- Joined
- Sep 26, 2016
- Messages
- 6
- Points
- 0
Hello lasing Collective,
I've been on this 'scene' for a good few years now. It all started with the good fortune of having relatives in Toronto, which also happened to be the location of arguably one of the most/more respected laser manufacturers/suppliers in the game - Laserglow. So this brand got me into the scene, culminating with a relatively rare example of a Hercules running at around 900mw RMS.
So I guess I stumbled into the scene in a good way.
Come 2016, I had an itch to get hold of another laser. Obviously - the notorious (on here) Wicked Lasers brand will rear its head - heavy marketing effort, etc.
Reading on here, one would seem to have to be a complete muppet to buy from these guys. However - I decided to literally take a punt on their new Krypton, prepared to end up with quite an expensive lemon. You know - taking one for the team.
So it arrived recently (I live in the UK) - and I'm frankly rather blown away, not least because I've come from a position of very negative hype.
I'm into torches too (Nitecore, Olight, Klarus), and do have a half-decent idea over what a quality product looks and feels like - from quality of anodising, to angle, pitch, consistency of screw threads for the tail cap, and the inclusion of a printout of the particular laser's power graph test, etc.
If I didn't know any better, I'd have assumed that this product was premium, end of. Everything from very detailed, well laid-out instructions - in excellent English with perfect grammar and punctuation - through to the inclusion of protective glasses (also decent quality), and holster, and a few other items. It also came with a battery too.
I was then thinking that they've sorted out the host and presentation in order to pull the wool for their final act - a naff, underpowered diode/laser - as one would expect, going by this forum.
The UI is also excellent - extremely well thought-out.
However - in comparison to the Hercules, I expected it to fall short - but would still have been happy. There was a time where their spec for this would have been 'between 500mW and 1W' - but these days it is a 'minimum' of 1W.
It turns out that it is brighter than the Hercules - and at a rated 1.2mw (power graph) - this makes sense. I further tested this through burn-tests on wood, at varying distances - and it is equally as powerful here. It's likely putting out more power, but the beam profile prevents it from laying it down as well as the Hercules - the Herc has a smaller round dot, the Krypton a rectangle (2x7mm).
So certainly, the beam profile is odd to one who is used to a DPSS laser - but direct-diode would seem to produce this as a facet of its construction.
It is of course a 520nm beam - and I was also expecting not to like its bias towards cyan - but I actually prefer the colour to the Herc's beam, to my surprise. It's still 'very green' - just a tad different shade, and I'm not seeing the cyan I was expecting.
So there you have it - it would seem that the foreword in their instruction manual - about how Wicked Lasers are run by enthusiasts, and who are striving to make good products - may finally be putting their money where their mouth is. The change of management might have had an effect finally.
If Nitecore made lasers - I'd expect it to look and feel like this.
I've written this tome in case my sample is not the exception but now more the norm for WL - in which case someone who's actually happy with their product needs to speak up! Somebody somewhere there has clearly worked hard to turn things around. And with their reduced prices, I see this gear as very good value.
I'm currently/so far as proud to own a flagship product from these guys, as I am to own all of my Laserglow gear.
Arif
I've been on this 'scene' for a good few years now. It all started with the good fortune of having relatives in Toronto, which also happened to be the location of arguably one of the most/more respected laser manufacturers/suppliers in the game - Laserglow. So this brand got me into the scene, culminating with a relatively rare example of a Hercules running at around 900mw RMS.
So I guess I stumbled into the scene in a good way.
Come 2016, I had an itch to get hold of another laser. Obviously - the notorious (on here) Wicked Lasers brand will rear its head - heavy marketing effort, etc.
Reading on here, one would seem to have to be a complete muppet to buy from these guys. However - I decided to literally take a punt on their new Krypton, prepared to end up with quite an expensive lemon. You know - taking one for the team.
So it arrived recently (I live in the UK) - and I'm frankly rather blown away, not least because I've come from a position of very negative hype.
I'm into torches too (Nitecore, Olight, Klarus), and do have a half-decent idea over what a quality product looks and feels like - from quality of anodising, to angle, pitch, consistency of screw threads for the tail cap, and the inclusion of a printout of the particular laser's power graph test, etc.
If I didn't know any better, I'd have assumed that this product was premium, end of. Everything from very detailed, well laid-out instructions - in excellent English with perfect grammar and punctuation - through to the inclusion of protective glasses (also decent quality), and holster, and a few other items. It also came with a battery too.
I was then thinking that they've sorted out the host and presentation in order to pull the wool for their final act - a naff, underpowered diode/laser - as one would expect, going by this forum.
The UI is also excellent - extremely well thought-out.
However - in comparison to the Hercules, I expected it to fall short - but would still have been happy. There was a time where their spec for this would have been 'between 500mW and 1W' - but these days it is a 'minimum' of 1W.
It turns out that it is brighter than the Hercules - and at a rated 1.2mw (power graph) - this makes sense. I further tested this through burn-tests on wood, at varying distances - and it is equally as powerful here. It's likely putting out more power, but the beam profile prevents it from laying it down as well as the Hercules - the Herc has a smaller round dot, the Krypton a rectangle (2x7mm).
So certainly, the beam profile is odd to one who is used to a DPSS laser - but direct-diode would seem to produce this as a facet of its construction.
It is of course a 520nm beam - and I was also expecting not to like its bias towards cyan - but I actually prefer the colour to the Herc's beam, to my surprise. It's still 'very green' - just a tad different shade, and I'm not seeing the cyan I was expecting.
So there you have it - it would seem that the foreword in their instruction manual - about how Wicked Lasers are run by enthusiasts, and who are striving to make good products - may finally be putting their money where their mouth is. The change of management might have had an effect finally.
If Nitecore made lasers - I'd expect it to look and feel like this.
I've written this tome in case my sample is not the exception but now more the norm for WL - in which case someone who's actually happy with their product needs to speak up! Somebody somewhere there has clearly worked hard to turn things around. And with their reduced prices, I see this gear as very good value.
I'm currently/so far as proud to own a flagship product from these guys, as I am to own all of my Laserglow gear.
Arif
