Did I just make a dumb purchase? $270 Warnlaser Laser

Hey everyone, so I just have a quick question about a purchase I have just made. I bought a Warnlaser Green Laser Pointer |200mw|5mw|100mw|500mw - Green Laser Pointer - Buy form Warnlaser.com 250MW for ~$270. This is my first laser and I plan on using it to point at things very far in the distance, I want a nice thick beam so I went with 250MW. I live in the mountains of Brazil. Is this to strong? How much brighter is ~250MW Vs. ~100MW? Also after purchasing I read up and saw that WL is a scam site. Is this true? If so, why? And also why would this site have so many banners for it? Thanks for all the help guys!

If this was a bad idea I will call and get a refund, could you please direct me to a laser you think would suit my needs? Sorry for all the questions. Thanks!

In a word... Yes. You did just make a dumb purchase.

If you can, cancel the order immediately and get your money back.

Those lasers will rarely be able to go out to even 200mW... let alone 250mW.

Go to sites like jetlasers, optotronics, or laserglow if you want high quality lasers.

If you want something cheaper, but still good, go with lazerer, o-like or rayfoss.

As for pointing at stuff... 100mW is more than enough, and will produce a very nice beam at night.

Edit: Absolutely any company is free to advertise on here, but that doesn't mean lpf endorses them in any way. If you want you can buy a banner too

InfinitusEquitas said:

In a word... Yes. You did just make a dumb purchase.

If you can, cancel the order immediately and get your money back.

Those lasers will rarely be able to go out to even 200mW... let alone 250mW.

Go to sites like jetlasers, optotronics, or laserglow if you want high quality lasers.

If you want something cheaper, but still good, go with lazerer, o-like or rayfoss.

As for pointing at stuff... 100mW is more than enough, and will produce a very nice beam at night.

Edit: Absolutely any company is free to advertise on here, but that doesn't mean lpf endorses them in any way. If you want you can buy a banner too

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Awesome, thanks for the nice reply! Really helps alot. Just one last question, is there a big difference between 100mw and 2-300 mw when it comes to seeing the beam and pointing? Thanks!

Yes, cancel it

rangedunits said:

Yes, cancel it

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Yep, just canceled it. I have to wait 2 hours they said. Could you recommend a good laser for me. One you know to be very good and not a scam? Would be awesome. Thanks so much!

For that money, I'd reccomend an O-like 400mW greenie, you can see the link to the review I did in my signature.

There are other options too, but this is the one I can speak from experience - it's good. O-like all the way for budget lasers.

Eudaimonium said:

For that money, I'd reccomend an O-like 400mW greenie, you can see the link to the review I did in my signature.

There are other options too, but this is the one I can speak from experience - it's good. O-like all the way for budget lasers.

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Cool, will check it out. There was one other one I was looking at, LZSK - 532nm 300mW High Power Green Laser Pointer Separate Crystal is this legit? Seems to cheap to be true but it's from lazerer so I'm not sure. Thanks!

Anything from Lazerer is good, Max is also a member here.

The O-Like Power Rock 100mw or 200mw green are good low cost alternatives---even the 50mw produces a nice beam at night

50 mW is definitely a good beam laser... not too expensive though if you want it for pointing purposes.. check out lazerer.com, good 50 mW lasers

LZCB - 532nm 50mW Focusable Green Laser Pointer

I personally might get this one!

My opnion is twofold:

1) For a first laser there is such a thing as too much power. You need to read and understand basic laser safety. Treat the laser as a firearm. Never point it at another living thing. If there is even the slightest most remote chance of the beam being reflected back to you or any other living thing, do not point it there. If outdoors, and there is NO CHANCE of it reflecting back towards you or falling out of your hand, you can take the goggles off to see the beam and point. Put them back on afterwards though. Always use goggles when not outside at an open location with nothing to reflect.

2) I bought a 95mW pointer four or five years ago to use for the same purpose as you are now looking for. I have been disappointed by the beam visibility ever since. Now understand, this laser is probably only doing 50mW since it is from WL and will not burn anything even with a 1mm beam diameter. It is also way too strong to use indoors without a proper beamstop and having the pointer fastened down to a rigid surface away from possible reflectives. Every time I take that laser out to an outdoor setting I wish I had a reliable ~200mW pointer instead.

So, if you can afford it and you can commit yourself to proper laser safety and accept the responsibility of owning and using a truly dangeous tool, I say go for a nice 200mW unit from Lazerer or one of the above recommended companies. I say Lazerer first because I trust them the most and they have a nice selection of waterproof hosts. For an outdoor pointing laser, a waterproof host is a real plus. Nothing breaks the heart like a drop of rain falling into your laser and frying it.

200 mW! You must have gotten a horrible laser because a 5 mW cheapy has a nice beam. If he is willing to spend that much for a 200 mW but a 50 mW would do the trick outdoors and not too powerful, at most 100 mW but 200 is good for burning... What can I say though when you have more rep than me you know what your talking about kinda. But I still think a 50 mW laser from a trusted site would have an awesome beam..

Well, "awesome" is subjective unfortunately. What I consider to be an "awesome" or "very visible" beam others may not, or others may think I'm mad, haha!

Consequently, I have a 5mW Core from WL as well, let me tell you it is NOT very visible, even in a pitch dark room. I haven't heard of any underspec COREs, but who knows, it is possible. Even after passing through two non-coated, not-super-clean, non-laser lenses (magnifying glasses) and some non-laser mirrors my ~23mW 473nm labby's beam is more visible than my 5mW 532nm pointer's beam. I figure I'm probably losing 8mW from all the reflections added up. My 95mW 532nm beam is just a tad more visible than my 450nm 50mW beam when you adjust the beam diameters to be the same. One of these days I'll send out a few lasers to be LPM'd by one of the veterans here. Until then I will just assume my WL Nexus is underspec and around 50mW, give or take 15mW. Doesn't change my assessment of "not awesome" though, haha.

So, as I said, it is all relative, and probably my two WL lasers are utter crap. Still, I'm not new to lasers and follow good safety protocols, so I wish I had a 200mW instead.

Maybe I just think my 5mW beam is awesome since it is the only beam I've ever seen and fascinates me easily haha. I'm thinking about either getting the 50 mW classic or 100 mW classic green from Lazerer. Idk though...

Wow, I'm very impressed how dedicated you guys are here! Thanks for all the great reponses. I am a member of a lot of forums and I have never seen people so dedicated. Anyways I got my refund and I think I'm going to go with lazerer due to them being very trusted and I like the aluminum case you can buy with it. Looks like they put a lot of effort into it. Anyways thanks to all and I can't wait to share my thoughts on my new laser!

laserdude420 said:

warn lasers are amazing i just got the luna 2 wat laser its freaking crazy its the most powerfull laser u can get everyone is just jelouse that doesnt have one thats why there talking bad about warn lasers im proud of my laser and i will buy more from warn lasers :drool:

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How about an LPM test video show us this wonderful laser in action?

We love reviews here.

Also, please pay attention in english class... your grammar and syntax are indicative of someone who suffers from severe mental retardation, i.e. a retard.

I'm not saying that you are. You just write like one.