MacTech
Enlightened
I already have (and love) the 12 LED 3AAA UV light shown on Lighthound's website, it's a fun little light, great for illuminating security features in currency, looking for *ahem* bodily fliuds *ahem*, and just generally seeing what unexpected stuff flouresces when hit by UV, it's also great for charging GITD stuff....
when i first bought the LED UV light, i had to decide what version i wanted, the 12 LED model that uses 3 AAA's in a carrier, or a slightly dimmer 8 LED one that uses a single AA.....
i'm not a big fan of carrier-lights, but i wanted the most power available, so i picked up the 12 LED version, it was a good decision, the carrier was only slightly annoying.....
so, on this last Lighthound order, i decided to get the smaller 8 LED version that runs off a single AA, just to have both versions, and to directly compare them both.....
the 8UV is a taller, narrower light than the 12UV, it has a black painted body, the paint is fairly durable, and withstood a good amount of my "scratch in an unobtrusive area" test, there is an O-Ring sealing the tailcap, but no o-ring sealing the head, the head is removable and contains the entire light engine, held in place by a threaded friction ring, the clickie switch on the barrel has a rubber cap to prevent water intrusion, i'd class this light as "spray/splash resistant", not dunkable, not designed to withstand water entry
the 8 LED version's business end appears to be machined out of aluminum, and the 8 individual LED's sit recessed in wells drilled into the head, much like the Inova X5, the wells act as reflectors, as well as protect the LED's from accidental damage
all LED's appear to be aligned straight ahead, unlike the 12UV, which may have some off-center or misaligned LED's, i've handled 3 of the 12 LED versions, and LED alignment is spotty at best, it's nothing *horribly* bad, but what do you expect for a $7 light....
the 8UV uses a standard rubber capped clickie on the barrel of the light, as opposed to the reverrse-clickie tailcap of the 12UV
i'd give the durability/fit and finish edge to the 8UV
as far as light intensity and UV frequency, the difference is quite dramatic, even with partially depleted batteries, the 12UV is easily *twice* as bright as the 8UV, and the 8 is running on a fresh Duracell
the 8UV also seems to be emitting a higher frequency UV, the light is more to the "bluish" side of bluish-purple, i'd hazard a guess it's emitting in the mid-400nM range, wheras the 12UV is in the high 390-400ish range, it doesn't illuminate credit card UV ink as well as the 12UV, i can get a usable range from 12-24" with the 12UV, the 8UV will only illuminate UV inks at 6", and the UV ink is more transparent under the 8UV
uric acid residue on the toilet at work is also less apparent with the 8UV....
overall, i'm rather dissapointed with the 8UV.....
8UV Pros;
very well constructed, solidly built
all LED's are properly aligned
standard clickie switch on barrel
runs on a single AA
8UV Cons;
less powerful than the 12UV (to be expected, after all, it has less battery power to work with)
produces less usable UV light (higher frequency, not as good at illuminating currency security features)
overall rating (on a scale of 1-10); 4, the poor UV frequencies emitted make it less than useful, if it produced similar UV frequencies as the 12UV, it'd rate higher, perhaps a 6, it's not the lack of power that knocked the rating down, it's the poor UV frequencies it produced
my first real "dissapointment" from Lighthound
Don't worry, John, not mad at *you*, you didn't make the light, you just imported it, i wasn't expecting much from the 8UV anyway, more of a curiosity than anything
depending on how .... evil.... i'm feeling, i *may* try dropping in a 3.6V AA Lithium into the 8UV to see if that improves it's performance any (at the expense of runtime), i think these LED's are underdriven anyway
Pics tonight when i get home....
when i first bought the LED UV light, i had to decide what version i wanted, the 12 LED model that uses 3 AAA's in a carrier, or a slightly dimmer 8 LED one that uses a single AA.....
i'm not a big fan of carrier-lights, but i wanted the most power available, so i picked up the 12 LED version, it was a good decision, the carrier was only slightly annoying.....
so, on this last Lighthound order, i decided to get the smaller 8 LED version that runs off a single AA, just to have both versions, and to directly compare them both.....
the 8UV is a taller, narrower light than the 12UV, it has a black painted body, the paint is fairly durable, and withstood a good amount of my "scratch in an unobtrusive area" test, there is an O-Ring sealing the tailcap, but no o-ring sealing the head, the head is removable and contains the entire light engine, held in place by a threaded friction ring, the clickie switch on the barrel has a rubber cap to prevent water intrusion, i'd class this light as "spray/splash resistant", not dunkable, not designed to withstand water entry
the 8 LED version's business end appears to be machined out of aluminum, and the 8 individual LED's sit recessed in wells drilled into the head, much like the Inova X5, the wells act as reflectors, as well as protect the LED's from accidental damage
all LED's appear to be aligned straight ahead, unlike the 12UV, which may have some off-center or misaligned LED's, i've handled 3 of the 12 LED versions, and LED alignment is spotty at best, it's nothing *horribly* bad, but what do you expect for a $7 light....
the 8UV uses a standard rubber capped clickie on the barrel of the light, as opposed to the reverrse-clickie tailcap of the 12UV
i'd give the durability/fit and finish edge to the 8UV
as far as light intensity and UV frequency, the difference is quite dramatic, even with partially depleted batteries, the 12UV is easily *twice* as bright as the 8UV, and the 8 is running on a fresh Duracell
the 8UV also seems to be emitting a higher frequency UV, the light is more to the "bluish" side of bluish-purple, i'd hazard a guess it's emitting in the mid-400nM range, wheras the 12UV is in the high 390-400ish range, it doesn't illuminate credit card UV ink as well as the 12UV, i can get a usable range from 12-24" with the 12UV, the 8UV will only illuminate UV inks at 6", and the UV ink is more transparent under the 8UV
uric acid residue on the toilet at work is also less apparent with the 8UV....
overall, i'm rather dissapointed with the 8UV.....
8UV Pros;
very well constructed, solidly built
all LED's are properly aligned
standard clickie switch on barrel
runs on a single AA
8UV Cons;
less powerful than the 12UV (to be expected, after all, it has less battery power to work with)
produces less usable UV light (higher frequency, not as good at illuminating currency security features)
overall rating (on a scale of 1-10); 4, the poor UV frequencies emitted make it less than useful, if it produced similar UV frequencies as the 12UV, it'd rate higher, perhaps a 6, it's not the lack of power that knocked the rating down, it's the poor UV frequencies it produced
my first real "dissapointment" from Lighthound
Don't worry, John, not mad at *you*, you didn't make the light, you just imported it, i wasn't expecting much from the 8UV anyway, more of a curiosity than anything
depending on how .... evil.... i'm feeling, i *may* try dropping in a 3.6V AA Lithium into the 8UV to see if that improves it's performance any (at the expense of runtime), i think these LED's are underdriven anyway
Pics tonight when i get home....
I'm glad I found out about that place.cool name ,cool place for cool lights
