New to lasers, have many questions

Hello, I'm new to this forum as you can tell by my post count. I constantly Google about handheld lasers because they've interested me ever since I saw the WL S3 (no, I'm never going to buy from WL. I've already learned about that, lol). I just have some questions, and I was hoping some of you here could help me with them. If some of my questions are stupid or if I get some terminology wrong, please do not attack me as I'm just looking for friendly guidance.

1) From sites like O-like, Rayfoss, etc. will a 100mW laser actually be 100mW? I've read on some sites that if you buy a 100mW from the cheaper sites, you will be very disappointed.

2) Is 100mW enough to pop ANY balloon, or only balloons with dark colors?

3) Do reflective balloons (such as the Get Well Soon or Happy Valentines Day) pop the same way, or does it take more power?

4) What mW is required to light a cigarette? What about to light standard printer paper?

5) I am very aware of the safety required with lasers, especially powerful ones. Without looking directly into the light source (so only at the beam, or whatever the beam is hitting), are glasses/goggles an absolute mandate for 100mW lasers? In example, if I was just wanting to impress a friend and pop a balloon or perform some other trick, would we both need glasses on?

6) Is it illegal to star-point the night sky with 100mW lasers if I'm not targeting planes?

7) I obviously don't own any lasers, but I'm looking at getting one. I didn't want to spend more than $100, and the less I spend the better. I don't know where I can reliably get a 100mW laser that will truly be 100mW, and I am horrible at navigating the buy/sell/trade section. What would be a good place to get one?

8) I was considering spending a little extra ($125) on one of yobresal's 1.3-1.5W Blue-Ice lasers. I'm aware that this probably would be 100% out of the question to just "impress friends" with, and that goggles would be an absolute MUST with this. Should I hold off until I've gotten a few lower powered lasers and learned a little more before I spend money on something so powerful?

Any other advice you might have for me would be fantastic. Again, I'm very new to this but very interested and I'd like to make a hobby out of learning about and experimenting with lasers. I look forward to any answers this community has for me! Thanks!

Welcome to the forum!

1. O-like and Rayfoss are ok companies. You may also check out lazerer.com as well <-I personally brought from them in the past and I'm happy with it.
2. never tried to pop the ballnoon with color other than black. but I think a focused 100mW laser will pop them.
3. never tried, need some experts to answer lol
4. probably a focused 200mW laser. You need to be patience. Otherwise please use a lighter.
5. goggles are always a MUST for you to do anything with laser over 5mW. No excuse!
6. it depend on where you lived in. AFAIR laser over 5mW is illegal in 99% of the countries.
7. answered in question 1.
8. try lower power first. 1.3-1.5W is not for the beginners.

Hope it helps

Thank you very much for taking the time to answer all my questions! I'll keep all of that in mind, especially the use of safety goggles/glasses.

I wouldn't mind a few more opinions on some of those answers, though, specifically regarding whether or not an O-like or Rayfoss laser is going to be as much power as noted.

Here is the laser I'm looking at getting, can someone give me an opinion on whether or not this is a good laser for a beginner?
Power Rock Green laser Torch 100mW /Focusable&Waterproof [OL-PRGL100] - $72.99 : Zen Cart!, The Art of E-commerce

Is there a bump rule here?

I haven't heard that great of things about the laser you want to get. People tend to get that laser or that design because it looks cool. The problem is i've read they are not very reliable. They also tend to not have the power they claim.

Above, the website Lazerer.com was recommend and so do I. You can tell from my signature how much I like them. This company makes sure that your laser will have the power you ask for, and usually more. At times their lasers are over a 100mW stronger then what you paid for. Their prices are great to!

In the end it's up to you, but just want you to know, that with Lazerer, you can't go wrong!

With a 100mW greenie and ballon popping tricks, and your goggles question, I'll say that you do not need them, contrary to what "die4laser" said.

Contrary to what some more paranoid people around here will make you believe, handheld lasers aren't actually radioactive heat rays of deadly blinding death.

You WILL need goggles if you plan on doing any up-close burning (which requires you to look into the intense spot from close distance for long periods of time), or if you are doing some mirror alligning or whatever and there's a chance that the beam bounces back in unexpected ways.

Other than that, goggles will purely inflict too much self confidence and you'll just be bringing everyone around you in danger - you need to take special care and not of your sorroundings and what are you doing.

If you're popping ballons, make 100% sure that the ballon is either on elevated position, or that there is nothing behind it to get hurt once it disappears.

Think of it like firearms safety - simply if you and your friend are wearing a flack jacket doesn't mean you can go out and shoot guns in public. And it doesn't mean you are 100% safe.

Eudaimonium said:

With a 100mW greenie and ballon popping tricks, and your goggles question, I'll say that you do not need them, contrary to what "die4laser" said.

Contrary to what some more paranoid people around here will make you believe, handheld lasers aren't actually radioactive heat rays of deadly blinding death.

You WILL need goggles if you plan on doing any up-close burning (which requires you to look into the intense spot from close distance for long periods of time), or if you are doing some mirror alligning or whatever and there's a chance that the beam bounces back in unexpected ways.

Other than that, goggles will purely inflict too much self confidence and you'll just be bringing everyone around you in danger - you need to take special care and not of your sorroundings and what are you doing.

If you're popping ballons, make 100% sure that the ballon is either on elevated position, or that there is nothing behind it to get hurt once it disappears.

Think of it like firearms safety - simply if you and your friend are wearing a flack jacket doesn't mean you can go out and shoot guns in public. And it doesn't mean you are 100% safe.

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EXTREMELY helpful answer, thank you VERY much!

So I guess I'm going to probably get my first laser from Lazerer. Does anyone disagree with this suggestion? And on the matter of balloons, if I bought just an assorted pack of multiple colored balloons (you know, the cheap little 25-50 balloon packs you get at Party City), would it have any issue popping specific colors?

Yes, lighter colors, green, and white especially will be harder to pop. Use a black marker to make a black spot on those.

InfinitusEquitas said:

Yes, lighter colors, green, and white especially will be harder to pop. Use a black marker to make a black spot on those.

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If the laser is focused on it a little longer without the presence of black marking, will it still pop or is it just a matter of it not being feasible at that low of a power? And does the color of the laser itself have anything to do with this effect or is it just pure heat either way?