Laser Pointer: Red or Green?

Green

Mine are Red, why do you ask?
I have dozens of tips to display different images. Even my Laser Level is Red.

My little laser pointer is a .5 mW red one. My cat, Pepper, absolutely goes nuts chasing the dot. My BIG laser “pointer” is a 15 mW red HeNe. With that one I can put a spot on a building three miles away.

So, red.

I ask because it’s mundane and pointless.

I have noticed a trend in teahing and presentation circles that view the green pointer as being an upgrade of sorts.

The point is clearer, but much brighter, and the visibility of the beam is a great index for the air quality of the room.

Plus, the cats really, really like the green one.

I can hardly wait for blue and yellow.

Damn you sir, now I might need to seek out and purchase a new basically useless gadget. Do you work in the Laser industry? How did you know my weakness? :slight_smile:

Jim

Blue ones are out there. Rare and expensive, but available. You’re more likely to see them in the form of standalone module (with or without collimating optics), rather than as a pointer, at the present time. Like green diode lasers, blue can’t yet be directly emitted. Instead, an IR emitter is used to pump a fluorescent crystal material, which in turn pumps another to create the final green or blue output. Haven’t seen yellow yet. That would definitely be cool.

I could see bundling all four colors into a single uber-pointer…

Green lasers (532NM) appear 50% brighter than standard reds (650NM), the green light frequency emitted from the green pointer is more visible to the human eye

so for me, the greenie is best

Y’know, when some genius figures out how to smoothly and repeatably raster scan a laser beam, we’ll be able to take a red, green and blue laser and make one HELL of a projection TV.

Psst… over here…

I notice they don’t have a price listed. I don’t think I even want to know.

Yeah… probably not.

I want to know. Just so I can do my motorboat impression for a good half an hour.

Green…I use it for pointing out stars

Great. Some innocent alien lifeform is now dabbing at his sense cluster with his pseudopod and screaming “My eye, my fucking eye!” It wouldn’t have been so bad if he had more than just the one.

Green. No, red! No, damnit, I’m color-blind and I’m moving this to IMHO.

So, um… there.

Green on one end and red on the other.

(Not available in Plano, TX.)

No, you fool! Don’t cross the streams! Aiiii!!!

Wouldn’t that be green on the right and red on the left hand side?

Red, and I’ve never known anyone with a green or blue one.