OK, so ever since I was a kid, I loved lasers and holograms. I wrote research papers on them, was amazed when National Geographic had an *actual hologram* on its cover (long before every credit card had one!), and when I went to Europe, I bought a little animated white-light holo and thought it was the coolest thing in the world!
I grew up (well, marginally) and still love lasers. When laser pointers came out, I had to get one just to play with the laser light. The one thing I never did, though, was make a hologram. The setup was difficult and expensive, and even that was easier than developing the film once it was exposed.
Then by accident I ran across an ad for a hologram kit. I was pretty doubtful at first, finding all sorts of "hologram" toys that really had nothing to do with making holographs. But a review by a physics teacher convinced me that this might be real.
And that is why I am writing this review to let you know that this is the real deal.
My wife bought me the kit for Christmas. While she and the kids went out to look at lights, I made two holograms.
Following the instructions was easy step by step all the way. The kit comes with a red laser diode that you hook up to a battery pack via alligator clamps. After removing the lens from the laser diode, the beam naturally spreads out. A big clamp serves as a heatsink so that thermal changes don't shift the laser wavelength during the exposure and ruin the hologram. All of this fits into a fixture and plastic base that fits together like puzzle pieces to insure you get the right angle.
The first clever bit (for holo geeks anyway) about this kit is that you can use the spread-out beam as both object and reference beam, so no setting up beam splitters or special mirrors with tight tolerances. Just insure when you are setting up your subject such that the object is illuminated by the beam and that the rest of the beam falls on the glass practice plate. (My first two holos came out well, but any place on the film that is shadowed from the beam does not make interference patterns, and thus has no hologram information on it and is blank.)
Once the laser is on for five minutes, it is stable. I had set up in the downstairs bathroom, so I closed the door and turned out the light. Using the provided blue LED as a darkroom light, I continued following the directions. I placed the folded black card in between the laser and the object (an also-included toy car). Then you wait 3 minutes to make sure any small motions die out.
The second clever bit is that the "film" is actually a small rectangle of glass that develops itself when exposed to red light. This makes it almost impossible to screw up the exposure I am not even sure you can overexpose it. Since only red light exposes it, and exposing it "develops" it, it is pretty tolerant. Far more tolerant than B&W film. The film glass fits in a slit and leans against a tab to insure it stays stable at the right angle. There is a thin sheet of plastic covering (I assume) the photosensitive emulsion. Just put that side away from the laser.
Then comes the hardest part. Once you lift up the black card, you have to remain motionless as the film is exposed, about ten minutes. No talking or moving around. (I shifted my weight a few times and my timer beeped, none of which had an effect. Next time I am bringing in a chair and removing and replacing the shutter while sitting down!)
And then...you are done. Replace the black card that serves as a shutter, remove your object, turn on the lights. Remove the shutter card and look through the glass and you will see a three-dimensional image of whatever you placed in the area. The unexposed parts of the film will be blueish, but that fades on exposure to normal light and doesn't affect anything as far as I could tell.
My first holo was, as recommended, the toy car. Re-illuminating it with laser light (or any monochrome source, like the blue LED) in the same fixture produces an image that looks identical to what you saw when you were exposing the film. As with any real transmission hologram, you can move your head up and down and around to see the different sides, look through the car window, even see the car reflected in the plastic base. Even a dog hair that got caught on the side in the exposure shows up. It has now been a week and a half sitting on a desk in the light, and the holo remains stable.
I got a little more ambitious with the second holo. I grabbed some crystal ball prisms you know, the ones you hang from a sucker on a window to make rainbows in the sun. I also grabbed a loupe (a small magnifying glass) and arranged these on the holo stage. In my second hologram, as you move your head around, the facets on the crystals flash and you can look into the magnifying lens and see the crystal on the other side magnified in the loupe. (Holograms preserve not only the intensity of the light, but the direction, so you can see the magnified image move around just as if it were sitting there!)
Now on that second one is when I noticed that if an object makes a shadow on the film, you get nothing, so the bottom quarter of this holo is missing. I am planning on re-doing it with this in mind, because it is just so freaking cool.
One note you cannot use anything living, even a plant, as a subject, since whatever it is cannot move by even a half wavelength of red light (somewhere around 650 nanometers) during the ten minute exposure, so no holograms of your kids yet!
Since it is laser light, I don't recommend giving it to kids too young to appreciate what it can do to your eyes. It is just a normal laser pointer, but staring at it (or any other laser) could damage a retina. However, under my supervision, I would have no trouble with either my 9 or 12 year-old doing their own hologram.
If, that is, I give them a turn. :)
Replacement film can be purchased for about $65 for 20. The kit includes 20 film plates. You can buy a "tower" to add-on if you want to make holograms that show up in white light (reflection holograms). I haven't tried that yet, myself, but it looks easy enough to set up.
So this is the real deal a genuine hologram that you can make in just a few minutes and (if I am any example) probably have to try pretty hard to mess it up.
I finally have holograms I made myself, and I am constantly looking for things that would be cool for another one. (If you Google Litiholo you can find other videos of the holograms, but videos don't do them justice. Using the eye, you don't see the red "haze" nearly as much as the camera shows.)
Now that I have holograms, where is my flying car?!?
Enjoy!
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This hologram kit is very easy to use. I have already made three holograms using the kit on a standard darkroom table.
You do not need access to an optical table to use this kit. Any sturdy table in a room where the lights can be turned off should work. There are no lenses, beam splitters, or other complicated optical components. The hologram film does not require wet chemicals for development.
Setting up the kit is very simple. There is a plastic holder for the low power laser and battery. There is another plastic holder for the hologram film and your object. The two holders fit together nicely to assure that all of your components are in the correct location. You get a blue or green darkroom light so you can see what you are doing when you turn the lights off. Make sure you do not open the box containing the hologram film unless the room is completely dark except for your darkroom light and the blocked off laser light.
The finished holograms are very nice as long as you pick an object that is suitable for making a hologram. Make sure your object is visible under red light and that it does not block a lot of the light hitting the hologram film. The reconstructed image that results from illuminating the hologram with the laser is very impressive.
Best Deals for Litiholo Hologram Kit - Make 3D Laser Holograms with "Instant
I taught a summer enrichment class for high school students, and one of the topics I wanted to cover was holograpy. In the past I've tried to make holograms with kids, but it never seemed to work out. It was very discouraging!
The Litiholo kit changed all that. Every single hologram we recorded came out perfect, every time, with almost no effort. And they were really impressive!
I *strongly* recommend the reflection upgrade kit. This kit allows you to make holograms that can be viewed in sunlight; without this kit, the holograms are only viewable when they are illuminated with a laser. This makes them far less cool. The reflection kit includes an extra box of film, which makes it a bargain. BUY THE UPGRADE KIT and you'll thank me for that advice. If you don't make reflection holograms, your kids won't be able to take the holograms to school and show their friends!
We were able to make each hologram with a 5-minute exposure. We might have been able to get away with shorter times but we didn't try.
Finally, the guys at Litiholo were so helpful and they answered all my questions quickly and thoroughly. I was under considerable time pressure and they were incredibly responsive. They gave me far more support than I deserved!
Honest reviews on Litiholo Hologram Kit - Make 3D Laser Holograms with "Instant
This product works extremely well. They give careful, detailed instructions, and the product works even better than I thought it would, though I was slightly confused when assembling it for the first time. They give you a toy car for your first attempt, and that one is one of my best. I recommend using a small dental mirror or a small lens, if you can find one. The laser will reflect off the mirror in the hologram, and that's really cool.
