Looking for a laser...

[ATEspo]

Hello all, I am new here, found this place while I was hunting a green/blue laser. I have no idea where to look (besides eBay, and I have a feeling thats a bad place to shop for a laser). I want a green or blue/violet laser, something stronger than your average 5mW laser, but dont want to spend too much $. Any help would be great! IF you can just point me in the right direction as far as where to find good quality lasers, that would be great.

Thank you in advance!

[Freeze_XJ]

Well, with lasers you pay for quality Picking up a cheap one at DealExtreme (.com) is easy, but it might just break, be badly collimated or otherwise be lame. If you want a reliable thing, that's more than a toy, prepare to shell out more bucks. That said, for most applications (presentations, playing with the cat, or pointing stars out), the simple things do well enough provided you didn't hit a real lemon (which you can send back).

[mattmagic100]

you want to make sure that you buy a laser thats up to spec. a lot of the lasers from dealextreme and o-like are usually up to spec and have a long run time.

[deany]

Many ways you can find the laser , 10mW laser will be around USD 15 , i think that is what you need .

[bigslick]

Check out dealextreme. While they're not the greatest, i have one and it was cheap. I like it for what it is.

[deany]

What is price for your laser form DX??

[Mik]

DX, chinavasion.com or HDEshop.com (ships from US), are some vendors that have inexpensive Chinese lasers.

If you don't want to burn things, I would suggest a 30mW green laser. It will be plenty bright, inexpensive and not quite as hazardous as the higher powered units. Actual blue lasers are still very expensive, so you'll probably want the 405nm blu-ray type lasers if you want somthing close to blue.

The 10mw Chicom 405nm such as this is okay, but will look dim and boring compared to a similar power green laser. Unless you are completely convinced that you need a violet laser, just pick up a green one and have fun with it.

[vcw]

What's your price range?

[pwatcher]

From what I've read, a 5 w laser isn't likely to cause permanent eye damage if it reflects off of some shiny object back to your (or someone else's) eyes for a brief instant. However, over 5 w CAN more easily cause damage. For that reason, the two lasers that I have are 5w or less, and are still plenty bright for pointing out distant objects, or signaling. I paid a mere $39 on ebay for a new, green 5w laser made by Wicked Lasers.

[vcw]

I'm sure you mean 5mW, not 5W ; as 5W will cause permanent damage to your eyes instantly, even if you get hit on the eye when the beam is shined off an object. :O