Update 22 JUL 09: Read about the new and even higher performance laser detectors now available.

Concerned about police LIDAR? You should be because its growing in popularity and, unlike RADAR, LIDAR is difficult to detect and provides little or no advanced warning.

Over the years of development of VEIL, we have tested our laser countermeasure along with the top performing radar detectors and laser detectors—the Beltronics/Bel RX65 Pro, Escort 8500 X50, Valentine 1—and have recently added a Beltronics STi Driver to our laser detector line-up.

Since a detailed comparison of these top-shelf laser detectors when pitted against close-range laser has never been performed, we decided to be the first and only to carefully examine this important aspect of laser detector performance.

Remember that it's harder for a laser detector to spot police lidar the closer you are to the source and easier as you get farther away - essentially the opposite of police RADAR.

For good measure, we also included leading laser detectors from Cobra and Whistler as we were interested in seeing just how well their laser detection performance compared to the top four that sell for more than twice their price.

To compare these detectors, we used a stationery vehicle (silver BMW 540i) positioned at one end of a level road that had no visual obstructions and placed each detector on the lower-mid section of center of the windshield.

We tested each detector against all currently available generation 3 (Gen III) police laser (LIDAR) guns in the U.S.: Kustom Signals Laser Pro III, Laser Atlanta S, Laser Atlanta S - stealth mode, LTI Ultralyte 100LR, and the Stalker LZ1.

We then targeted the front of the vehicle at each of three primary aiming points - the passenger headlight, the front license plate area, followed by the driver's headlight each at the following distances: 25, 50, 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900, and 1000 feet.

Each of these shots was hand-held, was taken from directly ahead, and was repeated more than once. We carefully minimized panning and movement to make it the most difficult on each.

In addition to the tabular data, we have graphically depicted our laser detection results on two sets of charts, one grouped by detectors versus police lasers and the other grouped by lidar gun manufacturer versus detectors.

Please be sure to read our conclusions section as these laser detection results are put into their proper context.

It's important to point out, as good as these detectors are at spotting laser, the great likelihood is that by the time your detector sounds its alarm, you have already been clocked with laser—even on a motorcycle—unless you have protected yourself with VEIL for laser detectors.