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ArcticMyst Security by Avery

Laserlands' 520nm beauty

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There are already a few reviews of this laser on here from members who were given it free to review, all of which that I’ve seen are fantastic; and if you haven't seen them, and are interested in this laser, I'd highly recommend reading them for any measurements you're looking for. I was personally persuaded to buy this laser because of them. I paid full price for the item under review, and I couldn’t be happier with what I’ve seen so far for the price. This'll be my very first review of anything, so bear with me while I attempt to come up with something unique about this laser that the previous reviews haven't already mentioned. :p



PACKAGING/SHIPPING

This laser came in a “Laser Torch” box that was safely wrapped in more than a few plastic covers that took forever to rip through, even with a knife. Nothing was damaged besides the copious amount of styrofoam that came with it.



Shipping time was okay, around two weeks.

BUILD

Build quality is overall excellent. My one quibble with the hos tis that my batteries(Olight 3.7V) shake around in the host some. Not enough to be too annoying, and not generally noticeable, but I'll probably wrap some electrical tape around the inside to prevent this from happening. Other than that, everything feels extremely solid, the GITD cap is a nice addition, and I am very pleased with the build.

EDIT: I wrapped two strips of electrical tape around the inside of the plastic battery tube, and everything works smoothly now. No rattling or anything. :D




The focusing feature on the lens works very well; the dot is very oval-shaped, like most reviewers have mentioned, with some bleed that forms a dim circle. At distance, the dot is very nice and tight, and none of that is noticeable. Battery life hasn't been fully tested yet, but with two Olites in it last night, I had no hiccups shining it around for around an hour. And with a 2 hour duty cycle, there’s no fear of leaving it on too long and frying something.

THE REST

As far as I can tell, this laser comes very close to 5mW of power. It's a good bit dimmer than my laser 303, which is most likely 20-50mW. It's a fair amount wider, probably 3-4x when focused to infinity, and fog really does wonders with it.


(Don't mind my ghetto setup... The 303 has a push-down button and I happened to have a knife laying around… :p)

I much prefer the color over 532 nm, as do the few people I've shown it to so far. It's definitely what I would call a "truer" green, really bringing out the yellow in the 532 when they're side by side. I don't have a dedicated fog machine, just an Essential Oil diffuser, but it worked well enough to bring out the beam of the 520 next to my 532, really putting it to shame.



The beams look impossibly different to the human eye than it does to cameras(at least my crappy phone camera. I might update this with HQ pictures later…); 10x brighter, and the color difference becomes stark. The beam is quite visible to the naked eye in pitch black, but other than that you'll be straining your eyes to see anything substantial. My camera can only see the beam with the aid of some fog. An eye opener for sure, I'll be enjoying the hell out of this beauty in the coming weeks :D

One last beamshot because I can’t resist... :bowdown:
 
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Nice. Not everyone can enjoy these lower powered units. And the color is so much nicer than 532nm in person. Just feels wrong to call 532nm green.
As for the battery rattle, is it by any chance missing the clear plastic sleeve on the inside of the battery tube? If so that would cause the rattle and you can cut one from a plastic beverage bottle or a clam-shell package among other things. 18350's also fit this laser quite well with the sleeve removed. However in something with so little current draw, it isn't worth buying a set just for this laser.

Looks like now just just need a singlemode 445 and a 635 to have a decent little spectrum started. Maybe even a 405 and 650 aswell to fill it in a little more.

Word of caution on that 445nm that is under "On the way:" in your sig, you will need laser safety glasses for it as I highly doubt it will be 5mW and will likely be anywhere from 800mW-1500mW

These are a good pair for 445

Enjoy your lasers and protect your seeing balls :beer:
 
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Thank you for the tips! It does seem to be missing any kind of plastic in the battery tube, and I'll update my review once I have that fixed.

Already bought myself two pairs in case anyone else wants to watch :D
 

WizardG

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Good review WF. As one of those gifted with a laser to review I have to add my one gripe with this laser: the driver.

This laser uses a linear driver and it won't achieve full power (mine does a little over 9 mW) unless the batteries add up to at least 7 volts. That by itself wouldn't be an issue but the gorgeous color and low current draw invite looooong run times. The problem is that after its been on for a bit it warms up, just a little, and the dropout voltage of the driver gets lower. If I just leave it on it will drain the batteries down to under 2.6 volts before it dims significantly. Not healthy for Liion bateries 8-( Further, if you accidentally leave it on, the driver will pull 9-10 mA of current even at only 3 volts (total, not per battery) input voltage completely destroying Liion cells.

I like this little laser. Great host. Tack sharp optics (even if it is an acrylic lens). Beautiful color. But that driver really needs a low battery cutoff. If I can find some protected 18350s I'm going to buy a pair for this little guy.
 

Razako

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Nice review :)
These laserlands 520nm pointers definitely seem like they're legit. Out of all the reviews everybody seems quite happy with them. What I really like outside of the quality is how these actually seem to be relatively within spec. They don't come crazily overpowered or underpowered so you can generally be confident in what you're getting. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend these to people looking for a cheap intro to 520nm.
 
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CurtisOliver

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Good review. Glad you enjoy your laser. Lovely wavelength isn't it. :) +rep :beer:
Diachi, any news on yours yet? :thinking:

These lasers seem to sit around 5-6mW so they are very good beginner lasers.
 
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GSS

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Nicely done:)
So are you happy with this one as being your relatively safe unit?
Although even the dot on a 5 or 6mw 520nm can still be a bit tiresome on the eye's.:beer:
 
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Hard to go wrong on something like that, just don't count on everything else they sell as being as stated, I was disappointed several times, but it just depends upon what you buy.
 
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Nicely done:)
So are you happy with this one as being your relatively safe unit?
Although even the dot on a 5 or 6mw 520nm can still be a bit tiresome on the eye's.:beer:

More than happy. I love how the dot isn't bright enough to light up an entire room, even on white surfaces, making the beam just that much more visible... Pretty soon here, I'm going to see if I can get some beamshots with glycerin fog :p
 

GSS

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More than happy. I love how the dot isn't bright enough to light up an entire room, even on white surfaces, making the beam just that much more visible... Pretty soon here, I'm going to see if I can get some beamshots with glycerin fog :p
It is a big issue as far 532's seem to light the rooms up. They should show well with the glycerin even at that low output.
Did you figure out yet if it has the battery tube?
 
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It is a big issue as far 532's seem to light the rooms up. They should show well with the glycerin even at that low output.
Did you figure out yet if it has the battery tube?

I found that it does not. Today I intend to wrap something around the inside of the aluminum tube to fix it.
 

diachi

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Good review. Glad you enjoy your laser. Lovely wavelength isn't it. :) +rep :beer:
Diachi, any news on yours yet? :thinking:

These lasers seem to sit around 5-6mW so they are very good beginner lasers.

Nope! :whistle:

No reply to my e-mail asking what's going on either...
 
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CurtisOliver

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Well you should of got yours by now. This isn't good. I hope it turns up soon. Have you had any update on tracking?
 

diachi

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Well you should of got yours by now. This isn't good. I hope it turns up soon. Have you had any update on tracking?


Tracking still hasn't updated since the last update on February 8th. :can:

Going to e-mail them again...
 

Razako

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Sounds like the postal service lost your package unfortunately.
 




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