Future of the laser hobby?

[NightExplorer96]

Wavelengths: What do you guys think in regard to future wavelengths the hobbyist market will have access to? It seems like we've acquired a good chunk of wavelengths(at least from what we have in the late 2000's) and we are starting to reach of limit of new wavelengths we could acquire that are affordable? No? Any thoughts?

Companies: With the <5mW strike to the USA which came down last year we've seen many companies simply drop out of existence. Some even before(NovaLasers i.e). CNI refuses to ship to the US and if you want to purchase anything from them you'd need to get it shipped via a different country. RayFoss dosen't seem to exist anymore, however, we still have access to laserbtb and O-Like. Laserglow's prices are absolutely exuberant that few people chose to buy from there anymore. JetLasers, along with DragonLasers, is still around along with some very professional forum builders! What do you think will happen in the future? More companies will pop up? More will collapse?

These are just a few things I think would be good to get the forum talking about. I enjoy coming back months later to these kinds of threads and reading how people felt and this is no different! Im especially interested in the wavelengths and what you think will happen!

-Alex

 

[Razako]

Don't see too many more wavelengths coming out soon. Something in the 600-620nm range would be extremely cool though.
If we're lucky yellow dpss will at least get a little cheaper(they seem to be going up though)/
As for companies, I don't see any real way we'd lose our ability to import lasers short of China itself intervening. Customs simply can't check everything and people already import blatantly illegal items such as cannabis seeds without getting caught. If china decided upon a government policy to stop selling pointers to the US we'd be pretty screwed though.

My main concern lies with our ability to actually enjoy using lasers outside. I get bored with burning stuff pretty quickly, and for me the main appeal has always been the beam and long distance pointing. Now I always gotta be paranoid that some idiot will see me harmlessly pointing into the sky and call the cops thinking I'm lasing planes.

 

[NightExplorer96]

Yeah, I myself was never really into burning much, mostly in it really for the wavelengths! I know some 622nm diodes exist but they are most likely godly expensive

-Alex

 

[VirtueViolater]

I don't do the sky lasering, if a flight gets lased in this area and I've been outside at night shining lasers for my neighbors to see, man, all it takes is one phone call. Not gonna put myself in that situation.

As far as laser futures, handhelds will probably get harder to purchase because of regulation, it's just a matter of time. Hopefully diodes will stay available to us (unregulated)

 

[Pi R Squared]

My main concern lies with our ability to actually enjoy using lasers outside. I get bored with burning stuff pretty quickly, and for me the main appeal has always been the beam and long distance pointing. Now I always gotta be paranoid that some idiot will see me harmlessly pointing into the sky and call the cops thinking I'm lasing planes.

I don't do the sky lasering, if a flight gets lased in this area and I've been outside at night shining lasers for my neighbors to see, man, all it takes is one phone call. Not gonna put myself in that situation.

This is also a concern of mine and why I don't use my lasers outside. I am beyond the 10 mile limit for the 2 airports but I am in the forest surrounded by trees without much visibility, and there are aircraft flying directly overhead all the time, it's illegal to even point a laser in the flight path of an aircraft, so no way I am taking any chances.

As far as laser futures, handhelds will probably get harder to purchase because of regulation, it's just a matter of time. Hopefully diodes will stay available to us (unregulated)

I think this is probably true, but lab lasers won't be regulated like that and neither will parts, so people will at least be able to buy parts and build them if they want to.

Alan