Cheap UV light

Is this any good?

Thank you!

No. Buy this :beer:

Thnks, I know about that one, but I would like to know if this cheapo does anything. Of course, not at the level Nichia does it.

Please be aware that both lights mentioned are not comparable. The price, you say. Jep, but also technically.
The BG light is probably a light with 9 pieces of 5mm UV emitters with mainly 400nm wavelength.
The Convoy is a serious light with 1 Nichia UV emitter with a wavelength of 365nm.
Both types of emitters generate (as a by-product) to some extend “the other” wavelengths.
The rather harmless wavelenght of 400nm is quite visible with a purple glow.
Real 365nm is invisible to the human eye but can damage the eye! (danger: you litterally won’t see it comin’).

The main question is: what do you want to do with a UV-light.
Because 365nm and 400 nm lights in general are put in action in different areas of usage.

If you just want to fool a bit around the house: buy the cheap one.
If you want it for a special purpose: do some studying before you decide what light to buy (365nm or 400 nm).

The cheap one with 9 LEDs does 400nm.
Not suited for money checking.

Hi korkfoto,

I bought the light you linked to for a friend, its no good.

I got one of THESE for myself, it is very good for the price.

I would rather suggest

Due to having a filter its not any worse when it comes to visible light. But it’s a bit more powerful and a bit cheaper.

I sometimes attend nighttime walks at a local nature preserve, and they wanted UV lights to locate scorpions (they glow when exposed to UV light). They bought a few of the lights linked to in the original post, and they were junk. Then they bought the ones in this link. Much better quality and work good.

Thank you all!
I think I’ll take the one pointed by neBstress, first, just to play around.
Who knows, maybe later I’ll buy the more serious one.

Those 405nm LEDs are just violet. They’ll fluoresce some things, but not many. Even plain blue (465nm-475nm) LEDs will cause some things to glow.

Other “better” lights have at least 385nm lights, near-UV, better, but not the best.

You really want to spring for 365nm LEDs, deeper UV, which’ll fluoresce more things, including cash (except, say, the red stripes in 100FRN US notes).

You absolutely want a ZWB2 filter, too. It cuts out lots of the “fluff” you’ll see shining back at you. I never thought it made much of a difference ’til I tried one.

Get the Convoy with ZWB2 filter, trust me.

Got one of those when they were on sale a few months ago for $1.38 from GB. They do the job for playing around the house.