dreaming
Member
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2020
- Messages
- 51
- Points
- 18
Ordered a set of three Challenger IIs. Requested they be set to 400mw. Wanted to see what the highest-output non-Class IV beams looked like.
400mw lasers are not safe, in any capacity. You need protective eyewear for them. If you are new to lasers please do not order a 400mw or even 10mw pointer for your first laser and think your eyes are safe without safety glasses. Be careful! You can't undo this if you mess up! Retinas that are damaged stay damaged!
The green and blue test on my cheap LPM around 430mw. Violet shows 500mw, higher than I'd like but not really important as it doesn't look that much better than my 70mw 405nm, so it's only going to end up being used as a burner away.
I don't know how accurate this LPM is so I can't be sure if this 405nm really hits 500mw. All the lasers I've tested with this have been within 20mw or less of where I expected them to be except the violets, both of which tested over 10% higher than I'd estimated, however everyone says the violets are deceptive so this isn't surprising at all.
In person, the beams look slightly less visible than pictured. I live in a very dusty place, so they seem pretty well-defined indoors here, but are not as clear outside as the wind blows the dust away. Pointed into the sky at night they look almost like multi-watt pointers, very good beams, but sky-pointing is a huge risk these days.
Blue and green beams are okay, not great like a multi-watt beam but not terrible. Dots are bright. As far as looks go the violet was kind of a waste, but I'm glad to have satisfied my curiosity. I'll probably end up gifting it and maybe the green to friends at some point. Yes, they already have safety glasses.
Of the three Challenger IIs, I like the 462nm blue the best by far, although this is only due to my personal preference for blue wavelengths. The blue is the one I really wanted, and in person it is beautiful! Getting a sub-500mw bright blue pointer was a great idea, I don't regret it at all. If you're reading this wondering if it's worth it to get a >$300 400mw pointer just for the beam or a conversation piece, in my opinion no, not really, not unless it's a color you just adore. You could get one for $100 on ebay or used from a private seller; if all you want are beams or wavelengths to collect you don't need anything high-end.
What make these worth the price to me is the unlimited duty cycle. I can turn these on and just leave them on. That's pretty nifty and it's incredibly useful compared to the cheap 30-seconds on, 30-seconds off pointers that I'm accustomed to.
I also bought a set of the Sanwu 304s, but they are awful. One arrived broken, completely non-functioning, and one arrived with <1mw output. So for ~$40, two out of three were duds and the third doesn't feel like it will survive even the lightest use. Similar but better quality cheap pointers (in hosts that work) are $10 elsewhere.
Baffling to me: Absolutely no quality control or pride in their cheap products, yet their expensive stuff is ace. Why they used 303 hosts as a starting point is a mystery, unless they just don't want their cheap stuff to cut into their Pocket sales. This needlessly harms their reputation as a company. I almost bought one of their 304 1600mw blues, but I'm very glad now that I didn't, and I'm not spending $120 to find out if their "Thor" clone is decent or not.
I picked up a cheap Model 808 1.6w ebay 445nm to compare these beams to, but I don't care for it. The pointer is ok, and the beam visibility is great, but I don't like turning it on, it makes me kind of paranoid that somehow I'll do something clumsy or stupid with it, even with safety glasses on, that ends up hurting my vision. So I will probably not be buying any more powerful stuff, and might gift this one to a buddy who is a welder and knows how to use it safely. I would like to get a 470nm or 473nm 400mw pointer but it's only 8nm-ish difference from the 462nm and I can't justify the cost. Maybe if I find one that's cheap.
The 400mw Challenger IIs all burn with fine points. The 1.6mw 445nm tests at 1550mw on my LPM, and is much more likely to start fires, but it cannot compare to the Sanwus points. Even with just 1/3 of the power the Sanwus penetrate faster and are much better for etching fine letters or pictures.
These Challenger II hosts have all been reviewed extensively before and you know what to expect from them. There is a somewhat commonly voiced opinion here that Sanwu lasers are primarily valued for their looks, which I find funny. I'd guess that there's a rather narrow range of people who would think of a mace-like steel tool as "attractive" and the laser community happens to be heavily stocked with that particular type of personality lol.
From the perspective of someone who isn't into tools for their aesthetics the more expensive Sanwus look like something designed to give an enema to a robot. I'm not saying they're ugly, just that I never thought of them as "pretty" until people here mentioned it; they look like tools to me. They also look like something you could beat someone over the head with and still use as a pointer afterwards. You could probably throw a Guardian or Challenger against a wall and it still function. That, combined with the duty cycle and small, conveniently portable size, is what I consider a highly functional pointer, the aesthetics are just a bonus. Your mileage may vary, of course.
These Challengers were expensive, over $1000 for the set. I could have gotten a better deal buying used or from a builder on the forums but:
(1) I'm new and unknown, which is like the herpes of the private laser sales community
(2) I almost certainly have unworkable requests and ideas for pointers due to my ignorance of hosts, diodes, drivers and technological limitations, and
(3) I was in a hurry so it was more convenient to just throw money at Sanwu.
Jetlasers are cool but their current products are big. I have no other issue with them. Size and weight are critical for me because I have to carry a bunch of other stuff as well. These Challengers (and their case) have to fit alongside a full-sized leatherman, a flashlight, power bank, bluetooth speaker, water bottle, portable fan, spare batteries, lunch and/or whatever else I'm carrying. If Jetlasers makes another smaller-than-the-Mini model in the future like they did before, I might grab one just to check it out.
Don't bother buying Sanwu 304s. They really are unreasonably awful by even the most forgiving metric. Random ebay purchases are a better idea.
As far as the quality of the Challenger IIs go, this was a perfect purchase in every way so far.
400mw lasers are not safe, in any capacity. You need protective eyewear for them. If you are new to lasers please do not order a 400mw or even 10mw pointer for your first laser and think your eyes are safe without safety glasses. Be careful! You can't undo this if you mess up! Retinas that are damaged stay damaged!
The green and blue test on my cheap LPM around 430mw. Violet shows 500mw, higher than I'd like but not really important as it doesn't look that much better than my 70mw 405nm, so it's only going to end up being used as a burner away.
I don't know how accurate this LPM is so I can't be sure if this 405nm really hits 500mw. All the lasers I've tested with this have been within 20mw or less of where I expected them to be except the violets, both of which tested over 10% higher than I'd estimated, however everyone says the violets are deceptive so this isn't surprising at all.
In person, the beams look slightly less visible than pictured. I live in a very dusty place, so they seem pretty well-defined indoors here, but are not as clear outside as the wind blows the dust away. Pointed into the sky at night they look almost like multi-watt pointers, very good beams, but sky-pointing is a huge risk these days.
Blue and green beams are okay, not great like a multi-watt beam but not terrible. Dots are bright. As far as looks go the violet was kind of a waste, but I'm glad to have satisfied my curiosity. I'll probably end up gifting it and maybe the green to friends at some point. Yes, they already have safety glasses.
Of the three Challenger IIs, I like the 462nm blue the best by far, although this is only due to my personal preference for blue wavelengths. The blue is the one I really wanted, and in person it is beautiful! Getting a sub-500mw bright blue pointer was a great idea, I don't regret it at all. If you're reading this wondering if it's worth it to get a >$300 400mw pointer just for the beam or a conversation piece, in my opinion no, not really, not unless it's a color you just adore. You could get one for $100 on ebay or used from a private seller; if all you want are beams or wavelengths to collect you don't need anything high-end.
What make these worth the price to me is the unlimited duty cycle. I can turn these on and just leave them on. That's pretty nifty and it's incredibly useful compared to the cheap 30-seconds on, 30-seconds off pointers that I'm accustomed to.
I also bought a set of the Sanwu 304s, but they are awful. One arrived broken, completely non-functioning, and one arrived with <1mw output. So for ~$40, two out of three were duds and the third doesn't feel like it will survive even the lightest use. Similar but better quality cheap pointers (in hosts that work) are $10 elsewhere.
Baffling to me: Absolutely no quality control or pride in their cheap products, yet their expensive stuff is ace. Why they used 303 hosts as a starting point is a mystery, unless they just don't want their cheap stuff to cut into their Pocket sales. This needlessly harms their reputation as a company. I almost bought one of their 304 1600mw blues, but I'm very glad now that I didn't, and I'm not spending $120 to find out if their "Thor" clone is decent or not.
I picked up a cheap Model 808 1.6w ebay 445nm to compare these beams to, but I don't care for it. The pointer is ok, and the beam visibility is great, but I don't like turning it on, it makes me kind of paranoid that somehow I'll do something clumsy or stupid with it, even with safety glasses on, that ends up hurting my vision. So I will probably not be buying any more powerful stuff, and might gift this one to a buddy who is a welder and knows how to use it safely. I would like to get a 470nm or 473nm 400mw pointer but it's only 8nm-ish difference from the 462nm and I can't justify the cost. Maybe if I find one that's cheap.
The 400mw Challenger IIs all burn with fine points. The 1.6mw 445nm tests at 1550mw on my LPM, and is much more likely to start fires, but it cannot compare to the Sanwus points. Even with just 1/3 of the power the Sanwus penetrate faster and are much better for etching fine letters or pictures.
These Challenger II hosts have all been reviewed extensively before and you know what to expect from them. There is a somewhat commonly voiced opinion here that Sanwu lasers are primarily valued for their looks, which I find funny. I'd guess that there's a rather narrow range of people who would think of a mace-like steel tool as "attractive" and the laser community happens to be heavily stocked with that particular type of personality lol.
From the perspective of someone who isn't into tools for their aesthetics the more expensive Sanwus look like something designed to give an enema to a robot. I'm not saying they're ugly, just that I never thought of them as "pretty" until people here mentioned it; they look like tools to me. They also look like something you could beat someone over the head with and still use as a pointer afterwards. You could probably throw a Guardian or Challenger against a wall and it still function. That, combined with the duty cycle and small, conveniently portable size, is what I consider a highly functional pointer, the aesthetics are just a bonus. Your mileage may vary, of course.
These Challengers were expensive, over $1000 for the set. I could have gotten a better deal buying used or from a builder on the forums but:
(1) I'm new and unknown, which is like the herpes of the private laser sales community
(2) I almost certainly have unworkable requests and ideas for pointers due to my ignorance of hosts, diodes, drivers and technological limitations, and
(3) I was in a hurry so it was more convenient to just throw money at Sanwu.
Jetlasers are cool but their current products are big. I have no other issue with them. Size and weight are critical for me because I have to carry a bunch of other stuff as well. These Challengers (and their case) have to fit alongside a full-sized leatherman, a flashlight, power bank, bluetooth speaker, water bottle, portable fan, spare batteries, lunch and/or whatever else I'm carrying. If Jetlasers makes another smaller-than-the-Mini model in the future like they did before, I might grab one just to check it out.
Don't bother buying Sanwu 304s. They really are unreasonably awful by even the most forgiving metric. Random ebay purchases are a better idea.
As far as the quality of the Challenger IIs go, this was a perfect purchase in every way so far.
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