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first laser

T

TROLOL

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i bought this one yesterday and i thought i'd ask you guys:
was it a good deal?
i live in the UK and i could only find 1mW on amazon. i thought i'd get a 50mW diode thing for 13 more quid later on (costs 4x more than the laser itself) but i dont know about any of that.

anyways i've been reading up and it appears 1mW isnt that great. However its my first laser and i thought it would be good for me.

The Link to the laser is
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Powerful-Gr...&qid=1371400551&sr=8-2&keywords=laser+pointer

also it dosent appear to have the silver band in the middle like the others. i assume thats just cosmetic and both lasers banded and non banded are same size?

what are you thoughts on this?
 





WARNING: that laser is not 1mW but in reality is 50-100x more powerful. It will end up being 50-100+ mW easily. search over spec ebay pen on this site and you will learn more about those lasers. you need to handle that laser like a loaded gun, it can and will blind you if your not careful with it. please read the yellow link in my signature for an overall guide to owning lasers and be safe
 
thats eveb better! does that mean i can light fireworks or light matches?
 
Looks like a typical overspec chinese laser. Like Livinloud said be extremely careful with it and you should be fine, you should invest in some safety glasses if your going to use it indoors a lot. The quality of these lasers are hit and miss; some are really good, others can die fairly quick. You should read the forums and look at all the safety guides for owning a laser.

Be careful, be safe and welcome to the forums
 
thats eveb better! does that mean i can light fireworks or light matches?
Click to expand...

Don't get your hopes up, but it is a possibility. It will most likely be fairly bright.


edit: thought I was editing my previous post oops
 
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is it a good first laser though?

cosmetics wise is mine bulkier than the ones with the band around them. do the banded ones look better :S
 
thats what most people start off with for a first lasers since its a step into the hobby. BEWARE: you will catch the laser bug and most likely drop a good chunk of change on buying more lasers.......its addicting :na:

the laser is fine for a first one but please check the yellow link in my signature and read up about laser safety and take a look at the safety glasses. it sounds stupid to wear glasses but you only have one pair of eyes, protect them well. at the very least buy the "better than nothing" option but i suggest the eagle pair
 
it was more or less my first laser, so not a bad first,, but it is probably not eye safe like they said
 
Livinloud said:
thats what most people start off with for a first lasers since its a step into the hobby. BEWARE: you will catch the laser bug and most likely drop a good chunk of change on buying more lasers.......its addicting :na:

the laser is fine for a first one but please check the yellow link in my signature and read up about laser safety and take a look at the safety glasses. it sounds stupid to wear glasses but you only have one pair of eyes, protect them well. at the very least buy the "better than nothing" option but i suggest the eagle pair
Click to expand...

That's how I caught it. Bought an Ledshoppe greenie about 3-4 years ago when they were all the rave and have been hooked since.

Read the safety info and you'll be good to go.
 
I'm glad you're looking at safety. Those should be okay but I don't have them so I can't say for sure. They are a cheap Chinese pair that should be able to get you by, I see a lot of people who have them. Just be careful because your laser could emit a lot of infrared which these will not protect against.
 
TROLOL said:
infared? lasers emit that? what harm does it do
Click to expand...
Only green lasers without IR filter emit that, along with their visible beams.

It does all harm a regular visible laser does, with the unfortunate lack of virtue of looking pretty.
 
Eudaimonium said:
Only green lasers without IR filter emit that, along with their visible beams.

It does all harm a regular visible laser does, with the unfortunate lack of virtue of looking pretty.
Click to expand...

technically dont all DPSS lasers emit IR if unfiltered. afaik 473nm has IR if unfiltered, right?
 
well we can always clear up that confusion........there are two types of lasers; diode lasers and DPSS module lasers.

a diode laser (405nm, 445nm, 638nm, 650nm, 660nm, 808nm etc.....) are just the diode creating the laser beam you see.

DPSS laser (Diode-pumped solid-state) are an IR diode (usually 808nm) that then passes through various lens to change the IR beam into visible light (532nm, 473nm, 589nm etc...)

here is a nice graphic to help show what happens in the DPSS module
Green-laser-pointer-dpss-diagrams.jpg


EDIT: although the above graphic shows an IR filter as the last piece of optics, not all DPSS modules have IR filters and pretty much all cheap laser pens dont have this IR filter
 
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