Which laser?

[Bubba_Zanetti]

Hi there, my first post here and I am hoping for some advice.

I am completely new to lasers, I bought a toy Kam laser from ebay
a couple of weeks ago which only served to make me obsessed with
buying one I can draw my own graphics with. I work as a graphic designer
and would love to project something, no clue what yet but something.

I have a budget of about £300 for the laser and also want to buy
software to control it a couple of pay days later, I want an RGY unit.
I have been looking at the iShow software, can it control any ilda laser
or is it only compatible with certain units?

I was going to buy this laserworld cs 200 until I read some bad
reactions to laserworld in the other threads:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/LASERWORLD-CS-...d=p3286.c0.m14

I also found Ares II RGY Laser 180mW on lazershop.co.uk, are either
of these two compatible with iShow, and would they let me design
my own projections? Is iShow any good?

Could anyone point me in the right direction?

Thanks for your help

[soforene]

I have a couple of projectors from Lazershop and they are decent units for the money.
I'll pre-empt the millions of others who will say get your arse down to the UKLEM in Leicester next Sunday cus a lot of the UK guys will be there and you can ask, touch, smell, drool over the kind of equipment that will do exactly what you want.

And one day you'll own it.
Oh yes you will cus once you are hooked the cash will simply flow out of your wallet because you need it all....

Welcome to PL.

[Laser Zone]

YES !!! and you will wake up in the middle of the night , in a cold sweat wondering how in gods name will you afford that rgb laser system you so desire !!! Its too late Bubba you have now entered the LASER ZONE !!!!!

[allthatwhichis]

And we are glad you joined and posted before purchased a LaserWorld item and regretted it. I would re-think the budget you have; you may end up wanting "more" in a few months. Take a moment to decide your "true" goals and then set a budget. I am 3 years into this obsession and have just realized my goals of making shows and you would be chocked aat the budget I have ended up responsible for paying back.

[White-Light]

Well I hate to say it but I had someone enquiring about purchasing the good Laserworld projector I have and they said they'd had a RGY Ares and the lasers had both failed within 5 months. Whether that's typical or not I don't know but they were a bit p*ssed to say the least. In the end they didn't buy the Laserworld because it was too powerful for their needs. (Waits for the digs about Laserworld's being too powerful too start).

[allthatwhichis]

(Waits for the digs about Laserworld's being too powerful too start).

It is hard to find a good full color projector under 10mW...

[paulk]

I bought the I-show software and usb unit because it was cheap and I'm not impressed to say the least.(like the saying goes you get what you pay for)
Soon after I bought Moncha2 full version and its much much better.

[Bubba_Zanetti]

I installed the demo version of Moncha this afternoon, been playing with it since, I think I can get along with it, its pretty simple to control, even added my own text from MonchaDraw, seems very cool, I like it.

Is there a limit to the keyframes you can put into an animation?
I work with Adobe flash daily and could export some very cool animations,
I realise I will have to trace them frame by frame but the outcome should be worth it.

I am still edging toward the laserworld cs200 rather than the aresII,
I dont think the ares has ilda support, whereas the cs200 does.
Its not a huge amount of cash, if it freaks out I probably wouldnt
be too gutted. It looks like a better lightshow from the clips I checked
on youtube.

[soforene]

...Its not a huge amount of cash, if it freaks out I probably wouldnt be too gutted. ...

You sound the ideal consumer target for LaserWorld.

[Bubba_Zanetti]

You sound the ideal consumer target for LaserWorld.

I thought I had it all figured out until I read all the stuff here, now I dont know what to do, I am loving Moncha, need a projector.