Distant early warning... 445nm to be banned soon?

[jbtm]

All I got to say is if I get it, I get it...If I don't, I don't.

Sadly for some people they start to freak out and go crazy until they find out the answer to that, I on the other hand, am relaxed until I find out the answer. So, I shall wait now

 

[Xplorer877]

All I got to say is if I get it, I get it...If I don't, I don't.

Sadly for some people they start to freak out and go crazy until they find out the answer to that, I on the other hand, am relaxed until I find out the answer. So, I shall wait now

That would be true for a 50 dollar DX pointer. But what if your 1000 dollar 473nm laser was seized by customs? Not everyone can remain relaxed if they just lost a grand.

-Tony

 

[swimminsurfer256]

All I got to say is if I get it, I get it...If I don't, I don't.

Sadly for some people they start to freak out and go crazy until they find out the answer to that, I on the other hand, am relaxed until I find out the answer. So, I shall wait now

That would be true for a 50 dollar DX pointer. But what if your 1000 dollar 473nm laser was seized by customs? Not everyone can remain relaxed if they just lost a grand.

-Tony

I think that the fact that it is a 1W beast of a laser for basically $200 with ALLLLL this hype about how dangerous it is and how the government is going all out after it warrants a sort of "if i get it i get it if i dont i dont" mentality.

By all means if I ordered a 1000$ 473 and it got seized I think I might use my Arctic to do some damage to the palm tree outside my house

 

[Xplorer877]

I don't care if it was a dollar. It would never warrant the "if i get it i get it if i dont i dont" mentality. It's the principle of the matter. You should recieve the product you paid for. Since there is no guarantee, I don't buy foreign lasers, not after what I went through. I either make them or buy domestic or buy on forums (from domestic members).

-Tony

 

[swimminsurfer256]

I don't care if it was a dollar. It would never warrant the "if i get it i get it if i dont i dont" mentality. It's the principle of the matter. You should recieve the product you paid for. Since there is no guarantee, I don't buy foreign lasers, not after what I went through. I either make them or buy domestic or buy on forums (from domestic members).

-Tony

And that is a very legit proposition. I'm sure any of us would be exactly the same way if what happened to you in 05 happened to us today (at least I know I would)!

 

[jbtm]

True, I dont usually spend much, or that often, for foreign lasers. The only ones I did was Rayfoss 200mw green for $150 and 200mw red for $50. So I wouldn't know how I'd respond about a $1000 laser...

 

[WRM]

I was just on Photonlexicon and their 445 thread is up and running again. Bill

 

[swimminsurfer256]

True, I dont usually spend much, or that often, for foreign lasers. The only ones I did was Rayfoss 200mw green for $150 and 200mw red for $50. So I wouldn't know how I'd respond about a $1000 laser...

Most I spent was $480 for my 350mW IR filtered greenie.. that got here just fine. Twice in fact because the diode burnt out and they replaced it! No problems there..

$1000 I probably wouldn't go for

 

[blackspirit]

I honestly think there is nothing to worry about.

Half the things I've read on this thread is uber paranoia.

Also, PL a great laser show forum, might of simply "closed" the category in the interest of dedicated laser shows, using hardware made specific for the business. I doubt ILDA Standards would endorse homemade 1W lasers crowd scanning, ect.

Meh, just my rant

Cheers
Dave

 

[Benm]

I think the main thing to worry about is what Casio will do with these lasers being used in pointers and such. They might opt to make them very difficult or impossible to extract.

And there would be a bit of an argument to make for such a move on Casio's end: If someone gets injured by these diodes, and it becomes public news that it came out of a casio projector, the public might thing that these projectors are dangerous products even when intact and used for their normal function.

 

[goninanbl00d]

the public might thing that these projectors are dangerous products even when intact and used for their normal function.

Sadly, this may become the case. Not only will the public become extremely paranoid once someone does indeed get hurt, they will react irrationally towards these projectors out of fear.

Remember that most of the public doesn't know bob about lasers, and they will immediately assume that the projectors are indeed dangerous, even though they are not when used correctly.

The media will also be there backing them up with their sensationalist reporting- fact or not. They need to sell papers and get readers, and they'll do it with whatever means suits them, even if it means selling sensational bovine fecal matter that once contained traces of fact.

And faced with a scared, tar-and-pitchforks public, the government will do something about it.

What they do, we may never know. However, do keep in mind the spate of incidents in Australia, involving green laser pointers.

Fuelled by the media, namely TV news and the Daily Terrorgraph, the government simply decided to ban anything <1mW.

The media had simply portrayed 5mW pointers as being excessively dangerous, and that was what the public believed. Most would have no other news source, they simply took what was spoon-fed to them as fact, without checking twice.

Would they ever have known that 5mW of red is less visible than 1mW of green? Would they have known that 5mW of violet is less visible than 1mW of green?

Would they have known that at pointer power levels of 5mW, only green posed a significant threat?

Instead, what we got was more sensationalist reporting about how 'scientists' had 'determined' that anything above 1mW was harmful and could result in permanent damage even from a microsecond exposure.

This was then added to by the various media outlets highlighting how easy it was to purchase handheld laser devices from online vendors (notably Wicked, no big surprise) and have them shipped into Australia.

A frightened public, knowing little more than what the media had fed them, wrote to the politicians, and they acted.

And now, the bottom line is, once the media got involved, the shit really hit the fan. And in the end, it's hobbyists like us (Aussies unite!) who would never even dare think of pointing a laser at a plane, who get punished for it.

So- companies like Wicked better get their act together if they know what's good for them.

They might make a killing now with the Arctic lasers, but once the US imposes Australia-style rules, where EVERY laser device is tested, then it's them who suddenly lose a chunk of their customers.

 

[Tech_Junkie]

I was just on Photonlexicon and their 445 thread is up and running again. Bill

There ya go. All your government conspiracies just got flushed down the toilet.

It has always amazed me how people can be so smart, and so dumb at the same time. :undecided:

 

[swimminsurfer256]

There ya go. All your government conspiracies just got flushed down the toilet.

It has always amazed me how people can be so smart, and so dumb at the same time. :undecided:

True that

 

[maxh]

Would they have known that at pointer power levels of 5mW, only green posed a significant threat?

The visibility of a color has nothing to do with how much damage it can do. Only the power, and how well the substrate on which it is being shined absorb at that wavelength matter.

5mW was chosen as the safe limit because they decided that that was the maximum power at which the eye could sustain a .25 second exposure without suffering permanent damage. .25 second comes from the average human blink reflex, so as long as the laser is decently visible, the numbers should apply. And I, personally, would consider 405nm violet sufficiently visible to produce the blink reflex at 5mW.

And that's for the United States. I don't know where the 1mW thing came from

 

[Barnacules]

I am thinking about cancelling my Spyder order. It just seems like too many things are stacked again WL for me to ever get my laser. And besides I can build one (not as pretty) for cheaper or around the same price. I've heard a lot of people have cancelled and WL just ignores there cancel requests so I'll probably just file a fraud report with my credit card company right out of the gate so they can go after them. :gun:

 

[Tech_Junkie]

I am thinking about cancelling my Spyder order. It just seems like too many things are stacked again WL for me to ever get my laser. And besides I can build one (not as pretty) for cheaper or around the same price. I've heard a lot of people have cancelled and WL just ignores there cancel requests so I'll probably just file a fraud report with my credit card company right out of the gate so they can go after them. :gun:

I would. :yabbem: