SenKat
Enlightened
Okay - this is going to be a mini - review....enough to answer a few of your questions, show you some pictures, and make you ready for part two tomorrow ! Here's the first look - with a 50mw Ebayser as size comparison. It is sitting in the foam insert that the laser ships in, with two slots for two AA batteries. I HIGHLY reccomend Lithium Batteries - but I will get into that in a few moments. I was glad to see that the laser is a little bit smaller in person than the preliminary design photos showed. It DOES take two AA batteries, but the size on the web looked enormous ! The foam insert that the laser ships in is inside a cardboard box - this setup protects the laser well enough, but for extended trips in the mail, I think shipping the box inside another padded box would be best to ensure the laser's safe arrival at its' new home.
My first impression when I pulled it out of the foam insert was, WOW this feels Niiiiiice ! And it does - it fits perfectly in your hand, the weight with batteries in it is a moderate weight - the "bolt" on the front of the laser at the aperature is not heavy, as the body is machined from heavy duty alluminum.
Here is one more shot with a 6" depth guage metal ruler for size comparison
This laser is designed very well - I am glad that CPF'ers got to put in our two cents worth on the design of this - nice to see this make it from the drawing board to production !
Here is the first beam shot from this laser, taken at 11pm (CST)
This laser is BRIGHT ! I insist that if you buy or use this laser, you WILL buy some eye protection. First power rating measured with my Andover Holography LPM-1 (AWESOME !) laser power meter was 138.9mw initial peak using lithium batteries. Alkaline batteries will not give good results with this laser, neither will NiMh 2600Mah. Both of the non-lithiums greatly under powered the laser - to the tune of 78mw or worse.
I will do more in depth power readings tomorrow - and post results of the typical burning/popping tests - as well as hopefully be able to measure the divergence of it, along with filtering out any residual IR. My hopes are high that it will continue to impress me, as it has done thus far. For the price, this is a very nice laser indeed.
My first impression when I pulled it out of the foam insert was, WOW this feels Niiiiiice ! And it does - it fits perfectly in your hand, the weight with batteries in it is a moderate weight - the "bolt" on the front of the laser at the aperature is not heavy, as the body is machined from heavy duty alluminum.
Here is one more shot with a 6" depth guage metal ruler for size comparison
This laser is designed very well - I am glad that CPF'ers got to put in our two cents worth on the design of this - nice to see this make it from the drawing board to production !
Here is the first beam shot from this laser, taken at 11pm (CST)
This laser is BRIGHT ! I insist that if you buy or use this laser, you WILL buy some eye protection. First power rating measured with my Andover Holography LPM-1 (AWESOME !) laser power meter was 138.9mw initial peak using lithium batteries. Alkaline batteries will not give good results with this laser, neither will NiMh 2600Mah. Both of the non-lithiums greatly under powered the laser - to the tune of 78mw or worse.
I will do more in depth power readings tomorrow - and post results of the typical burning/popping tests - as well as hopefully be able to measure the divergence of it, along with filtering out any residual IR. My hopes are high that it will continue to impress me, as it has done thus far. For the price, this is a very nice laser indeed.
I'm somewhat concerned about the power level; if he's marketing the laser as 150mW and it's peaking at 140 with lithiums, that's not going to sit well with most laser users, who usually expect the continuous specified power output. He may have to lower the rating unless your unit is "underpowered" - we need results from more than one to see.
