Introduction and more.

[dopplereffect]

Hello everybody! The introduction probably should go in the welcome section, but since I had other things to bring up, I hope posting here is alright.

I'm a long time lurker. There's a lot of good information here, so I've ended up here many times over the years while researching. A year-ish ago I finally was financially ready to really dive into the laser obsession I've had since the first time I saw a laser in 4th grade. I've owned many "pointers" over the years, and enjoyed them all. I was ready for more. I figured it would a be a good idea to become a member here.

I mostly have been reading the safety and information stuff about lasers here. I'll be honest, despite having read books on lasers, and researching over the years, I'm still somewhat overwhelmed by all of the content here. There are so many knowledgeable users, and the board has been here for so many years, it's sometimes hard to find what I'm looking for, and if I do find it, sometimes it's hard to keep track of everything because of the volume of info.

Don't get me wrong, this is fantastic as far as I'm concerned. It's a topic I love so I don't mind reading it all, but there are only so many hours in the day. Long story short... I already know quite a bit, but I'm quite certain that the amount I don't know still outweighs what I do, and much of what I do know is theoretical since I haven't had much "real life" access to anything but 'pointers'. Please be easy on me, there may be times (perhaps even in this post) where I ask something that may be in the forum already, but I promise I will at least try to find the information before I just ask you all for an answer, but I don't need my hand held. If you give me a link that has the answer I'm looking for, I will read the whole thing. So there's that, at least.

Moving on, I could use some info from you guys if you wouldn't mind. Unfortunately, before I could recover from Christmas expenses, by the time Chinese New Year was over (wanted to buy a Sanwu) COVID-19 hit America and my work hours got cut. I already had safety glasses that worked at the 523nm wavelength, so I settled on a cheap green handheld laser from Amazon. It's fun, but I only have one pair of safety glasses, so I can't use it around anybody else very often, but it DOES burn stuff (Well, 'burn' might be an exaggeration, but it will pop balloons and make things smoke.)

Anyway, one of the occasions where I did use the laser around another person was my niece. I gave her my glasses to wear and went outside at night time and I pointed it at the stars. This is how I learned that she has the "laser obsession" gene. She REALLY wants one for herself for Christmas. Her parents are cool with it as long as it not "anything crazy". She understands the danger that comes along with lasers, and uses the 'weak' one I gave her responsibly.

I was considering getting the 3 304 series laser bundle from Sanwu. I would rather buy one higher quality 445nm laser from them, but I can't afford it. I figured I could kill 2 birds with 3 lasers by purchasing the bundle, giving myself 2 more lasers and her one laser for Christmas. The rest of my post will be formatted for easy answering...

1. I was going to give my niece the Sanwu 532nm. It's rated at 80mw, which is the lowest wattage, and almost definitely emits less IR than my Amazon one (no meter or IR testing card to know for sure). Would you agree that that one is the "safest" of the three? I figured the violet (405nm @ 100mw if memory serves) is a bad combo of more mw AND a harder color to see, making it more likely to seem safe enough to take stupid chances and the 200mw 650nm laser is just too many mw.
2. I can't search for '304'. It's too short. Anybody here have any input or a review on them? My understanding is that Sanwu sorta acts like a reseller with quality control on the 304s. I know you get what you pay for, but it would be MY first violet laser, and the red would probably be my most powerful laser yet. (Who knows what my green amazon one actually is. It claims it is a Class III on the label, but I don't trust that at all.)
3. My goal, if possible would be to give my niece a laser that "barely" requires safety glasses. (I know saying that is a slippery slope, humor me.) She handles guns safely all the time and I know she won't purposely point the laser at people or animals, but I'd prefer that an accidental reflection off of a window or something doesn't blind faster than the blink of an eye (literally). Would you say that 80mw is close to that mark? I'm pretty sure the green I have is more than 80mw, but I've also never used it without glasses or accidentally hit my eyes, reflected or otherwise.
4. Anybody here looking to get rid of safety glasses for any of the wavelengths mentioned here on the cheap, lol? I have to figure out what my current glasses filter, but most likey, I'll be buying a pair for her, and (at least) another pair for me, for whatever wavelengths my current pair doesn't cover.
5. Somewhat unrelated. Sanwu also has 150mW & 1600mW & 3000mW 445nm Blue 304 Laser pointers. Once again, it's hard to search for 304 since it's too short for the search function. Anybody here have any or all of them? How do you like it/them? Any reviews?

I've been nervous to reply to any threads, let alone create a thread up until this point. Hopefully I haven't done anything wrong. I did read the welcome sticky's and stuff, but I have less than perfect retention. Thanks in advance for any responses!

 

[paul1598419]

I wouldn't be too concerned about the IR content of an 80 mW 532nm DPSS laser. It only emits a small fraction of that power at 1064nm. At 80 mW that laser is far from eye safe. The green visible beam would be my main concern. As far as I know the Sanwu 304s are the same as the eBay 303s. They simply call theirs differently. BTW, welcome.

 

[RedCowboy]

Welcome
Enjoy
Stay safe

 

[Lifetime17]

Hi,
Welcome to LPF many great folks here to learn from, We also have a valuable search bar you can use for information.
Rich

 

[dopplereffect]

I wouldn't be too concerned about the IR content of an 80 mW 532nm DPSS laser. It only emits a small fraction of that power at 1064nm. At 80 mW that laser is far from eye safe. The green visible beam would be my main concern. As far as I know the Sanwu 304s are the same as the eBay 303s. They simply call theirs differently. BTW, welcome.

Its the laser I bought off Amazon that I was weary of. I know its more than 5mw and I have no idea if there is an IR filter at all.

I know sanwu is better better about ensuring that the products they sell are somewhat accurate in their output (from everything I've read here). I barely trust MYSELF with that one, let alone a teenager.

Hi,
Welcome to LPF many great folks here to learn from, We also have a valuable search bar you can use for information.
Rich

Yes, I use it quite a bit. The problem is the amount of characters in "303" or "304" it removes them since the search terms are so short. Do you have any suggestions how to get around that?