Your opinions on lasers?

[No1_sonuk]

Re: Your opinions on lasers?

However, power does have a large effect. A red laser with a higher output will cause more damage than a green laser with a lower output. That bit is the easiest part to understand. Above 5mW, the blink response offers no protection.

LOL
Any laser with a higher output will cause more damage than any other, doesn't matter what colour they are.
The point is that a 5mW green laser could do more damage to eyes than a 5mW red one.

edit:
IR lasers, i don't know if one exists but a 1mW IR laser wouldn't be anymore dangerous than looking at a fire. Bonfires give of way more power than a 1mW laser (even if it is dispersed) however IR lasers I wouldn't really recommend as they are not detectable by the human eye you don't blink or move out of the way of them. This isn't really a huge problem because of the movement of the gun would take it away from the eye quickly. HOWEVER as IR lasers are normally more powerful I wouldn't be okay with someone using an IR laser in a game.


dazzle is a problem, more because if someone is running it could distract them, and they trip, but once again don't point them at people's faces ... simple. No reason to ban green low powered lasers

The part I made bold is key. A laser is collimated (concentrated in a straight line) and so has effectively higher power than an equivalent uncollimated source. Kind of like restricting water flow to a small nozzel to make a high pressure jet from a lower pressure feed.

e.g. the surface area of a half-sphere around a fire at 1m is 80000 times the surface area of a 5mm diameter laser so, theoretically, a 5mm dia, 1mW laser at 1m would be 80000 times more powerful than a 1mW fire.
But it wouldn't, as the IR emitted by a fire is more wideband, and thermal IR is of longer wavelength in general. Military thermal imagers general work around 3-5 um (3000-5000nm), and can't see near-ir sources such as used for NVG.

The rest of your point is valid, though.

[bobfish]

Re: Your opinions on lasers?

The part I made bold is key. A laser is collimated (concentrated in a straight line) and so has effectively higher power than an equivalent uncollimated source. Kind of like restricting water flow to a small nozzel to make a high pressure jet from a lower pressure feed.

e.g. the surface area of a half-sphere around a fire at 1m is 80000 times the surface area of a 5mm diameter laser so, theoretically, a 5mm dia, 1mW laser at 1m would be 80000 times more powerful than a 1mW fire.
But it wouldn't, as the IR emitted by a fire is more wideband, and thermal IR is of longer wavelength in general. Military thermal imagers general work around 3-5 um (3000-5000nm), and can't see near-ir sources such as used for NVG.

The rest of your point is valid, though.

yeh I see that point but I mean that the energy output from a fire is greatly larger than a 1mW laser, even if it is collimated.

anyway a 1mW laser of any (reasonable) wavelength wouldn't do damage if mounted on a rifle.

[RedHawk]

Re: Your opinions on lasers?

LOL
Any laser with a higher output will cause more damage than any other, doesn't matter what colour they are.

Thank you for reiterating my point, though not sure what you're trying to prove...

[Tiercel]

Re: Your opinions on lasers?

I like lasers.

I dont see any problem with them as long as the people using them arent twats.

I like having them on pistols because they look sexy, especially on chunky guns like the Mk23 SOCOM, Glocks, Sigs etc.

It does annoy me when people are all HURR DURRR GREEN LAZERS AM BAD! THEYRE MORE POWERFUL THAN THE DEATH STAR!

I mean come on, who WASNT a twat at school, pissing around with dodgey chinese knockoff laser pens that spent hours shining them into other people/their own eyes? Anyone ever blinded by that?

[Salam]

Re: Your opinions on lasers?

My view is probably the same as most peoples views. Don't mind them, so long as it's used responsibly. I think they can be effective in a skirmish, personally never used one.

[two_zero]

Re: Your opinions on lasers?

If you cant be responsible with a laser your probably not responsible with a RIF/IF therefore you shouldn't own either.

I have protection against 6mm plastic BBs at approx. 350fps. I do not have any protection against lasers, nor does anyone else I know.

Thou I do agree irresponsible people / people with a criminal record should be banned from owning any type of airsoft guns. This would also help keeping our sport from being banned. Someone having their eyes damaged from a laser during a skirmish most certainly wont.

I ranted and raved in a similar thread a while back so wont add much more than they are not dangerous and site owners should check the power level of the laser and not just the colour.

The issue here is the site owner wont check. Spotting and testing every lasers power level? Wont happen.

Sure you can say "my lasers are safe" but firstly, not everyone takes that concern and responsibility. Secondly, knowing that not everybody takes that concern, it makes the game not very fun for people concerned about lasers once one is spotted. If I though there be a serious risk of my sight being damage, I'd pack up and leave straight away.

[PureSilver]

Re: Your opinions on lasers?

it makes the game not very fun for people concerned about lasers once one is spotted. If I though there be a serious risk of my sight being damage, I'd pack up and leave straight away.

If you're that paranoid, put some laser film on the inside of your eyepro. That will protect you from just about anything.

[bobfish]

Re: Your opinions on lasers?

Sure you can say "my lasers are safe" but firstly, not everyone takes that concern and responsibility. Secondly, knowing that not everybody takes that concern, it makes the game not very fun for people concerned about lasers once one is spotted. If I though there be a serious risk of my sight being damage, I'd pack up and leave straight away.

just to reassure you if you have a laser over the power of 100mW you need a cool down period for that laser, my 1.2W laser has an on off cycle of 1 minute, which means I can only have it on for one minute if I leave it on longer it burns out very quickly.

and anything under 100mW has to be within 3ft of you and held steady on a fixed point before it does any serious damage to your retina.

you're right though if i was aware someone was using a high powered laser (ie 1W or over) i would ask them to not use it.

if someone was using a laser under 50mW I wouldn't fear for my vision.


also to cover someone's point about the green being the absorption peak ... you're not right. The green in our eyes is the widest band of colour we can see shades in, due to the green opsin compound being stimulated by the WIDEST range of wavelengths. As for 'peaking' all three opsin's Red green and blue opsin all peak at the same intensity the reason being eyes adjust the sensitivity of the retina. The green opsin is activated by more wavelengths so in monochromatic vision (where everything is one colour and you see in shades of that colour) green is used to allow the most shades and therefore the most definition.


anyway, when we walk from a dark room into a lit room our pupils contract this partly closes off the amount of light, HOWEVER there are other methods which control how much light is 'seen' by the brain. This is phosphorilation of the rods and cones. So it makes no difference if a laser is red yellow blue orange or green.

[Hawaiian Special Forces]

Re: Your opinions on lasers?

I ask Marshalls to disallow lasers and strobes on game days on the basis that they have in the past triggered my epilepsy.

[bobfish]

Re: Your opinions on lasers?

I ask Marshalls to disallow lasers and strobes on game days on the basis that they have in the past triggered my epilepsy.

If someone at a game day has epilepsy I wouldn't ever use a strobe and if they asked me not to use a laser I wouldn't either, it's just reckless and selfish.

[Agent]

Re: Your opinions on lasers?

I only use lasers to bring down commercial air planes, so i dont see the harm in them at all.


jk

I personally dont blind..*cough* mind people using lasers, it often means the baboon that is using them is going to get a hail of bbs in their direction because that uber targeting laser of theirs just gave their ambush away.

Its also quite a cool spectacle in dark smoky CQB games to see a load of lasers going around the room.

The whole shining in peoples eyes issue i wont touch on to be honest as its common sense but accidents do happen but its like footballers who get tickled in the foot and fall over screaming, some people straight up over react.

[Danny_boy85]

Re: Your opinions on lasers?

I use my laser for team calling, as some people like to think they are solid snake an that noone can see them, but if i have just seen you, i dont want to have to shout 7-8 times

"behind the blue door 15 yards down the corridor on the left with the black 5.11 hat, what team are you for the love of all that is holy!?" No response so i shoot them.... then they moan they are on my poxy team! YOU'RE A MUG!!!

To then get no response as he/she thinks i dont know they are there... -__-

So i shine the laser right in front of/next to/above them and shout, on my laser, team colour? Worked a treat, then got banned

But i can see the idiots shining them in the eyes of people etc, but some people do go proper OTT with their response to having a laser even shine on them in general.

[a_flea]

Re: Your opinions on lasers?

May I just say, people that go ott on lasers are not footballer pansies, they just care about their bastard eyesight! I have very sensitive eyes that get irritated so easily (inherited from dad whose eyes go bloodshot when washing his face), lasers can hurt, and they can damage. If someone is shining a laser in MY EYES i'm going to kick off- I don't know the power of the laser and I don't bloody care, get it out of my eyes! So yes, call me a whinger if you want, but my eyes are my life and part of my livelihood, and I'll make a fuss if I have to.

[ElZer0]

Re: Your opinions on lasers?

I have said I dont mind them.... unless someone starts shining them in peoples eyes.. thats not fun

[bobfish]

Re: Your opinions on lasers?

May I just say, people that go ott on lasers are not footballer pansies, they just care about their bastard eyesight! I have very sensitive eyes that get irritated so easily (inherited from dad whose eyes go bloodshot when washing his face), lasers can hurt, and they can damage. If someone is shining a laser in MY EYES i'm going to kick off- I don't know the power of the laser and I don't bloody care, get it out of my eyes! So yes, call me a whinger if you want, but my eyes are my life and part of my livelihood, and I'll make a fuss if I have to.

in this situation id expect you to say at the beginning of the game day that you have a medical issue where you can't have lasers being used.
if you don't say that at the beginning and someone shines a laser at you, you have no leg to stand on.

also a 1mW laser will not irritate your eye ... it's physics ... it will be a placebo and it will irritate your mind, however if you said at the start of the day you don't want them used then I'd respect that, assuming you're not just saying it to be a pain in the butt. lol