Warnlaser sent in a few of their laser pointers for Hacked Gadgets to review. They sent in a 20mw Razor series and a 5mw tiger. The Razor is royal violet and the Tiger green.
20mW Razor
The shiny black case is very nice, I have purchased many laser pointers and most of them don’t have this outer protective sleeve. The actual case of both lasers is very sturdy, much like a quality glasses case. I had a look at the Razor laser first, upon opening the case I was puzzled to see a dirty accessory in one of the AAA battery slots. I don’t think the shipping department knew this unit was going out for a review. It looks like some type of yellow glue somehow got onto the silver accessory. The label on the laser was also not adhered very well, both edges were peeling. The case design doesn’t help though since as it is placed in the case both edges of the stick on label get rubbed.
With a current price of $99.99 for the Razor I would have expected a better cosmetic appearance. The accessory turns the beam into a ton of tiny dots in a grid pattern, it looks neat but I am not sure what the use of this would be. Someone will fill me in on the practical application that I overlooked. Another gripe is that the black and gold laser has a large silver tip when the attachment is installed, too bad it wasn’t a matching color. It also doesn’t fit into the case when installed.
The actual beam color is very appealing because it is different than the typical red and green that everyone else uses. Even though it is 20mW the visual intensity to the human eye is much less than a typical 5mW green laser. The beam doesn’t stay tight over a long distance, so at about 20 feet you are left with a dot that is about 1 inch in diameter.
I am not sure if the quality of this unit is representative of all lasers coming out of Warnlasers but I would not personally purchase one of these lasers at this price.
5mW Tiger
The other laser we looked at was the Tiger 5mW green laser pointer. This one didn’t have any cosmetic issues like the Razor did. I did notice that both laser pointers were slightly different though. The Razor had a mat black finish with a gold button and the Tiger has a gloss black finish and a grey rubber button. Not that the actual finish matters, it was just an observation. The position of the clip is also in a different location on both pointers.
The $28.99 Tiger was what I would have expected for a good green laser pointer. The dot was bright and tight even when shot a long distance. The button was responsive and when the batteries were installed the weight in hand was pleasing. This would make for a good presentation laser choice.
See the gallery of images after the jump.
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quality control much? yeash
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Yikes, staying away from these.
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I wonder if the 20mw blue violet laser pointer could pop the ballons or burn the tapes,because the beam is not so strong from the photo.And can you review this laser pointer: http://www.freaklasers.com/120mW-violet-blue-laser-focusable-waterproof.html
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Hi Daniel,
This laser is not powerful enough to burn anything, it is best used for presentations however since the dot is so big as distance it would not be a great choice for that. I can’t do a review on that laser since I don’t have one.
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The case looks great. I understand your disappointment with the presentation, If I paid $100 I would send it back straight away. // As for the multi dot attachment after many Google searches I still can not find a practical use or reason for it. It looks really cool, but other than why? anyone know?
So Alan is this your first not so good review of a product? Usally you find something good to focus on. Other that the case seems you were not impressed with this product.
Robert
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Hi Robert,
The first laser was not so good but the green one was fine. I would just have to wonder about quality control overall before I purchased something from them.
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My cats love these things! I need a new one.
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You could have checked if the green laser has a IR filter.. Most of the cheap e-bay ones don’t have one, and are quite dangerous for your eyes… Other than that, nice review 🙂
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The grid tool may be slightly useful for marking out straight lines/angles/measurements, maybe?
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What I’d like to do with the grid would be to pair it with a camera in a machine measurement/vision application. I think you could process the way the dots fall on the images and measure the distance to objects based on how they spread. I guess the dots might be too close together at close range and too dim at a distance. Maybe robotic night vision?
I was also wondering if the pattern is produced using quantum interference like Thomas Young’s double-slit experiment.
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Some Sony camcorders had a diode laser with a grid pattern diffraction grating. This was for focusing. It worked, but I haven’t seen this used elsewhere.