price drop on Hercules and Aries series from Laserglow

[ixfd64]

I'm not sure if anyone else has noticed this, but Laserglow recently dropped the price on its Hercules and Aries series of green lasers.

This information probably isn't useful as Laserglow doesn't ship portable lasers to the U.S. anymore, and that S-KY has better prices, but I thought I'd throw this out there.

 

[NightExplorer96]

Wow, thanks for letting us know!

I wanted to purchase an Aries a few months ago & having it shipped to France since I wanted to get a more powerful 532nm unit but in the end didn't, even though it would have most likely lasted me for years I still found the original price($229) to be quite high for a 50mW 532nm handheld & this price-drop is great but still don't know if I will purchase one yet!

Do you believe LG is doing this to stay in competition?

-Alex

 

[ixfd64]

Do you believe LG is doing this to stay in competition?

Laserglow's products have always been pretty expensive. Justin says the company targets professional laser users rather than hobbyists, but I wouldn't be surprised if some professional "laserists" have moved to hobbyist-grade lasers due to the prices, especially if they don't need the advanced features that come with high-end lasers.

 

[hwang21]

Interesting move... those are pretty large price drops for LG. Probably just because cheaper lasers are getting a lot easier to acquire and most laser users don't need all the advanced features in the professional lasers. Most people just need TEM00 and polarization for professional stuff anyway, and LG doesn't implement polarization in their Aries and Hercules and TEM00 is all but expected for 532nm DPSS nowadays

 

[InfinitiLasers]

Arent their lasers too expensive? I mean they are using the same dides, how can product quality make up for the rest? Even if they were super high quality, they are still quite expensive

 

[ultimatekaiser]

Interesting move... those are pretty large price drops for LG. Probably just because cheaper lasers are getting a lot easier to acquire and most laser users don't need all the advanced features in the professional lasers. Most people just need TEM00 and polarization for professional stuff anyway, and LG doesn't implement polarization in their Aries and Hercules and TEM00 is all but expected for 532nm DPSS nowadays

Dpss is naturally polarized output...but it's not hard to force it a particular polarization anyway.

That aside, this is definitely interesting news.

Arent their lasers too expensive? I mean they are using the same dides, how can product quality make up for the rest? Even if they were super high quality, they are still quite expensive

Labor hours and expensive machines

 

[mortuus]

Still crazy overprices on the Hercules laser and the power you get at other places way cheaper.. and the hosts are nothing special either..
Hercules-200 Sustained: 200-224mW
Peak: ~300mW $789 $592

so they want almost 600$ for a 532nm 200mW laser? thats almost as overpriced as WL i dont get it, is this targeted to regular people those prices?

 

[ultimatekaiser]

The aries is overpriced, the herc, that's debatable. It's essentially a portable labby, so while it's still not as good as a brick labby, it still superb. I have a 325, and it peaks well in the 500s and has nearly unlimited runtime. It's fan and TEC cooled, has adjustable current via a pot to any power, and has TTL and an AC adapter to run on the wall. So you actually get lots of features for the price. So there's a premium on that. It's pretty darn rugged and efficient too, the batts last a surprisingly long time. No other handheld can touch it for its long term op. The RPL is the only laser that comes close, and it's still missing half of that. I was discussing this with a few people a while back... It's big, but it kicks serious ass. It is seriously overpriced for just the power, but that's because it's more than just a diode stuck on a brass mount and a crystal glued on top.

 

[InfinitiLasers]

Dpss is naturally polarized output...but it's not hard to force it a particular polarization anyway.

That aside, this is definitely interesting news.



Labor hours and expensive machines

I thought their lasers are from cni?
correct me if i am wrong, not quite sure

 

[ultimatekaiser]

I thought their lasers are from cni?
correct me if i am wrong, not quite sure

yes. they most likely order bulk lots from CNI, then test and bin them to make sure they work correctly, then rebrand and sometimes repair or customize them.

they also commission a few, like the Hercules. making it exclusively theirs. I believe the Herc is a custom 5V style laser. instead of the normal 3V driver.

 

[hwang21]

To the average laser hobbyist LG=tested chinese lasers to make sure they work+more options that you might not really need+a HUGE markup in price

Some people haven't even had that great of an experience buying from LG either...

 

[ultimatekaiser]

To the average laser hobbyist LG=tested chinese lasers to make sure they work+more options that you might not really need+a HUGE markup in price

Pretty much. But they gotta pay for the bad ones and the repairs on the ones idiots take apart and send back all glued together and such. Plus testing, which is tons of hours in labor. Especially on lab lasers.usually over 4-8 hours per tes, per testing device, per laser! Lobbies prices are usually expensive for this reason. It's not the parts, it's the features that 'the other guy doesn't have' and the work that goes into it. If you have the best, then you charge a premium. And since they're pretty much the only one in the west, they also have an advantage there as well, but as there are only a few companies on this, naturally they have a small monopoly on this. Almost no laser costs what you pay for it. Pretty much only labbies and gas lasers are truly that expensive. Their handhelds are overpriced from stupid people and repairs mostly, and from market shrinkage.

Some people haven't even had that great of an experience buying from LG either...

I have yet to have a problem, and I've been doing business with them for years. But it's totally opinionated.