Spyder III Arctic or 1w 445 laser from Dinodirect

I'm down to these two lasers, unless some one knows of a better/smaller/cheaper one. I know the Arctic comes with a lot extras and Dinodirect one you just get the laser and I think a charger. But when it comes down to it which is the better product and works better and is better quality?

The lasers that members of this community are making themselves are, hands down, the highest quality stuff.

All commercial 445nm lasers are made up in a hurry just to cover the demand.

Contact Jayrob, Dave, FlaminPyro, Yobresal, DTR, many others, search around.

^^^^

Follow that advice.
That, and dont buy from those two companies anyway.
the arctic is really <900mw, and will likly not ever show up once you buy it. and the dino direct one is a piece of junk that will break on you after a while. (That is assuming they wont screw you over and actually ship it).

If you are going to buy one from a company. I would recommend you to get one from Dragonlasers(IIRC thier spartan 1W series..) or O-like. either one will be far better then those other two companies you listed. Offcoarse, as eud said, the best approach is to do it yourself.

GBD said:

^^^^

Follow that advice.
That, and dont buy from those two companies anyway.
the arctic is really <900mw, and will likly not ever show up once you buy it. and the dino direct one is a piece of junk that will break on you after a while. (That is assuming they wont screw you over and actually ship it).

If you are going to buy one from a company. I would recommend you to get one from Dragonlasers(IIRC thier spartan 1W series..) or O-like. either one will be far better then those other two companies you listed. Offcoarse, as eud said, the best approach is to do it yourself.

Click to expand...

Arctic is actually almost always around 750mW.

Indeed, DIY approach is the best approach.

Actually I bought a 50mw Blue/Violet laser from Dinodirect. I got it a few days ago. Quality is great, but I still think my 5mw Green laser pointer from eBay is slightly brighter. It is easier to see the beam with the green one and can be seen about three times further away then the B/V one. Neither one is good for star pointing in a mid-size city. I will see about contacting those members. I would like to find one about the size of Maglight Mini or smaller and under $120.00 would be great.

Blue 1W laser under $120?
You mean, $220? Then maybe.

Seriously, those are not some cheap generic chinese made lasers, man.

RocketSledder77 said:

but I still think my 5mw Green laser pointer from eBay is slightly brighter. It is easier to see the beam with the green one and can be seen about three times further away then the B/V one.

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That is fairly normal. 405nm (violet) is right on the edge of our visable spectrum. greern appears brighter to your eye. (most common pens are 532nm)

Also, a green laser is a DPSS system, and violet is just a direct injection. so with a DPSS you have far better beam specs anyway.

RocketSledder77 said:

I would like to find one about the size of Maglight Mini or smaller and under $120.00 would be great.

Click to expand...

For under 120 dollars. you wont have much luck. and a mini maglight too.
Reason bieng, is that a maglight is a fairly small thing, and your putting a device that wastes several watts of power as heat. due to the small size, there isnt much room to work with and allow for propper cooling, giving you pretty short runtimes. where if you exceed those run times, you are likly to destroy your laser from overheating.
I would try to find a better ballance between power and size respectivly. not cram as much as possible into a tiny host.

These 1W lasers are not toys, and most people have a hard time comprehending what kind of power that is too. also, if you are looking for long distance pointing, the 1W 445s are not a good choice for that, just by the nature of the emittion from the diode, their beam has pretty bad spread without a mess of corrective optics.

U should try dtr's Mohrenberg hotlights build tutorial, I think his final cost for everything was like $118, BUT. If you read anything I'n this comment UNDERSTAND the fact that for a 1W (and much lower, at least 50mW up) for indoor pointing, or any up close pointing, you NEED to get laser goggles first. Your eyes are
More important than that pretty blue light, your not a moth. Don't act like one, ever.

Also I use this saying alot, start with the .22's first, then work ur way up to a .50 cal :beer:

I agree with jakeGT, start small and work larger. If you're looking for starpointing in a mid-size city, maybe a 100mW+ green will work for you.

I was thinking about that. This about that is the red and green laser really strain my eyes for some reason. But I do not seem to have a problem with the blue/violet ones. Probably because they are not as bright.

I like the lasers yobresal made best for quality, delivery speed and value for price paid lately... -Glenn

RocketSledder77 said:

I was thinking about that. This about that is the red and green laser really strain my eyes for some reason. But I do not seem to have a problem with the blue/violet ones. Probably because they are not as bright.

Click to expand...

Ummmm... Apparently you have never had a 1W 445.....

jakeGT said:

Ummmm... Apparently you have never had a 1W 445.....

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That's what I was thinking. If it is the brightness that bothers your eyes, then a 1W 445 is not the way to go.

RocketSledder77 said:

I was thinking about that. This about that is the red and green laser really strain my eyes for some reason. But I do not seem to have a problem with the blue/violet ones. Probably because they are not as bright.

Click to expand...

Brightness does not relate to damage. An invisible or barely visible laser will happily toast your retina.

oic0 said:

Brightness does not relate to damage. An invisible or barely visible laser will happily toast your retina.

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It's more of that the bright light just is uncomfortable for many people to look at; even if no damage is actually being done to the retina.

david1235102 said:

It's more of that the bright light just is uncomfortable for many people to look at; even if no damage is actually being done to the retina.

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If your using any 5 mW laser or more you need goggles for that nm and mW. Reflection off a white surface can damage your eyes. Even if a laser is not bright enough for you to strain doesn't mean it can't hurt you, It can. And if a laser is bright enough for your eyes to strain it Can and possibly is hurting your eyes. If when you 1st start using a laser your eyes strain and then you keep doing it soon your eyes wont strain and that is because you have fried the sensors already.

Ware Goggle and protect your eyes please you guys.