

fellow lumen addicts I was doing some rock hounding recently and decided to do a side-by-side beamshot test on these sodalite rocks to show why a good filter is mandatory. As you can see in the picture, the unfiltered beam just throws way too much visible purple and white stray light, which completely washes out the natural fluorescence of the minerals. For the pure beams, I have been using the UltraFire RUV3. It uses a premium emitter paired with a ZWB2 filter, and the output is an incredibly pure 365nm with almost zero visible light interference. It makes the rocks pop exactly how they are supposed to without lighting up the entire background. It is definitely a professional-grade tool for this kind of inspection, and it even has a side-switch with a built-in battery indicator which is super handy for longer night sessions in the field. For those of you doing dedicated mineral hunting or UV photography, do you prefer buying a factory-filtered light like the RUV3, or do you prefer modding a standard host and swapping in your own ZWB2 glass? Curious to see what UV setups everyone is running right now.
by bigbigbigcakeaa