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300 vs 400 vs 500 vs 600 vs 700mw

junglesmacks

junglesmacks

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I'm about to put down the $$ for a Jet Laser PL-E 532nm, but I'm wondering for the price which would be the best mw rating.

400 isn't that much more visible than 300.. but what about 500? 600? 700?

At what point does the extra visibility of the beam start justifying the extra $$?
 
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E

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Whichever one you choose you can't go wrong with a JetLasers laser--excellent quality at a reasonbale price + their customer service/support is among the very best .

I assumed you mean a 532nm green--as for output power---depends upon what is important to you/what you want.

The bigger price jumps are for >500mw and above.

2X perceived brightness requires 4X the output power by generally agreed upon calculation but brightness is a perception and it is not accurate to think of it as mw calculations. How bright is bright depends upon many things--generally more power of a given visable wavelength is perceived as brighter.
 
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InfinitusEquitas

InfinitusEquitas

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Green is so visible to begin with, that if you're only after visibility, you really don't need to go past 300mW even IMO.

Seeing a 100mW beam, and a 500mW beam side by side, yes, you can 100% tell that one is brighter/more solid for example. In terms of visibility, both are perfectly visible though, and appear very bright.

If I were you, I would stick to the 300mW, for the best band for the buck.

Also perceived brightness can be affected quite a bit by divergence, and beam diameter... I sold a 500mW+ green a long while back, because the beam was just too thick, and divergence abhorrent.

If this is your first green laser, start off even lower, and see how you like it.

Aside from LPM bragging rights, extra power over 500mW is really not that apparent. Personally I won't be upgrading my green collection, until after 1.2W at least is achieved, at reasonably low prices.
 
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DJNY

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This may gonna help you








With bit of smoke







I´ve personaly seen up to 650mW.
If you have the bucks ready, try to get a >500mW laser with the best divergence. IMO a thin beam is worth much more than let´s say 100-200mW of more power.
 
junglesmacks

junglesmacks

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Thanks for the replies, guys.

Yeah.. Grey from JL is great. I've been talking to him for a while trying to get this deal worked out and it does sound like the 300mW is going to be the best bang for my buck.

I'm actually planning on running a 10x beam splitter on it. This is primarily for a huge art/lighting festival in the middle of the desert.. so the most important thing is getting a big, fat, bright green beam. I've had decent 532nm pens before, but nothing serious on that wave length.

The difference in price between the units goes like this:

300mW - X
400mW - X + $165
500mW - X + $265
600mW - X + $305
700mW - X + $335

So.. a 500mW unit is $265 more than the 300mW. My question is.. if for my intended purpose if going above 300mW is even worth it. Would the BE need that extra oompf to really hold a solid beam?
 
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InfinitusEquitas

InfinitusEquitas

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For a lighting festival... would you really want a handheld though? If you have an outlet, a labbie would be the way to go.

Personally my experience has been that most people find the difference between wavelengths to be far more interesting, than power differences. It's only us laser pointer geeks that go ooh and ahh over a brighter beam. I've shown a 500mW side by side with an 80mW. People were amazed by the 80mW. They were impressed, but not overly so, with the 500mW.

(Side note, whenever I carry the 500mW on me, I also have the 80mW. Just in case the dumb arm of the law gets too curious, and wants to confiscate something.)
 
Paddy

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InfinitusEquitas said:
(Side note, whenever I carry the 500mW on me, I also have the 80mW. Just in case the dumb arm of the law gets too curious, and wants to confiscate something.)
Click to expand...

I carry a wicked lasers core with a crooked beam around with me as a scapegoat for my 100mW opto. :)

@OP; if you were willing to spend the extra on a higher mW 532, why not get a 300mW and another wavelength?
 
junglesmacks

junglesmacks

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No outlet around.. it's in the middle of the desert.. literally. Perfect environment for lighting projects. I'm also getting the 1500mW 445nm PL-E to go along with the greenie.. so I'll have both wavelengths. The 1500mW is pretty much the strongest I can get from JetLaser so there's no question about which to get.

Why do I want green and blue? Because I build fully body LED light suits.. and my light suit for this year is alternating green and blue. 2,550 hand soldered LEDs on 8 sequenced channels. :evil:

So.. does anyone have any experience running a beam expander at different power levels? Would the 10x diverge a 300mW powered beam so much that I may need a higher power level?

..and yeah.. for this crowd.. brighter is better.
 
DJNY

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It depends ont the cash you have on hand.

If you´re planning to use your frequently, I would invest in +500mW.

There IS a good difference in visibility! Maybe it´s just me, hae very good eyes.

For the 445nm, you´re going to get the version with the TEC?
 
E

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Sounds like you have it mostly sorted.

There is a relative brightness calculator here:
Beam: (559nm 1mw) vs. (453nm 1mw)
Just plug in whatever values you want to consider---again there are many other factors so it is not 100% but is a good guideline.

It shows that the beam of a 300mw 532nm green is 2.87X brighter than a 1500mw 445nm and a 500mw 532nm green 4.78X brighter than 1500mw blue.

Double check with JetLasers on using a Beam Expander with PL-E---last time I checked they did not have a BE adaptor that fit the PL-E series correctly --just one that sort of fit/was loose but usable and but did have one that screwed into the front of the PL-D Pro series w. perfect fit.

A BE will reduce the brightness of the beam by expanding it---so less bright and less solid looking/more transparent. Maybe consider a 5X for better beam brightness or no BE for best brightest beam.
 
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E

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For same wavelength an increase in relative brightness of 2X requires 4X the power. To double the brightness of 300mw 532nm takes 1200mw 532nm is generally accepted

Percent brightness increase ≈ √(P2/P1)×100

You have to take any calculation with a grain of salt as there are other factors and brightness is a perception not the least of which is day(photopic) vision vs night(scotopic) vision. During photopic vision, viewers are most sensitive to light that appears greenish-yellow. In scotopic vision, they are most sensitive to light which would appear greenish-blue during the day.
I think that the relative brightness calculator is based upon photopic/day vision.

How bright is bright is in the eye of the beholder.
 
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junglesmacks

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Thank you again for that explanation.

Regarding photoptic vs scoptic vision and wavelength sensitivities.. that's very, very interesting even apart from anything having to do with lasers.

It sounds like the 300mw is the way to go if you don't have money coming out of your ears at the moment. 600/700mw would be twice as much and would barely give a 50% increase in perceived brightness.

Add to the fact that the venue that I'll be in is a dry lakebed with a good amount of flaoting particulate in the air from all the people stirring it up, and the visibility with the 300mw + 10 BE should be awesome. Heck.. a 5mw green pen last year looked like a light saber..
 
Moebius

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junglesmacks said:
No outlet around. It's in the middle of the desert.. literally. Perfect environment for lighting projects.
..and yeah.. for this crowd.. brighter is better.
Click to expand...


Does this happen to be for "Burning Man" in August?
 
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