Review: UV light shootout, seven lights tested

No, no need for that. Not every purchase is a win. :slight_smile:

I just wanted to let people know the glasses might be a bit stronger than necessary. They also fluoresce under UV, so they tend to make everything a bit hazy. They’ll be awesome if I ever get that purple laser I’ve been wanting though.

I have the 365 nm KD drop in and a 385 nm dropin that came in a Sky Ray S-R5 host. The 385 nm seems brighter but that is likely due to the fact that in puts out more visible violet light.

365 nm seems to work much better on US bank notes but they are about equal in fluorescing pet stains. Many plastic items, mostly red, orange or yellow, fluoresce brightly but some better at 365 and others more at 385.

So, do what I did, buy both.

Edit: The KD 365 nm does need a higher voltage to get good output. I have it in a Solar Force L2P with an extension tube running two 18650s.

Am I the only one who's KD drop in gets extremely hot on two cells?

Hot to the point where I half expect something to pop.

Mine gets hot, but not so hot that I thought there was a problem. I did replace the spring with an aluminum tube that makes a solid thermal path from the bottom of the reflector to the ledge in the battery tube. I also wrapped the reflector with aluminum foil.

365nm Ultrafire 501Bs are available at Newestrend for about $20
(non aff link)
There’s an old review here: Ultrafire 501B UV 365nm Flashlight (1*18650/2*16340) Quick review

I’ve been looking for one since my $10 Uniquefire (!) from Fasttech is 395-410nm .
I’m hoping the lower wavelength is better for finding critters.

I have this Nitecore CU6, what would you like to know about it?

Fyi, I’m not convinced it really is 365nm. Fwiw, I can’t remember where but I gather this CU6 uses HPL H44LV1C0 UV LED

The only one I can personally compare it to is the Nichia-LED MTE U301 - this is brighter and shows fluorescence that the CU6 torch doesn’t.

It does seem most of the spectral power is around 380nm if it is that LED

I’d love to see fluoresced beam shots compared to other UV lights. :slight_smile:

(actually, would really love to see it compared to the KD UV drop-in people have discussed here, on two cells, but you don’t have one of those… but the drop-in runs at up to 5W or so, while the CU6 is spec’d at 3W… also, the drop-in fluoresces many things which don’t really show up at all under my other UV light, and its visible light is dim enough I don’t need tinted glasses to see the result clearly)

I’m new to the world of dropins and hosts, but do I have it right that basically rather than buying a complete torch people buy the case (host) and light (dropin), and the two screw together by default? Can someone recceomend me a webpage on torchmaking for newbies like me?

Fwiw the CU6 shows the 20 on the £20 notes very well, on par with nichia, better than a BLB-T5 and much much clearer than all the 395nm LED torches from ebay

Here you go, my little contribution to this discussion. The torches are all those referred to at my site http://extreme-macro.co.uk/uv-macro-lighting/

The KD UV would be nice to try

Did this series as well, because mfm, the starter of the thread, also did a 20 Euro note so this should give some common ground to compare. What’s interesting is the way that the cover of the BLB-T5 ‘bank note checker’ actually does itself a disservice. The clear plastic cover over the tube is itself excited by UV and gives off blue light, which then swamps the already quite thin UV fluorescent green/yellow panel. Link: http://extreme-macro.co.uk/uv-macro-lighting/

If you send me that 20 I’ll test it with the 365nm Ultrafire 501B and the Fasttech 395-410nm
.
:bigsmile:

Awesome. I’ll have to post some currency pics… though I don’t have nearly as many UV lights to compare.

About all I can say so far is that my cheapo UV light looks about like the “41-LED” pics above, and the KD UV drop-in looks a lot like the CU6. However, it doesn’t do well at fluorescing the red stars and circles on the 20 euro note.

The problem is though that some of the colours might be due to the camera rather than the lights. As in each camera interprets UV signal somewhat differently, so it’s hard to standardise. And to really see just the visible fluorescence you have to filter away any UV or IR signal, ie prevent it reaching the camera. Otherwise there is spillover. Trust me, I’m a camera geek :slight_smile: Here’s another thing I did tonight. the UV/IR cut from Baader I’m using on the centre column is about the most expensive “prevent UV and IR reaching the camera” filter around:

Definitely. I’ve tried and mostly failed to capture accurate UV-lit images. But then, I don’t have the proper filters and I have a cheap camera. I especially haven’t been able to get accurate white-ish tints to show in beam shots, no matter what I do with the white balance.

So, any shots I post will be … a bit lacking. But maybe it’ll still be useful to someone.

I’m also trying to figure out how to accurately show the output of my wide-spectrum light compared to a high-CRI light and common medium-CRI tints, but I think I’d need a far better camera. An elph 110 HS is great for snapshots, but it simply doesn’t cut it when you want accurate representation of subtle color differences. At least it was able to show the not-subtle difference in how my eyes perceive the wide-spectrum light versus incandescent overheads:

Wide-spectrum BST (looks almost identical to a Nichia 219, only with slightly more vivid colors):

How I see with overhead incandescent bulbs (my eyes never adjust to the tint):

There is a new Tank007 365nm UV light on HKE. It uses an 18650. 3W version so 2x1.5W UV emitters under the dome I think like the 3W AA one. Same Japan UV as the other Tanks. Asking price is a bit high

Is there a BLF coupon for HKE?

ya i noticed that new one at a few other places too. until i found the older AA version for a good price at focalprice.com
http://www.focalprice.com/LFD45B/TANK007_TK566UV_1Mode_1W_Purple_WaterResistant_LED_Flashlight_Torch_Black.html

there was also a 10% coupon online too. so i only paid $33 shipped

I haven’t tried a Tank007 TK566UV, but a L2m + KD drop-in works pretty well and comes out to a little less than $30. With two cells, it runs at around 5W.

I found this thread too late. I bought a Ultrafire WF-501B (on the body it also says HWA/WYS). I claims to be 365nm and uses and 18650.

Does anyone have any experience/comparison relative to the Tank?