Visiblity First. Burning second....

[ronson49]

Hi there all!

I got the girlfriend to agree to get me a laser for my xmas, the ones i have had in the past have been puny 1mw cheap red ones.

I looked into it recently and noticed that in terms of burning, lasers are pretty lame at the end of the day. I mean pointers. Id like to just zap some bloons within eye distance but in fairness i aint paying hundreds of pounds for that privilige!

So with that said, what i guess i want with a laser is just to see the beam and point at distant things when im bored and needing to go out for a smoke. So can someone give me some advice?

I just want a dense laser beam with quite large distance. I have seen blue, green, yellow and red lasers stretching from 5mw to 500+. If i just want a cool beam in a street/room/dark setting, what color is best to buy? Also, in what way is MW related to brightness? If i have a 100MW green laser and a 500MW green laser, will the 500MW green laser be significantly brighter?

Thats really all i wanted to know Ill keep the burning laser as something to look forward to in 2040!

Cheers,

C

 

[wesdaman14]

Hey and welcome. For your purposes i would buy a green 30mw lasers, the cheapest would be a Dx 30mw true which is like 25$, but you will have to ask Sawt to get it to you if your in the usa. 100mw compared to 500mw is A huge ass difference. its like comparing a Corvette to a Lamborghini. the rule is, you will need 4X the power to really tell a difference, so if u have a 100mw green, you will at least need a 400mw to really tell a difference. But look around and enjoy the forum.
Ps: Stay away from Dragon lasers, and cheap dpss green pen lasers on ebay

 

[wesdaman14]

Also, Burning red lasers only cost around 30$ to make yourself, and then a blu ray will be around 50$ to make for a 100mw one.

 

[daguin]

Hi there all!
I got the girlfriend to agree to get me a laser for my xmas, the ones i have had in the past have been puny 1mw cheap red ones.
I looked into it recently and noticed that in terms of burning, lasers are pretty lame at the end of the day. I mean pointers. Id like to just zap some bloons within eye distance but in fairness i aint paying hundreds of pounds for that privilige!
So with that said, what i guess i want with a laser is just to see the beam and point at distant things when im bored and needing to go out for a smoke. So can someone give me some advice?
I just want a dense laser beam with quite large distance. I have seen blue, green, yellow and red lasers stretching from 5mw to 500+. If i just want a cool beam in a street/room/dark setting, what color is best to buy? Also, in what way is MW related to brightness? If i have a 100MW green laser and a 500MW green laser, will the 500MW green laser be significantly brighter?
Thats really all i wanted to know Ill keep the burning laser as something to look forward to in 2040!
Cheers,
C

If you are looking for a highly visible beam, go with a green laser. If you are NOT looking to burn stuff, you can get away with a 30mW laser for a very long time. If you compare a 100mW to a 500mW there will be a striking difference. However, both of them will be too bright to use comfortably inside.

Go with 30mW or less of green pointer. It is cheap enough that if you decide you don't like it, you won't have wasted much. If you decide that you do like it, you will want to buy a new one anyway.

Peace,
dave