LASERWAVE 200mw 473nm Blue Lab Laser Review.

[stanwax]

I know what you mean the 458nm Argon line is fookin gorgeous - unfortunatley my SP168 whitelight does not make much of this - obvioulsy its swamped out by 488 & 476 but when I isolate that colour alone its so sexy.
I cant wait to get my hands on a 457 DPSS - that will be just amazing. When I saw Groove Armada a few months ago they had an RGB laser in the show and their blue was NOT 473. It was waaaaay to deep so I guess it had to be 457 it was a DPSS not ion. The violets and purples they were doing were stunning.

Loverly loverly blue.

And I know what you mean about hypnotic colours though like my DPSS yellow (556nm) you can never get a true colour representaion with a digicam - never really tried with film.

Rob

[nanoWatt]

On the laserwave forum, Bridge says that 1W 457 is easier to make than 1W of 473. After seeing the 458 beautiful argon, I'm pretty sold on the close 457.

http://www.laser-wave.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=6

[mliptack]

Thats because it wouldnt be DPSS, probably the 445nm diodes, just a little warmer than specs thus changing the wavelength.

Timelord, its nice to see you here! Thanks for the review! You cant argue the facts

[Laser Ben]

400mW of 457nm is very nice!




Just need the collimator now!

[buffo]

Thats because it wouldnt be DPSS, probably the 445nm diodes, just a little warmer than specs thus changing the wavelength.

No, 457 nm is a DPSS wavelength. To get a 445 diode up that far would mean you'd be running it hot enough that it would probably fail.

The 457 nm dpss blues seem to be more common in European projectors, whereas over here people seem to gravitate towards the 473 nm blue. (Probably because it's cheaper to go with 473 at lower power levels.)

If you've got the cash to spend, 457 nm is prettier in my opinion. But you need more of it, because the eye is less sensitive to that color.

Then too, the price difference between the two is really only apparent at higher power levels. So yeah, if you're going to buy a 1 watt blue, I can see going with 457. But I don't know of too many hobbyists that are in the market for a 1 watt blue in the first place...

Adam

[mliptack]

Oopps! I was thinking about the 447nm modules like MediaLas just released.

[nanoWatt]

For some reason I remember the Argon's 458 being much deeper than that. Is it again a problem of digicam's not capturing the deep violet?

400mW of 457nm is very nice!




Just need the collimator now!

[buffo]

Nanowatt;

Part of the problem is that you are viewing the picture on a screen that doesn't have the correct color phosphor to re-create the original color. In real life the 456 nm argon line is a very deep blue, but you won't see that color on your computer monitor.

Adam

[gottaluvlasers]

timelord-

EXCELLENT review!

Thank you!

-Marc

[allthatwhichis]

timelord-

EXCELLENT review!

Thank you!

-Marc

Wow, nice grave dig...