Some advice for ~100mW laser

[Marooned]

Greetings!

So I'm writing here to hear some advices on buying my first green laser. I've searched and read this forum for the last month or so and I get some ideas but also have some questions.

I'm pointing to somewhere around $50 and 70..100mW.
I don't care about burning capabilities (well, of course I'll play a bit with that too ) but more important for me is small divergence so I don't have 1 meter circle a hundreds meters from pointing. This will be mostly for pointing with visible beam.

My initial choice was this one from Thejoker301 (although I don't know what the divergence for this one is):
SFCG-100 532nm Green

But it has the power switch on back rather under the thumb. Why are such hosts so common? I don't see any positive sides of such solution. You need to enable this either by second hand or turning laser after enabling risking pointing to random targets. With thumb switch you first point then enable when you are sure you point to a safe target.

The Blord's Shadow GF1 seems much more interesting
http://laserpointerforums.com/f63/blord-custom-build-84318.html
http://laserpointerforums.com/f52/blord-edc-laser-shadow-gf1-638nm-82426.html

But it's a custom made and I could not seen any WTS threads from Blord meeting my criteria (~$50, 70..100mW) and as a new user here I don't dare to talk to him directly. We both live in UE so this would be a plus too.

So, to sum up.
I would like to hear the pros of bottom power switch plus some ideas where to look for thumb-like good lasers (not pen style that you need to hold all the time to have laser pointing and that will overheat quickly).


Thanks in advance!

 

[dubious speculation]

Why would you not dare to talk to blord?

you said that you were looking to buy a green laser, members don't usually build dpss lasers although you can get a direct green diode build,

if you where going to buy a dpss green than check out laserbtb's handheld model, it comes with a key switch and the power button is located on the side, there are plenty of reviews on this particular laser and laserbtb is a reputable company

 

[hwang21]

Yes^ laserbtb has some great options for you: LP 515nm 532nm 1-150

 

[Marooned]

This looks like pen style (similar to red one I own) and I've read that they heat quickly and therefore have bad on/off ratio. Also, it's a press and hold button - not press on, press off one.

Will mentioned handheld models (that would be HL 532nm 50-300) that sounds much better and it has this external switch capability that will be very handy.

However, for $50 they have 50mW while linked in 1st post SFLasers has 100mW for the same price. Is there really a big difference in quality? Or will I just pay for the logo?

Thanks!

 

[hwang21]

Well if you're looking for beam, I'd pay close attention to the laser's beam specs (beam diameter&divergence). Low beam diameter means a thinner beam, and low beam divergence means the laser beam doesn't get very wide as it hits the clouds :beer:

 

[Marooned]

Yeah, I know that but not every seller provides this information - hence this thread

 

[hwang21]

By all means, PM the guy who runs SFLasers (drawing a blank ATM). Most companies provide this information, simply PM the seller who's selling it if it's a B/S/T on LPF :beer: