Photographer Needs Your Help/Advice

[Dani]

Hello Laser People,

I am a photographer that recently purchased a device (Miops) that will trigger my camera when a laser beam pointed at the receiver is broken. The tiny manual gives no information on specifics regarding the laser so I would appreciate your help/advice in this regard.

The laser will be used for an extended period of time during the photography sessions (perhaps an hour at a time). It will be positioned about 15 feet from the receiver. The device has a very small glass nub that I will have to aim the laser at (the possible reflective nature of the glass concerns me... eye safety).

I would appreciate advice on the least expensive, but safest, laser I should consider purchasing.

Thank you very much.

 

[waffailtrager101]

Any laser at any wavelength below 5mw will be safe to use without protective laser goggles. To put this in perspective, a cat toy laser is less than or equal to 1mw.

As far as what laser to purchase, any laser should work with a power output around 1mw.

May I ask where you will be using the laser and specifically what for?

Also please make an introduction post to the welcome page.

 

[diachi]

A quick Google search suggests that any old <5mW presentation pointer would work just fine.

 

[Dani]

Thanks for the reply, waffailtrager 101
I will be using it in the garage to take pictures of bursting water balloons.

 

[Dani]

A quick Google search suggests that any old <5mW presentation pointer would work just fine.

Thanks, diachi.
I wasn't sure if one of those would be too powerful. I want to be as safe as possible.

 

[diachi]

Thanks, diachi.
I wasn't sure if one of those would be too powerful. I want to be as safe as possible.

Any sort of presentation pointer sold in your local stores should be fine, unless the store itself is doing something illegal or you live in a country that doesn't regulate these things tightly.

Those little cat toys you get at the pet store would likely do the trick.

 

[Dani]

Any sort of presentation pointer sold in your local stores should be fine, unless the store itself is doing something illegal or you live in a country that doesn't regulate these things tightly.

Those little cat toys you get at the pet store would likely do the trick.

I'm in the US. I took a quick look on Ebay. A large percentage of what I saw there is from China. I'm not so sure I'd have great confidence in their regulations for manufacturing something like a laser. But even if I go to the PetCo down the street, I'll bet any they sell will have "Made In China" on them anyway so...

 

[diachi]

I'm in the US. I took a quick look on Ebay. A large percentage of what I saw there is from China. I'm not so sure I'd have great confidence in their regulations for manufacturing something like a laser. But even if I go to the PetCo down the street, I'll bet any they sell will have "Made In China" on them anyway so...

The lasers being sold at PetCo should be fine. If they were selling anything dangerous the FDA would come down on them like a ton of bricks.

The problem with eBay lasers is that they're often advertised as "5mW" to get around eBays rules, even when they are 10s or 100s of times more powerful.

Feel free to link some finds here and we can point you in the right direction.

 

[Dani]

The lasers being sold at PetCo should be fine. If they were selling anything dangerous the FDA would come down on them like a ton of bricks.

The problem with eBay lasers is that they're often advertised as "5mW" to get around eBays rules, even when they are 10s or 100s of times more powerful.

Feel free to link some finds here and we can point you in the right direction.

Okay, thank you. I'll check PetCo this weekend first. If I don't find anything there, I'll continue looking online and post links here to get advice before I buy.

You guys have been great... I really appreciate it.

 

[Benm]

Made in china does not mean 'not compliant to standards'. If you buy it in a retail store in the US or EU the vendor (or importer) is responsible to deliver something safe. In this case i can imagine the laser power being very low as the only thing that as to be detected is interruption off the beam... no need to use high levels over power for that at all.

If you get it yourself from ebay, ali etc. you risk importing something dangerous that could use a higher power laser diode because they just had a heap of them laying around the warehouse and it would be cheaper to install the dangerous higher power diodes than getting power low power ones.

 

[paul1598419]

Since you are going to use this laser for extended periods of time, you might want to look into a small lab style laser that runs on a wall outlet. If you use it for an hour at a time, you'll be changing batteries often. You can pick up a cheap low power lab style laser on eBay for under $20.00. They are slightly larger than cat toy lasers, but never need batteries. If you have trouble finding one, I can supply you with some links.

 

[Benm]

That would largely depend on how practical it is in a given situation to run mains power to the laser diode, but i suppose it can be an option.

It doesn't have a lot to do with power level though, by the time you get to 5 mW or less they'll run for a day non-stop on 2 AA alkaline cells basically.

Then again there are plenty of ways to run a low power laser diode from the mains - you could for example get one that is designed for use from a usb connector and hook that up to a phone charger or something like that. Upside of that is that don't need to work with mains voltage (something people inexperienced in electronics often are not comfy with) provided you use a good quality usb adapter