mgc8
0
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2009
- Messages
- 38
- Points
- 8
It was a cold winter day, the sun hidden behind a thick blanket of clouds that gave the city a grey, eerie appearance -- as I anxiously clicked the PayPal button in anticipation of my first high-power laser, one of Igor's 6x builds. Actually, at that time I was in vacation in a tropical country, which gave me the opportunity to spend way too much time on-line hence my arrival here at LPF... but the hibernal setting catches the athmosphere better.
Little did I know back then what a ride I was in for... you can read more about the whole ordeal if you haven't already in the original sales thread or the additional "tracking" thread. Finally, 4 months later almost to the day, the postman delivered the little piece of paper notifying me that I had a package to pick up. Alas, it was no surprise, since this time I had a tracking number and I had been hammering the postal services site daily, and I knew it was already here. But my anticipation didn't subside the slightest bit, since this was "the" laser, my first and certainly not last purchase in this fascinating world of lights. I had to wait until the evening before actually getting the package, but in the mean-time I also picked a shipment of goggles from OEM Laser Systems (I'll say a few words about them in another thread shortly).
So here I am, with a nicely wrapped package in front of me:
The other side shows the day it was sent, due to some further mishaps (long story) it spent more than two full weeks in transit:
Inside the package was the laser itself in a white box, wrapped in bubblewrap, and the box itself wrapped again. Also present where a set of TrustFire 14500 cells and a pack of GITD caps:
I must say I had completely forgotten about the batteries and when opening the pack it suddenly hit me: Igor had asked me if I needed an "emergency battery", and back then my order with DX was stalled because of the Chinese holidays, so I said "yes". He actually managed to ship a few of the lasers that didn't require batts, but for mine and most others he had to wait for a battery shipment to arrive... and that's when everything went south. So if it wouldn't have been for these little things I might've had the laser a long time ago, but hey -- it was much more exciting this way
That being said, I sighed, took the set and placed it with my sizeable collection of batteries and chargers -- turns out that in 4 months one can get so many accesories for lights that a box is needed... I took an already-charged AW 14500 and returned to the laser.
This is the laser fresh out of the box, cleanly and carefully wrapped:
I checked the battery compartment for the sticker, and indeed, there it was! Great for Igor to have remembered that little detail...
So now it was finally ready for ignition:
Quite a beautiful sight, in all it's 191mW glory! And it's certainly fun to use it with the GITD cap as a sort of green lantern around the house
Ok, I'll stop with the pictures now and take some time to express my thoughts about the laser itself. It's a good quality host, and a very clean build from what I can see -- although I didn't open it up and don't plan to, so it's all outside impressions. It is very light, almost too light for my taste, but I must say the size is somewhat larger than I expected... I could be spoiled by my Lummi Raw (ok, I am), but from all the descriptions I was expecting it to be even smaller. Don't get me wrong, it's a very little beast for all the power it packs, just that during all the waiting months it must've shrunk to tiny proportions in my imagination
Another thing that bugs me is the switch -- it's somewhat stiff and of the "reverse-clickie" type, and frankly I never understood why anyone would make lights with something like that. A forward-clickie makes much more sense to me, but alas I'm sure it's not that difficult to swap. As it stands, it does become annoying when trying to use it outside at night to point at things.
Apart from that, the host is well built, the threads are smooth and you even get an O-ring, although I wouldn't try dunking it in any case... I was a little surprised that the flashlight parts were missing, I remember seeing them in other people's packs and was looking forward to a little Cree to stick into an old incan... but that's just splitting hairs. I must say the GITD caps came in handy, appart from looking nice under UV, I used them to cover the lenses of my other lasers that didn't come with any protection.
And while we're on the subject, let's make a little comparison. My other lasers are a set of Mohrenberg's builds, a BluRay+Red in identical Coleman hosts. The hosts are great, heavier and slightly longer than the Romisen, but still pocketable. They also have a nice forward switch, however my biggest gripe wth them is the power source -- they need RCR2's, which are a difficult to find and a pain to charge -- with the Nano you can charge only one at a time, while a WF-139 can charge two with the required spacers, but you risk damage since the current is over 1C... Anyway, the lasers themselves work nicely, I'll talk more about that later, for now let's see some comparison shots:
As you can see, they're quite similar, and the same can be said about the output. The Mohr has an LG 6x rated at "<200mW" (he didn't have a meter at the time, and I don't either), while the IgorT is rated by him at 191mW. They both focus to a tiny pin-hole dot, however the IgorT remains tighter even at longer distances, the Mohr seems to diverge somewhat. Burning power also appears identical, I tried moving a piece of cardboard in front of them and the burning marks matched exactly. I can't say anything about run-time, I haven't exhausted any one of them yet... They both seem cool to the touch and get only slightly warm after a minute or two of running.
Now, about the beam... they are both equally visible in a dark room, and quite impressive. IgorT said he used a special high-wavelength diode in mine, and it sure looks bright -- however I haven't played around too much since I need to take the goggles off to see the beam and inside that tends to be dangerous. I'll see if I have some time to get out at night and test them in a park, however I'm quite busy at the moment so I don't know when I'll be able too.
To wrap things up, here are a couple more close-up pics:
Edit: After advice from fellow LPF'ers I managed to get some decent beam-shots... You'll notice I played with the camera settings quite a bit while trying to get a good picture; also remember that no smoke/fog/etc. was used for these. Enjoy!
The Mohrenberg next to the IgorT, at 2s/F5/ISO1600:
Mohr on the left, IgorT on the right, at 20s/F11/ISO800 -- this one is interesting because it captures the fluorescence in a few white objects:
The Mohr just "died' when taking this pic (I guess the batteries ran out, it reduced the intensity to a minimum), so here is only the IgorT (8s/F13/ISO1600):
Here we have the Red Mohrenberg at <300mW next to the IgorT -- the difference in power and wavelength is overwhelming, it's like the BluRay was turned off interestingly enough, even though the beam is much more intense with the Red, it's burning ability is not so great with non-black materials (8s/F20/ISO1600):
And a las pic with just the Red -- even with lower sensitivity it's very bright (8s/F11/ISO800):
I think that about covers it... If you think I missed anything or you have some advice as to better beam-catching, I'm all ears!
Best regards,
Mihnea
Little did I know back then what a ride I was in for... you can read more about the whole ordeal if you haven't already in the original sales thread or the additional "tracking" thread. Finally, 4 months later almost to the day, the postman delivered the little piece of paper notifying me that I had a package to pick up. Alas, it was no surprise, since this time I had a tracking number and I had been hammering the postal services site daily, and I knew it was already here. But my anticipation didn't subside the slightest bit, since this was "the" laser, my first and certainly not last purchase in this fascinating world of lights. I had to wait until the evening before actually getting the package, but in the mean-time I also picked a shipment of goggles from OEM Laser Systems (I'll say a few words about them in another thread shortly).
So here I am, with a nicely wrapped package in front of me:
The other side shows the day it was sent, due to some further mishaps (long story) it spent more than two full weeks in transit:
Inside the package was the laser itself in a white box, wrapped in bubblewrap, and the box itself wrapped again. Also present where a set of TrustFire 14500 cells and a pack of GITD caps:
I must say I had completely forgotten about the batteries and when opening the pack it suddenly hit me: Igor had asked me if I needed an "emergency battery", and back then my order with DX was stalled because of the Chinese holidays, so I said "yes". He actually managed to ship a few of the lasers that didn't require batts, but for mine and most others he had to wait for a battery shipment to arrive... and that's when everything went south. So if it wouldn't have been for these little things I might've had the laser a long time ago, but hey -- it was much more exciting this way
That being said, I sighed, took the set and placed it with my sizeable collection of batteries and chargers -- turns out that in 4 months one can get so many accesories for lights that a box is needed... I took an already-charged AW 14500 and returned to the laser.
This is the laser fresh out of the box, cleanly and carefully wrapped:
I checked the battery compartment for the sticker, and indeed, there it was! Great for Igor to have remembered that little detail...
So now it was finally ready for ignition:
Quite a beautiful sight, in all it's 191mW glory! And it's certainly fun to use it with the GITD cap as a sort of green lantern around the house
Ok, I'll stop with the pictures now and take some time to express my thoughts about the laser itself. It's a good quality host, and a very clean build from what I can see -- although I didn't open it up and don't plan to, so it's all outside impressions. It is very light, almost too light for my taste, but I must say the size is somewhat larger than I expected... I could be spoiled by my Lummi Raw (ok, I am), but from all the descriptions I was expecting it to be even smaller. Don't get me wrong, it's a very little beast for all the power it packs, just that during all the waiting months it must've shrunk to tiny proportions in my imagination
Another thing that bugs me is the switch -- it's somewhat stiff and of the "reverse-clickie" type, and frankly I never understood why anyone would make lights with something like that. A forward-clickie makes much more sense to me, but alas I'm sure it's not that difficult to swap. As it stands, it does become annoying when trying to use it outside at night to point at things.
Apart from that, the host is well built, the threads are smooth and you even get an O-ring, although I wouldn't try dunking it in any case... I was a little surprised that the flashlight parts were missing, I remember seeing them in other people's packs and was looking forward to a little Cree to stick into an old incan... but that's just splitting hairs. I must say the GITD caps came in handy, appart from looking nice under UV, I used them to cover the lenses of my other lasers that didn't come with any protection.
And while we're on the subject, let's make a little comparison. My other lasers are a set of Mohrenberg's builds, a BluRay+Red in identical Coleman hosts. The hosts are great, heavier and slightly longer than the Romisen, but still pocketable. They also have a nice forward switch, however my biggest gripe wth them is the power source -- they need RCR2's, which are a difficult to find and a pain to charge -- with the Nano you can charge only one at a time, while a WF-139 can charge two with the required spacers, but you risk damage since the current is over 1C... Anyway, the lasers themselves work nicely, I'll talk more about that later, for now let's see some comparison shots:
As you can see, they're quite similar, and the same can be said about the output. The Mohr has an LG 6x rated at "<200mW" (he didn't have a meter at the time, and I don't either), while the IgorT is rated by him at 191mW. They both focus to a tiny pin-hole dot, however the IgorT remains tighter even at longer distances, the Mohr seems to diverge somewhat. Burning power also appears identical, I tried moving a piece of cardboard in front of them and the burning marks matched exactly. I can't say anything about run-time, I haven't exhausted any one of them yet... They both seem cool to the touch and get only slightly warm after a minute or two of running.
Now, about the beam... they are both equally visible in a dark room, and quite impressive. IgorT said he used a special high-wavelength diode in mine, and it sure looks bright -- however I haven't played around too much since I need to take the goggles off to see the beam and inside that tends to be dangerous. I'll see if I have some time to get out at night and test them in a park, however I'm quite busy at the moment so I don't know when I'll be able too.
To wrap things up, here are a couple more close-up pics:
Edit: After advice from fellow LPF'ers I managed to get some decent beam-shots... You'll notice I played with the camera settings quite a bit while trying to get a good picture; also remember that no smoke/fog/etc. was used for these. Enjoy!
The Mohrenberg next to the IgorT, at 2s/F5/ISO1600:
Mohr on the left, IgorT on the right, at 20s/F11/ISO800 -- this one is interesting because it captures the fluorescence in a few white objects:
The Mohr just "died' when taking this pic (I guess the batteries ran out, it reduced the intensity to a minimum), so here is only the IgorT (8s/F13/ISO1600):
Here we have the Red Mohrenberg at <300mW next to the IgorT -- the difference in power and wavelength is overwhelming, it's like the BluRay was turned off
interestingly enough, even though the beam is much more intense with the Red, it's burning ability is not so great with non-black materials (8s/F20/ISO1600):
And a las pic with just the Red -- even with lower sensitivity it's very bright (8s/F11/ISO800):
I think that about covers it... If you think I missed anything or you have some advice as to better beam-catching, I'm all ears!
Best regards,
Mihnea
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