Lazerer LZBH 532nm/100mW - ordering and reviewing

I'll use this thread to inform you of my first :wave: IIIb laser order, for future reference.

My budget was pretty tight and my minimum requirements were:
-keylock
-power at least 50 mW to allow at least focused burning
-532 nm for high visibility
-focusing
-shutter to keep the dust out

Lazerer's "Big Head" met the requirements. I purchased a power certificate and upgraded the laser with a charger and one UltraFire 18650 battery. I also bought one Sanyo 18650 battery and these safety glasses.
I've also asked if the blinding blue LED indicator could be disabled, if it wouldn't harm the laser electronics. Last time I checked, it could be done. We'll see. Blue light is excellent for ruining night vision.

At first, my shopping was mitigated by the fact Lazerer stopped offering PayPal money transfer. They use some other system and Visa cards only. The alternative was Western Union, which is very expensive.
Max was very helpful with finding the best solution, so he allowed a special PayPal transfer for me. He also acknowledged my FB discount. I've already typed the code when first trying to make a checkout, so it was expired. I've already lost hope but today we found a solution. The rate of e-mail messages exchange was very high and Max was very helpful and kind. :thanks: Max

So today is November 26th and my order is supposed to be processed till December 5th. Delivery could take 14 days meaning it could arrive on Christmas eve (one of best presents ever :san: ), though I hope it will arrive sooner as things slow down around holidays around here.

The clock is ticking. I'll post a note when I get a mail about shipping and I'll make a detailed review upon its arrival.

Thanks. Do you have any pics?

i need to contact max can u help?

The order has been shipped. I say it's been pretty fast so far.

GoldPunch, how can I have any, if I've just ordered it?

Great Anomaly, go to lazerer.com and check the contact details. It's really not up to me...

Okey, you are right. Sorry.

Looks like someones trying to get their post count up...

I'll be looking out for the review, What a great christmas present indeed!

Nice post. I like it. Thanks for sharing these information. Keep it up. :crackup:

22 days later and it's here.

I'd like to ask the admins to move this thread to the Reviews section.
The batteries are charging at the moment and hopefully, I'll make a review during the day.

:san:

Here's the review.

Surprisingly, the package came directly to my apartment, something my lazy postal office does almost never.
Anyway, I found it on my desk when I woke up, just like I imagined it's going to happen. :san:

The outer wrap was not glued, so I think it might be that it was opened at customs and later secured with this white string. I guess they didn't bother with opening the bubble wrap. One of the stamps says it was freed from tax at customs. Obviously the "gift" option still works around here...

Safety glasses have a uniform surface without scratches.

The only cons is their transparency. They seem to be more transparent than these. Judging by the 100 mW light from my laser, I'd say these are suitable for 5-150 mW, not more. I wouldn't use them with more powerful green lasers.

This is what I saw upon opening the box.

Nothing is missing, everything is in place. I guess "2011" is a typo.

My certificate.

I think the values are pretty decent, aren't they?

Batteries. I don't have a multimeter to measure their voltage, but I'll do that in few days.

The blue one is supposed to be the regular upgrade battery, but this one seems to have a much higher capacity. Oh well, I'm not complaining.
It took less than 2 hours to charge to "green light".
The red one is Sanyo and it took around 6 hours to fully charge up.

Finally, the laser.

I was pleasantly surprised. I've read some weird cons about it being built flimsy. I disagree. It's very sturdy and looks rugged. I had this idea it's going to be made of plastic, but this is aluminium only.
It's also quite heavy. This is not the first time I'm operating a similar host, so this was something new.
Loaded with a battery, it's like a little baton.

The LED light is disabled, as I kindly asked Max to do for me. Thanks, Max! :thanks:

I love the shutter and I'm not regretting my decision to buy LZBH model. It's awesome. Click-click-click, I love that sound.

The surface of the shutter's flap looks mildly damaged, but that's just regarding aestethics. It works and that's all I care about.

Now the experiments. :wave:

The ray is clearly visible in a midly lit room, but I've made just a tiny bit of fog to compare it to my former "<50mW" pen laser which, interestingly enough, started dying yesterday. The king is dead, long live the new king, I guess.
The ray is brilliant when there's just a tiny amount of glycerol fog.
Focused beam lights up matches at 1m distance (at least) and pops black marked baloons at 2m. The only thing I thought it's going to do is to light up a match unfocused. I used brown matches, but it doesn't work. I don't know if that's expected.
At full focus, the ignition is almost instantaneous.

Now for the outside night experience.

The sensor was exposed during 8 seconds at f/4,5 and ISO100. What you see on the photos is pretty much what you see in reality, maybe a just little bit brighter. The ray on the right is with closest focus. It's like an awesome flashlight. Outside air was not foggy, but windy.

The ray is stable, doesn't flicker. Dot is round. No errors, no abberations.

This is it, for now. I'm really satisfied with this model and would recommend it as an entry level high powered laser to people already familiar with 5-100 mW lasers.
If you want a decent piece of equipment that has two safety options (shutter+key), this is a laser for you.
I hope it will last a long time. I don't know its duty cycle, so I'll use 60s on, 60s off.

Here is one screenshot from baloon popping.

The camera managed to capture the exact moment of bursting. :beer:

The batteries are:

blue one: 32.3g, 3.91V
red one: 45.6g, 4.03V

They've been charged only once so far, and few days earlier, before I used them (the blue one especially) extensively, they both measured over 4.1 V.

Nice review... Nice output too, Is 100mW noticeably brighter than 50mW?

Billiam said:

Nice review... Nice output too, Is 100mW noticeably brighter than 50mW?

Click to expand...

It's much more brighter than cheap no name pen lasers, that's for sure, and it's somewhat brighter than "true 50mW" lasers with proper aluminium hosts.

However, I thought it will be capable of lighting a dark matchhead unfocused, but I've never succeded doing it. I guess 100mW is the threshold for such things. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

As predicted, it suffers from dimming in cold environments. I've attached it to a clamp outside to take some steady skyshot photos and half an hour later the beam was somewhat dimmer. It was around 10°C outside. I guess it's best to hold it in your sleeve or pocket during cold nights.

I still don't know its duty cycle. Do you think 60s on 60s off is reasonably safe? I have no idea when I'll be able to buy another one. This laser should serve me for years to come and I don't want to damage it.

It's neat when you focus it close to the aperture so it diverges in the infinity. The beam pointed at the sky is then roughtly the angular diameter of Pleiades as you can see here.

(brightest point is Jupiter, left is red giant star Aldebaran)

i ordered a 400mw green laser from lazerer and its been 9 business days and it still says Status: Processing .does it nomally take longer than the 7 days to be Processed?
i have emailed lazerer but no response

greghutch said:

i ordered a 400mw green laser from lazerer and its been 9 business days and it still says Status: Processing .does it nomally take longer than the 7 days to be Processed?
i have emailed lazerer but no response

Click to expand...

Please use the search function, there are many topics about lazerer's shipping and customs. However with that being said ill give you a free pass:


20/02/2013 Pending

20/02/2013 Pending Payment request sent. Our paypal is mswh2008@gmail.com.Please reply to this email once the payment is made. Have a nice day.

20/02/2013 Processing Payment received, your order will be processed as soon as possible. It will usually take about 10-14 days delivery to most destination after it was sent. You will receive another email from us once it is shipped. Thanks for your support.Have a nice day.

25/02/2013 Processed unit ready, awaiting for shipment

27/02/2013 Shipped We would like to notify you that your order was shipped. Depending on where you lived in, it will usually take 7-14 business days to arrive.

The tracking number of your package is (LK-----------HK). You may track your order on the following page: http://usps.com/

Please kindly note that sometime it may take up to 48 hours ( business time, SAT & SUN not included ) for the tracking result to show up on the internet. If you are not be able to track you package at the moment, Please try again later. Thanks for your support on LAZERER.

As you can see mine took 7 days from order and payment cleared until shipping. my guess is its either a Chinese holiday in there somewhere or max didn't update you order. he is normally very good at updating and shipping orders quickly

ok thanks for the reply

Hey, this review is perfect for me because I also want to buy the same LZBH-100, with the same battery, the same charger and the same goggles. I also just can pay with Western Union, but it's pricey for me. That's why I also prefer PayPal like you. I will ask Max if it's possible.

Now my question is if the laser still works without any problems. Please let me know, thanks.