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Recommend me a laser from Amazon?

LEDbeam

LEDbeam

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Feb 19, 2016
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After hearing so much about how lasers sold through Amazon are very overpowered (or at least some of them are), I was hoping to get suggestions as to which of these would be a good deal. What I would like is one where the beam is clearly visible. The "legal" ones people use as cat toys don't have a visible beam unless you take it outside on a foggy night. I had one of those before. I only owned one other laser beyond that, and it was 1.5 watts and was blue. It cost $100 and lasted only 9 days.
So, with Amazon prices being so much lower, I'd like to find one that really is higher powered. I'm worried that the bad publicity of them being overpowered has caused the companies making them to reduce the output. I realize that would be a good thing from a safety standpoint.....

I'm not primarily interested in burning things. Just want a nice visible beam. I know Green is best for that, but they tend to be more highly priced.

Anyway, which ones are still "overpowered", and a good dollar value? Anyone here have personal experience with lasers from Amazon?
 





Nobody knows what all the real world outputs of the mass produced low cost throw away laser pointers on Amazon. sold by several resellers. actually are much less what the overspec. outputs are.
They all promote them as <5mW.
That being said, that most all pointers offered on Amazon are about 1/2 the price on eBay.

If you want a high quality laser pointer see:
https://www.jetlasers.org/ and
https://www.sanwulasers.com/
Sanwu has some low cost Laser 304 pointers with tested outputs specified. if that is what you are looking for.
 
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Encap said:
Nobody knows what all the real world outputs of the mass produced low cost throw away laser pointers on Amazon. sold by several resellers. actually are much less what the overspec. outputs are.
They all promote them as <5mW.
What can be said is that most all of pointers on Amazon are about 1/2 the price on eBay.

If you want a high quality laser pointer see:
https://www.jetlasers.org/ and
https://www.sanwulasers.com/
Sanwu has some low cost Laser 304 pointers with tested outputs specified. if that is what you are looking for.
Click to expand...
Well, there are some videos posted on Youtube by people who have bought several of them saying that they are overpowered. If that's the case, they'd be a real bargain. But I thought maybe the sellers decided to power them down if they got any backlash from Amazon about it. Here's one of the better videos:

That 3 pack is only about $10, and seems like the best deal if the green one is still putting out nearly 100mw.
 
If your main goal is beams, blue is cool.........
Multi-blues.jpg


But green is king!!!
Multi-greens.jpg

Our eyes are wildly more sensitive to green than blue so even wildly disproportionally lower powered greens will appear several times brighter and have an easier to see beam than a blue (typical 445nm stuff like you get on amazon).
Brightness-comp.png


Here is the real life comparison of that diagram, 250mW of green (525nm) versus 1100mW of blue (442nm)
Blue-vs-green.jpg

In person the difference is even a little better in favor of the green. I've sampled some of the usual blue lasers from Amazon and eBay, they all use the typical a/m140 diode and put out around 1.1-1.5W around 445-450nm. That wavelength of blue is very dark compared to some of the other blue diode options available but its by far the cheapest diode to get so it makes sense from the manufacturers point of view to use it.

I know Jlasers and Barnett can both build you a laser that will decimate any of the Amazon blues if your main goal is a visible beam

Earlier this year when the NUGM06 came out, Barnett (Shmackitup) built a 2W green, imagine how unbelievably bright that must have been.
 
Gryphon said:
If your main goal is beams, blue is cool.........
Multi-blues.jpg


But green is king!!!
Multi-greens.jpg

Our eyes are wildly more sensitive to green than blue so even wildly disproportionally lower powered greens will appear several times brighter and have an easier to see beam than a blue (typical 445nm stuff like you get on amazon).
Brightness-comp.png


Here is the real life comparison of that diagram, 250mW of green (525nm) versus 1100mW of blue (442nm)
Blue-vs-green.jpg

In person the difference is even a little better in favor of the green. I've sampled some of the usual blue lasers from Amazon and eBay, they all use the typical a/m140 diode and put out around 1.1-1.5W around 445-450nm. That wavelength of blue is very dark compared to some of the other blue diode options available but its by far the cheapest diode to get so it makes sense from the manufacturers point of view to use it.

I know Jlasers and Barnett can both build you a laser that will decimate any of the Amazon blues if your main goal is a visible beam

Earlier this year when the NUGM06 came out, Barnett (Shmackitup) built a 2W green, imagine how unbelievably bright that must have been.
Click to expand...
Thanks!
Yeah, a 2 Watt green must be pretty awesome! Would love to see one in real life since videos can't really do it justice.
 
LEDbeam said:
That 3 pack is only about $10, and seems like the best deal if the green one is still putting out nearly 100mw.
Click to expand...
A lot has changed since you last posted in 2016 eight years ago.
Lower prices, higher output powers, and thousands of resellers pushing/peddling aggressively thousands of mass produced laser pointers on the internet by means of whatever propaganda, misrepresentations, and prices seem to work.

3 pack for $10? Best deal compared to what? lol
Don't expect much from lasers that retail for less than a good cup of coffee and cost maybe $1 to $1.50 to manufacture.
 
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Encap said:
A lot has changed since you last posted in 2016 eight years ago.
Lower prices, higher output powers, and thousands of resellers pushing/peddling aggressively thousands of mass produced laser pointers on the internet by means of whatever propaganda, misrepresentations, and prices seem to work.

3 pack for $10? Best deal compared to what? lol
Don't expect much from lasers that retail for less than a good cup of coffee and cost maybe $1 to $1.50 each to make.
Click to expand...
Well from what the ad shows, and what the Youtube demonstrated (see post #5) about them, it seemed pretty impressive. About 25 years ago was when I bought my first laser of any kind. It was a red 5mw that was about $20. Now, I could get a 3 pack which includes a red, a blue, and a green--with the blue and green having much more power than 5mw--at half the cost of what I paid for one before.
Even if it was just $10 for the green one putting out 100mw, I'd call that a great deal. It even runs on 2AAA batteries, which seems hard to believe. That's all my old red one used.

As for things changing so much since 2016, I was surprised to find that the most powerful handheld laser (The Sanwu 7W blue) of that time is still the same, and for about $50 more. I concluded things hadn't really changed much. Maybe they have with the lower powered ones?
 
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LEDbeam said:
Well from what the ad shows, and what the Youtube demonstrated (see post #5) about them, it seemed pretty impressive. About 25 years ago was when I bought my first laser of any kind. It was a red 5mw that was about $20. Now, I could get a 3 pack which includes a red, a blue, and a green--with the blue and green having much more power than 5mw--at half the cost of what I paid for one before.
Even if it was just $10 for the green one putting out 100mw, I'd call that a great deal. It even runs on 2AAA batteries, which seems hard to believe. That's all my old red one used.

As for things changing so much since 2016, I was surprised to find that the most powerful handheld laser (The Sanwu 7W blue) of that time is still the same, and for about $50 more. I concluded things hadn't really changed much. Maybe they have with the lower powered ones?
Click to expand...
What WL and power are you looking to get? Plus how much do you want to spend?
Alot of re sellers like Encap mentioned.. That makes the price higher although if they are in the US the wait time might be less.

You might want to consider a forum members build..
Fast shipping and you know exactly what power you get and how its made..

These Amazon Thors, Gattling guns are made with very little heatsinking usually a small piece from brass which isn't really good for heatsinking and unstable drivers.. They Might? last if you follow a strict duty cycle and don't try cleaning the lens for any reason..
Many threads here about "My Thor stopped working after 3 days" etc..

Its just my words but take a look at member "Lifetime17" sales thread.. His rep is fantastic..
He uses aluminum or copper heatsinking with good stable drivers like the SXD. You will get a power output rating also.
These are made to last..
You can even buy your own 12 module/driver of choice and get one of his plug and play hosts where you just connect 2 wires and slide the module in the host and have a working laser.

Member Smackitup or Ricker might have something also..
 
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Encap said:
Good luck with whatever you decide on.

PS
There are several sellers offering low end green laser pens on eBay at $1.99 including shipping.
Typical output is 50mW to 100mW. example:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/2045236434...ZFGXW0&hash=item2f9e8f2269:g:dCwAAOSwYuhlQdAB

Sanwu offers output tested better quality of low cost pointers they outsource and stand behind here:
https://www.sanwulasers.com/product...MIrfOW-r-YhQMV8llHAR03JgASEAAYASABEgL2TfD_BwE
Click to expand...
That E-bay one.....$1.99 and free shipping all the way from China? How could that be profitable for them?
 
Maybe 2$ usd is worth a lot more over there? And they probably churn out so many of those laser pointers at this point they probably cost cents to make.
 
Blarg King said:
Maybe 2$ usd is worth a lot more over there? And they probably churn out so many of those laser pointers at this point they probably cost cents to make.
Click to expand...
I tend to believe that it's just bait to get people to hand over their credit card info.
I could be wrong, of course. You know, when a deal sounds too good to be true...
 
LEDbeam said:
I tend to believe that it's just bait to get people to hand over their credit card info.
I could be wrong, of course. You know, when a deal sounds too good to be true...
Click to expand...
But if it's through eBay/Amazon is the purchasers credit card info even visible to the seller? I'm pretty sure eBay/Amazon acts as an intermediary for the money and that the seller never sees the purchasers credit card info.
 
Blarg King said:
But if it's through eBay/Amazon is the purchasers credit card info even visible to the seller? I'm pretty sure eBay/Amazon acts as an intermediary for the money and that the seller never sees the purchasers credit card info.
Click to expand...
I honestly don't know. It just seems to me that $1.99 for any laser (shipping included all the way from China) seems too good to be true. But that's just me.
Today, I've been looking more toward Jlasers. Great reviews and really good prices. Thinking of the 700mw green one. I think it's about $110 after shipping. Was going to link to it but now the website won't display properly anymore on my computer.
 
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