Wurkkos WK30 with UV395 vs Wurkkos WK30 with UV365 LED comparison

Got my hands on a new Wurkkos WK30 which comes with the UV365 LED.

Did some comparison shots..

left: UV395 ; right: UV365

(side comment: the UV365 LED seems to have a fair amount of visible white light, but it appears to be UV365, similar to Convoy S2 with LG UV365)

zoom in (UV395)

zoom in (UV365)

sample shots on our currency:

left bill has the WK30 (UV395), while right bill has the WK30 (UV365)

now reverse:

left bill has the WK30 (UV365) ; right bill has the WK30 (UV395)

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have done a short video (3 minutes, no audio commentary) with the Wurkkos WK30 (UV395) vs Wurkkos (UV365) vs Convoy S2+ (Nichia UV365 + ZWB2 filter)

(text commentary: 1st flashlight tested on the bills is the WK30 UV395, 2nd flashlight tested is the WK30 UV365, and the 3rd flashlight is the S2+ (Nichia UV365 with ZWB2 filter)

(on the later half of the video, 2 flashlights are used at the same time to show the difference)

Thanks for your comparison! It looks like you can easily see a difference on the surface die pattern of the different UV emitters. It looks like the one I got from Amazon US has the new 365 emitter. Unfortunately, the red and UV emitters are horribly off center. The white one isn’t as bad. Yours looks a lot more centered.

Thanks for the nice comparison. A couple of comments. The 395nm led has enough emission in the visible that you see a lot of purple light. Wearing yellow filter glasses when using this is helpful for two reasons. One is too filter out the purple light so you can see the fluorescence better. The second is to protect your eyes from reflected UV. A lot of the whitish light you see from the 365nm led is actually fluorescence of various things. Best to wear protective glasses with this one too, although I would use clear lenses.

Thanks for the advice!

So if I understand correctly, yellow-tint polarized “anti-glare” glass works best for UV395 (purple tint)
while clear polarized glasses will work for UV365…

I have a question, since I wear prescription eyeglasses (nearsightedness + astigmatism) and assuming the eyeglass is “photochromic” (darkens with UV), is this good enough for UV395/UV365?
(I understand it takes a bit of time, several seconds, for the “photochromic” glass to darken with UV, but I think the eyeglasses are ‘polarized’, so it offers protection against UV (UV395 or UV365) — would that be correct?

In the dark, shine the UV light at anything that fluoresces. Then stick the lens in front of the light. If the thing still fluoresces, the lens is no good. If the thing doesn’t fluoresce anymore, the lens is good.

Just to be clear, I was suggesting wearing yellow filter glasses when using the 395nm led, not using a filter on the flashlight. The use of photochromic glasses with UV is unfamiliar to me, however I would suggest that anything that darkens will just make the fluorescence you want to observe dimmer. However if they darken they should absorb the UV and protect your eyes. As Lightbringer has suggested just try shining the beam through the glasses and see if it passes through. You usually don’t need the yellow filter glasses for 365nm use, as there is much less purple light.

Helpful tip, thanks.

What’s the diameter of the UV pill? I want to add a ZWB2 to it.

I’m glad that Wurkkos switched from 395nm to 365nm, got me off the fence to order the light.

When I did some research on UV wavelengths I could see why they went with 395nm originally as it gives higher emissions, but the purple tinge overpowered the benefit. 365 gives lower, but more visible, emissions.

Thanks for the review, confirmed by suspicions.

Yabbut, without the filter, the 365 has an eerie greenish-white spillover instead. No idea why people claim they have “less VUS leakage”, as it’s very distinctive and distracting to me.

At least the 395 with purple spillover is on the far end of the VIS spectrum, so is much much much less distracting.

Ran into this thread since mine is also horribly misaligned when it comes to the LEDs. I twisted the bezel back a bit and that seems to align it much better. Too big holes for the reflector feet?

But then I also noticed mine has a different UV LED that I haven’t been able to identify yet. It’s sold as LEUVA33U7ORL00 365nm, but that’s not correct. The Seoul Viosys CA3535_Flat looks close, but different LES.

There’s the “old” version and the “new” version.

The old version used a 395nm UV and “regular” red, but the new version went to a 365nm and photo-red.

Frankly, I like the old version better.

Regular red is fine by me, and photo- or deep-red is naturally dimmer to the eye.

The 395nm has purple leakage, so things that don’t fluoresce still get bathed in dim purple light, which again is at the edge of visible, so doesn’t really “intrude” as much.

The 365nm has a whitish leakage, sort of pale greenish-white, and is like shining a regular keychain light at whatever you’re looking at, which to me is more distracting and NEEDS a ZWB2 filter desperately.

My SP32UV has the newer emitter. Throws like Hell, so is good for lighting up glowy things at a distance, but the visible leakage tends to grate on me after a while.

It seems like a 3rd UV. The emitter definitely does not look like the new release as shown at the top. But it doesn’t seem to match with the old one either. Hard to see due to the reflector being on in those photos. But they

One thing is for sure, Wurkkos is not selling the UV LED they advertise in their AE store. Mine was bought there Januari this year.

See also this photo djozz made of the LEUVA33U7ORL00

The red I should compare as well, have a headlight with a SST-20 deep red (660nm). My WK30 should have “CREE XPEBRD-L1-R20 P3”, which is 623nm. Maybe I can spot a difference there.

Edit:
WK30 red LED does not exactly match the SST-20 DR. There a bit more amber in there, but nowhere near as much as for example the CSLNM1.23. Hmmmz… possibly close enough to the stated wavelength. There’s a slight min-max range anyway.

SST-20 DR = 660 nm = Cree photo red = new WK30
XPEBRD-L1 = 623 nm = Cree normal red = old WK30
CSLNM1.23 = 617 nm

I had an S2 with a ZWB lens, and that was still showing up things but darker. less light coming out, but still made it fluoresces…
does that mean that was not good ?.

Huh? Naw. The filter means there should be (ideally) zero visible spillover, and only UV coming out.

So in a dark room, you shouldn’t see anything until you hit something that fluoresces, and that’d light up like it’s on fire.

Without the filter, it’s like shining a purple light, like the old-timey “black light” doodads with the eggplant-colored filters over the teeny fluorescent bulb. Fluorescent stuff still glows.

395nm vs 365nm just means that some materials that don’t fluoresce strongly at 395nm, will at 365nm. Eg, the red stripe on US 100buk notes.

The filters should block anything above 400nm, but the normal human eye can see light starting somewhere around 380nm so that is where the visible light is coming in. Ideally the filters would go down to 375nm and then there really would be no visible light emitted.

In case you were not following the Wurkkos FC12 threads, forum member "story" revealed an intriguing ZWB2 filter mod for the WK30 in this post:

https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/67705/31

Thanks for the heads up about the ZWB2 filter that fits the WK30, roostre.

I’ve ordered it a couple of months ago, and the filter just arrived the other day.

I’m having difficulty removing the bezel of the WK30 so I can install the filter. It seems the WK30 bezel is glued very very tightly. Any suggestion on how to remove the the bezel? I tried a rubber strap wrench, but wasn’t able to unscrew it. (although my rubber strap wrench might not seem to grip too tightly anymore…)

You would have to Thank and ask forum member "story" how he removed the bezel as I have not tried (or maybe use a PM to ask if "story" does not notice these posts).

Also, I am not sure why my direct link does not always display the correct post by "story", but it is Post #31 in the Wurkkos FC12 thread:

It is a very innovative mod for the Wurkkos WK30.

Thanks for the information rooster. That’s exactly what I’ve been meaning to do but I was never able find to smaller filters.

I removed the bezel with a strap wrench. maybe they got overzealous with glue. heating it first may help.