Review of the Wicked Lasers Beam Expander

[hwang21]

Seconded! Great review

 

[Cyparagon]

I can assure you that BOTH OF THOSE were taken with 24x zoom.

So why does this happen?

Granted, I don't know much about photography. But if you give me an image of one thing that's demonstrably twice as large in a different photo and tell me they're at the same distance with the same zoom level, I'm still skeptical.

 

[hwang21]

I would say it could be wind, but I can barely see the leaves of the right hand side tree... looks like a different zoom

 

[romogracie]

I bought this beam expander when it first came out in April and never knew the focus was adjustable until reading this review... LOL

Adjusting the focus is a bit complicated and a pain in the ass since both sides of the knurled ring loosen up. You need to pick a side of the ring to loosen, twist the ring until it's snug with the side you just loosened, and then tighten the other side. There's no mark telling you when the focus is set to infinity.

I just bought a laser rangefinder that has an 850 yard range... hopefully I can soon find a good place to test the divergence at several hundred yards.

 

[lasersbee]

IIRC there is a member that sells a beam expander he
designed.
I'd rather buy from a member than WL...IMO

Knowing the WL advertising hype scenario... I
wonder if he 10X moniker could more realistically
be only 2-3X...


Jerry



Jerry

 

[romogracie]

Knowing the WL advertising hype scenario... I
wonder if he 10X moniker could more realistically
be only 2-3X...

It does seem to be an actual 10x expander based on preliminary testing.
My Krypton's dot without the expander is about 3 mm at point blank range.
With the expander attached, the dot increases to 29 mm at point blank range.

 

[lasersbee]

It does seem to be an actual 10x expander based on preliminary testing.
My Krypton's dot without the expander is about 3 mm at point blank range.
With the expander attached, the dot increases to 29 mm at point blank range.

So what you are saying is that the 10X on a WL beam expander
refers to how much larger the beam expander makes the beam
at aperture...:thinking:
That does not really give any specs of how well the Expander
works for long distances.

I was under the assumption that 10X refers to how mach further
I could shine the Laser to get the same beam profile.

If I had a 10mm Beam profile with Laser X at distance YYY without
the beam expander I would get the same beam profile size with
Laser X at 10 times the YYY distance... That is what sounds logical
and I assumed that this was the case.

Perhaps some members that have done some tests with an actual
Beam Expander could chime in on the way the 10X labeling on a
beam expander really works.



Jerry

 

[The_LED_Museum]

So why does this happen?
...
Granted, I don't know much about photography. But if you give me an image of one thing that's demonstrably twice as large in a different photo and tell me they're at the same distance with the same zoom level, I'm still skeptical.

I was referring to the two newer Arctic photographs -- the pair that are considerably darker than the ones you highlighted in your message.

 

[romogracie]

So what you are saying is that the 10X on a WL beam expander
refers to how much larger the beam expander makes the beam
at aperture...:thinking:
That does not really give any specs of how well the Expander
works for long distances.

I was under the assumption that 10X refers to how mach further
I could shine the Laser to get the same beam profile.

A 10x beam expander will decrease the divergence by 10x. The only way to do that is by increasing the beam thickness at aperture by 10x.

This is what the beam profile looks like at close range...

 

[Cyparagon]

So if the first two dot photos are at different zooms, the dot is really no smaller at a distance. This defeats the purpose of a beam expander, doesn't it?
It doesn't even work with either of their own products. If that doesn't warrant a "one-star" rating, I don't know what does.

 

[JLSE]

10x expanders are nothing new.. for 532nm at least. Id like to see the specs on its performance
when mounted to the 445nm laser.

What is the output beam size? divergence? optical losses? The rest of the info is pretty much
meaningless..

:beer:

 

[danefex]

A 10x beam expander will decrease the divergence by 10x. The only way to do that is by increasing the beam thickness at aperture by 10x.

This is what the beam profile looks like at close range...

Thank you for posting this romogracie LED seems to have missed several questions about the product he took the time to review while addressing some scrutiny about his pictures & camera :/ Much appreciated good sir :beer:

 

[The_LED_Museum]

...What is the output beam size? divergence? optical losses? The rest of the info is pretty much
meaningless...

I'm very sorry :cryyy: that you found my info. less-than-adequate.
I did the best I could do without having any optical instruments or any method of measuring physical beam spot size at terminus (mainly due to the fact that my only distant laser target is across the other side of a small river at the bottom of a fairly steep ravine).

 

[Cyparagon]

JLSE is suggesting you measure the beam diameter before and directly after the expander. You mentioned it has something of a focus a meter out, so you can also estimate the power losses by putting the power meter there. The blue will be pretty stable, but the green won't, so use the blue.

 

[JLSE]

A 10x beam expander will decrease the divergence by 10x. The only way to do that is by increasing the beam thickness at aperture by 10x.

This is where things are becoming unclear.. To my understanding a 10x would be rated by
the size of the output beam in relation to the input beam, both parallel / collimated.

The divergence for example on my 4x expanders reduces from the input beam of 2.5mRad down
to .049mRad which is a reduction of approx 51x. So even though my output beam is 4x the dia of
the input beam, does this make my 4x a 51x?? :thinking:

Here is some of my test footage with my 4x Zoom type expander:

I'm very sorry :cryyy: that you found my info. less-than-adequate.
I did the best I could do without having any optical instruments or any method of measuring physical beam spot size at terminus (mainly due to the fact that my only distant laser target is across the other side of a small river at the bottom of a fairly steep ravine).

I am just curious of some basic properties.. WL is selling these expanders with a 10x rating for both
532 and 445, I have yet to see any data when attached to a445nm laser. Perhaps you could measure the input
and output beam diameter and possibly power if you have an LPM. That would be a good start..

:beer:

 

[romogracie]

This is where things are becoming unclear.. To my understanding a 10x would be rated by
the size of the output beam in relation to the input beam, both parallel / collimated.

The divergence for example on my 4x expanders reduces from the input beam of 2.5mRad down
to .049mRad which is a reduction of approx 51x. So even though my output beam is 4x the dia of
the input beam, does this make my 4x a 51x?? :thinking:

Try measuring the divergence again at several hundred meters (the longer the distance, the better) with pseudonomen's divergence calculator and see if you still get 0.049 mRad... :yh:

If you measured it at several kilometers, your divergence would be at best 4x less than your original divergence.

This Dragon Lasers beam expander video tutorial is pretty informative...

Too bad Dragon Lasers stopped manufacturing it years ago. It would've helped my 1W Spartan's terrible divergence tremendously... :yabbem: