I am casually looking at purcahsing a laser for my AR pistol build, and have seen that lasers now come in both red and green, with the green being considerably more expansive.  From what I can tell the green ones are more powerful.

My guess is that the green is brighter and eaiser for the human eye to pick up but that it has shorter battery life?

Any explanantions would be appreciated!

Dawg

Basically, they are the same except the color, or wavelength.  For some reason, I haven't seen many red lasers higher than 5mW (the intensity of the laser), yet I see green lasers at 10, 15, 20mW.  So the higher the wattage, the brighter the laser will be.

The real difference is in how the human eye perceives light.  The eye is less sensetive to the red part of the spectrum, while green is one of the most sensetive colors.  So given two lasers of the same power, you'll have an easier time seeing the green.  Someone once posted a fancy chart of how sensetive the eye is to different wavelengths.

Lastly, green laser also interacts differently with particles in the air, making it much more visible - ie you can see the line.

The difference is.. when you use the search, you won't find this thread when you type in "red laser".

That thread pretty well asnwers all of your questions and then some.

Ebay has some 'deals' on green lasers...I'll be getting one from there.

Quoted: Ebay has some 'deals' on green lasers...I'll be getting one from there.

Please see my reivew and reviews of these Ebay Airsoft knock off green lasers before buying.  I believe they'll work fine for Airsoft applications but are not sturdy enough for real rifles.....based on all available info here.

You've been warned.  

Look at all the Audio Equipment these days. What do you see? Green LCD displays versus Red! Why do you think that is? I think it IS because Green IS easier to detect than Red.

Just what I have observed.

Tack

Ever wonder why green lasers aren't out in general production?  Because the green LED technology isn't up to the job.  In fact, firearm-grade green laser diodes are nonexistent, & appear to be a long way off, if even on the horizon.  Surefire had plans to release one, but never did make it happen.  Currently, the only way to produce a green laser is by splitting the wavelength of an IR beam w/ a crystal.  This entails 2 problems:

1) Use of relatively delicate assemblies that aren't up to the abuses of firearm recoil.

2) Since the IR beam is being split, the amount of energy needed to get the green beam is actually twice what would be needed if a green diode were possible.   Thus, more energy (200%) is being consumed, & more heat is produced in the process.

In truth, the light color alone isn't the only factor to consider.  Background colors can obscure or enhance visibility for a particular beam color.  Don't skip over red lasers.  In fact, I didn't.  I got a great (screamin', actually) deal on a Laser Devices OTAL via a group buy psonsored by Ci4Grant on the equipment exchange (way back when).  The OTAL is compact, & I guarantee you can't miss its sigature.

Bottom line:  Go w/ a quality red laser & have no remorse.  I recommend a LD OTAL for the primary, & a LD BLAST for the backup.

green lasers use a frequency doubling crystal and it is fragile. you can try them on a firearm, but they might break. other than that, much brighter to the eye, and more expensive. if it were me, i would get one if the price was ok and just assume it will work.