650nm vs 660nm portables

[darklandz]

the only red portable i own is a WL Pulsar 125- i bought it because at that time, WL was the only laser company i had heard of that sold high powered pointers of various wavelengths.
i really need something alot more powerful than this, in-terms of brightness/visibility.
S-KY Lasers are offering me a portable 660nm unit which they state averages 300mw?
what id like to know is what the major difference is between 650/660nm?
if u had a laser of each wavelength of the same power side by side, would 1 look more noticeably brighter than the other?
would the beam specs be equal?
bit neutral on this part but which would burn better?
Laserglow's Orion 200mw is tempting but its like $200 more expensive and -100mw?

 

[pseudonomen137]

Honestly, they're normally the same. Some companies call them 660nm, some call them 650nm. Generally they're the same diodes though.

 

[pseudonomen137]

Oh, and if you're interested in an Orion, I have a ~300mW one I could offer at discount from LGs prices

 

[flogged]

the only red portable i own is a WL Pulsar 125- i bought it because at that time, WL was the only laser company i had heard of that sold high powered pointers of various wavelengths.
i really need something alot more powerful than this, in-terms of brightness/visibility.
S-KY Lasers are offering me a portable 660nm unit which they state averages 300mw?
what id like to know is what the major difference is between 650/660nm?
if u had a laser of each wavelength of the same power side by side, would 1 look more noticeably brighter than the other?
would the beam specs be equal?
bit neutral on this part but which would burn better?
Laserglow's Orion 200mw is tempting but its like $200 more expensive and -100mw?

OK... There's not a lot of difference in the perceived brightness of 650-660 nm. This is from SAM's laser FAQ (http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/laserioi.htm#ioilvs)

It shows the relative intensity the light appears at.. the bias of our eyes:

"
632.8 nm .237 Orange-red Red HeNe laser
635 nm .217 " Laser diode (DVD, newer laser pointers)
640 nm .175 " "
645 nm .138 " "
647.1 nm .125 Red Red line of krypton or Ar/Kr ion laser
650 nm .107 " Laser diode (DVD, newer laser pointers)
655 nm .082 " Laser diode
660 nm .061 " "
670 nm .032 " Laser diode (UPC scanners, old pointers)
680 nm .017 "
685 nm .0119 Deep red
690 nm .0082 "
694.3 nm .006 " Ruby laser
"

So you can see that 650 nm (.107) is not quite twice as bright as 660m (.061) (actually I think it takes more like 4x the power to appear twice as bright due to nonlinear response of eye).

Anyway all these lasers you're referring to (unless they are red DPSS - not likely) are likely using diodes meant for DVD use which means the wavelength tolerance is not that good. One manufacturer will say 650nm, another will say 660nm.. however it really depends on the diode.. even from the same manufacturer each diode will be unique, they usually vary from 650-660 nm. So the sky laser will be brighter but not dramatically so.

 

[darklandz]

ok thanks for that! i was deciding on s-ky lasers 300mw or LG's orion but just as i thought, there aint going to be a major difference compared to the pulsar so i may just give it a rest for now.
il just have to save me pennies and think about what i really want in a few weeks time.

 

[charleytown55il]

remember, laser glow has the orion in 635nm also. you have to e-mail them about it because they dont show it on the website.

 

[darklandz]

yeh i was aware of the special edition unit but i have to be realistic - at the moment, that lasers well over my budget - now i wish i werent as generous last xmas
something that came to mind - green lasers are so much more complex/expensive to make compared to red, yet we can easily get a
>4-500mw unit from LG or Opto, whereas 300mw is the highest output available in red. ive been wanting a high powered red lightsaber for some time now, wish >500mw red portables were easy to get hold of as the lower powered greens.

 

[RA_pierce]

There are red diodes for higher powered lasers. The highest output rating I've seen for a red diode is 700mW. The reason nobody uses these for pointers is that the 300mW+ diodes are miltimode and produce a square beam profile and aren't easy to collimate (Orion and the S-KY red), rather than a nice elliptical dot and .5mRad divergence like in the single mode GB diodes. High powered green DPSS lasers like the Hercules use 1.2-2Watt multimode IR diodes, but the DPSS process corrects the ugly beam into a round Gaussian type beam that is much easier to collimate.