I’m new here, and looking for some help on what laser to buy and where. Below are some of my criteria.
1) Around $100, willing to spend more or less, depending on how big the quality jump is for the price.
2) Must be handheld, and I don’t want to build from scratch myself.
3) Not sure what color to get. I’m looking for whatever is going to impress me the most at that price (whether that’s burning or visible distance.)
a. I don’t really care if it’s a “cool looking color”
b. If possible I would like it to be able to burn some, and have decent visibility. As far as which is more important, I’d just say whatever could be more impressive at that price without completely sacrificing the other.
4) I am in the United States.
5) Looking for an easy purchase (i.e. reputable website, hopefully doesn’t take too long, hopefully accepts Paypal.)
6) Also to take into consideration is eye safety. I am not sure when it’s necessary (I’ll do more research.) Obviously at a certain power it’s not really needed, because people use them in presentations all the time without everyone in the room having goggles on. If there are certain colors that are less of a concern that would be good to consider. This point is not a huge concern for me, I’ll do what I need to in order to protect my eyes, it’s just that if I must wear protection every single time I use it regardless of how I’m using it, that would be a negative to me, plus I’d have to consider the cost of the eye protection in the budget.
7) If it takes unprotected 18650 batteries that would be a plus. This isn’t that important, but I happen to have a lot of these batteries, and chargers for them, so it would be nice.
Background of my laser experience:
1) I bought several of those $10-$30 green lasers you can find all over amazon or your local electronics store. They all seem to be almost the exact same design, possibly the same manufacturer. I have been impressed with their visibility when they work well. I would be okay with one that is at least that bright, but…. The quality of these are horrible. They break, and the power output fluctuates when they do work. They only stay at the brightest level for a second or two, then they are less impressive.
2) I had been fascinated for a long time with Wicked Lasers website, and thought how cool it would be to be buy one of their top end lasers, but could never see shelling out that kind of money. Then I saw they offered a $100 green laser, so I bought it. Thinking this would be brighter than the cheapo ones I previously purchased. It was basically the exact same brightness, it had the same problem with not staying bright for more than a couple seconds. Paying 5x the price for this laser that had the same brightness, I actually might have been okay with if:
a. It maintained a good brightness (it didn’t)
b. The body was way better quality (it wasn’t, it looked to have better quality, but the threading stripped within a few days, and the two body parts had to be taped together.)
c. If it didn’t break (it did, it completely quit working after about two weeks, and for no apparent reason, I didn’t over-use it. The cheap ones last me longer than that pile.)
3) I basically gave up on lasers after that. I just figured I would never find something of decent quality at an affordable price. Then a friend showed me one he found, now I want one. It was a Chinese Blue Laser Model YX-B008 he got for about $80, It takes two 16340 batteries, and is really good quality (at least compared to the junk I have had.) It can burn things, (which none of mine ever could), and is probably brighter than the ones I had (didn’t really get to play with it enough to tell for sure.) I’d pay $150 for it in a heartbeat if he would just hand it over, but unfortunately he bought it while deployed, so I can’t buy it the same way he did. So I found this forum and realized there should certainly be something out there for me, and you guys seem to be in the know, so any advice would be appreciated, thanks.
P.S. I did search the forum, and found some great advice. I have a few ideas based on what I have read, but I thought I would share my Wicked Laser Story, as I can tell most of you are not too fond of them, and I was hoping to get some advice a little more specialized to what I am looking for.
1) Around $100, willing to spend more or less, depending on how big the quality jump is for the price.
2) Must be handheld, and I don’t want to build from scratch myself.
3) Not sure what color to get. I’m looking for whatever is going to impress me the most at that price (whether that’s burning or visible distance.)
a. I don’t really care if it’s a “cool looking color”
b. If possible I would like it to be able to burn some, and have decent visibility. As far as which is more important, I’d just say whatever could be more impressive at that price without completely sacrificing the other.
4) I am in the United States.
5) Looking for an easy purchase (i.e. reputable website, hopefully doesn’t take too long, hopefully accepts Paypal.)
6) Also to take into consideration is eye safety. I am not sure when it’s necessary (I’ll do more research.) Obviously at a certain power it’s not really needed, because people use them in presentations all the time without everyone in the room having goggles on. If there are certain colors that are less of a concern that would be good to consider. This point is not a huge concern for me, I’ll do what I need to in order to protect my eyes, it’s just that if I must wear protection every single time I use it regardless of how I’m using it, that would be a negative to me, plus I’d have to consider the cost of the eye protection in the budget.
7) If it takes unprotected 18650 batteries that would be a plus. This isn’t that important, but I happen to have a lot of these batteries, and chargers for them, so it would be nice.
Background of my laser experience:
1) I bought several of those $10-$30 green lasers you can find all over amazon or your local electronics store. They all seem to be almost the exact same design, possibly the same manufacturer. I have been impressed with their visibility when they work well. I would be okay with one that is at least that bright, but…. The quality of these are horrible. They break, and the power output fluctuates when they do work. They only stay at the brightest level for a second or two, then they are less impressive.
2) I had been fascinated for a long time with Wicked Lasers website, and thought how cool it would be to be buy one of their top end lasers, but could never see shelling out that kind of money. Then I saw they offered a $100 green laser, so I bought it. Thinking this would be brighter than the cheapo ones I previously purchased. It was basically the exact same brightness, it had the same problem with not staying bright for more than a couple seconds. Paying 5x the price for this laser that had the same brightness, I actually might have been okay with if:
a. It maintained a good brightness (it didn’t)
b. The body was way better quality (it wasn’t, it looked to have better quality, but the threading stripped within a few days, and the two body parts had to be taped together.)
c. If it didn’t break (it did, it completely quit working after about two weeks, and for no apparent reason, I didn’t over-use it. The cheap ones last me longer than that pile.)
3) I basically gave up on lasers after that. I just figured I would never find something of decent quality at an affordable price. Then a friend showed me one he found, now I want one. It was a Chinese Blue Laser Model YX-B008 he got for about $80, It takes two 16340 batteries, and is really good quality (at least compared to the junk I have had.) It can burn things, (which none of mine ever could), and is probably brighter than the ones I had (didn’t really get to play with it enough to tell for sure.) I’d pay $150 for it in a heartbeat if he would just hand it over, but unfortunately he bought it while deployed, so I can’t buy it the same way he did. So I found this forum and realized there should certainly be something out there for me, and you guys seem to be in the know, so any advice would be appreciated, thanks.
P.S. I did search the forum, and found some great advice. I have a few ideas based on what I have read, but I thought I would share my Wicked Laser Story, as I can tell most of you are not too fond of them, and I was hoping to get some advice a little more specialized to what I am looking for.
