looking for a green laser, moving up the ladder

Hi I currently have a BTG 6 plus laser i got for 80 dollars a couple of years ago. Its been around the country, I even went to las vegas and dropped it in a pool! it still works! the chrome has worn off though because of some chem reaction with my fingers near the button though. its a 5mw laser and i was thinking its time for an "upgrade"
this laser is a strong 5mw green wavelength, 532nm with IR filter.
http://store.nexternal.com/shared/S...t2=792441964&ProductID=62&Target=products.asp
that is where i got it so check it out and tell me what you think. What should i upgrade to? My budget is 100 dollars and I would like a laser that has true coherent light measurement tests and not the inflated IR numbers.

any thoughs,
thanks in advance, spencer

The world of lasers especially green lasers is a shaddy one.. Nova lasers seems to be one of the few honest companies. They provide a power output for each one of their lasers they sell and the MW rating listed on the laser is the minimum or long term average the laser provides, so most of their lasers output a good amount over what you would expect..

Personally I would go with the Nova X25 which is $100 (probably output 30-40 MW), honestly if you can spend more and get the X75 for $150. The reason I say this is so far I have not seen anyone review an X75 outputting less than 90mw most X75 put out about 100mw or so and this will allow you to light matches and burn stuff. All nova lasers are IR filtered and top quality CNI pen lasers (CNI is a company that basically produces all the lasers and Nova and Dragonlasers ect resell them, Nova just has better quality control in terms of testing output powers and providing customers with always more never less)


Last of all join laser pointer forum... And check out our discounts section but of course you have to be a member to use them:thumbsup:.

AndrewAZ said:

The world of lasers especially green lasers is a shaddy one.. Nova lasers seems to be one of the few honest companies. They provide a power output for each one of their lasers they sell and the MW rating listed on the laser is the minimum or long term average the laser provides, so most of their lasers output a good amount over what you would expect..

Personally I would go with the Nova X25 which is $100 (probably output 30-40 MW), honestly if you can spend more and get the X75 for $150. The reason I say this is so far I have not seen anyone review an X75 outputting less than 90mw most X75 put out about 100mw or so and this will allow you to light matches and burn stuff. All nova lasers are IR filtered and top quality CNI pen lasers (CNI is a company that basically produces all the lasers and Nova and Dragonlasers ect resell them, Nova just has better quality control in terms of testing output powers and providing customers with always more never less)


Last of all join laser pointer forum... And check out our discounts section but of course you have to be a member to use them:thumbsup:.

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"(CNI is a company that basically produces all the lasers and Nova and Dragonlasers ect resell them,"

This may be true in a general sense, but lasers from Atlasnova are not made by CNI, nor are they made in China. Also, the OP is replacing a 5mW which in all likelihood he has been using for presentations. It would be unwise for him to replace it with a 30 or 40mW and use it indoors.

abeland1 said:

"(CNI is a company that basically produces all the lasers and Nova and Dragonlasers ect resell them,"

This may be true in a general sense, but lasers from Atlasnova are not made by CNI, nor are they made in China. Also, the OP is replacing a 5mW which in all likelihood he has been using for presentations. It would be unwise for him to replace it with a 30 or 40mW and use it indoors.

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Yea but Atasnova doesnt have very high powered lasers (Another good company btw but I prefer their 635nm lasers and would look elsewhere for high powered greens). When it comes to handheld high powered CNI pens rule the day. Even Wicked lasers used to resell CNI pens before making their "own" lasers.

personally, I would go with the more popular laser company called Wicked Lasers. I've heard about Nova as well but I don't think they are as popular nor as big as Wicked.

Anybody who buys anything (with the possible exception of their glasses) from Wicked is asking for trouble.

Atlasnova does have higher power lasers,they just do not list them you have to call and talk to them and if he agree's on usage he will let you know what he has.I have had a 34mw laser from him for over 1 year,great laser and great people.

:thumbsdow

flare02 said:

personally, I would go with the more popular laser company called Wicked Lasers. I've heard about Nova as well but I don't think they are as popular nor as big as Wicked.

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So does that mean they sell better lasers than Nova? Just because Wicked is bigger and more popular?

I don't think you have any clue as to how big and popular Nova has become, and there are many reasons they have an awesome reputation..

Wicked lasers are very good lasers.People always start hateing on things that become cool and popular.They have a cool name and the look nice i own one and love it!

While ordering lenses the other day on Nova's site I had a little impulse and added an X100 into my cart to see how much extra power they come with vs what I was paying for. The X100 of course is rated for 100mw, someone on laser pointer forum got one peaking at 13x mw with an average 116mw, I got mine the other day peaking at 147mw and average at 120mw.

I never see anyone post numbers on wickedlasers rated vs actual that consistently show more power than advertised, in fact I often see the opposite on laser pointer forums. You can find countless number of happy Nova folks who get lasers that perform way better than advertised, basically the X75 is the best buy since most seem to peak at 100mw and average 95mw. But then again the X100's folks have posted numbers on have be impressive.


Wicked isnt that bad of a company but the only laser I would buy from them is the pulsar partly because its the only high powered pen red laser that looks nice. I own a few pulsars and am happy with them but would recommend getting a green other places, every company has a weak and strong point, wickeds strong is good design and high powered reds its weakness is price is high in green lasers compared to other companies.

Seems like it is "Brand Wars" time again.
When comparing different brands, it is useful to concentrate on features and facts instead of dogma, which is used in this thread to an unacceptable extent.
Also, respect and the Golden Rule shoudl be followed, and personal attacks avoided (spoken in direction Gazoo).

bernhard, mod.


P.S.:AndrewAZ ... are you associated with Novalasers? Or are you promoting them throughout your posting history for a different reason?

Sorry (Kiessling)I did not mean to offend any one,I was only talking from my experience with this laser company,Joe.

Kiessling said:

Seems like it is "Brand Wars" time again.
When comparing different brands, it is useful to concentrate on features and facts instead of dogma, which is used in this thread to an unacceptable extent.
Also, respect and the Golden Rule shoudl be followed, and personal attacks avoided (spoken in direction Gazoo).

bernhard, mod.


P.S.:AndrewAZ ... are you associated with Novalasers? Or are you promoting them throughout your posting history for a different reason?

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No I have no association with Nova at all and I wish I got free stuff from them but I dont.

I have bought lasers from just about every company, I have experienced some dishonest companies along with companies that basically rip people off.

I have come to find Nova as one of the few honest ones and I always stress like most laser companies they dont make them they resell CNI pen lasers, but compared to say dragon lasers which has been known to market 125mw CNI pens that dont even put out a peak 125mw you wont get that from nova. You can go on over to laser pointer forum and read all the company reviews and each company has a negative so for the only complain against Nova are from picky laser users who have a high powered pen that doesnt stay at TEMP00 after a long period of use.

Like on flash lights, you come to find some companies overrate the lumens put out, we can always look to a company like say surefire and come to expect more lumens than advertised. Well in the laser world especially in high powered lasers the difference between 10-20mw can be $100.

Granted wicked lasers does have good customer service (for the most part) you can find a few cases of them sending out underpowered lasers then taking them back and sending out new ones to customers.. But granted not everyone has a laser power meter, so this doenst sit well in my eyes since like I said people spend an extra $100 for 10-20 mw.

As for my personal laser collection I have 3 lasers form wicked, I had one fail me quickly and ended up being jacked by having to pay shipping charges of $30 to china before a replacement was sent out and it took forever.

Again I am only a laser enthusiasts and ill keep my mouth shut next time someone asks about a laser.. Since I think most folks would rather over pay and get a product form a popular company rather than to learn about others. After all wicked used to sell CNI lasers at a huge mark up, and now claims to make their own.. And again I wont support wicked anymore since they dont allow freedom on their forum, you wont find objective testing on their forum since they wont allow it along with comparisons to other brands. Kind of gives you a clue right there, if they are the "best" why not allow posts such as that...

With a budget of $100 the best and safest bet for a laser would be a CNI laser (Changchun New Industries), a laser manufacturer in China. A lot of people have experience with these lasers, myself included, and in general they've been known to be solid products.

Here's a short comparison list of resellers who sell them on their site:

Dragonlaser
- 15mW $99
- 35mW $129

Novalaser
- 15mW $79
- 25mW $99

Techlasers
- 35mW $99
- 109mW $55mW

These three resellers that I know of sell the same CNI type laser. Hope you get a good one. :thumbsup:

Kiessling said:

Seems like it is "Brand Wars" time again.

Also, respect and the Golden Rule shoudl be followed, and personal attacks avoided (spoken in direction Gazoo).

bernhard, mod.

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Sorry Bernhard, my statement was not meant as an attack. I stand by it but I guess my wording could have been better. The poster I replied to is misinformed....is that better???

You know as well as I do there are not many honest companies around anymore. It's not a question of 'Brand Wars". It is a question of whether or not we as members are allowed to keep others informed in the hopes they will not buy from a dishonest company and end up being disappointed.

I have a Nova X105 that peaks at no less that 128mw's and has peaked as high as 138mw's when measured with my LPM-1. And no....I do not work for Nova.

Of course you do have the right to inform others and to present your opinion. After all, this is why we're here

BUT ... of course we all need to follow the basic rules of CPF netiquette, the rules. And we always need to make sure that we actually present facts or opinion and not follow an overriding agenda or blind loyalty.

Sometimes something that seems so easy becomes so complicated.

bernhard

Gazoo said:

Sorry Bernhard, my statement was not meant as an attack. I stand by it but I guess my wording could have been better. The poster I replied to is misinformed....is that better???

You know as well as I do there are not many honest companies around anymore. It's not a question of 'Brand Wars". It is a question of whether or not we as members are allowed to keep others informed in the hopes they will not buy from a dishonest company and end up being disappointed.

I have a Nova X105 that peaks at no less that 128mw's and has peaked as high as 138mw's when measured with my LPM-1. And no....I do not work for Nova.

Click to expand...

X2.

Like the list above they all resell CNI pen lasers, its just the quality and output issue from some of the companies. And again when you get up to high powered lasers being cheated 10-20mw doesnt seem like much but can be the difference between a $300 laser and a $400 laser. There are some that label a CNI pen at 125mw but thats its peak not average (cough dragon lasers cough, they have been caught a few times doing this), and some companies who label a CNI pen at 125mw but it puts out an average above 125mw with a higher peak.

And besides the power you have to worry about getting a CNI pen that had a good beam of TEMP00. Most of the sub 100mw will have perfect TEMP00 beams but once you go over 100mw its not uncommon to stray from that.

Agreed. And it's a matter or customer service if something does go wrong. I don't think I need to go into it much except to say Nova, LaserGlow and Optotronics have been tops when it comes to customer service and selling top quality and tested lasers.

Bernhard, thank you.. I will try to keep myself in line from now on.

Thanx guys.

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bk