Any use for a UV flashlight?

Joben

Joben

Joined
May 22, 2009
Messages
1,755
I have a UV LED flashlight i bought as a toy.

Now that the thrill of making things purple and glowy as faded I find myself wondering if the thing has any use. :D

I've heard they make scorpions glow, so that's nifty.

Anything else?

(Mods please don't move this to gadgets and gear, I'm specifically wondering if such a light has any place in my camping pack)
 
I have an old AAA Arc Light UV LED that I use to supercharge compasses and other luminous things in an instant. Also use GITD beads on some gear so if it gets lost, the stuff will glow on the ground or in the rocks or shallow water when I hit it with a flashlight.
 
It really is useful for finding scorpions. They glow brightly under UV. Trust me on this one! :D
 
You can use it for lighting night video and still photography without disturbing the wildlife.

Stay sharp,
desmobob
 
Bushman5 said:
more info please, tips?
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I should have included the word "digital" in front of "video" and "still photography."

Digital image sensors are sensitive to UV light... that's how the "Night Shot" feature of my Sony digicam works: there is a small UV illuminator on the camera so you can record in total darkness... same way some night vision tools work, and the way the current higher-end digital game cameras work at night (they're equipped with a multi-LED UV illuminator).

The image produced with UV illumination will have a weird sort of black-and-white look to it, though.

Sony sells a higher-powered external mount UV illuminator for some of their digicams, but I haven't tried one. I haven't done ANY night-time digital still photography with UV lighting and can't offer you any tips or hints.

But, as always, Google is your friend....


Stay sharp,
desmobob
 
I just got another UV light, a Streamlight Multi-Ops -- white light, UV, and red laser. I already have an Inova X5T UV. They don't project much of a beam but they do make nice toys.

No scorpions to worry about around here! :)
 
Don Rearic said:
I have an old AAA Arc Light UV LED that I use to supercharge compasses and other luminous things in an instant. Also use GITD beads on some gear so if it gets lost, the stuff will glow on the ground or in the rocks or shallow water when I hit it with a flashlight.
Click to expand...
Wow thats a really cool idea!
Why didn't i think of that?
Buddy of mine has a uv light, must try it on my stayglow SAK.
:thumbup:
 
Using a blacklight is really handy when trying to find an escaped 6" emperor scorpion in a dorm room.


They've actually mounted fluorescent blacklight bulbs with converters on the front of Jeeps for scorpion research out west.
 
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desmobob said:
I should have included the word "digital" in front of "video" and "still photography."

Digital image sensors are sensitive to UV light... that's how the "Night Shot" feature of my Sony digicam works: there is a small UV illuminator on the camera so you can record in total darkness... same way some night vision tools work, and the way the current higher-end digital game cameras work at night (they're equipped with a multi-LED UV illuminator).

The image produced with UV illumination will have a weird sort of black-and-white look to it, though.

Sony sells a higher-powered external mount UV illuminator for some of their digicams, but I haven't tried one. I haven't done ANY night-time digital still photography with UV lighting and can't offer you any tips or hints.

But, as always, Google is your friend....


Stay sharp,
desmobob
Click to expand...


Are you sure you aren't confusing UV with IR? Never heard of UV light for nighttime video illumination, IR is very common though. As far as what they're good for outdoors, looking for scorpions and certain minerals, but that's about all.
 
Bees, and many other insects, can see UV, in fact they rely on it for flower identification and navigation. It's IR, and just normal red, that honeybees don't see. Many flowers have patterns that can be seen in UV (through a UV sensitive imager, just like viewing IR).

Birds can see in UV as well and their feathers have UV 'colours'.

Note that this doesn't mean that most of them will fluoresce under UV light, that's different.
 
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yoda4561 said:
Are you sure you aren't confusing UV with IR? Never heard of UV light for nighttime video illumination, IR is very common though. As far as what they're good for outdoors, looking for scorpions and certain minerals, but that's about all.
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Oops! Please disregard everything I said -- or substitute "IR" for "UV"!

Thanks very much for catching my error, yoda. I was thinking of infared, not ultraviolet. (Close, but no cigar....)

Sorry about that, everyone! I apologize. :o

Stay sharp,
desmobob
 
I use a UV LED flashlight to check vaseline glass at antique stores. Real vaseline glass will glow under the UV light. There is a lot of glass out there that people claim is vaseline glass just because it is a particular color, but it doesn't contain the uranium, and therefore doesn't glow.

vaselineglass.jpg
 
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hikeeba said:
Although some Vaseline glass was made during that time, not all Vaseline glass qualifies as Depression glass. Originally, it was called Uranium glass, but in the U.S. in the 1920s became known as Vaseline glass because of its resemblance to petroleum jelly...
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Thank you for the link, that is truly fascinating. I had a girlfriend about 16 years ago who collected Depression Glass, she was absolutely koo-koo for Cocoa Puffs over that stuff and she had a lot of it!
 
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