green laser?

[elvis presley]

has any one got experiance with one? how much better are they over the red ones? please, no preaching about how bad or good laers are, just the differences between the two colors. thx

[JohnKSa]

The power of a laser sight is limited to levels that are considered to be safe.

The human eye is most sensitive to green light, therefore a green laser at the same power level as a red laser will appear to be brighter to the human eye.

Unfortunately, green laser leds cost a good bit more than the more common red ones.

[azurefly]

Are they still in the hundreds of dollars?

Last I looked, a pen-type green laser pointer was like $300 or so.


-azurefly

[The British Soldier]

The only green ones I have seen are the IR lasers that you need goggles to see; yet as a colour it should be okay to see. I am most familiar with Lasermax fitted into the SIG P226, which you can get in pulse or steady beams. As a pair we trained with different laser types, so you didn't get confused which was your beam. I had a pulse laser so I knew to ignore the steady beam - they are brilliant deterrents.

The UK Armed Police have recently revisited their use of laser designators after gaining much success with Tazer, which has a laser. They have noticed how a great publicity campaign has resulted in many criminals freezing in their tracks when the beam is on them, because they do not want to be zapped - they have seen on the TV what happens in vivid detail!

Thus the Police are now mounting them up on their MP5s and G36Ks, which are their two 'weapons of choice'. There has been a marked reduction in the number of people shot by showing the weapons and their lasers on TV with a media awareness campaign; now people who might have otherwise been shot are freezing when they see a laser on them. The Police had loads of them in the 70s & 80s but waned in the 90s because of 'eye safety' concerns; now the benefits have overshadowed that.

Amazing how old lessons keep coming back to revisit us...

[jcims]

One of the hallmarks of a green laser (supposedly, i haven't seen one in person) is that the actual beam is visible when the ambient light is low. This was called out as a benefit for nature lovers that want to 'point' at things (such as stars, trees, etc) that may be too far away to pickup a red dot.

If you've ever tried to track down the source of the red dot on your shirt, however, you can imagine why that specific 'feature' would probably be much less desirable in a laser sight

(edited to add: I don't know why the beam is visible, assuming that the additional sensitivity in the human eye to that wavelength allows you to see the beam being reflected off of dust particles, water vapor, etc)

[Hal]

Re: Shortwave laser(s)
Papa of the blue and green laser is Suji Nakamura.

Interesting fellow. He single handedly toppeled centuries of Japanese tradition BTW and blew the lid off of Japanese business/society/the traditional role of the "Samurai" in moden business.

Japanese business has always followed a modernday form of the tradition of Bushido, where unquestioned loyalty to ones employeer was expected. Similar to the traditional role of Lord/Samurai in Japanese history.

While working for Nichia as a researcher he developed the long sought "blue laser". Nichia paid him a $200.00 for his efforts, then went on to earn 1.8 Billion dollars with his process. Nakamura did what was at the time ws unheard of. He sued Nichia. He won a settlement of $8.1 Million dollars.

What the long term effects of his actions will be on a society based mostly on unquestioning loyalty, team vs individual effort and such is impossible to predict. Some speculate his actions will be as far reaching as Martin Luther's were with resepect to the Catholic religion.

Here's a good little article about it:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/05/01/news/japan.php

Sorry, didn't mean to sidetrack the topic. "green laser" caught my eye and I thought I'd throw this out. Years from now if Japan plunges into social/economic unrest, you can say "hey, that all might have started with the blue laser guy".
LOL! That and $5.00 should get'cha a cup of Joe @ McD.

[Bonstrosity]

If you're not talking about lasers for guns. I actually have a green laser. It's just a presentation style laser pen. It's way brighter than any of the red ones i've seen. I also did modify it so it's more powerful...In a semi dark room the beam is visible (from all angles not just when you're looking down the beam). In a completely dark room it's a lot like a lightsaber and lights up the whole room. It was only 60 bucks by the way. Then free modification instructions.

[JohnKSa]

It's way brighter than any of the red ones i've seen.

Actually, it's not, but since your eye is more sensitive to green, it APPEARS brighter.

Be careful if you have modified it, eyes are hard to replace, and the kind of damage lasers can do is not generally reversible. There's a reason for the power limits on laser sights & pointers.

[fisherman66]

Bonstrosity;

Could you provide a link to you laser and mod instructions?

Thank you

[Bonstrosity]

In reply to JohnKSa it is brighter. The legal limit of a civilian laser is 5mw most red ones are below that, the green ones are at that. The one I have runs at about 10mw so in power it's brighter but he is right in general the same power green one will look brighter than the red one.

[JohnKSa]

...thought you meant it was brighter before you modified it.