First let me humbly apologize for this review.
I'm not a scientist or an engineer so my review isn't technical or even all that informed. I'm a total n00b with this stuff.
My camera is great but I totally suck at operating it. These pictures suck frankly.
I placed an order for this on 10/13/2012. I received the item 11/26/12. To be honest for the past month or so I wasn't certain where the item was. All the USPS website would tell me is that they had received word that the seller was preparing the package and from 10/18/2012-11/26/12 that's the only notice I got from the USPS. I became nervous a couple weeks ago and contacted Dragon Lasers who responded to my email within a day. They informed me the item had been shipped on their end. I'm assuming Hurricane Sandy is the reason why it took so long to get this laser so in the scheme of things me worrying about my laser was pretty lame considering the problems other people have. It took much less time for me to get any of my lasers from lazerer. That said I found Dragon Lasers to be very friendly and frankly I got more useful feedback from them then I have with the Lazerer guy. For a while I was afraid Customs had seized my laser but since I eventually got it I'm assuming that was not the case. If they had seized it I think I would have gotten an actual letter from them telling me what I needed to do to get it out of custons.
One thing I was worried about before it arrived was whether this laser would have a visible beam or not being only 5mw. I have lots of lasers that SAY they're 5mw but they're clearly way overpsec. So I wasn't sure if A) this one would also be overspec and B) how bright 5mw light truly is. It does have a beam. It's a thin beam. To me every violet and blue laser I've seen has a thick beam (violet more so). Red has a thin beam. Green seems to have a slightly thinner than that beam but I may be imagining it. The yellow beam seems thin kind of like the red and the green from what I see. I wish the blues had a thin beam like that but I digress.
Honestly I was not quite prepared for how big and heavy the laser casing was. I was expecting it to be a bit heavier than my other laser pointers but this is almost as heavy and big as a mini flashlight I have in my room.
The top of the thing screws off. It is either not focusable or I am a complete dumb ass (which is entirely plausible).
This laser has a very interesting color. It's not quite yellow. It's not quite orange. Not sure which color is a more accurate descriptor gold or amber but whatever color it is it's in between yellow and orange. It's like a beam of sunlight at night. I know I keep saying that but I can't think of how else to describe it.
I'm using an Ultrafire 18650 3000mAh 3.7 V li-ion battery in this laser. If this is not the best battery (or just outright ill suited for this laser) please let me know.
I also ordered a diffraction grating from dragon laser with this order. All together my order counting tax was 446 dollars. I know that's a big chunk of change for some (myself included) and I admit I feel a bit guilty spending that much money on myself for something frivolous. But I do enjoy having it.
After I got my laser I was stupid again and decide to break down and buy the dragon laser 473nm spartan. With the exception of 593.5nm I think I will then have most of the commercially available wavelengths that will fit in a pointer.
My dream would be to get pointers at 614 nm, 510nm and 580nm as I think those most correspond with true orange, true green and true yellow but if wishes were horses beggars would ride.
I'm not a scientist or an engineer so my review isn't technical or even all that informed. I'm a total n00b with this stuff.
My camera is great but I totally suck at operating it. These pictures suck frankly.
I placed an order for this on 10/13/2012. I received the item 11/26/12. To be honest for the past month or so I wasn't certain where the item was. All the USPS website would tell me is that they had received word that the seller was preparing the package and from 10/18/2012-11/26/12 that's the only notice I got from the USPS. I became nervous a couple weeks ago and contacted Dragon Lasers who responded to my email within a day. They informed me the item had been shipped on their end. I'm assuming Hurricane Sandy is the reason why it took so long to get this laser so in the scheme of things me worrying about my laser was pretty lame considering the problems other people have. It took much less time for me to get any of my lasers from lazerer. That said I found Dragon Lasers to be very friendly and frankly I got more useful feedback from them then I have with the Lazerer guy. For a while I was afraid Customs had seized my laser but since I eventually got it I'm assuming that was not the case. If they had seized it I think I would have gotten an actual letter from them telling me what I needed to do to get it out of custons.
One thing I was worried about before it arrived was whether this laser would have a visible beam or not being only 5mw. I have lots of lasers that SAY they're 5mw but they're clearly way overpsec. So I wasn't sure if A) this one would also be overspec and B) how bright 5mw light truly is. It does have a beam. It's a thin beam. To me every violet and blue laser I've seen has a thick beam (violet more so). Red has a thin beam. Green seems to have a slightly thinner than that beam but I may be imagining it. The yellow beam seems thin kind of like the red and the green from what I see. I wish the blues had a thin beam like that but I digress.
Honestly I was not quite prepared for how big and heavy the laser casing was. I was expecting it to be a bit heavier than my other laser pointers but this is almost as heavy and big as a mini flashlight I have in my room.
The top of the thing screws off. It is either not focusable or I am a complete dumb ass (which is entirely plausible).
This laser has a very interesting color. It's not quite yellow. It's not quite orange. Not sure which color is a more accurate descriptor gold or amber but whatever color it is it's in between yellow and orange. It's like a beam of sunlight at night. I know I keep saying that but I can't think of how else to describe it.
I'm using an Ultrafire 18650 3000mAh 3.7 V li-ion battery in this laser. If this is not the best battery (or just outright ill suited for this laser) please let me know.
I also ordered a diffraction grating from dragon laser with this order. All together my order counting tax was 446 dollars. I know that's a big chunk of change for some (myself included) and I admit I feel a bit guilty spending that much money on myself for something frivolous. But I do enjoy having it.
After I got my laser I was stupid again and decide to break down and buy the dragon laser 473nm spartan. With the exception of 593.5nm I think I will then have most of the commercially available wavelengths that will fit in a pointer.
My dream would be to get pointers at 614 nm, 510nm and 580nm as I think those most correspond with true orange, true green and true yellow but if wishes were horses beggars would ride.
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Does look quite bright for 5mW, but cameras can be really deceiving. Maybe you could take some comparisons of the beam with your other 5mW lasers?
