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ArcticMyst Security by Avery

deciding on a laser for my friend, have some questions.

Joined
Jun 10, 2010
Messages
91
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ok, so my first questions are epicly n00bish.

- when people say a 50mW green laser is visible at night, do they mean just barely visible, or amazing awesomness visiblity?

- how visible would a beam be in a dim-ish room for a 50mW?

- a fifty should be able to pop balloons at least, right?

so those are ma questions.

I can't decide weather to get a 50mW for my friend or a 100mW. (and some goggles too of course)

The laser I'm looking to get him is the pen style with the chrome finish from O-like: Silver chrome green laser 50mW/good finish [OLSGL50] - $29.00 : Welcome to O-Like.com, Your source for laser products

I'll also be getting the 150mW for myself if I do end up getting him a laser...

anyway, I hope this post wasn't too n00bish for you peoples to handle. :p

please state your opinions :D
 





Joined
Feb 23, 2010
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ok, so my first questions are epicly n00bish.

- when people say a 50mW green laser is visible at night, do they mean just barely visible, or amazing awesomness visiblity? (they mean a visible green beam. My experience with LED Shoppe got me a strong beam shooting through the night sky that was definitely visble; it's hard to define what you mean by amazing awesomeness...it won't be a light saber like Star Wars, but you will see a line connecting your pen to the end of the beam, and viewers will be able to determine where the beam is coming from).

- how visible would a beam be in a dim-ish room for a 50mW? (Depending on the quality of the laser (e.g., O-Like and Rayfoss will trump lasers from LEDShoppe, but all my lasers are from LED Shoppe because they're a great price and they suit my needs...) you may see a few dust specks and breakage here and there, but you will see a bright beam of light).

- a fifty should be able to pop balloons at least, right? (it might, but I never tried and another guy that ordered a 50 mW from LED Shoppe said he could not pop a sharpied balloon).

so those are ma questions.

I can't decide weather to get a 50mW for my friend or a 100mW. (and some goggles too of course) Why not get an inexpensive 50mW from LED SHoppe and see how you like it? It's free shipping and only $24.99 and from what I've expereinced (and read on this forum), they're one of the better guys in the group that sells inexpensive lasers which seem to rate at or above spec.

The laser I'm looking to get him is the pen style with the chrome finish from O-like: Silver chrome green laser 50mW/good finish [OLSGL50] - $29.00 : Welcome to O-Like.com, Your source for laser products

I'll also be getting the 150mW for myself if I do end up getting him a laser...

anyway, I hope this post wasn't too n00bish for you peoples to handle. :p

please state your opinions :D



Please see my reponses embedded in your question. Good luck
 
Joined
Jun 10, 2010
Messages
91
Points
8
thanks. :) His B-day is in November so I'll have a couple of months to decide.
 
Joined
Jun 10, 2010
Messages
91
Points
8
I thought that was over 100 bucks, because it says "+" on every price which would mean that it adds up doesn't it?

sorry if that didn't make much sense. :p
 

X FLY

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Joined
Aug 18, 2009
Messages
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So this is your first green laser? I can promise that 50mW will have a VERY visible beam and probably be alot brighter than you expected :) When I got my first green laser (5mW core) it was ALOT brigter than I expected and in complete darkness it has a very visible beam.

Also if a 50mW is upto spec and has a good beam diameter it can easly pop balloons (even my >30mW cheap 15€ laser I got from greece can pop a black balloon in a couple of secs)


PS. If you want a high quality overspec green laser take a look at NovaLasers.com, atm they have all their lasers -70% OFF! for example the X150 (worth 460$) is only 159$!
 
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ped

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Also my 200mW 635 DILDA from BudgetGadgets never turned up. , off topic i know, but its just a thought before you buy from BG.
 
Joined
Jun 10, 2010
Messages
91
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@X FLY: Thanks for explaining that. :) I'm very exited now. :D and yes, this is my first greenie. And I'll look into that nova lasers sale, sounds good...

And ped, thanks fro the warning. :eek:
 

X FLY

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Joined
Aug 18, 2009
Messages
338
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also here's a video showing how fast a upto spec 30mW laser with good diverage can pop a balloon :) YouTube - Optotronics 30mw laser

(The laser on the video is a 30mW optotronics laser, opto lasers are always overspec and sometimes can have even better mRad than the CNI pens, but the optotronis lasers have the same poor looking host as all of the cheap lasers you can buy from ebay, but don't let the host fool you opto lasers have the best price/quality ratio. If your interested you can take a look at optotronics pen pointers here: Optotronics Green Pen Pointers but due to the crazy sale on novalasers at the moment opto has a bit higher prices but when the novalasers sale ends opto will have alot cheaper prices. Also optotronics has probably the best customer service available. All my emails I have sent to jack (the company owner) were answered within 24 hours and all off my questions answered clearly. Half a year ago I tried buying an opto 150mW pen but the finnish customs didn't allow it in due to the shitty laser laws at finland :( but fortunately the customs gave me the choice to ship it back for free and jack gave me a full refund for the laser. PS. Oops I noticed how much stuff I writed on this message, sorry for all the useless stuff xD I drank 0.5L of energy drink about half an hour ago :p)

EDIT: If/when you buy some safety goggles I recommend to get the ones from DragonLasers (link) they are the cheapest safety goggles with certified OD readings showing what wavelengths they block and how much, and the best part is you can use them with green, cyan, blue, violet or even UV lasers :) For green they have an OD rating of >4 that means it blocks 99.99% of green light so a 150mW will look like a 1mW when using them and you wont get permanent eye damage even from a direct hit.

Source for the OD info:

Q: What is OD or optical density?
A: OD is the ability of the laser safety glasses to weaken or block a specific wavelength of light. The higher the OD, the less light that will be transmitted by the glasses. OD is based on a factor of 10 so with an OD >3 less than 1/1000 of the laser beam energy will be transmitted by the glasses and less than 1/10 000 of the laser beam energy will be transmitted by glasses with an OD >4 glasses.
 
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