Laserworld Lasers?

hey

didnt wanna clutter up the other thread on lasers that someone else posted, but reminded me but have some friends who are thinking of starting up a Coldplay tribute band and if they do, want to add some lasers to their small lighting rig as the real Coldplay use them quite a lot.

They had came across Laserworld and were looking at specifically the cs-1000 which can be got for just a shade over £600 on Thomann.  They need to buy 3 to get the effect they're looking for so around about that price is the limit for their budget, maybe a touch more.

This will be venues from maybe 200-500 people max, and doesn't have to be the BEST laser effect ever just has to provide the right look in addition to the rest of their lighting.

Some coloured beams like the kind of thing you can see from about 1.42 in the first video, and some layers like though the start of the second video...

edit:  Youtube embedding seems to have been broken all day

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9ltvXE6iiA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s--wl4a3fk


Edited by kevinmcdonough - 16 December 2012 at 5:41pm

Personally, I wouldn't go near any of the low end Laserworld lasers, and would mostly try and avoid the company all together (if it wasn't for the fact they do distribute/parent company some very nice high end projectors).

Be aware that they classify their lasers based on the maximum power they will (never!) achieve, not what they actually put out.

So if you buy a '1 watt' laser from laserworld, it will probably make about 750mW minimum, whereas a '1 watt' laser from anywhere else will make at least 1 watt, usually a good bit more to account for a bit of initial dropoff.

So this should be considered when comparing lasers which 'appear' the same power on paper.

Looking at the actual specs of the laser you linked to, I would probably want a bit more power from them for the bigger rooms you mention. Certainly if you have very much in the way of stage wash, then you might find they struggle to punch through.

Lasers are cheap these days so it's not too expensive to get something a bit more punchy.

Also consider how you will control them, costs associated with this, and who is going to operate and rig them safely. Although quite 'small', they are still class 4 lasers, and will have an eye out at close range/with static beams given the opportunity.

+1 Stay clear of laser world stuff and cheap lasers in general.

I think 'cheap' needs a definition really, as it is affected by output power and scanner quality so much.

I can show you a cheap 10W laser that still costs over £5k which I wouldn't touch.


Either way, £600 doesn't get you much of anything in the RGB laser game, but some is better than others. Fundamentally there are only so many Chinese companies making components, although some are better than others (and some have different grades of components)

two of my 1 watt green lasers from there are as good as my friend tree watt lasres

Can you expand on that statement please?

Are you comparing like with like here, or are you comparing a 1 watt 532 with a 3W RGB (which could be all 445 and heaps of 660, and as little as a couple of hundred mW of 532, but ultimately very dim)

As I said previously, lasers are not about the 'power' only, it is about how much power AND which wavelengths you are running. The brighter wavelengths with the good beam specs are the things that cost you money, and allow you to run a 'only 2W' projector that'll kick the butt of much higher power rated lasers.
I have 640nm red modules rated at only 350mW which are as bright to the eye as 1100mW of 650nm red.

Know what you are buying, and don't be 'duped' by "Supermegaaaah Hyper Watts Layzooor" type advertizing.

There is an awful lot of buying space between the Laserworld units and the Kvants too. I bought a 1W 637nm Kvant laser module a year or 2 back and paid nearly £2k for it. It's nice, but in hindsight I would spend that money differently if I had the chance again.

hey

yeah similarly, if we could push the boat out a bit a go for something in the 1.5-2k per laser, what brands or models would you suggest?  Its an area I know very little about, even down to what the popular brands are.

k

Hate to be that lady flaps but a cheap, shitty, not even worth it, sub 500£ laser is perfectly fine for most applications.