- Joined
- Jun 13, 2007
- Messages
- 5,410
- Points
- 113
FocalPrice 50mW Green Laser
My current camera is getting sent in for repair so for this review I had to use a different camera. Sorry for the bad pictures.
The Basics
This laser is one of Focal's newest green laser additions to their store selling at under $15 shipped! Output power is claimed to be 50mW and runs off either 2x AAs or 1 14500.
Shipping/Packaging
Shipping took about three weeks from China, but they ship their stuff for free so I couldn't really expect any faster. This company does ship to the US unlike DX/KD, which makes this laser a great alternative to those sites. The package FP used was just a plastic envelope. The laser itself came in a small white box without batteries or instructions.
Overall Appearance/Feel
This laser overall looks good, it is bigger than most typical handhelds we use today because of its 2x AA design. The pictures on FP's site make this laser look smaller than it really is.
The switch is a momentary push button which isn't very hard to push but isn't weak either. The tailcap that looks like a switch is really only for looks, so don't be tricked by the pictures on the site.
For extra portability, the extension tube can be removed and a 14500 battery can be used instead of 2x AAs. This makes the laser much smaller!
Like I said earlier, this laser is fairly large in comparison to most handheld lasers. This laser still feels normal in the hand, it isn't to heavy or too light and feels well built.
Innards
To be honest I am not too happy about the internals of this laser. After disassembling, it was a real pain to get put back together, so my suggestion is to not mess with it unless you have to.
The laser module sits in a plastic cutout, which nearly isolates the laser module from this case. This is terrible for heatsinking because the heat generated by the operating laser can't escape very fast.
The laser module is small and doesn't look much like any other laser module that I've handled before so I can't put a brand to it. The people who designed this seemed to have liked glue.
Visibility/Output
Visibility is similar to other 30mW rated green lasers I have. At night the beam is very visible and is bright enough to make anybody who hasn't seen a green laser before want one!
One negative of this laser is that it the beam exits the laser nearly 6º off center, which is pretty bad even for a green laser. In this picture I drew a line parallel to the case to show how much off center the beam is.
There are also a lot of artifacts in the beam which are pretty noticeable from up close. My guess is that there is a lot of dirt or some fingerprints on the internal lenses or optics.
The bream diameter of this laser isn't very big or small for a green laser. The divergence is very good and completely destroys my CNI in this aspect. The dot seems to stay at a pinpoint no matter how far I point it which is great when I hit clouds with it.
This laser is usually in TEM00, but if used for a very long time the heat causes it to switch to TEM01. This is probably because of the bad heatsinking. For any normal use this never happens.
Here is a picture of the 50mW warning label, as you can see they screwed up in a couple of places.
Burning
This laser is definitely not made for burning, but I was able to pull off a couple of tricks. The most it could do was poke holes in black trash bags and even pop a balloon after a couple of seconds. (BTW, the balloon popping won't be in the video of this laser because I ran out of balloons.)
Overall: Yes this laser does have its flaws, but I would still completely recommend this laser because of the incredible price. I can't even see how they could make profit selling this at under $15, even if this laser only outputted 5mW it would still be worth it. The 2x AA design is great for long battery life.
Video:
My current camera is getting sent in for repair so for this review I had to use a different camera. Sorry for the bad pictures.
The Basics
This laser is one of Focal's newest green laser additions to their store selling at under $15 shipped! Output power is claimed to be 50mW and runs off either 2x AAs or 1 14500.
Shipping/Packaging
Shipping took about three weeks from China, but they ship their stuff for free so I couldn't really expect any faster. This company does ship to the US unlike DX/KD, which makes this laser a great alternative to those sites. The package FP used was just a plastic envelope. The laser itself came in a small white box without batteries or instructions.
Overall Appearance/Feel
This laser overall looks good, it is bigger than most typical handhelds we use today because of its 2x AA design. The pictures on FP's site make this laser look smaller than it really is.
The switch is a momentary push button which isn't very hard to push but isn't weak either. The tailcap that looks like a switch is really only for looks, so don't be tricked by the pictures on the site.
For extra portability, the extension tube can be removed and a 14500 battery can be used instead of 2x AAs. This makes the laser much smaller!
Like I said earlier, this laser is fairly large in comparison to most handheld lasers. This laser still feels normal in the hand, it isn't to heavy or too light and feels well built.
Innards
To be honest I am not too happy about the internals of this laser. After disassembling, it was a real pain to get put back together, so my suggestion is to not mess with it unless you have to.
The laser module sits in a plastic cutout, which nearly isolates the laser module from this case. This is terrible for heatsinking because the heat generated by the operating laser can't escape very fast.
The laser module is small and doesn't look much like any other laser module that I've handled before so I can't put a brand to it. The people who designed this seemed to have liked glue.
Visibility/Output
Visibility is similar to other 30mW rated green lasers I have. At night the beam is very visible and is bright enough to make anybody who hasn't seen a green laser before want one!
One negative of this laser is that it the beam exits the laser nearly 6º off center, which is pretty bad even for a green laser. In this picture I drew a line parallel to the case to show how much off center the beam is.
There are also a lot of artifacts in the beam which are pretty noticeable from up close. My guess is that there is a lot of dirt or some fingerprints on the internal lenses or optics.
The bream diameter of this laser isn't very big or small for a green laser. The divergence is very good and completely destroys my CNI in this aspect. The dot seems to stay at a pinpoint no matter how far I point it which is great when I hit clouds with it.
This laser is usually in TEM00, but if used for a very long time the heat causes it to switch to TEM01. This is probably because of the bad heatsinking. For any normal use this never happens.
Here is a picture of the 50mW warning label, as you can see they screwed up in a couple of places.
Burning
This laser is definitely not made for burning, but I was able to pull off a couple of tricks. The most it could do was poke holes in black trash bags and even pop a balloon after a couple of seconds. (BTW, the balloon popping won't be in the video of this laser because I ran out of balloons.)
Overall: Yes this laser does have its flaws, but I would still completely recommend this laser because of the incredible price. I can't even see how they could make profit selling this at under $15, even if this laser only outputted 5mW it would still be worth it. The 2x AA design is great for long battery life.
Video:
Last edited:
