UVC or "deep UV" flashlights?

[PhotonWrangler]

Good article Dave. Thanks!

 

[sidpost]

Thanks Dave! That's a good read.

 

[Dave_H]

Always happy to pass on good reading info when I find it!

Regrettably, no excitement outside with minerals using UV-A flashlight or the UV-C light...

Dave

 

[chaosdsm]

Whatever you go with, I suggest adding UV filters to them...

For minerals I use Convoy S2+ with Nichia 365nm (18650) and a Tattu U3S (26650) which is advertised as 365nm but doesn't work well without a UV filter added, too much visible light spill. I have a supposed "UVC" light (not LED) but it does absolutely nothing with minerals

Here's the Tattu without filter:

And the Convoy S2+ without filter:

Unfortunately, phone camera not good enough to show noticeable difference with filters in place (or even what I see with my eyes), but the filters definitely evened the two lights out and eliminated a lot of visible spill from both.

 

[PhotonWrangler]

Whatever you go with, I suggest adding UV filters to them...

For minerals I use Convoy S2+ with Nichia 365nm (18650) and a Tattu U3S (26650) which is advertised as 365nm but doesn't work well without a UV filter added, too much visible light spill. I have a supposed "UVC" light (not LED) but it does absolutely nothing with minerals

Here's the Tattu without filter:

And the Convoy S2+ without filter:

Unfortunately, phone camera not good enough to show noticeable difference with filters in place (or even what I see with my eyes), but the filters definitely evened the two lights out and eliminated a lot of visible spill from both.

Nice sample chaosdsm. Is that fluorite?

BTW I havce a Tattu U1S with filter and it seems to work well, except for a slightly blotchy beam pattern. The filter is Woods Glass and I've been meaning to compare it with a dichroic filter that I have on another light.

 

[chaosdsm]

Nice sample chaosdsm. Is that fluorite?

BTW I havce a Tattu U1S with filter and it seems to work well, except for a slightly blotchy beam pattern. The filter is Woods Glass and I've been meaning to compare it with a dichroic filter that I have on another light.

Not sure what it is, haven't had time to try & lookup what I have just yet. This one is actually a rock my mom brought with us when we moved from California to Florida :laughing: IIRC, it has both mica and milky quartz, not sure what else might be mixed in there.

Filters I have are both no-name ZWB2 filters.

 

[PhotonWrangler]

Along the lines of safety around UVC wavelengths, this just happened at a VA center in Durham. Someone replaced the UVA light in a bug zapper with a "more powerful" light that caused eye problems for several people in the room. I'm 100% certain that this "more powerful" bulb was, in fact, a UVC lamp and not a brighter UVA bulb. Someone probably figured "hey, this one can attract bugs and kill Covid, so why not."

Be safe!