New at the hobby. A good laser to start?

I'm new at the lasers world.

I want to know the diference betwen a "Green Laser Pointer Pen 50mW" and a "True 50mW Green Laser Pointer Pen"

I'd like to know a good green laser to start I saw some laser at DealExtreme. Will I need eye protection using a 30~50mW green laser?

Is DealExtreme a good place to buy?

30m-50mW it would be best to have protection but if you're careful with it you should be okay.

On DX, 'True' tends to mean it has an IR filter, and otherwise it tends not too. Which means that all that 'True' output will be green, so it is much better to buy them. Without an IR filter, some of that output can be invisible IR, so that means less green output.

Though, it actually says on DX that it doesn't come with an IR filter... weird...

This is what I started with, and is an all around great laser.
Is there anything you particularly want to do with your laser? Some criteria would help.

Well its only for fun. Nothing special.

1º I saw this on DX in the description of the "True Green Laser Pen":
Reported by a number of fellows from our forums, as most China-made green lasers do not come with an IR filter, protective eye wears are required while using this laser.

2º I live in Brazil and i haven't find anything about lasers been legal or ilegal so I supose they're legal. However if it's not let me know.

I would suggest forgetting about DX and get an X-25 from NovaLasers

Why the Nova X-25?
The diference betwen the prices is pretty big and I live in brazil so the Lasers cost about the double of the price because 1 Real = 1,60 USD

and DX give Worldwide free shipping.

Nova x-25 has better quality or anything that worth's more buying it than the DX?

Yeah, mess around with DX lasers first. They are usually ok quality and are very cheap. (there are dodgy DX lasers however so ask first)

In general, stay away from Kaidomain lasers. Definitely stay away from WarnLaser, Big Laser, ZoneStealth and Spymodex. WickedLasers is ok quality but grossly overpriced.

If you really get into it, you should buy an X-series laser from NovaLasers (they are excellent quality and will always be more powerful than listed, people have bought X75's that averaged 90mW and peaked at 100) and/or start making your own blu-rays and reds. If you're not into the DIY thing, lots of us sell our own quality DIYs on the Buy, Sell, Trade section for decent prices. eg. JayRob's open-can 300mW reds, Igor's 100mW+ blu-rays, both about $200...

Your 'staple' colours are green, red, and blu-ray. You can move up to blue, yellow, or infrared. (Blue and yellow are expensive, infrared is cheap, powerful but very dangerous)

Some of us have bought gas lasers such as HeNe's (helium-neon lasers, low-powered but come in different colours and have excellent beam specs) Argons (big units that can pump out blue, cyan and green) and CO2's (huge beasts pumping out multiple watts of burning infrared)
HeNe and yellow HeNe
Argon and King of Argons
CO2

Some of us have ventured into optics, spirographs and scanners. (andy_con, Kenom, rog8811)
Kenom's awesome blu-ray spirograph
Zom-B making yellow from green and red
Niko's KISS principle spirograph
Andy_con's 1000mW RGB scanner to music
Some sort of witchcraft enabling roggy to make a yellow pointer (my money's on he sold his soul)
Smidsy's invincible laser, lol


So yeah, there's a basic idea of where you can go with this hobby, lol.

Don't spend a lot of money until you decide you're really into it.

I would start by Building a DIY Red laser from http://sales.stonetek.org . And doing the MXDL mod. I fi nd this way you can make a very nice laser and learn about drivers etc.

If you want a quality laser from DX I recommend the Romisen L-A030 mini green laser, its 30mW, has an IR filter and is great for the price, costs less than the true 30 and from any reviews I've read about the true 30, 1 in 5 true 30s aparently have issues with power or mode hopping ( When the beam splits into two ) the romisen has none of these problems, although some dont like its design ( VillageIdiot   ) anyway heres the link.

Diachi

Hmm I don't like the desing too but if it has better quality I won't mind. Are they better than the True 50mw?

Could someone tell me what is DIY?

Btw what happened to the forum yesterday? It went offline?

Tork said:

Hmm I don't like the desing too but if it has better quality I won't mind. Are they better than the True 50mw?

Could someone tell me what is DIY?

Btw what happened to the forum yesterday? It went offline?

Click to expand...

DIY stands for Do It Yourself. And sometimes the forum goes offline for a couple hours...

The Romisen L-A030 is a great quality laser, despite the looks, which dont bother me. Im going to be ordering the L-030 tomorrow and see what thats like, so i'll have a review up in two weeks for that.

Diachi

OK thx I'll wait for the review, and do u have the 50mW true pen to say wich one is better?

Nope, but I've read bad reviews about mode hopping and underpoweredness from that also, so best going with the romisen I think

Ok I'll wait the review to know what to expect. Thx a lot

I should have the L-030 in two weeks, ill review both the L-A030 and the L-030 together and see which one I prefer