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Hello Guys!
Today I decided to do a (sort of) practice review on a set of 3 lasers I bought off eBay after reading the sticky "Review DO's & DON'Ts". I am still deciding whether I will keep doing the laser hobby or not, so I am starting out with cheap Chinese "junk".
First off, I made the order on August 30th from a U.S. distributor in California via PayPal. The order total came to be $8.35 for the set of 3 lasers (Red, Green and Violet.) My package arrived on September 7th in a small light brown paper package. On the package was labeled, "3pcs LED Flashlight pen" word for word.
Once they arrived and I held the lasers in my hand, I was surprised on how big the pens were. They are exactly 6 1/4 in long and a half inch wide.
Each laser weighs 35g or 1.25oz without batteries and 60g or 2oz with AAA batteries. the laser body itself it is slightly heavier than the 2 AAA batteries going in them.
They have a nice feel to it with a metal front, back and clip and some sort of smooth black body that doesn't feel like plastic. Only visible plastic part on it is the silver button. Also, the AAA batteries are slightly lose inside but they only rattle when you shake the laser intentionally.
Now for the laser dots!
First of all, the lasers are rated as 5mW pointers from eBay but I know from previous reviews that they tend to be overspec. First I tested the red laser and to my surprise, it was only slightly brighter than my 1-5mW cheapies. I thought to myself, "I'll use this as an everyday pointer." Next I fired up the violet laser and it was only slightly brighter than the red one. I also found that interesting. And last, I turned on my green pointer and it was a ton brighter than the other two (as expected). Decided to wait until night time to see how bright the beam was and not use it too much in the house (Due to no laser safety glasses yet).
I decided to measure the diameter of the laser dots from one foot away and here were my results:
Red = 4mm dot
Green = 2mm dot
Violet = 5mm dot
Note: In the pictures, red may seem brighter than the violet, but in person, the violet is much brighter. My point-and-shoot camera couldn't pick up the violet too well.
Outside at night, the red laser beam couldn't be seen but the violet was slightly visible. And my green laser beam could be seen much more easily than violet but it still wasn't very impressive. Sadly, I couldn't get my camera to pick up the green beam even with the laser directly above the lens. My point-and-shoot camera only has an 8 second max exposure time as well. But for those of you who still want to see it, here's the best 8 second exposure I could get:
You may have to turn your screen brightness up pretty high to see it cause the tiny lens on my camera couldn't take all of the beam in.
I think my red laser is around 5mW, my violet might be a-bit over 10mW cause of its visible beam at night, and last, the green is probably between 5-10mW. It's hard to tell without a power meter.
Overall, I like the lasers a lot and are much higher quality than I expected. The U.S. seller I bought them from probably made sure they were as close to 5mW as he could get them. Hope you liked my review and please let me know if there is anything I could improve on and add to future reviews!
Today I decided to do a (sort of) practice review on a set of 3 lasers I bought off eBay after reading the sticky "Review DO's & DON'Ts". I am still deciding whether I will keep doing the laser hobby or not, so I am starting out with cheap Chinese "junk".
First off, I made the order on August 30th from a U.S. distributor in California via PayPal. The order total came to be $8.35 for the set of 3 lasers (Red, Green and Violet.) My package arrived on September 7th in a small light brown paper package. On the package was labeled, "3pcs LED Flashlight pen" word for word.
Once they arrived and I held the lasers in my hand, I was surprised on how big the pens were. They are exactly 6 1/4 in long and a half inch wide.
Each laser weighs 35g or 1.25oz without batteries and 60g or 2oz with AAA batteries. the laser body itself it is slightly heavier than the 2 AAA batteries going in them.
They have a nice feel to it with a metal front, back and clip and some sort of smooth black body that doesn't feel like plastic. Only visible plastic part on it is the silver button. Also, the AAA batteries are slightly lose inside but they only rattle when you shake the laser intentionally.
Now for the laser dots!
First of all, the lasers are rated as 5mW pointers from eBay but I know from previous reviews that they tend to be overspec. First I tested the red laser and to my surprise, it was only slightly brighter than my 1-5mW cheapies. I thought to myself, "I'll use this as an everyday pointer." Next I fired up the violet laser and it was only slightly brighter than the red one. I also found that interesting. And last, I turned on my green pointer and it was a ton brighter than the other two (as expected). Decided to wait until night time to see how bright the beam was and not use it too much in the house (Due to no laser safety glasses yet).
I decided to measure the diameter of the laser dots from one foot away and here were my results:
Red = 4mm dot
Green = 2mm dot
Violet = 5mm dot
Note: In the pictures, red may seem brighter than the violet, but in person, the violet is much brighter. My point-and-shoot camera couldn't pick up the violet too well.
Outside at night, the red laser beam couldn't be seen but the violet was slightly visible. And my green laser beam could be seen much more easily than violet but it still wasn't very impressive. Sadly, I couldn't get my camera to pick up the green beam even with the laser directly above the lens. My point-and-shoot camera only has an 8 second max exposure time as well. But for those of you who still want to see it, here's the best 8 second exposure I could get:
You may have to turn your screen brightness up pretty high to see it cause the tiny lens on my camera couldn't take all of the beam in.
I think my red laser is around 5mW, my violet might be a-bit over 10mW cause of its visible beam at night, and last, the green is probably between 5-10mW. It's hard to tell without a power meter.
Overall, I like the lasers a lot and are much higher quality than I expected. The U.S. seller I bought them from probably made sure they were as close to 5mW as he could get them. Hope you liked my review and please let me know if there is anything I could improve on and add to future reviews!
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