New to forum/hobby, some questions/advice...

[paulys55]

Looking for a good 532nm portable laser. Trying to stay under $200 and closer to $150 would be preferred. I've read all the stickies and just had a few questions.
Best place to buy: should I buy from one of the recommended sites such as LaserBTB, etc. or from someone on this sight such as Blord or someone else and what are the tradeoffs?
Some of the lasers I have considered are:
LaserBTB PL532 - 200
DragonLasers Spartan 200
Lazerer LZCR 532 200mw
SciFi SF501b 520nm 200mw
This laser will primarily be used for route mapping while rock climbing (needs to be visable in daylight up to 100 meters), star finding, and general entertainment.
I live in USA, PA just in case shipping is an issue.
Thanks for any help and input.

 

[NightExplorer96]

First off, welcome to the forums pauly!

When it comes to where you buy your laser the main differences between a website/buying from LPF is the options you have to make sure your laser looks exactly how you want it. LaserBTB, DragonLasers, Sci-Fi are all great sites but you are limited to what they have on their pages, whereas buying from a member will allow you to choose the host color, the host, types of batteries etc.... It really is up to how detailed or simple you want your laser to be.

When it comes to the sellers you listed. I would avoid Lazerer as they have slowly been dropping in terms of customer care and many people have had issues where their order was never received. Buying from DL is good, but be aware shipping is quite costly(around $60) as they ship via FedEx Int'l Priority, although it gets to you pretty quickly Laserbtb and Sci-Fi are pretty good. Shipping is quick, product quality is good and you tend to get over-spec products.

Hope this helped solve some problems

-Alex

 

[Deleted member 16589]

200mW of green is Unfathomably bright and really dangerous even just looking at the dot at close range is bad.

200mW would be visible in the day yes but really should not be used for this purpose.
At night you would only need 5mW for star pointing.

I highly recommend going lower power if your new to lasers. :beer: