series be updated soon?

Joshuan said:

Sorry I didn't understand your reply. You mean that we don't need to use glasses with the Nano due to the low power? Also that +, will the Nano series be updated soon?

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You still want to wear glasses with these lasers.
I'm just saying that they made the nano serie's relative low powered so you can leave them on for a long period of time.

No update's on the nano, it is what it is....

You guys mentioned how overpriced these WL are, so I have a question. Could you tell me where can I buy a more reasonably priced green laser 15mW or just slightly brighter, including shipping to Europe which WL offers for free? Preferably featuring some cool looking host as well.

Thank you.

Joshuan said:

You guys mentioned how overpriced these WL are, so I have a question. Could you tell me where can I buy a more reasonably priced green laser 15mW or just slightly brighter, including shipping to Europe which WL offers for free? Preferably featuring some cool looking host as well.

Thank you.

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Honestly most ebay pens will give you > 15mW in green and around at LEAST > 50mW in red sure you can get a dud every now and then but at the price you get them for it not a big deal. Ive had mine for ages and they are still all going some around 5mW but most a lot overspec having alkaline batteries in ebay pens makes a big difference to output power unless your happy with 50 mw for 15 minutes with cheap batteries before you need to replace them to keep that output power going

Since you didn't specify what wavelength is your "red" and "green" laser.
I'll assume its the box standard 638nm and 532nm.

Here is a comparison of its brightness in terms of beam and spot using the Rohanhill tool which utilizes the CIE data in calculating the relative brightness of the beam as affect by Raleigh scattering.


Both of them won't burn unless you are diffraction limited focussing it to less than 0.5mm (random number , cos I can't be arsed to calculate the necessary mW/cm2 )

However, the red one at 100mW will cause permanent scotomas if shown in the eye since it exceed the MPE
https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=...ac.uk/aboutus/healthandsafety/LaserSafety.pdf

EpicHam said:

Since you didn't specify what wavelength is your "red" and "green" laser.
I'll assume its the box standard 638nm and 532nm.

Here is a comparison of its brightness in terms of beam and spot using the Rohanhill tool which utilizes the CIE data in calculating the relative brightness of the beam as affect by Raleigh scattering.

Both of them won't burn unless you are diffraction limited focussing it to less than 0.5mm (random number , cos I can't be arsed to calculate the necessary mW/cm2 )

However, the red one at 100mW will cause permanent scotomas if shown in the eye since it exceed the MPE
https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=...ac.uk/aboutus/healthandsafety/LaserSafety.pdf

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Thank you for the technical input. That is very interesting. Much appreciated!

Sorry for being such a newbie around these things.

So the green might be safe to use without glasses? I mean this under responsible use of course, not in kids' hands.

Also, to see the beam in clear nights with no fog is the 15mW enough or should need more power?

Joshuan said:

Thank you for the technical input. That is very interesting. Much appreciated!

Sorry for being such a newbie around these things.

So the green might be safe to use without glasses? I mean this under responsible use of course, not in kids' hands.

Also, to see the beam in clear nights with no fog is the 15mW enough or should need more power?

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Any laser can be safe to use so as long as its not higher than 5mW in output and in the visible spectrum .

As for what power do you need to see the beam at night.
Even a 5mW green laser can be seen at night given that your eyes are adapted to the scotopic vision.
However, generally speaking if you want a high visibility at the low power.
Green lasers are your best bet .
For 2 reasons.

1: Green is the most sensitive wavelength to the human eye .

2: Green light is moderately scattered by the atmosphere without losing its final spot brightness.

3: 5mW Green lasers are readily available at a low price (Note, eBay lasers and Walmart lasers often are overspecced and is pumping out far more than 5mW , sometimes even at 50mW with 30mW being an invisible IR light that would threaten to blind the user when he mistaken the laser as being off or broken)


We would love to give you some suggestion on what to buy. However it really depends on a few things .

1: Your budget
2: Your intended use for the laser.
3: Your favourite color



PS: No need to be sorry , I'm a newbie too

EpicHam said:

We would love to give you some suggestion on what to buy. However it really depends on a few things .

1: Your budget
2: Your intended use for the laser.
3: Your favourite color



PS: No need to be sorry , I'm a newbie too

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Thanks for the help!

1. It really depends on what is available and aesthetics of the host as well. That's actually what attracted me on WL.

2. The laser I'm looking for is one with the best visibility of beam (and dot at considerable distance) while having the less burning/damage possible. So it must be a good equilibrium between the two.

3. Green really isn't my favourite color but it seems to be the best option for my intended use, given that it has the brighter beam with less power as you explained, so green it is.

For example I have checked lazerer as an alternative to WL that I have seen recommended several times in this forum, but since they charge for shipping in the end the price isn't that much cheaper than WL, with a less good looking host.

With that said, what different options would you recommend?

You will see a 100 mW red 638 nm at night as stated in above posts the beam and spot as well obviously not like a green but i tested tonight an exact 100mw +/- 2 mW LPM 638 nm red and yes a beam is seen this is fairly basic stuff but that's what the forum is for i would get couple few eBay pens to start with and then progress up after playing with them so to speak ..