# Wicked Lasers vs Other and no brands



## 360freak (Oct 22, 2007)

I am considering purchasing a Wicked Laser. I have heard that unlike ebay and DX lasers, Wicked Lasers gives the lasers' average output, rather that its peak output. Like when I put new batteries in my 10 mW ebay laser, the beam and power is awesome, but it quickly lowers to about a 5 mW laser. What sites can I trust to give the average output of their lasers? because Wicked Lasers have a hefty price tag


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## nero_design (Oct 23, 2007)

Re: WL giving an Average Output rather than Peak Output, that's correct. A 75mW should be ouptutting very close to the stated amount. Same with lesser and higher outputs. In fact, I think ALL lasers, regardless of the seller and maker, are supposed to show the correct output for safety reasons. Lasers that output higher than their label suggests are sometimes referred to as "freak" lasers. Such lasers can be desirable to the average buyer but a bane to those of us concerned with accurate output.

But your eBayser should (if it states 10mW on the label) give you an accurate output of up to 9.999mW. If you say it peaks at 10mW and then drops to 5mW, then it would best be referred to as a 5mW laser... and should have been sold as one to begin with. That's the point about the labels, they're supposed to indicate typical operating output maximums. 

As for hefty price tags, Wicked were known to be the best priced lasers around for some time. Recent days have seen more competitors lowering their prices to compete with them. One thing I do know is that Wicked have a erputation of providing OEM lasers which are not "tweaked" to provide higher output than the diode was made to handle. No idea what prices are these days... But I don't believe their prices are in any way unreasonable. You do get what you pay for in many instances though so buying the cheapest 50mW on eBay is almost a guarantee of misery and unhappiness when you find that three quarters of your 50mW output is in fact InfraRed light and your unit is technically unsafe. This is also a problem that concerns many of us. Better to buy from a reputable dealer with a good return policy. Do a little genuine research and you should find some great deals that meet your budget but avoid the eBay lasers which are often seriously defective to begin with.


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## Isak Hawk (Oct 23, 2007)

I read some bad things about WL over on laserpointerforums, though I have no personal experience with them. 
If I wanted to buy a quality high-power laser pointer right now I would go with http://www.novalasers.com/ or http://www.laserglow.com/ . The X and Alpha series from novalasers look especially awesome and are getting rave reviews (most of them are apparently way above spec.).


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## jhosaki (Oct 23, 2007)

If a laser retailer says they are measuring the average power, an important question to ask is: "How long is the average?"

A shorter average period is obviously less accurate and less valuable than a longer average. As far as I know, Laserglow tests the longest average out of any company. We measure the Aries series for 10 minutes continuously, and the Hercules series for 20 minutes continuously! Most other lasers won't even run that long without overheating and burning out.


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## Kiessling (Oct 23, 2007)

Justin, please take into consideration that CPF is not an advertising platform. We do appreciate input from manufacturers, but would like to keep the advertising out of the open forums. There is the possibility to become a supporting manufacturer to be able to advertise in the Market Place, if that is of interest to you.
Thanx 
bernhard


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## jhosaki (Oct 23, 2007)

Sorry, I thought I was being helpful since many companies list an "average" of 5 or 20 seconds and it can be misleading when trying to compare different companies ratings, not just Laserglow. I'll try to keep it more informative and less "advertisy" in the future.


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## dr_lava (Oct 23, 2007)

I recently learned that Wicked's 'Pulsar' red laser does not in fact have any regulation circuit at all, not even a current limiting resistor/capacitor. Based on that info, for the Pulsar at least, Wickeds products can cut corners. You won't find any laser professionals using 'Wicked Lasers'.

If it's working, do a CPF search over the past few years concerning this brand.


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## comozo (Oct 23, 2007)

stick with the laser glow, optoronics or nova lasers. I've never seen any bad things said about those companies. I've got an *Alpha 105 for just over three months and I'm quite happy with it. 

* nova lasers


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## photonxiii (Oct 23, 2007)

I don't know about anyone else out there, but I've already bought from wickedlasers twice and I have no problems with the lasers. The thing I will never forget is how helpful their customer service was with my shipping problem when I bought a laser from them last month. :twothumbs

From my perspective, I don't need to believe what anybody says if they don't have anything to back it up. :thumbsdow


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## Freyth (Oct 24, 2007)

If you want a WickedLasers, go for it. (I'm in no way promoting WL's products or anything companies' products for that matter). 

WickedLasers mostly deal with pen style lasers which are compact but take in mind, a small laser will have to compromise on its duty cycle. Meaning that the smaller the laser, the shorter you can have it on and the longer you have the leave it off. 

If you would like something that is compact and packs a punch BUT you are not going to conduct any laser experiments then the penstyle laser is for you. Take in mind that WickedLasers are not the only one you have to choose from, you have NovaLasers as well.

Laserglow, Optotronics, NovaLasers - they mostly deal with the high-end laser modules which are larger compared to pen style lasers. The size of the laser is indirectly proportionate to its duty cycle. So a larger sized laser will have a shorter duty cycle. There are some lasers where you can switch it on constantly without having to worry of the effects of duty cycle which means they have no duty cycle at all.

Keep in mind that pen style lasers have a limit on their power rating, and by the looks of it I'd say at the 125mW mark, thereabouts. The larger modules will have a higher maximum possible power rating.

When you are deciding on who to buy from, seeking IMPARTIAL advice is always difficult because there will always be some sort of biasness in their contribution brought about by their personal experiences (mostly). 

Here is some impartial advice (I hope): The bottom line is, you have to decide what kind of lasers you want, then the power rating, then your budget and from who to buy from. Some companies offer fantastic customer service which is an important part in your decision.

You may want to try this. Perhaps email them first, and if they do not reply your messages within their stated time period then call them (emails may be filtered out by the spam filter). No calls? Forget about the company. In your email, you shouldn't ask for advice on what their lasers can do etc. you should ask general questions, but still in relation to lasers. The REALLY good companies will answer you questions regardless of whether it may seem that you'll want to buy their products or not. 

Note: This may or may not work, so use at your own risk.


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## marianne (Oct 24, 2007)

actually nova do great pen sized lasers, i have a second hand X-85 that still works beautifully, the CNI pen styles are great  personally, i haven't heard many complaints at all about the X-series, but i've heard a lot of complaints about wicked lasers (all product lines), and had my own problems with them, and would avoid them in future.


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## swordfish (Oct 24, 2007)

Freyth said:


> You may want to try this. Perhaps email them first, and if they do not reply your messages within their stated time period then call them (emails may be filtered out by the spam filter). No calls? Forget about the company. In your email, you shouldn't ask for advice on what their lasers can do etc. you should ask general questions, but still in relation to lasers. The REALLY good companies will answer you questions regardless of whether it may seem that you'll want to buy their products or not.
> 
> Note: This may or may not work, so use at your own risk.


 
I agree with this. This is actually what I did before I bought my laser. As a consumer this is something you should do before making any purchase. If they are too slow to respond, I can only guess how the delivery will be handled. 

marianne: I don't know what problem you may have had with wickedlasers but I own a few of their lasers and I have no complaints. You just can't make everybody happy I guess.


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## LaserFreak (Oct 26, 2007)

Optotronics. Great laser, great price, great service, AND he's in the US. I'll back him any day of the week.


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## Shreknow91 (Nov 4, 2007)

+1 for novalasers
i think u can also email them and ask them to send you a higher power in that range (thats just what ive heard)


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## 360freak (Nov 4, 2007)

and all of the companies listed have IR filters right? thats also a major concern


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## LiteTheWay (Nov 4, 2007)

Laserglow, Opto and Nova all have IR filters. WL does too but the publicity here and on LPF should be enough to make you run a mile from WL


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## flare02 (Nov 5, 2007)

wow, I've always thought Wicked Lasers was a decent company. At least they have the most professional site. It's funny how the only one's saying bad things about them are the owners of other laser companies.  

I've been reading the laser forums for some time and it seems that laserglow and novalasers are related somehow? and they are always the ones talking trash about their largest competitor? Come on guys, what's up with the negative campaigning? 

just my 2 cents...


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## lazerlover (Nov 5, 2007)

Well wicked lasers was selling the same old CNI stuff that nova/laserglow is selling now, everyone knows there were problems with those, namely poor beam specs, and a huge dot many feet away caused by large beam divergence. Wicked Lasers have their own models now that they manufacture and has lower beam divergence and beam diameter but its more expensive, so there is a trade off if you want the quality. Wasnt laserglow the ones comparing how their bigger portable units were better than the overpowered pen lasers in the past until they started selling them too?


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## Isak Hawk (Nov 5, 2007)

I have no personal experience with either wicked lasers or techlasers, but after reading through the numerous negative threads both here on this forum and especially here: http://www.laserpointerforums.com/forums/YaBB.pl?board=b_companies I don't think I'll ever buy anything from them. I prefer to learn from the mistakes of others, so I don't have to make every single one myself :shrug:

Either all those people are telling the truth or it's a big conspiracy made up by the fanboys/girls of the other companies :tinfoil:


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## Kiessling (Nov 6, 2007)

I am really grateful that the flashlight industry is not such a rotten swamp like the laser industry is. At least not on the surface.
What we see here in this forum isn't really a reflection of an interesting and nice hobby ... but that of a bloody, agenda driven intrigue-war.
I am sick of it.
bernhard


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## RalphRussell (Nov 6, 2007)

I have to admit, I always read the laser forum. I'm not really all that interested in lasers. I do have a couple of nice bright pen size lasers I use for astronomy star pointers but I read the the forum for its entertainment value. No where else in CPF can you see so many threads get locked. Its always fun to read them and see why.


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## flare02 (Nov 7, 2007)

i agree! reading the laser forum is fun. i think justin is the owner of laserglow? and the owner of several other laser companies also post here. it's pretty brutal sometimes. i do think they have an agreement to all attack Wicked because they are the largest. I guess that is what you get for being successful. All the smaller companies join forces.

its the funniest when new laser companies pop up and they post here introducing themselves :twothumbs. 

all i have to say is don't believe everything you read on the forums. online marketing is pretty brutal...


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## LiteTheWay (Nov 8, 2007)

Its funny how flare02 seems to be a newcomer and funnily pro-Wicked too.

I don't own a laser company and I would not go near Wicked.


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## Freyth (Nov 8, 2007)

flare02 said:


> i agree! reading the laser forum is fun. i think justin is the owner of laserglow? and the owner of several other laser companies also post here. it's pretty brutal sometimes. i do think they have an agreement to all attack Wicked because they are the largest. I guess that is what you get for being successful. All the smaller companies join forces.
> 
> its the funniest when new laser companies pop up and they post here introducing themselves :twothumbs.
> 
> all i have to say is don't believe everything you read on the forums. online marketing is pretty brutal...




Please get your facts right. As much as you think WL is the largest. WL simply caters to the commercial market while other laser companies deal with OEM lasers and to hobbyists as well. 

You are just pure ignorant on what is happening. "all i have to say is don't believe everything you read on the forums". I think you just bit yourself with that sentence.

And to be honest, there are enough evidence to hold up the assumptions or the attacks as you call it on WL.


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## lazerlover (Nov 8, 2007)

I've seen enough evidence recently on lasercommunity.com to beleive otherwise, and i've seen the reviews from customers posted on the wicked lasers product pages. Can someone post actual cases of how wicked are scammers. I've been talking to them about getting a Pulsar and an Evolution. They are the only ones with a red laser pointer, and their evolution has the lowest beam diameter compared to the any other brand.

As for laserglow, i would stay away from them after Wicked Lasers showed me this thread, this is eventually why they had to stop allowing competitor brands from being posted.

http://www.lasercommunity.com/ongoing-investigation-of-spam-abuse-and-identity-violation-t3771.html


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## jhosaki (Nov 8, 2007)

If you believe what you read in that thread at face value then you are incredibly gullible. Wickedlasers uses their forum as an advertising platform where they can say anything they want to without rebuttal, fact-checking or moderation. This thread was started by them to defame Laserglow and plant the seeds of mistrust which you are now watering.

Tracking somebody's IP to Toronto isn't proof of anything, there's over 4 million people in the Toronto area, and 3 online laser companies that I know of are based in this area. Maybe you should ask Windstrings what he thinks, as Lasercommunity also banned him and said that HE was Dimitry (the owner of Laserglow) just for posting pictures of his Hercules. (See http://www.lasercommunity.com/post135209.html) It seems that if anybody says anything positive about Laserglow on the LC, they are Dimitry. That's paranoia, not marketing. I promise you, our President is a busy guy and he doesn't have that kind of time on his hands.

I don't like all of the forum drama either, I'd really like to just sell lasers to people, but the problem is that there is an incredible barrage of misinformation streaming out of China and if there is no rebuttal from us then people will take it as the truth, as the last poster did. My job would be much easier if this were not the case.


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## Kiessling (Nov 8, 2007)

The problems of other fora are not a topic for CPF.
Closed. 
bernhard


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