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Brightest Beam?

arm94

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Yes, a 445 is very bright, but I dont think its as bright as you think. When you think of 1W is sounds like alot right. But what about 1W IR, That is nearly invisible but it is still 1W. Some wavelengths are brighter than others

Got ya... that puts it in a good perspective. Is there like a chart or something that ranks the brightness of wavelengths in respect to the human eye (i hope that isnt a dumb question)
 





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Got ya... that puts it in a good perspective. Is there like a chart or something that ranks the brightness of wavelengths in respect to the human eye (i hope that isnt a dumb question)
Not a dumb question but I never heard of such a chart. There might be such a thing but im not sure
 
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Eyesensitivity.png


532nm lasers are going to be the closest thing to 'peak vision efficiency' without getting into uber expensive exotics. Though keep in mind that dark adapted vision is shifted lower in the spectrum somewhat, but not by a huge amount. 532nm is still going to be the best bang for the buck.

What's funny and that I just noticed.. is that I pulled this image off of wikipedia... but the colored lines are common laser wavelengths. 405nm, 473nm, 532nm, 589nm, and 650nm.
 
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Eyesensitivity.png


532nm lasers are going to be the closest thing to 'peak vision efficiency' without getting into uber expensive exotics. Though keep in mind that dark adapted vision is shifted lower in the spectrum somewhat, but not by a huge amount. 532nm is still going to be the best bang for the buck.

What's funny and that I just noticed.. is that I pulled this image off of wikipedia... but the colored lines are common laser wavelengths. 405nm, 473nm, 532nm, 589nm, and 650nm.
I thought so ;)
 

arm94

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532nm lasers are going to be the closest thing to 'peak vision efficiency' without getting into uber expensive exotics. Though keep in mind that dark adapted vision is shifted lower in the spectrum somewhat, but not by a huge amount. 532nm is still going to be the best bang for the buck.

So if you were looking for a bright beam and you decided on the 532nm wavelength then increasing wattage will increase brightness in beam?
 

arm94

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Well with visible wavelengths, increasing the power of ANY beam will increase it's brightness. But lucky for you... I remembered the thread where the beam comparison adjustment ratios for chroma's numbers were.. 1W of 445, when comparing beam brightness, is equal to 99.27mW of 532nm.

were there pictures? i would really love to see side by side comparisons!
 
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What pictures? Those numbers are purely mathematics. You do know there is actual science at work here right?

And you also can't trust cameras much either, as different sensors react differently to different wavelengths, plus there are usually a host of other user changable factors like white balance, etc. that can affect apparent color and brightness, not to mention exposure times. In some pics i've taken my 6mW 589nm pen looks as bright as a 15mW 532nm, even though in real life the green is considerably brighter.

Ok, to show you how unreliable camera representation of beams can be.. here's a pic I just took.. no smoke, just a long exposure. Tell me which laser you think has the highest power, then i'll tell you what powers they really are.

100_0573.JPG
 

arm94

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well based off of the point you are trying to make i will say green is least powerful followed by red and then blue is the most?

But base off of the picture the green is definitely brightest followed by red followed by blue
 
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Exactly heh. Actually that's not a 445nm, its a 405nm. I don't have a functioning 445nm build at the moment. The 405nm is roughly 775mW. between that and the green you can just barely see the 6mW 589nm. The 532nm is 62mW, and the 650nm red is 289mW.
 

arm94

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Exactly heh. Actually that's not a 445nm, its a 405nm. I don't have a functioning 445nm build at the moment. The 405nm is roughly 775mW. between that and the green you can just barely see the 6mW 589nm. The 532nm is 62mW, and the 650nm red is 289mW.

Very interesting....so pictures basically mean nothing.

I think after doing some research i am either going to get the Hercules 300 or the RPL 350.
---i will most likely side with optotronics because of their apparent overspec and their upgrade policy. Plus the extra wattage cant hurt. Also i believe their divergence is better than laserglows. Do you know if a better divergence=a brighter beam? Also what do you think about my choices? Am i leaving something out?
 
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mW to mW, a 532nm laser will be brighter than anything else excepting lasers that are closer to the vision peak.. which will be around 515nm with dark adjusted vision and 565nm during the day.

I think all those are good. Laserglow stuff is CNI and is generally overspec too. My GPL-589 pen is a 1mW unit but after breaking in, averages around 5-6mW. It's unfortunatly the only CNI laser I own.. The green in that pic is actually a $15 laser that came from focalprice.. the 405 and 650 are my own builds.
 
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Yep. The more I used it, the more stable it got. It still quits lasing while it warms up, but now it's only for a few seconds instead of 30.. and it stays at 5-6mW a lot longer now before dimming to 1 or 2.

I've also decided I can deal with the sticky switch, plus it's kind of handy not to have to tape the button down to take beam shots. :D And, so long as you use a light touch with it, it still works as a momentary too. Plus I do have 6 months to change my mind and have CNI fix it.
 




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