Okay, so here's the deal.

[DavidIZE]

Hello everyone, I'm really hoping you can help me. I'm an independant filmaker who is looking to have a laser gun effect done with practical special effects. Laser pointers (green ones to be exact) seemed the most logical choice. But I don't know jack about them. So if you would be so kind as to point me in the directio of my needs, I'd be eterenally grateful.

I need a green laser pointer/torch (I don't know the difference) that has the following capabilities:

Instant balloon popping
combustion of steel wool
combustion of black gun powder
highly visible beam (Even during the day)

And as is usually the case, I need the cheapest option possible.

I was wondering if these would do, would they?

DealExtreme: $20.90 True 50mW Green Laser Pointer Pen Black

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[lasersbee]

First of all..... that is not much of a deal.....:thinking:

Why would you need to pop a balloon or burn Steel Wool in a Film...

You will need quite a substantial more power than a 50mW 532nm
green laser to see it (highly visible) in the day outdoors...
Indoors... on the other hand you could use a beam enhancer (fog
machine smoke for example)...


BTW... Welcome to the Forum...

Don't forget to read the Newcomers section and the Forum Rules..


Jerry

 

[Jaseth]

Welcome to the forum.
Most of this information you can find by reading old threads, but I will try to point you in the right direction anyway.
You are looking for quite a high power unit here - if you want the combustion of black gun powder and steel wool to be fast and possible at a distance, you will need about 500mW at least.. otherwise we are talking close-up burning. This will be extremely costly.
A highly visible beam during the day and close-up ignition of gun powder can be done with about 200mW and some smoke. Even a several W unit will not have a highly visible beam outside on a bright day without a lot of particles in the air, and even then it will only be somewhat visible.. a smoke machine is your best, cheap bet for providing air particles to visualise the beam, but it will mostly work indoors.
As you can hear you are looking at a lot of money here.

Seb

 

[Grix]

I'm sorry, to combust steel wool and black powder, you need way higher powers than 50mW, and it should be focusable for best result. I don't think any green laser has a very visible beam in daylight, except with very much smoke/fog.
One of these is probably your best bet, the 250mW should be able to to the burning stuff, but as said, the beam will not be visible in direct sunlight:
www.0-like.com--product

EDIT: I was too late :/

 

[Benm]

At what range do you need to ignite gunpower or steel wool?

It can be done with limited power (at least the gunpowder, steel wool i have never seen done), as long as you can focus the laser to its smallest 'dot size'.

If you need to do it from several meters away or with a constant beam width, you will need a heck of a lot of power. The 250 mW green might be able to do it since it has a fairly narrow beam to start with, but dont count on setting off black powder across a room with that either.

 

[hakzaw1]

think Hollywood- fake it---hide an igniter inside the steel wool &gunpwder and make it look like the laser did it-same with the balloon. You can make the beam more visable in several ways- the angle of view makes a big difference and something in the air will be very important look at this:scroll to post #6 from Good ole Dave: http://laserpointerforums.com/f52/200mw-silver-pen-greenie-focalprice-38-65-a-43336.html--this was done without a fog machine which would be too obviouse and the angle he took the photo shows is much better than others would. good luck-Hak...nm<(*U*)>mn.... PS we wont tell anybody that you had to fake it--promise...<(*v*)>...

 

[lasersbee]

^^^^^
That is a lot less expensive...
and more sure-fire..


Jerry

 

[DavidIZE]

Well, thank you all for the advice. To be honest, I wasn't expecting a miracle. At the moment, I'm thinking a cheaper unit and squibs are the answer. So that bumps down my needs considerably. I would say that 90% of the script I'm considering would involve night shots when using the laser. So all I need is a visible beam that would read convincingly as a weapon. Will the fifteen dollar job do for that?

 

[ElektroFreak]

Unless you've got a lot of fog around, you'll need to enhance the beam effect on film. the beam will be visible with just about any higher-powered portable green laser (50-400mW), but without some fog in the air it will seem pretty unimpressive to a camera.

 

[Meatball]

Agreed.

Something with a momentary switch might appear more convincing as a weapon, otherwise the thing may just appear clumsy as a weapon. You might also look into focusable greens. They are not terrible common, but I think rayfoss may have one.... an expanding beam might look pretty neat as a weapon.