3 ms·

You need to spread enough photons per second across the entire area of the image to make it bright enough to see and look good. This translates into a fairly go

by jws 15y ago

You need to spread enough photons per second across the entire area of the image to make it bright enough to see and look good. This translates into a fairly good bit of light. As a thought exercise, consider a ridiculously bright 3 watt LED flashlight. Shine it through a 35mm slide to make a miniature projector. You now have enough photons to make something like a 3 foot image. You are going to need about 3 watts of laser to do the same job (no free lunch, except for green of course). A 1 watt laser is more than 10 times the power needed to instantly burn a permanent hole in your retina.

Natsu 15y ago
I can't find a wattage or a laser classification anywhere on the site. I wanted to say that they don't make 1w laser pointers, but I decided to fact check that first. I was wrong, they do make "laser pointers" that powerful. Browsing their laser safety forum has a post from a teacher wondering what to tell the parents of a rich kid who is playing irresponsibly with a 200mw laser. Someone suggested helping them find a guide dog.... And another person wonders if they should shine their 1w laser back at the neighbors who shine 100-200mw lasers into their house and how may have injured them. I honestly wonder just how far we are from a media frenzied panic that gets nearly everything banned, safe or otherwise. The voice of reason appears to be some inquisitive teenager, who appears to be more responsible than everyone else. Forget age restrictions, someday we should figure out a way to test how responsible people are and ban people from doing stuff based on that.
Groxx 15y ago
35mm slides are quite opaque when showing most images. The only equivalent would be a pure-white scene, which is an extremely far cry from the MGM logo they demonstrated with. You're also comparing LED wattage with laser wattage and claiming the lumens are the same - I doubt they are, though I have no idea what the actual difference is. But yeah, a 1 watt laser is a massive amount of power. That'd be kinda terrifying to have in one of these.

by jws 15y ago

Natsu 15y ago

I can't find a wattage or a laser classification anywhere on the site. I wanted to say that they don't make 1w laser pointers, but I decided to fact check that first. I was wrong, they do make "laser pointers" that powerful. Browsing their laser safety forum has a post from a teacher wondering what to tell the parents of a rich kid who is playing irresponsibly with a 200mw laser. Someone suggested helping them find a guide dog.... And another person wonders if they should shine their 1w laser back at the neighbors who shine 100-200mw lasers into their house and how may have injured them. I honestly wonder just how far we are from a media frenzied panic that gets nearly everything banned, safe or otherwise. The voice of reason appears to be some inquisitive teenager, who appears to be more responsible than everyone else. Forget age restrictions, someday we should figure out a way to test how responsible people are and ban people from doing stuff based on that.

Groxx 15y ago

35mm slides are quite opaque when showing most images. The only equivalent would be a pure-white scene, which is an extremely far cry from the MGM logo they demonstrated with. You're also comparing LED wattage with laser wattage and claiming the lumens are the same - I doubt they are, though I have no idea what the actual difference is. But yeah, a 1 watt laser is a massive amount of power. That'd be kinda terrifying to have in one of these.