Help me choose a laser

[djpaul]

Hi

Ive been looking at buying either of these 2 Kvant Laser models
Atom 801 or Clubmax 1800
Looking at the 2 price wise they are similar, but would the beam be sharper and the colour mix better on the Atom 801 than the Clubmax 1800
I need the laser for sharp text and graphics

Paul

[And]

I was wondering this myself. Is it a really noob question? Is that why nobody has yet to respond?

I emailed kvant in Japan and they quoted ¥440000 (2470 gbp at todays rate) for the atom 801.
On the uk website its showing 1480 gbp which at todays rate is ¥263437

Any ideas why there would be a small discrepancy of around 1000 pounds? Gouging? Maybe they just dislike Japan?

[Bradfo69]

If graphics and text are your main focus, then the Atom is going to be the better projector. The beam is tighter and the divergence is less. For text and graphics, the overall laser power can be far less than what you want for beams and quite honestly, side by side, they'll look about the same on the wall in terms of brightness but, the lines drawn by the Atom ought to be a bit thinner and crisper looking. You're not going to go "wrong" with either one. If you expect to get into more work with beam shows though, then the ClubMax may want to be considered as "more" is still going to generally be better.

[And]

If i bought it would be more for beams. I edited the msg after yours (took me a while on calculations)

Any ideas on the pricing thing? Tbh i feel a little annoyed about a 1000 pound difference.

[Pelikan]

Hi

Ive been looking at buying either of these 2 Kvant Laser models
Atom 801 or Clubmax 1800
Looking at the 2 price wise they are similar, but would the beam be sharper and the colour mix better on the Atom 801 than the Clubmax 1800
I need the laser for sharp text and graphics

Paul

Hi Paul

They both mix well and ATOM 801 is bit sharper. But ClubMax 1800 gives you quite a bit more power making it more visible and flexible so I'd go for the ClubMax.

[Pelikan]

If i bought it would be more for beams. I edited the msg after yours (took me a while on calculations)

Any ideas on the pricing thing? Tbh i feel a little annoyed about a 1000 pound difference.

Hi And

This price different in Japan is due to high shipping cost, import tax and business overheads they have in Japan. The prices on UK website are standard prices. Japan has its own rules when it comes to pricing.

[Bradfo69]

If i bought it would be more for beams. I edited the msg after yours (took me a while on calculations)

Oops! I was answering djpaul and not paying attention to his post date.

Do the same expenses apply in Japan when importing just across the sea from China as they do from say, the UK?

[And]

10% import tax I can understand. The rest seems like the typical gouging weve come to expect over here in the land of the rising sun. Considering wages are generally bad here (half that of Australia) the gap seems very steep.

I used to think Australia had it rough when it comes to consumer gouging but after living here for a while its far worse for these poor fellows.

Kvant is awesome but if I do buy a kvant in the future it wont be through kvant.jp thats for sure. They even make ebay look like a bargain.

For Brad - I honestly dont know concerning the expenses though the import duty is the same at roughly 10% for anything over $100. Bought my Swarm 5fx off ebay last night btw and the duty applied. Couldnt buy it anywhere over here in the so called land of technology (which imo is a myth from the 80's that Japan loves to perpetuate) the reality of business here couldn't be more opposite.

[Bradfo69]

Wow, I didn't realize it was that bad. My dad spent 5 weeks there back in the mid 70's and loved it. I wonder how that works for tourism with the US dollar versus the yen.

Anyway, yes, shipping in this silly laser game is a harsh reality and is often stupidly expensive. You learn what countries not to buy from very quickly. Shipping anything out of Norway for example is prohibitively expensive. It is nowhere near as much shipping things INTO Norway but, yeah it's crazy. Shipping out of the UK to the US is often high too - more so than some other countries - even Australia. Most I ever paid was about $850 sea freight out of Norway for a Kvant Spectrum that's about the size of a car battery. I had to drive an hour round trip to Cargo City near the Philadelphia airport and deal with a bonding agency and get it out of a warehouse on a palette. In hind site, I should have gone with the $650 quote we first got from FedEx but, I thought that was outrageous and tried to go a cheaper route that in the end was $200 more.

[skot]

I always thought electronics in Japan was cheap for some reason (never having been there). I guess that is part of the myth being perpetuated.

What surprises me is I can buy something on ebay from from China for $1 Aus with free postage, yet to post a letter here the stamp is $0.70. It's crazy. Makes you wonder how there is any profit in that.