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Greetings! I thought for my 1,000th post I'd do a fairly detailed review of the newest addition to my laser harem; a 473nm PL-E Pro from Jetlasers. I'm going to go from pre-purchase up to my first impressions of the laser. I'll do some divergence calculations one I get my digital calipers next week.
The laser was offered as part of the Jet Lasers (JL) May 2013 Group Buy that is still ongoing. Gray has indicated that the current GB will likely wrap up by mid July so if you're interested in one I'd contact him ASAP. A new GB may start next month but no guarantee they'll be offered then. Anyhow on with the review.
Pre-sale
One thing I look at when potentially buying a product is how does a company handle questions from prospective customers. JL passes with flying colors. The questions I posted in the GB thread were answered usually within a few hours. Emails were typically answered within 12 hours which considering the time difference between the US and China is more than satisfactory in my book. In fact some US based companies could take a lesson from them.
Ordering and Payment
This is where things got interesting. Let me be clear on one ting this was NOT due to no fault of either Gray or JL but rather Paypal's stupid policy about using their service to purchase any lasers. Gray offered to setup a listing on AliExpres (the Chinese equivalent of eBay more or less) which appeared to go smoothly until they stopped my payment until I verified my identity. Understandable since I'm sure they see a lot of fraud. They asked for three things.
1. A photo of my physical card. No big deal since they already had all the information off it already.
2. A copy of a recent statement with showing my address. This mildly annoyed me since they don't need to see my financial information but a few minutes of redacting things using PDF Pen (an awesome app btw) I blocked out everything that was none of their business.
3. A copy of my driver's license, a government issued ID or passport. Not a snowball's chance in hell of that happening and I told them as much. I am not giving some random company, Chinese or otherwise, all the pieces they need to have one of their employees commit fraud or identity theft.
They declined to process the order and I declined to do any further business with them.
In the end we worked out an agreement using Western Union to handle the payment.
Shipping
After receiving payment Gray said they'd try to get it shipped out by the end of the week or early the next. On Tuesday night I got a reply from Gray with LPM graphs (more on that later) and a tracking number. According to the UPS tracking the package was picked up by UPS in China at 1:09 am CDT on July 3rd and arrived at UPS Worldport Hub in Louisville, Kentucky on July 4th at 12:16 am CDT and cleared customs barely an hour later at 1:19 am. Total time from China to clearing customs; 24 hours 10 minutes. Delivery to me was delayed by a day until Friday due to the Independence Day holiday here in the US. As you'll see in the photos below the laser was very well packaged for shipment.
For reference another laser I purchased in the recent CNI GB arrived in New York City on June 27th and took 9 days to be cleared though customs by the US Postal System. I'm still waiting for it to be delivered.
First Impressions
Holy crap this thing is a beast! Seriously you could clobber somebody good with this thing. The host has a hefty feel to it and comes in at 21.5oz/1.3lb (610g) including an 18650 battery and sleeve. The 18650 weighs 1.6oz/45g. Gray recommends a 26650 but mine won't arrive until Tuesday so I've been using an 18650 for now.
By eye the divergence looks great. The beam is nice and tight and at about 25 feet (~8m) the dot is probably smaller than my B&W Tek 473nm labby's at its aperture. Once I get my calipers next week I'll have to look up the right formula and see how good and bad they are respectively.
Ok now for the part you all clicked here for the pics!
2013-07-05_02-05-33pm by ltkernelpanic, on Flickr
Inside a standard UPS poly bag was this well padded package.
2013-07-05_02-07-48pm by ltkernelpanic, on Flickr
I'm not sure if this particular light formed the basis of the PL-E Pro host but it was inside another poly bag inside the first padded package. Getting closer....
2013-07-05_02-09-42pm by ltkernelpanic, on Flickr
Inside were the individual parts of the host, a printed manual, warranty info, and a printout of the LPM test Gray did before shipping it. Yes that graph says it peaked at 111mw and averaged 99mw! My testing showed lower numbers but I used a lower capacity then the 26650 Gray recommended using to get max performance from it. Once I get my 26650s or a DC supply that will work with it I'll run another set of tests and post them.
2013-07-05_02-12-52pm by ltkernelpanic, on Flickr
Each part of the laser was sealed in an antistatic bag, placed in a sealed bubble wrap bag, and shipped inside the padded green case.
2013-07-05_02-16-32pm by ltkernelpanic, on Flickr
The laser body, two battery barrels, spacer sleeve for using an 18650 instead of a 26650 and tail cap. This particular laser didn't come with the mouse tail switch cable which isn't that big of deal.
2013-07-05_02-19-13pm by ltkernelpanic, on Flickr
2013-07-05_02-20-59pm by ltkernelpanic, on Flickr
The assembled laser with each battery barrel. I really like the looks of the first one but the look and feel of the second is even better. What's great is if I get tired of it I can just swap barrels. One thing I immediately noticed is the threading is silky smooth. Whoever did the machining on these hosts did an awesome job.
2013-07-05_02-52-15pm by ltkernelpanic, on Flickr
All ready for first light. You can see the aperture cap and tail safety pin as well as my laser glasses from OEM which were needed for the nest series of photos....
BEAM SHOTS!
(note: The two "spots" that appear on the lens of my glasses are reflections from the flash off something and not burns/defects in the lens)
2013-07-05_11-35-27pm by ltkernelpanic, on Flickr
100mw 473nm PL-E Pro from JetLasers
2013-07-05_11-42-36pm by ltkernelpanic, on Flickr
100mw 473nm and ~800mw 445nm. The 445 really overpowers the 473 but it still held its own. Oddly enough while it doesn't show in the picture the 473 looked more towards 488 to the eye with both the 445 and 405nm next to it. (I didn't bother posting the 405 pics since the beam didn't show up.)
2013-07-05_11-41-17pm by ltkernelpanic, on Flickr
100mw 473 and 190mw 660nm.
2013-07-05_11-43-17pm by ltkernelpanic, on Flickr
100me 473, 800mw 445nm, 190mw 660nm.
2013-07-05_11-49-17pm by ltkernelpanic, on Flickr
100mw 473nm and 130mw 532nm.
2013-07-05_11-50-24pm by ltkernelpanic, on Flickr
130mw 532nm, 100mw 473m, 800mw 445nm and 190mw 660nm.
2013-07-05_11-53-05pm by ltkernelpanic, on Flickr
130mw 532nm, 100mw 473nm, 800mw 445nm, 635nm (I forget its power), and 190mw 660nm.
That last shot doesn't really do it justice. The difference in the blues and reds is clearly visible by eye.
The laser was offered as part of the Jet Lasers (JL) May 2013 Group Buy that is still ongoing. Gray has indicated that the current GB will likely wrap up by mid July so if you're interested in one I'd contact him ASAP. A new GB may start next month but no guarantee they'll be offered then. Anyhow on with the review.
Pre-sale
One thing I look at when potentially buying a product is how does a company handle questions from prospective customers. JL passes with flying colors. The questions I posted in the GB thread were answered usually within a few hours. Emails were typically answered within 12 hours which considering the time difference between the US and China is more than satisfactory in my book. In fact some US based companies could take a lesson from them.
Ordering and Payment
This is where things got interesting. Let me be clear on one ting this was NOT due to no fault of either Gray or JL but rather Paypal's stupid policy about using their service to purchase any lasers. Gray offered to setup a listing on AliExpres (the Chinese equivalent of eBay more or less) which appeared to go smoothly until they stopped my payment until I verified my identity. Understandable since I'm sure they see a lot of fraud. They asked for three things.
1. A photo of my physical card. No big deal since they already had all the information off it already.
2. A copy of a recent statement with showing my address. This mildly annoyed me since they don't need to see my financial information but a few minutes of redacting things using PDF Pen (an awesome app btw) I blocked out everything that was none of their business.
3. A copy of my driver's license, a government issued ID or passport. Not a snowball's chance in hell of that happening and I told them as much. I am not giving some random company, Chinese or otherwise, all the pieces they need to have one of their employees commit fraud or identity theft.
They declined to process the order and I declined to do any further business with them.
In the end we worked out an agreement using Western Union to handle the payment.
Shipping
After receiving payment Gray said they'd try to get it shipped out by the end of the week or early the next. On Tuesday night I got a reply from Gray with LPM graphs (more on that later) and a tracking number. According to the UPS tracking the package was picked up by UPS in China at 1:09 am CDT on July 3rd and arrived at UPS Worldport Hub in Louisville, Kentucky on July 4th at 12:16 am CDT and cleared customs barely an hour later at 1:19 am. Total time from China to clearing customs; 24 hours 10 minutes. Delivery to me was delayed by a day until Friday due to the Independence Day holiday here in the US. As you'll see in the photos below the laser was very well packaged for shipment.
For reference another laser I purchased in the recent CNI GB arrived in New York City on June 27th and took 9 days to be cleared though customs by the US Postal System. I'm still waiting for it to be delivered.
First Impressions
Holy crap this thing is a beast! Seriously you could clobber somebody good with this thing. The host has a hefty feel to it and comes in at 21.5oz/1.3lb (610g) including an 18650 battery and sleeve. The 18650 weighs 1.6oz/45g. Gray recommends a 26650 but mine won't arrive until Tuesday so I've been using an 18650 for now.
By eye the divergence looks great. The beam is nice and tight and at about 25 feet (~8m) the dot is probably smaller than my B&W Tek 473nm labby's at its aperture. Once I get my calipers next week I'll have to look up the right formula and see how good and bad they are respectively.
Ok now for the part you all clicked here for the pics!
2013-07-05_02-05-33pm by ltkernelpanic, on Flickr
Inside a standard UPS poly bag was this well padded package.
2013-07-05_02-07-48pm by ltkernelpanic, on Flickr
I'm not sure if this particular light formed the basis of the PL-E Pro host but it was inside another poly bag inside the first padded package. Getting closer....
2013-07-05_02-09-42pm by ltkernelpanic, on Flickr
Inside were the individual parts of the host, a printed manual, warranty info, and a printout of the LPM test Gray did before shipping it. Yes that graph says it peaked at 111mw and averaged 99mw! My testing showed lower numbers but I used a lower capacity then the 26650 Gray recommended using to get max performance from it. Once I get my 26650s or a DC supply that will work with it I'll run another set of tests and post them.
2013-07-05_02-12-52pm by ltkernelpanic, on Flickr
Each part of the laser was sealed in an antistatic bag, placed in a sealed bubble wrap bag, and shipped inside the padded green case.
2013-07-05_02-16-32pm by ltkernelpanic, on Flickr
The laser body, two battery barrels, spacer sleeve for using an 18650 instead of a 26650 and tail cap. This particular laser didn't come with the mouse tail switch cable which isn't that big of deal.
2013-07-05_02-19-13pm by ltkernelpanic, on Flickr
2013-07-05_02-20-59pm by ltkernelpanic, on Flickr
The assembled laser with each battery barrel. I really like the looks of the first one but the look and feel of the second is even better. What's great is if I get tired of it I can just swap barrels. One thing I immediately noticed is the threading is silky smooth. Whoever did the machining on these hosts did an awesome job.
2013-07-05_02-52-15pm by ltkernelpanic, on Flickr
All ready for first light. You can see the aperture cap and tail safety pin as well as my laser glasses from OEM which were needed for the nest series of photos....
BEAM SHOTS!
(note: The two "spots" that appear on the lens of my glasses are reflections from the flash off something and not burns/defects in the lens)
2013-07-05_11-35-27pm by ltkernelpanic, on Flickr
100mw 473nm PL-E Pro from JetLasers
2013-07-05_11-42-36pm by ltkernelpanic, on Flickr
100mw 473nm and ~800mw 445nm. The 445 really overpowers the 473 but it still held its own. Oddly enough while it doesn't show in the picture the 473 looked more towards 488 to the eye with both the 445 and 405nm next to it. (I didn't bother posting the 405 pics since the beam didn't show up.)
2013-07-05_11-41-17pm by ltkernelpanic, on Flickr
100mw 473 and 190mw 660nm.
2013-07-05_11-43-17pm by ltkernelpanic, on Flickr
100me 473, 800mw 445nm, 190mw 660nm.
2013-07-05_11-49-17pm by ltkernelpanic, on Flickr
100mw 473nm and 130mw 532nm.
2013-07-05_11-50-24pm by ltkernelpanic, on Flickr
130mw 532nm, 100mw 473m, 800mw 445nm and 190mw 660nm.
2013-07-05_11-53-05pm by ltkernelpanic, on Flickr
130mw 532nm, 100mw 473nm, 800mw 445nm, 635nm (I forget its power), and 190mw 660nm.
That last shot doesn't really do it justice. The difference in the blues and reds is clearly visible by eye.
To celebrate it with a nice review of a hell of a laser is the right way to go.
