Greetings

[mean]

Hello Photonlexicon.

I ran across you guys early this week when I was looking around on the web for blue and green lasers. I have to say I'm really impressed with the gallery section, many of you have done some awesome low-light photography with your equipment.

Two or three years ago I picked up a handful of Melles Griot 633nm HeNe red lasers and I've been tinkering with them ever since. My main hobby is setting the lasers up and taking digital photographs in low light conditions. It's been fun, but I'm getting kind of tired always shooting stuff that's glowing red so it's time for a blue or green one for a change. Which brings me here to your forums. I was hoping some of you here could give me some advice on where to shop around for the best deal on a blue or green laser, and any recommendations on which make or manufacture might be better than others.

For photography purposes I don't require a whole lot of output power on a laser. The ones I have been using from Melles Griot are lab standards with a small mW rating and I simply run them off of DC bench power supplies between 12vDC-15vDC. I suppose I'd like to keep using the same power supply setup because it's easy and I already have the equipment, but really any advice or suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks in advance for your time.

[liteglow]

Hi and welcome to the forum

First you can start playing with OEM 5mW leadlight (green)

Then after some days, you open it and adjust the pot so the output is somewhere between 20-60mW :twisted:

Then after playing some weeks with that mean toy, you understand the power of LASER... and buy a 300mW laser-head (110volt module)

Then after playing with the 300mW module you start to buy yourself a low-cost GALVO to play lasershow !

And after some years you sit there with a full-loaded RGB laser projector


That is usually the way it goes when you start playing with lasers :twisted:


But enjoy, it`s pretty awsome and fun


If you like to play with lasers, you can buy a Leadlight from eBay .
I prefer to buy from Vital¤Spirit at eBay, becouse they sell pointers just that ppl can use them for FUN !
Other companyes i know about, sell leadlight to earn alot of money....


Enjoy

[Groover]

Welcome to the forum

Blue will run you about $900 but a leadlight can be great fun.

[pietruk]

Welcome,

I'm new here too.

Blues are super expensive because they are so new. But I think I heard it said that some gaming system uses the important part and that should bring the prices down. Bear in mind I am new to this and that statement comes out of this last week or reading. Sounds like they should start dropping in price in the next 6 months or so.

Anyone care to elaborate on that?

As far as green goes, it seems like a group buy should be coming togother sometime soon. Doesnt look like much has happened on buys in months.

There is a guy named Albert who owns a pointer store called atlasnova. He frequents candlepowerforums. He offers a cpf deal that you have to call for. I think its 20 mW'ish for $87 shipped and 30mW for $107.

I'd like peoples opinions on a decent (100mW on up) green module. Anyone up for a group buy for green? I'd go in for 2-5.

Ryan

[buffo]

Blues are super expensive because they are so new. But I think I heard it said that some gaming system uses the important part and that should bring the prices down.

The gaming system you are speaking of is the new Sony Playstation 3. The technology is referred to as "blue-ray". It is a DIRECT INJECTION diode, much like an IR diode or the red diode in your keychain laser pointer. Because it is direct injection (as opposed to DPSS), it is much simpler (and cheaper) to manufacture.

However (there's always a "however"!), the blue-ray diodes lase at 405 nm. This is VERY close to ultra-violet light. Thus, the human eye has a real problem seeing this light. It will not be anywhere near as bright as the 488nm argon line, or the 477 nm of a DPSS blue laser.

Botton line: Blue-ray lasers are not going to be very suitable for laser shows. You will need gobs more power to get the same apparent brightness level as an Argon.

I'd like peoples opinions on a decent (100mW on up) green module. Anyone up for a group buy for green? I'd go in for 2-5.

I have a lasever unit (China) that I like. It was rated for 80 mw, but is actually making 102 mw at 652ma drive current. Nice and stable too. Talk to Spec - he might be able to point you to a good deal on one.

Oh - and welcome to all new users! (I've only been here a few weeks myself, and already I love this place.)

Shameless SELEM plug: If any new users are in the South Eastern region of the US and would like to get together this summer for a weekend of geeking out with other laser enthusiasts, have a look at the SELEM thread in the Lasers Meet & Greet area here. Tentative date is June 17th and 18th, 2006.

Adam

[mean]

Hey thanks. I'll look into some of those suggestions.

Don't know if any of you have checked out the Melles Griot site for their lasers. Pretty much all of their products are lab standards and industrial application lasers but they have some interesting stuff. They have Orange, Yellow, and Violet lasers available but they aren't cheap. Their site is a little difficult to navigate but you can search by color here:

http://shop.mellesgriot.com/products...0640&CatID=112

In the search window if you just type in a color like Violet you'll get more results. They really need to overhaul their site front end. Anyway I'll check up on ebay and see what I might be able to find in there.

Stay freaky.

[liteglow]

violet isn`t useful to do anything...
And yellow is more expensice than green one.
Blue is to expencive !

So i think you should stick to a green one

And before you buy any, wait and se if SPEC have any left to sell you



Cheers

[Spec]

Welcome to PL man. Hope you like it here and decide to stay around for a while.

Whats your website, Im really interested in seeing some of these pictures your talking about!

[mean]

Hi Spec thanks for the interest.

I've been putting some of my low light photography up on my DevArt page which you can hit up over here http://mean.deviantart.com/

I have a few varied interests with amateur photography so you'll have to dig around in the gallery. With low light conditions I like to take shots of microcircuits and PC boards using blacklights and ultra-bright LEDS. I'm also a sucker for vintage display technology like old blue CRTs from oscilloscopes and the warm orange glow from nixie tubes.

The laser stuff I've been messing with for a long time but I've only put up a few rough drafts in my DevArt gallery. I'm planning on uploading more shots in the near future. Part of the fun is experimenting with different household items to see how laserlight might react with it. With red HeNe lasers I noticed yellow dishsoap reacts beautifully, but other colors like green or purple don't do a damn thing to the beam. Other interesting items have been frosted white lightbulbs, you can see the shadow of the wire filament perfectly against the opposite side of the bulb when you hit it with the beam. I also use diffraction gratings, 4 element compound lenses, focusing mirrors, etc. to get some unusual results.

Here's a few samples:
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/14437317/
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/14437272/
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/19917218/
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/16029132/
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/6870351/
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/6191344/

Hope you dig it...

[buffo]

Mean:

Cool pictures! If you like taking pictures of laser beams as they pass through fluids, then get a cheap green laser pointer off E-bay. You can create all kinds of interesting effects...

There are several sellers on E-bay that sell fluorescent dyes that you can use to create some very cool pictures. You do need to be careful, as the dyes are pretty nasty. Carcinogenic, toxic, etc... But handle with care and you'll be fine. (Wear gloves, and always use the most dilute solution possible that still gives you the intended effect.)

I've got some Fluorescein dye that I've used with great sucess. You only need a few grams dissolved in isopropyl alcohol to create some *very* strong dye. Take a single drop of the dye solution and mix with a pint of water... You won't see any color change, but when you shine a green laser through the water, you'll see a yellow beam in the water! Set up some mirrors outside the container and really have some fun...