Best laser for arborists

[Evo]

I’m tired of buying what seems to be disposable lasers for pointing at trees.
I work as an Arborist and we tend to use basic pen green laser pointers with mixed results. Out here in the PNW we frequently will be trying to point a fine focused green dot on a green evergreen canopy about 150’ up and ~ 100’ away. With a fully charged set of batteries and an overcast day it works just OK. Even better with a super light fog as the dot widens and is more visible. Often I’ll have my customers behind me trying their best to find the bouncing green spec on the foliage.

I know next to nothing other than the super basics that green is supposed to be the brightest in daylight, and the max legally allowed in the states is 5nm (but I don’t even really know that that means). Obviously I would never be pointing at a person, plane, or animal. I know a consulting arborist who had a badass laser, which likely isn’t legal. It’s about the size of a moderate handled c cell flashlight, and shoots a pink dot that is about 3-6” in diameter and is impossible to miss when pointing at a tree. It must be durable as I know he’s had it for well over a decade and it’s battle scared.

Can anyone point me to a good quality, long lasting laser that hopefully is in the $200 price tag range? Are there any there with an adjustable beam diameter? A solid on off switch and disposable batteries are a plus.

 

[RedCowboy]

If you are using the laser as a tool around workers you need to understand that any laser over 5mw ( that's the output power in 1000th of a watt , milliwatts ) can damage someones eyes if the beam enters the eye.

That said a direct diode green laser in a water proof housing would be good for your purpose as dpss lasers can be fragile and are more temperature sensitive. A lot of cheap ebay green pointers are dpss of 532nm ( nm is nanometers that's the wavelength ) so look for 520nm or 525nm as well as direct diode.

Again know your local laws and use at your own risk, but don't let the laser hit anyone's face as many ebay lasers sold as 5mw are actually 40-80mw.

You might want to take a look at Sanwu

 

[Evo]

If you are using the laser as a tool around workers you need to understand that any laser over 5mw ( that's the output power in 1000th of a watt , milliwatts ) can damage someones eyes if the beam enters the eye.

That said a direct diode green laser in a water proof housing would be good for your purpose as dpss lasers can be fragile and are more temperature sensitive. A lot of cheap ebay green pointers are dpss of 532nm ( nm is nanometers that's the wavelength ) so look for 520nm or 525nm as well as direct diode.

Again know your local laws and use at your own risk, but don't let the laser hit anyone's face as many ebay lasers sold as 5mw are actually 40-80mw.

Thanks, can you point me to a good reputable brand and hopefully a link.
I want safe for sure, nothing that would require specific glasses, and I would never use it with a climber in the tree, but two of us shoulder to shoulder pointing out defects or work order specs.

Is there a viable alternative with a focus able beam that is not green?

 

[RedCowboy]

Sanwu has direct diode lasers...... maybe a challenger in 520nm single mode. You want red.... get a 635nm and stay with single mode.

Challenger

Challenger series Our Lightest Handheld Laser! Light Weight Powerful Design The challenger is powered by one 14500 lithium rechargeable battery and weighs approximately 140 grams, making this the lightest handheld laser we have ever produced! Even better, it emits 10 - 20 times more power than...

www.sanwulasers.com

 

[Unown (WILD)]

I’m tired of ...

And I'm tired of spammers. Do not post duplicate threads.

 

[Evo]

And I'm tired of spammers. Do not post duplicate threads.

I did a search, only a few results came up, and none within the past 3 years.
I read all the threads, and didn’t get much to my specific questions. Such as if the beam can be focused, etc. So I did the logical thing and just made a new thread. If one desired I bet you could make some money marketing imports into our industry.

 

[Lifetime17]

Hi,
Sawn or Jet lasers are great products and you can get a beam expander to fofocus in the far field.
RedCowboy is good with this kind of stuff maybe he can direct you in the direction.
Rich

 

[paul1598419]

I live in the PNW too. Tacoma, Washington to be specific. A green laser to point out green trees wouldn't be my first objective as a red laser around 635 nm would likely show up better. Green light is more visible to humans, but red in this case might be better. Good luck.

 

[Evo]

This is great info. Thank you very much. I am looking at the sanwu website and there are two options 300mw or 800mw in the 635nm
I’m not looking for something insane or that requires googles.
What is the difference between the two mw in tangible terms?

 

[RedCowboy]

The 300mw 635nm is single mode, so it produces a much tighter spot.
However the 800mw 635nm is multi mode and will make a long bar shaped spot, this is why I said to stay with the single mode.

p.s. You need laser safety glasses if there's any chance of reflecting the beam into your eyes or anyone's eyes, but you are fine to look at the spot and beam at anything past arms length as long as you won't have any specular reflections.

Bouncing a beam off a mirror and into your eye is a specular reflection, that's no good. But the scattered light from the beam in the air or the spot in a tree or on a wall is a diffuse reflection, that's no problem.

 

[Evo]

The 300mw 635nm is single mode, so it produces a much tighter spot.
However the 800mw 635nm is multi mode and will make a long bar shaped spot, this is why I said to stay with the single mode.

p.s. You need laser safety glasses if there's any chance of reflecting the beam into your eyes or anyone's eyes, but you are fine to look at the spot and beam at anything past arms length as long as you won't have any specular reflections.

Bouncing a beam off a mirror and into your eye is a specular reflection, that's no good. But the scattered light from the beam in the air or the spot in a tree or on a wall is a diffuse reflection, that's no problem.

This is great info, what about the beam expanders, I’d like to have a dot 6”-8” or so from 50’. Will this achieve that goal?

 

[kecked]

I’d stick with green or yellow. The reason plants are green is they reflect green. Using red they will absorb the light and be less visible. Still diode green is the right way to go.