julianthedragon
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jun 3, 2020
- Messages
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Intro
Wishing everyone a happy and healthy New Year! Earlier this month, I was fortunate enough to get my hands on a Dragon Lasers 50mw 589nm Spartan laser. I should preface this review by saying that owning this thing had been on my bucket list for years, so provided that it was operational upon delivery and all went smoothly with the seller, I was never planning to criticize it per se. One, there's not a lot to compare it to, and two, I've already read plenty of raving reviews as I'm sure many of you have. So this review will mostly be describing my experience, letting those golden photons take the spotlight, and sharing some LPM measurements. Let's get into it!
Shipping/Delivery
The buying experience was great right off the bat. The seller @Atlas87 was excellent to deal with and kept me updated every step of the way with pictures etc., great guy. He threw in the Spartan beam expander, the corresponding adapter, and even a li-ion battery with the laser. I probably paid around or below original price of everything combined. To top things off, the seller specified that there was only 15 mins prior runtime on this thing. If he didn't keep sending me pictures and communicating back and forth I would've thought I was being scammed...
The package was shipped from CA to NJ in just three days. This is what was inside the box:
(Top left to bottom right: beam expander, adapter, battery, laser)
Host
Approximate dimensions are 8" long by 1" in diameter. It's larger and bulkier than a pen but smaller than a PL-E Mini, and fits in the hand nicely. It has a textured part for grip and ridges near the top that stop it from rolling. Feels a bit like a flashlight.
Unscrew the tailcap to load 1x18650 battery. There is a helpful illustration inscribed on the host showing the positive side of the battery facing the back of the laser. This is a small detail I never noticed before owning one of these.
At the front of the laser you'll find a tiny threaded lens cap. Actually, that whole piece in front of the textured part unscrews to attach the beam expander, which I'll show later. Note that this laser does not have a built in focusing thread, same as many other Dragon Lasers products.
Action
First, some long exposure beam shots at night: (Note, the beam is actually very thin with little observable divergence despite the perspective of the camera)
Pointing it down at this pond made it look like this bush was on fire lol
Had to do this as well:
Ok, done with the long exposures from here on out. Here it is with some natural fog:
Here are some pics I took inside, some with mist in the air:
It really lights up the room and gives off a more natural feeling than other laser colors which I love.
Finally, here it is shining into a camera flash diffuser with some details of that laser light hitting the wall:
All in all a beautiful wavelength and the images speak for themselves. It's never possible to capture the exact spectral color on camera for various reasons, but I made it as close as possible. The color reminds me of turn signal lights on cars, like an amber yellow.
Stability and Power
Given the complex DPSS process that emits 589nm, it's no surprise that it can be a bit finnicky and unstable at times, this is true. But even so, I'm impressed by its ability to push out so many yellow photons at room temp from a cold start. I noticed it struggles the most in cold temperatures and after it's been used for a while, but respect the ideal operating conditions and don't overwork this thing and ohh man it delivers.
I measured the laser five times. The first time was just an isolated test. The following three were done one after the other with a minute break in between. Then the last test was done after a 15 minute break. I used my LaserBee USB 3.7W and screenshotted the Power v Time graph from each run.
My first LPM test from a cold start peaked at 105mw and averaged 85mw:
Wow. It hung around 2x advertised spec for quite a while, at >3x its recommended duty cycle. (I read a review from Cyparagon here who claimed to leave it running for half an hour so I wasn't too concerned.)
Tests 2, 3, 4, with 2 being from a cold start:
Peak: 97mw Avg: 75mw
Peak: 78mw Avg: 60mw
Peak: 49mw Avg: 35mw
I had a feeling it was just getting tired, so I set a timer for 15 minutes and tried a final test.
Test 5:
Peak: 98mw Avg: 76.6mw
Sure enough, it was back in full force.
The power graph seems to take on this wavey shape with a period of ~10 seconds when it reaches a peak which is interesting. Maybe this has to do with summing 1,064 and 1,319 nm light or just the crystals themselves? Anyone with an idea lmk.
Beam Expander
The beam expander adds about 5.5" to the laser and attaches via an adapter that requires unscrewing the front piece of the laser. I can't actually see any difference with or without the beam expander with the naked eye, so I'm taking Dragon Lasers' word for it that it lowers divergence. Here are some pics:
imgur.com
Conclusion
I'm very happy, definitely lucked out on this one. I hope you enjoyed the photos and measurements. Glad to finally post this since things have been super busy recently. Stay safe and Happy New Year once again
Wishing everyone a happy and healthy New Year! Earlier this month, I was fortunate enough to get my hands on a Dragon Lasers 50mw 589nm Spartan laser. I should preface this review by saying that owning this thing had been on my bucket list for years, so provided that it was operational upon delivery and all went smoothly with the seller, I was never planning to criticize it per se. One, there's not a lot to compare it to, and two, I've already read plenty of raving reviews as I'm sure many of you have. So this review will mostly be describing my experience, letting those golden photons take the spotlight, and sharing some LPM measurements. Let's get into it!
Shipping/Delivery
The buying experience was great right off the bat. The seller @Atlas87 was excellent to deal with and kept me updated every step of the way with pictures etc., great guy. He threw in the Spartan beam expander, the corresponding adapter, and even a li-ion battery with the laser. I probably paid around or below original price of everything combined. To top things off, the seller specified that there was only 15 mins prior runtime on this thing. If he didn't keep sending me pictures and communicating back and forth I would've thought I was being scammed...
The package was shipped from CA to NJ in just three days. This is what was inside the box: (Top left to bottom right: beam expander, adapter, battery, laser)
Host
Approximate dimensions are 8" long by 1" in diameter. It's larger and bulkier than a pen but smaller than a PL-E Mini, and fits in the hand nicely. It has a textured part for grip and ridges near the top that stop it from rolling. Feels a bit like a flashlight.
Unscrew the tailcap to load 1x18650 battery. There is a helpful illustration inscribed on the host showing the positive side of the battery facing the back of the laser. This is a small detail I never noticed before owning one of these.
At the front of the laser you'll find a tiny threaded lens cap. Actually, that whole piece in front of the textured part unscrews to attach the beam expander, which I'll show later. Note that this laser does not have a built in focusing thread, same as many other Dragon Lasers products.
Action
First, some long exposure beam shots at night: (Note, the beam is actually very thin with little observable divergence despite the perspective of the camera)
Pointing it down at this pond made it look like this bush was on fire lol
Had to do this as well:
Ok, done with the long exposures from here on out. Here it is with some natural fog:
Here are some pics I took inside, some with mist in the air:
It really lights up the room and gives off a more natural feeling than other laser colors which I love.
Finally, here it is shining into a camera flash diffuser with some details of that laser light hitting the wall:
All in all a beautiful wavelength and the images speak for themselves. It's never possible to capture the exact spectral color on camera for various reasons, but I made it as close as possible. The color reminds me of turn signal lights on cars, like an amber yellow.
Stability and Power
Given the complex DPSS process that emits 589nm, it's no surprise that it can be a bit finnicky and unstable at times, this is true. But even so, I'm impressed by its ability to push out so many yellow photons at room temp from a cold start. I noticed it struggles the most in cold temperatures and after it's been used for a while, but respect the ideal operating conditions and don't overwork this thing and ohh man it delivers.
I measured the laser five times. The first time was just an isolated test. The following three were done one after the other with a minute break in between. Then the last test was done after a 15 minute break. I used my LaserBee USB 3.7W and screenshotted the Power v Time graph from each run.
My first LPM test from a cold start peaked at 105mw and averaged 85mw:
Wow. It hung around 2x advertised spec for quite a while, at >3x its recommended duty cycle. (I read a review from Cyparagon here who claimed to leave it running for half an hour so I wasn't too concerned.)
Tests 2, 3, 4, with 2 being from a cold start:
Peak: 97mw Avg: 75mwPeak: 78mw Avg: 60mwPeak: 49mw Avg: 35mwI had a feeling it was just getting tired, so I set a timer for 15 minutes and tried a final test.
Test 5:
Peak: 98mw Avg: 76.6mwSure enough, it was back in full force.
The power graph seems to take on this wavey shape with a period of ~10 seconds when it reaches a peak which is interesting. Maybe this has to do with summing 1,064 and 1,319 nm light or just the crystals themselves? Anyone with an idea lmk.
Beam Expander
The beam expander adds about 5.5" to the laser and attaches via an adapter that requires unscrewing the front piece of the laser. I can't actually see any difference with or without the beam expander with the naked eye, so I'm taking Dragon Lasers' word for it that it lowers divergence. Here are some pics:
589 Beam Expander
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imgur.com
Conclusion
I'm very happy, definitely lucked out on this one. I hope you enjoyed the photos and measurements. Glad to finally post this since things have been super busy recently. Stay safe and Happy New Year once again
