Page 1 of 1
State of the art green lasers made by Viridian, Mpls, MN.
Posted: Sun May 16, 2010 6:06 pm
by surprise_i'm_armed
http://www.viridiangreenlaser.com/
Today, Tom Gresham broadcast his Gun Talk show from the Springfield
Armory booth at Charlotte, NC's NRA show.
His guest was a gentleman from Viridian Laser, based in Minneapolis, MN.
The above web site links you to their site. Some cool videos and lots of
specs on why green lasers are better than red. It's because green is in
the middle of the color spectrum.
Does anyone remember ROY G. BIV from science class? That guy's initials
stand for the colors of the spectrum: red, orange, yellow, green, blue,
indigo, and violet. In that order. Notice how red's on one end, while
green's in the middle?
The pistols that his company's green lasers will fit were listed as:
Glock
H & K USP
Ruger SR9
S & W M & P
Taurus 24/7
Walther P22, PK380, and P99.
There might be others, but those brands/models were explicitly listed
in a pulldown box.
One of their lasers has a tiny 100 lumen white light mounted next to
the laser - pretty slick.
Y'all should enjoy poking around their site. They will also be able to supply
holsters customfit for certain pistols with their lasers attached.
SIA
Re: State of the art green lasers made by Viridian, Mpls, MN
Posted: Sun May 16, 2010 6:41 pm
by bnc
It's about time someone came out with green laser sights. Comparing lasers of equal power, green, which is usually 532nm like these lasers, will always appear brighter since the human eye is more sensitive to green light. This is due to chromatic aberration, which is when different colors passing through a lens have different focal lengths, which occurs because the refractive index of a medium is dependent on the wavelength of the light passing through it. It turns out that the focal length of green light passing through the lens of the human eye is nearly identical to the distance between the lens and the optic nerve. This causes green light to be focused as tightly as possible on the part of the eye that collects light, meaning you get as much light as possible onto the smallest area of detection making it more intense. Red light's focal length in the eye is longer than the distance between the lens and optic nerve (so that it has not converged to its tightest point yet), while blue light's focal length is shorter, so that light is already expanding by the time it reaches the optic nerve. This also means that green lasers can more readily damage your eyes than others (not that any laser is a toy), particularly of a given power.
I want one.
Re: State of the art green lasers made by Viridian, Mpls, MN
Posted: Sun May 16, 2010 6:48 pm
by snorri
bnc wrote:It's about time someone came out with green laser sights.
http://www.dealextreme.com/products.dx/category.911" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Re: State of the art green lasers made by Viridian, Mpls, MN
Posted: Sun May 16, 2010 6:56 pm
by Beiruty
I will be interested in the compact version with light. I just wish the price is in low to mid $200, I am not paying $400 for that thing.
Re: State of the art green lasers made by Viridian, Mpls, MN
Posted: Sun May 16, 2010 9:24 pm
by surprise_i'm_armed
Additional information:
Viridian does sell directly to customers but they
suggest that you buy this retail in order to help
gun stores stay in business. Viridian strives to
provide strong support to their dealer network.
The Viridian rep said that the range of prices for
his lasers runs from $199 to $349, depending on model.
Battery life:
If you leave the laser on with a steady beam - 4 hours.
If you set the laser to pulse mode - 7 hours.
SIA
Re: State of the art green lasers made by Viridian, Mpls, MN
Posted: Sun May 16, 2010 10:47 pm
by gigag04
Green lasers have been out for years no? I saw a green lasermax quite some time ago.
I also saw an "aimpoint" with a green dot on ebay. Right....
Re: State of the art green lasers made by Viridian, Mpls, MN
Posted: Thu May 20, 2010 11:24 pm
by DoubleJ
They've been around for a while, but this place specializes in them, and from looking at the prices, they're not bad. I've typically seen the green lasers to be more expensive, in general.
Re: State of the art green lasers made by Viridian, Mpls, MN
Posted: Fri May 21, 2010 5:31 am
by KD5NRH
Three things to remember with DealExtreme:
- FDA regs don't allow lasers over 5mW to be imported. You can, however, import a laser module over 5mW, so if you can find a 5mW laser and a higher-powered module that will fit it, you can swap it out once it gets here.
- DX shipping takes forever. 3-4 weeks is pretty normal for the free shipping. Then again, it's free.
- You get what you pay for; if you really need an item that works, order two or three of it. They will replace DOA items, but you'll be dealing with a really slow round trip for the replacement. Some items are higher quality overall than others, so YMMV. Usually, the cheap junk is pretty obvious before you order; I've had several of their <$3 butane lighters (that look like the same junk you can get for $7 in sleazy gas stations) die within the first couple of weeks, but the $12 green laser pointer (that looks like the one you'd pay $40+ for at Radio Shack) is still going strong after about a year.
Edit to add: unless otherwise specified, the button cell batteries tend to be cheap carbon-zinc types. They have a fine shelf life, but about half the run time of more expensive ones. Since they're usually less than a tenth of the price, (I got 100 AG3s for less than two cost at Radio Shack, and 50LR44s for the local price of four) this is good for low-use and/or low priority items, but you might not want to use them in the garage door remotes and such.