Yeah, this was back when I think GB was selling for cheap the hosts-of-color in the nice gift-boxes and metal switch. About the same price of the filled-in lights, but they’d come in the Cheap White Generic Cardboard Boxes, so kinda hard to gift. I was gonna go nuts and make bespoke lights (choice of emitter, driver, etc.), but still had too many left over.

With that said, the 3-pack of “Meusno” brand AAA-powered laser pointers that TTC tested is on sale for $10 right now. Reviewers confirm they are bright, but poor quality and likely to break. I was about to place an Amazon order anyways, so for a little over $3 each, I think I will give them a try, and make sure to keep the green and blue laser somewhere my kids can’t get at them.

I see JLasers has some very high powered lasers (up to 7W) based on the Convoy C8, M21A, and M21B bodies. Way overkill for me, but very cool (and dangerous) looking. And they have a 10440-powered model coming soon that looks like it might use a SF-348 body.

Holy Cow! Turns out the EO Knowledge Center is loaded with tutorials about all sorts of topics relating to optics. It's still in beta, so they're looking for feedback. Well, my initial feedback is that I think I'm going to have fun at that library. (Oh, and can they pretty please do one on why "equivalent aperture" is not even a real thing? Thenk-yew.)

One thing was a heat sensitive (I think) transparency medium that would copy a b&w negative to a nice positive sepia-toned transparency, suitable for slide projection. Magic! I still have a few, I think.

Edmund Scientificfree catalog

As a gen x sceptic, my first reaction is to ask myself why they are doing this and how it is funded. Not that I’m suggesting there is anything duplicitous in this instance, but, you know, profit driven companies. It does look interesting, and there’s probably more than I ever need to know as a hobbyist. Looking forward to geeking out on some technical explanations :) Thanks Mike.

EDIT this counts for not only gatling style lasers but all cheap chinese lasers in a big host eg. 18650,16340 or 26650. Depending on your choice of host, the blue 1w laser will be around $50-75 depending if you get only the laser or a kit with cheap chinese batteries and accessories

So naturally I thought, “I bet some folks on BLF have already gone down the laser rabbit hole and can make some recommendations.” I’m glad I looked.

I was looking for some ~1W lasers for an experiment, but the ones that are legit 1W-ish and advertised as such are usually obscenely expensive, and that’s if they can be shipped.

His Thorfire C3 based line are the ones that intrigue me the most. They’re not quite as powerful, but he has a 3.5W model.

That was way back when everything and its grandmother was the dreaded “XML-T6”. Just typing that actually physically pains me.

I can’t personally vouch for JLasers, but in addition to laser pointers made from Convoy and Ultrafire bodies, he sells laser power meters. Hopefully the owner of that site is verifying his own products.

Considering I’m used to flashlight manufacturers lying about outputs that are actually far less than claimed, I’m a little surprised that for lasers it is the opposite, with manufacturers lying about outputs far higher than claimed.

And they have a wide range of 14500-powered lasers based on the stainless steel version of the Ultrafire C3 body. Some even have multi-mode drivers. That is close to perfect. They aren’t as cheap as a Convoy flashlight, but the pricing seems pretty good for a niche product. The main drawback I see is the 638 nm version, which is probably the color I’d want to start with, is 700mW, which I suspect is quite a bit more powerful than I would want.

Scientifics Direct

Original contents copyright 2019 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

Master all things optics and imaging using the new Edmund Optics® Knowledge Center! This page allows you to easily and seamlessly explore our extensive technical library of application notes, videos, technical tools, and more. Resources can be sorted by 90 different topics to help you find exactly what you’re looking for.

In fact, it occurred to me that a Convoy T3 body with a laser producing probably in the 10-100mW range would be exactly what I want. I actually started looking into possible sources for laser diodes and drivers that might be possible to adapt to a T3 body. That took me to LaserPointerForums, which looks useful, although there’s more info there than I can sort through just yet.

RE: Equivalent aperture. Well yes, if you put a lens designed for a MF or LF camera on a smaller camera you aren't using all the capacity of that lens because the image circle spills way beyond the edges of the sensor. You may well be getting degradation due to that excess light bouncing around inside the camera. So, why would you want to use a lens not designed for the format you are using and spend your time figuring out how to to make it perform like a lens that was designed for the format you are using?

Edmund Scientificcatalog pdf

deals nicely with f-number equivalence. See page 10 in particular. But at 45 pages the article is likely TL;DR for many, so I guess we need a simple video.

It is though. A thing I mean. You just have to prioritise depth of field in your photographic endeavours, and suddenly it's all about equivalent apertures. I shoot three formats, usually at least two simultaneously - 6x8,6x6 and 135 - juggling equivalent aperture values became my second nature.

His site is now offering a number of other builds using Convoy hosts so they can run continuously, but they’re also a fair bit more expensive.

I can’t believe those are actual convoy flashlight hosts they made into lasers. They even say convoy on them. That’s hilarious.

Edmund Scientificcatalog

I personally use the chinese blue laser. Its very powerful for about $50. They are sold under many names, mainly a gatling stlye laser and one that looks like a clone of the wicked laser. Green lasers are more expensive but far brighter. The blue lasers are usually direct diode. Green is usually a weaker DPSS which is like the cheap cat toy you mentioned. These leak a lot of infrared light and wont function in the cold. Direct diode green is better.

Is this the same corporation that was Edmund Scientific, which put out a great catalog of surplus and other optical, electronic and other equipment back in the 60's and 70's (i.e., when dinosaurs still walked the earth)? It was great and inspired many Walter Mitty style projects.

Science Kit and Boreal Laboratories

That's pretty impressive. For me, though, it's pretty wonderful just to know that Edmund Optics and Edmund Scientific are still around. Pretty sure I was at the surplus store in New Jersey at least once, but I remember almost nothing about it because my teenage science nerd mind was so blown.

In 1942, amateur photographer Norman W. Edmund (1916 - 2012) found it hard to find lenses he needed for his hobby. This led him to advertise lenses for sale in photography magazines. It was so successful he founded "'Edmund Salvage Corporation'". It soon changed its name to Edmund Scientific and made its name with ads in publications like Scientific American as a supplier of chipped lenses, war-surplus optics, and low cost scientific gadgetry. Its advertisements caught the attention of hobbyists, amateur astronomers, high school students, and cash-strapped researchers.

Yeah, my 900mW laser is blue, and wanted a little bit of an upgrade. Haven’t really seen anything in similar wattage in other colors.

Edmund ScientificBarrington NJ

Edmunds is a wonderful company that started out serving amateur astronomers with products of their own manufacture , military surplus ( a big deal back in the day) as well as other interesting stuff. I built my first telescopes with their parts and products. Along the way they created Edmund Optics and began manufacturing all kinds of highly sophisticated optical products. They have always had an educational bent , but this new service looks great Thanks

Cancel my earlier comment. It is the same company, explained in the "Company/Timeline" tab on the site. Great to see that they adapted and are still in business.

Nice! I don’t have that many Convoy flashlights, but I do appreciate Convoy. I prefer flashlights that are somewhat throwy, and Convoy offers plenty of great choices for what I like.

Only 450nm blue exceeds 1W. Its around 1600 mw. The other colors are much less. Green is only 80-100 mw of visible green light. About 150 mw of Ir leaks out. Red is around 200 mw but its not that impressive. Purple is about 300 but it looks very weak. Dont think IR exists. If you remove crystal from green laser, you loose the focusing lens which is incorporated in that assembly. You will make an IR flashlight with a very divergent beam.

Edmund ScientificAstroscan

It looks like he has a slightly older video testing Amazon laser pointers, showing that $15 buys a 3-pack of laser pointers advertised as toys that in reality can be as much as 16x the maximum output legally allowed to sold as a laser pointer in the US.

Yes, good point. Always be responsible with these things. Most of these will be way overpowered than the 5mw listing. Only to pass customs. Actual power is a few hunderd mw up to 1W. Seriously potential for eye injuries. Never direct at people, pets, and especially plane pilots and vehicle drivers. Even if its far away enough not to cause eye damage it can still distract them and cause an accident. (Also illegal in a lot of countries.) If you get laser, use it responsibly, and dont be a jerk and ruin it for everyone because these things are awesome.

The core of Edmund's offerings was surplus lenses. These were single-element lenses, shipped in 2.5-by-4.25-inch (64 mm × 108 mm) coin envelopes, with the approximate diameter and focal length stenciled on them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Scientific_Corporation

It is somewhat slow (~30 seconds, hence the rising output graph in his video), and I suspect we’re not talking about single digit percentage accuracy, but I suspect more than adequate to compare relative safety.

I actually found this thread because I identified a need at work for a laser pointer better than the weak button cell toy I have in a drawer at home. After some brief searching, I found the laser pointer world is filled with what appear to be the laser equivalents of Atomic Beam or the disposable Harbor Freight flashlights. But I want the laser equivalent of a Convoy T3: well made, usefully bright, but still easy on the wallet.

Edmund Scientifictelescope

I figured testing laser power would be relatively complex and require some sort of expensive meter, but I looked up the one TTC is using, and it’s just $140. Apparently at low to medium power levels, it is as simple as applying a coating that absorbs visible light with good consistency across different wavelengths to a thermopile (basically a thermoelectric cooler operating in reverse) mounted on a heatsink. The resulting temperature increase generates an electrical signal that can correlated to power. The manufacturer of this “Laserbee” meter says they calibrate theirs against a much more expensive, commercial grade laser meter.

Equivalent aperture? Oh gawd, that crap still floats about the blogosphere? Well, maybe these tutorials can finally make it go away forever.

Be careful with eBay lasers or AE lasers. These Chinese ones are often way over the 5mW limit for class II and class III which are the max for legal import. They’re often hundreds of times more powerful, some up to 3W. Some, especially the blue/purple can leak invisible near IR light that’s very detrimental to your unprotected vision. There’s also incidental reflection (especially with green) off some surfaces that can damage your eyes without ever being ‘shined’ directly. If you’ve got to have a laser over 200mW, get some proper laser goggles. Your eyes will thank you.

Edmund Scientific was part of the post-World War II "war surplus" phenomenon … Edmund was, however, the only widely known supplier of surplus optics.

I got a JLasers 1.6W Blue laser for my last birthday… It’s pretty nuts considering it’s in a 14500 host. I’m deathly afraid to use it for anything other than pointing at stars though. Laser goggles are highly recommended.

Welcome to Edmund Scientific! Since 1942, Edmund Optics® has been inspiring the next generation of students to become interested in science and engineering through its thought-provoking catalog of optics, scientific experiments, and learning tools. https://www.edmundscientific.com/