However, they only offer a short effective working range (illumination distance) and require mains-powered operation to deliver their best results, both of which limits their use and practicality. LED torches and Flashlights generally produce a strong ‘UV beam’ best suited to illuminate ‘at a distance’ and are not usually suited to close-up work, owing to the higher visible-light ‘interference’ output, which tends to mask (or suffocate) the resulting fluorescence. Higher Quality Forensic Torch with a lower visible output, may be used for both close-up and distance work. Let price be your guide and do not buy cheap UV LED torches expecting good results! Many body fluids contain fluorescent molecules. Forensic scientists use ultraviolet lights at crime scenes to find blood, urine, or semen.

In case of theft your valuables can easily be traced to you if you’ve marked them with a special UV marker. Speaking of camping, ensure you're fully prepared with our comprehensive range of accessories. Think spacious tents suitable for solo adventurers or groups, cooking sets to whip up delicious meals, and air beds to get a good night’s sleep, even when you’re on the go. Our range of sleeping bags will help keep you warm at night. There are two types of short wave UV light; filtered and unfiltered. As you can imagine, unfiltered UV lights allow a large amount of visible light through, rendering it useless for making many mineralsglow. Too much visible light passes through and drowns out the “glow”. AA batteries, which aren’t included, the Escolite will work for a long time, approximately 16 hours, before needing to replace them. Filtered short wave UV lights on the other hand, filter out almost all visible light, allowing only shortwave ultraviolet light to pass through. These filters can be somewhat expensive which is why high quality shortwave UV lights are so expensive when compared to unfiltered long wave UV lights.Electromagnetic radiation is transmitted in waves or particles at different wavelengths and frequencies called the electromagnetic spectrum. It’s on this spectrum that we find UV light, X-rays and gamma rays. The downside, however, is that it is only a 4 Watt UV lamp, which means you will need to be close to the minerals with the UV lamp to see them glow. This is not the best UV lamp if you simply want to walk around shining your UV light on the ground to find minerals that glow. Torches operating in the wider 390nm – 405nm range generally use poor quality ‘cheap’ UV LEDs which produce too much unwanted visible ‘purple glare’ (spill) and too little in the way of a useful UV light. A general rule-of-thumb is the more LEDs the torch has, the lower the Quality of UV produced.