In this video I fool a little around with the Ferrari of handheld lasers: Laserglow Hercules.
I have the 400+ mW version which peaks at 489.6 mW and average 424.8 mW over 10 minutes. The prize on this has dropped A LOT since I bought it second hand 3-4 years ago. Current prize as new is 1389$ (August 2011). It used to be 2989$...

Full music credit:
Track in intro:
Interloper by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under CC Attribution 3.0.
http://incompetech.com/music/r....oyalty-free/index.ht
ISRC: USUAN1100401
© 2008 Kevin MacLeod

Track at 1:40:
Supernatural by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under CC Attribution 3.0.
http://incompetech.com/music/r....oyalty-free/index.ht
ISRC: USUAN1100397
© 2008 Kevin MacLeod

Track at 2:33:
Rites by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under CC Attribution 3.0.
http://incompetech.com/music/r....oyalty-free/index.ht
ISRC: USUAN1100722
© 2010 Kevin MacLeod

Track in outro:
White by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under CC Attribution 3.0.
http://incompetech.com/music/r....oyalty-free/index.ht
ISRC: USUAN1100010
© 2006 Kevin MacLeod

Captions (I'm gonna experiment with true CC for English and Danish on this video):
Yeah, yeah, I know. That was total overkill but it sure was fun to make. And speaking of fun: in this video we're gonna fool around with the Laserglow Hercules-400.

Just for size comparison: here's your standard Mag-Lite®-copy flashlight for 3 D-sized batteries

and a Mag-Lite® flashlight for 4 D-sized batteries

and here's the Hercules laser.

No, no, behave Hercules! You big bully :)

Sorry about that. Here's what I wanted to show you. The Hercules is larger than a flashlight with 4 D-sized batteries.

With over 400 milliwatt the beam is very visible even without smoke or fog in the air.
Here it's in daylight inside
at night
and in the darkness. Well - it's never really dark with a Hercules turned on.

With a little smoke in the air the beam is way to bright for the camera. Watch how the smoke creeps closer to the laser and overexposes the camera.

It will of course do the usual tricks that you see a burning laser do - like lighting matches...
and popping balloons.

With a little focus it will even light metal in the form of steel wool.

Too close... out of focus... there you go!