Gold is good: 589nm Dragonlasers 50mW+ experience

[gismo]

Hi everyone,​

it's been some time now since I've posted a thread of mine. Frankly, I've been busy at work and once I could steal the precious free time, using it for rather late evening and night photography was my priority. But since ignoring enjoyment of the laser beam singularity was not an option for me, especially after winning the long awaiting missing wavelength, it was as clear as high skies sun that I must present a personal experience with the golden photonics...

Desire for Gold​

First things first. My sincere thanks goes to two people who shared their own art and involvement with the very same product: brucemir and wannaburnstuff. Hereby - just as a reminder - links to their reviews to be mentioned here:

http://laserpointerforums.com/f52/review-dl-spartan-589nm-50mw-89139.html

http://laserpointerforums.com/f52/updated-firefly-589nm-dl-review-89442.html​

This very own thread has no ambition to compete with their reviews. Both gentlemen have provided enough of precious information for me to take the final decision go ahead and buy that se*y thing! My goal here is simply to participate up to an extend based on pure picture presentation (what else, huh). On another side I must note how the actual buying process and communication with Adam from Dragonlasers pleasant and easy-going was. First I had to wait a week or so, due to the product being out of stock(!), but there after laser with two diffraction gratings were delivered after cca. 10 more days. Happy days!

After 2x LPM tests done with 1x fully charged 3200mAh Panasonic battery inserted, I couldn't be pleased more.

Welcome home, sunstar!​

I divided gallery in two sections: macro/close-up laser host and parts shots and laser beam outdoor portrait and medium to far distance shots. In case some of you will be wondering about the colour trueness. I personally see the 589nm as dark yellow with an orange tint to it. I believe golden would be the right term here. Much depends on daylight/night time conditions. All pictures taken with Nikon D5200 were adjusted accordingly in RAW Camera Filter of Photoshop CC, but the ultimate post-processing impact on the beam colour was minimal, hue and saturation varied though (if a darker or lighter tone chosen). One way or another, I hope some of these depictions will you, forum viewers, find good enough for 589nm wavelength as it is. Each picture comes with a brief description.


Discreet battery insert mark on the body host's end where it meets the tail cap.

Side front view tail cap.

Closer inside view of tail cap.

Tail cap rear view.

Body host tube.

Laser head up view.

Front side view laser head.

Safety screw in cover, top and bottom.

Inside the body host tube (where the heart beats).

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Spark in the Dark.

Colour War Zone.

Red-golden-blue Connection.

Doorbell Blinder.

Faint Reflections.

At the Lake.

At the Doorstep.

At the Wall.

Sunbeam at Night.

Halo, my artificial Sun.

Tree top.

Clotheshorse.

:thanks: for watching!​

 

[Sigurthr]

Excellent review!

I've been out of the loop a while and had no idea price came down so much on these, I remember 50mW of 589 being $2000. I was looking to drop $500 on a 3mW 594.1nm HeNe... until I saw this thread. Tell me, how is the instantaneous output power stability? When I had a Rigel-6 it was so instable that it visually looked like a loose battery wire. Due to the slow nature of thermal LPMs it would meter admirably but it was terrible to the eye. Does this laser look stable to the eye?

 

[brucemir]

What beautiful outdoor shots!!! Most of them are so nice the laser is not even needed in the pics. Great stuff Gismo.

 

[busman2]

Oh Man everything is turning to Gold around here lately. Someone must have the "Midas Touch!" Hope he comes down my way soon. Another Great Golden Thread Gismo! Thanks!

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to gismo again.:wtf:

 

[gismo]

Sigurthr: thank you, sir! Glad you like the pic gallery. Though, shall we not forget previous posters reviewing the very same product, brucemir & wannaburnstuff to be named here. To answer your question: I had the laser on up to 60sec in longest run, most of the times even less - 30sec or so - for photography purposes mainly. I haven't observed much mode-hopping, if any at all. The laser was on outside at 15-20 degrees of Celsius and beam stability was not a problem at all. Another thing is the personal colour feel, I see the 589nm in a dark yellow/golden tone. But that's only from an aesthetic point of view. The lens cover knob is kind of awkward, but was used to it (owner of jetlasers PL-E Pro with similar feature).

brucemir: your review triggered my buying intention and as far as I can tell, I have no regrets I did it based on your and WBS's findings. Gratitude for (and not only) that:beer:

busman2: cheers for the comment, man. Let's say this laser still stands for rather affordable form of gold one can own. Haven't bought a solid beamer in a while, so using precious $$$ was justifying enough for me in this particular case.

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Precious guide.

Light up Tree (Find the Moon...).

 

[Eudaimonium]

Wow, those are some AWESOME photos, color saturation and contrast make them so otherworldly.

Must spread rep before bla bla, I owe you a reputation point.

Laser itself appears to be up to expectations, it's nicely overspec which is to be expected for CNI merchandise. It's a shame Dragon got some bad rep over past year or so, they usually have very nice hardware and customer service.

There appears to be very weird offset to the beam expander (one in the macro of the module), how does the beam profile look like, after it's traveled some distance?

Also, you have macros of host details and beamshots, but no shots of host itself. I like to see the whole host, especially photos taken with good camera and processed beautifully like your shots are.

 

[Shakenawake]

I will not heap any more praise, as I've said it all before. you don't need to be so humble about them, they're bad ass. thanks for sharing this son of sol.

 

[gismo]

Eudaimonium: thanks, man. I've seen an old thread dated back to 2011 by rhd where the product was way underspec and surrounded by trouble. Looks like dragonlasers as a company have made some positive progress since then. Frankly, after the last two reviews from in the OP mentioned forum members, resistance became futile.

Now I was rather focused on portrait shots than distance, but from what I can tell, it's wider towards infinity as one would expect (no precise measurements done there), wish the laser was focusable, but hey: it's not that bad. Right now I'm glad it's a steady performer without any obvious flickering, beam's clean (at least within 1min runtime). I haven't taken pics of the whole host deliberately, brucemir I believe did a good job on that in his review thread. The host isn't extremely likeable in terms of looks, but I find it practical enough to be used for photographic purposes.

Shakenawake: cheers, bud:beer:. Your recent powerful jetlasers introduction surely has given other members good idea to explore their products. Keep on the good work in the forums!
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Deliberately overexposed...

 

[crazyspaz]

beautiful pics. Just stunning. This one is my favorite:

cant bat that color!

 

[IsaacT]

Your pictures make me want to upgrade my camera very badly. Understandably much was likely due to your post processing in much more capable programs. But the clarity of your pictures is something you cannot really replicate without as good of a camera.

I like the latter half of the photos the best. I think the first half were a little too orange. It was interesting how in one of the photos it was hard to tell a hue on the beam due to the environment.

Did you have any trouble reprogramming your white balance for this laser? It took me forever to get it down for my camera. All in all great review and awesome pictures man! Thanks for sharing!

 

[ChaosLord]

Superb photos, as usual. :yh:

I ordered mine just over a week ago, also with two diffraction gratings. Adam told me they were out of stock as well. I'm hoping I get a shipping notice later tonight or tomorrow. It seems those first two reviews have spawned mass orders....

Glad to see another great experience, although I just want it to hurry up that much more!

 

[Sigurthr]

Out of stock? Bah! I was hoping to place an order tomorrow! Guess I'll have to try and contact them and ask when they'll be in stock again. Anyone know if they're accepting orders still?

 

[starlight]

Out of stock? Bah! I was hoping to place an order tomorrow! Guess I'll have to try and contact them and ask when they'll be in stock again. Anyone know if they're accepting orders still?

I want one now also. after seeing this along with brucemir and wannaburnstuff reviews this is my next laser. going to send a e-mail over to see when they have them back "in stock"

 

[gismo]

crazyspaz: The portrait pic with halo effect is really one of the ones I like much as well, agreed. I was surprised myself, how the camera picked it up, but then again the Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 lens is to be probably blamed for it, too.

IsaacT: comment appreciated:beer:. I agree that a decent DSLR with enough megapixel power delivers sharp pictures out of the box. The actual post-processing was rather about boosting clarity & vibrance and applying some Topaz filters (incl. noise reduction). Since I use Nikon D5200, which is in better case a beginner's camera with advanced features, I wonder how much better performers are the higher models:thinking:. These DSLR's have some much to offer nowadays and prices aren't that rocket high as they used to be, I guess. Admittedly, I didn't adjust the white balance much, if at all. The orange to yellow colour shift was gradually present as the night progressed with less and less light. In other words, camera picked the beam in darker orange tilted tone in lighter environment, whereas the dark yellow to bright yellow tone occurred later in time (after 11pm onwards), for example as to be seen in Halo, my Artificial Sun pic,. Hope this helps, but whether it's an universal rule, can't tell for sure. Canons or other brands (or even other Nikon models) might behave differently.

ChaosLord: :thanks:. I assume, dragonlasers are going to have some increased customers/buyers wave over their golden Spartan series soon. But as someone suggested (can't remember who it was now), a GB organised by some trustworthy member might be quite helpful if more people show the interest.

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Evening relaxing sunbeam.

Dusk or dawn?

 

[trencheel303]

Colour temp of a 589nm line is around 1800K.

lovely photos gismo, threads like this are seriously bad for my bank balance. To there is still something really special about 594 as it's the original DPSS yellow, but one cannot argue the stability and cost of 589s makes it seriously tempting. I wonder in a few years will these be the new 532 of the 2010s?

 

[hwang21]

Spectacular images! I wish I could take such images with my camera

Thanks for the review! Glad to see you're happy with your gold photons :beer: