Received a review sample of i5UV EOS from Olight, a simple one mode single AA UV flashlight with a wavelength of 365nm.
Because it's a simple UV light, just click on to use, click again to turn it off (also support momentary as it's a forward clicky switch), so there will not be any runtime nor output measurement in this review. Having to say that, this Olight i5UV EOS is however one of the strongest 365nm UV light that I have ever tested. It pulls close to 2.3A on a fresh battery and this is seriously not a toy, so please don't let your young kids play with it and definitely don't point the UV light at the eyes, whether yours or others. (and truth be told, the strong UV hurts my eye-sights when exposed to it for too long, the main reason I decided not to perform any runtime test with this i5UV EOS).
Looking at the body pattern above, it surely is a conversational piece. That "bodily fluids" splash pattern is just awesome and if I understood from Olight correctly, each i5UV EOS splash patterns are unique. Now that's really cool.
The head-side contacts and driver looks much simpler than the regular i5T EOS...
compare to the regular i5T EOS head-side positive contacts point...
and due to suspecting the simpler driver may not be able to handle the higher Voltage of 14500 cell, yours truly decided not to attempt with 14500 LiIon cell on this new i5UV EOS.
let's take a quick look at the i5UV EOS specifications sheet:
and continue with a few more pictures of i5UV EOS light itself...
it can be powered by either a 1.5V Alkaline battery or a 1.2V NiMH rechargeable battery. Insert the battery positive side (the button top) facing the head.
the ordinary tail boot... I have seen members from Olight's facebook group removing their i5T EOS tail boot cover and replace it with mouldable plastic like the TACTIPLAST® and the glow-in-the-dark effects are very cool.
this is where all the UV magic happens, the 365nm UV LED, 1500mW. this i5UV EOS does makes everything with a touch of fluorescence to glow...
let's do a comparison picture with its siblings...
that GITD helix on the DT i5T EOS is a 1mm wide tape around the body in case if you are wondering... following are some pictures showing the i5UV EOS in actions...
first a plastic storage box with normal lighting:
and when shine with i5UV EOS:
next we have a facing page from a passport:
... noticed the background just seems to glow when shined with i5UV EOS?
now let's look at something more beautiful... my country's passport cover page. Under normal lighting:
and if we are using a blue light:
well, nothing interesting to see... but when we point i5UV EOS to the cover page:
a whole new magical world just suddenly appear... hey, isn't my country's passport cover page beautiful? it looks like the Pandora moon from the movie Avatar... LOL! (btw, the wordings were distorted on purpose for sampling shootings...)
next, is the reason why I EDC a UV light in recent years: to check the authenticity of the paper note...
with normal blue LED, or the 395nm UV LED, it's hard to tell if the note is authentic...
but with a 365nm UV LED, all the security features that was made with UV ink suddenly pops-up...verifying the paper note becomes much easier with these UV lights.
and last but not least, the different wavelength of UV LED has different uses:
the first 2 line is my ugly writing using normal gel pen... while the 3rd line is writen with a fluorescence gel pen...
under the i5UV EOS, although the line writen with fluorescence ink is lit, but it was not as brightly lit as when shine using the blue LED:
thus, do note that different material respond differently to different wavelength of light, and in the case of UV light, you need to know your material's property to get the correct wavelength UV light for the job at hand, be it to play CSI-wannabe, UV-cured glue, scorpion hunting, or just to have some fun...
In conclusion, is it worth it to get this Olight i5UV EOS? My answer to you is a definite yes, even if it's just for that splash patterns alone, but provided you don't pay the retail (MAP) price. Just wait for the monthly sales event of Olight's online store to get yours if it's listed for promotion/bundled-sales.
Thank you for reading.