155mW. 532nm. $699. Green. All of those can be used to describe the newest addition to Wicked Lasers’ product lineup, the Elite Series. As you might imagine, Wicked Lasers specializes in powerful and expensive exotic lasers. I wouldn’t call them laser pointers as they are much more powerful than your typical red laser pointer. This Elite Series laser is classified as a Class IIIb laser product, as compared to the Class IIIa classification of regular laser pointers (< 5mW). The Elite series is the most powerful series before their $1k+ Spyder series. As for why anyone would ever need such a laser other than for pure geekery, I have no idea.
Details
Wicked Lasers‘ Elite Series comes in three flavors based on power ratings: Elite 100+ ($499.99), Elite 125+ ($599.99) and the Elite 150+ ($699.99). Surprisingly for the power this laser has, it’s not much larger than a typical pen-sized laser pointer. It’s powered by 2 AAA batteries although I had wished it was going to be some crazy laser relying on the extra current from D sized batteries like those massive Maglights.
Regardless, the Elite is nothing short of bright as hell. Pointing it at something white within a few feet is enough to make you look away. Furthermore, it is recommended that you pick up a pair of red laser goggles when using this laser as it can cause permanent eye damage with direct beam exposures of less than 1/100th of a second. And yes, the beam is pretty much visible in most situations with the exception of extreme daylight or if you’re in a clean room (no floating particles to illuminate).
Build Quality
The Elite laser is created with a rugged chrome finished brass body which looks great but does attract fingerprints like an iPhone. But one thing that brings up my suspicions is the warranty; it’s only 3 months. For such an expensive gadget, I would think the warranty would last at least a year if Wicked Lasers was really behind their product. Similarly, when searching for hard drives I look for ones with 5 year warranties as it means the company trusts their hardware and can vouch for it that much. Just something to think about if you’re considering purchasing a Wicked Lasers product.
A picture of the Elite laser burning through a black post-it note. The image is unmodified from its original form: no flash and a slow shutter speed.
Power
At ~155mW of average output, the Elite laser is just strong enough to burn things. By just strong enough I mean that it can ignite, melt, and etch plastics and paper products that are colored dark. Since darker colors absorb more light energy they are effected by the laser much more. As such, I’ve been carrying a black marker around to color things I want to burn. For example, lighting these matches:
Elite Laser lighting a sparkler (.MOV Video, 132kB) and lighting several matches (.MOV Video, 3.8MB).
By the way, be careful should you ever take pictures of such a laser. While taking one of these pictures, the beam accidentally went into my Nikon D80 and permanently damaged the sensor.
Thoughts
The Elite 150+ is quite a show-stopper. Your friends will no doubt be amazed, but whether that’s worth $699 is all up to you. While such a laser comes in handy when pointing out at the night sky if that’s your cup of tea, I honestly can’t think of any other real uses and it’s too bright to use in public settings.
Wicked Lasers isn’t the only company selling exotic lasers. There’s also Laserglow’s Hercules line of high-powered lasers.
Verdict: Extremely cool yet extremely expensive. A laser that can light matches. Enough said.
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These lasers look amazing! I can’t believe how high powered they are. Something tells me it has to be illegal in some countries. :P
Nice photos! I can think of much better things to spend $699 on. How long will it last on a pair of AAA batts?
From the math I am guessing around 4 mins.
That’s awesome. No clue why anyone would need this, but it’s still cool.
Wow. Did it damage your wall at all for the few seconds it was on there?
Nice review.
That is awesome. Now if they can get the price down to $100 to $150 I would get a few.
WOW. that is just ridiculous! I cannot believe it lit those matches. It had to have messed up your wall…that one pic of you near the laser could be dangerous…what would that thing do to your eye? LOL…
Paul-
Just wondering: what happened to the camera? Will you be repairing it? Will the warranty hold up? Blame the laser maker?
Ha.
Just curious
Wicked Lasers is a scam. I used to personally know Steve, CEO of Wicked Lasers and he is a very good scam artist. They do not send correctly powered lasers…often very underpowered. They have even gone lengths to re-send out new customers lasers that have been returned due to defect. If you go into the forums, or other laser forums, you can see that most people end up with a defective one, then pay $40 to send it back. They give their best lasers to reviewers. I have reported them to BBB many times.
Not to mention, look up wicked lasers on the FDA website. Their lasers are not allowed in the United States! They do not have the correct features and you could have your $600 item taken away by customs with no explanation.
For lasers that are correctly powered, LEGAL, FAR cheaper, and better than wicked lasers, try lucentoptics.com or laserglow.com.
Hey Paul, great review!
I just wanted to let everyone know that Wicked Lasers also makes much more affordable green lasers as well. I recently reviewed one which costs just $35 and was still amazingly powerful. Of course it couldn’t burn anything, but the actual beam was still bright enough to be seen at night.
the review: http://skattertech.com/2007/10/wicked-lasers-core-review/
P.S. I haven’t really had an experience with them as a customer. I was provided a unit to review, so what you claimed about them is entirely possible. Hopefully they aren’t in the business of scamming, that would be unfortunate.
Yes their core is a 5mW laser. It’s legal in the United States, and usually they have no problems with them. The core is a great laser, but when you start going up, wicked lasers starts ripping you off on power.
That is very cool, probably illegal and just what could I possibly use it for? And for that price I could pick up about two and a half Nintendo Wii’s… way more fun.
I went to an observatory recently, and just about everyone staffing the place had one so they could point out constellations (and of course, Comet Holmes). One of them got one on Ebay for $100. I assumed they were created for astronomers.
I’d be absolutely terrified of blinding myself with something like that.
I’m guessing with that much power, even it hitting a mirror/glass picture frame/etc could bounce that damaging thing right back into your eye, presumably eliminating your vision instantly. Even the crappy weak red ones are meant to be dangerous.
Geekery is totally not worth that kind of risk.
I have a (much weaker) green laser pointer from Wicked Lasers.
Not thrilled with their quality control. The beam seemed to lose focus after a while (the thing rides along in my briefcase every day; maybe mechanical misalignment?) and, as noted here, the 3-month warranty is insulting. The company wasn’t interested in repairing it, or in giving me a credit towards a new purchase.
So I keep using my somewhat-fuzzy laser. Once the blue ones (and yellow! Have you seen that?) get cheaper, I’ll buy one somewhere else.
STOP!!!!!!!! DO NOT BUY FROM WICKED LASERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THEY ARE UNDERPOWERED-OVERPRICED LASERS. If you want good lasers go to novalasers.com, or optotronics.com, MUCH better quality, and you will get MORE then you payed for!! Check out http://www.laserpointerforums.com for more info on these lasers.
I think the lases pointer is rather dangerous.
I’ll pass on that because of the $699 pricetag.
My $40 USD 50mW green pointer from Asia is good enough :D