It has been a couple years since I did the actual test, but the difference is very significant. I believe the loss for the lens pair was around 5 % and the loss for the prisms was around 25%!Thanks but again, what does doing well mean? (around how much losses with 3x and above?)
Actually, it's worse. As the beams move off axis the beams develop aberrations. The largest is called coma where part of the beam is focused at one angle and the other part of the beam is focused at another angle. The result is a tear drop shaped beam. You MUST place the beams on axis. So, PBS the beams first and if you want more than two diodes then stack the beams vertically to keep the stack on axis.But does that mean that the middle beam in a knife edge won't be corrected as much/the same way as the leftpost and rightmost beams?
I think this adjustment is worth it and always do it.Most people rely on the physical edges of the lenses to be aligned with their various optical axis which works most of the time although many here choose to correct the "rotate" axis" and take care great that the lens is "facing" the beam as best they can.