Hello, all!

I’m looking for your personal thoughts and experiences regarding wavelength, brand, battery size and anything else you’d consider pertinent when searching for amber, agate, topaz, corundum, etc.

Locality and target minerals will change somewhat regularly as I like to travel and move a lot.

I’m leaning towards a rechargeable, filtered, UV-C flashlight and I have an ostensibly high budget of ~$500 for a well-built, ethically built tool. Also considering whether having a variety of wavelengths may be more beneficial.

Also pertinent: I try to buy US made products whenever possible and I don’t buy products from faceless overseas vendors whose operations aren’t transparent.

Thanks! Looking forward to hopefully hearing your thoughts.

Going clockwise starting on top: smithsonite, strontium rich aragonite, rubies, tugtupite, spinel, and scapolite. Specimens were illuminated with shortwave and longwave UV.

Edit: thanks a lot for your advice!

Hoping to go to a local gem, stone, and mineral shop soon. I don't think they'd be able to turn down the lights for me. Any tips as to viewing stones to determine fluorescence with my uv light in a lit room?

I want to find fluorescent minerals but dont know where to go and i would like some help.

I work for a nature learning center and we received a large donation of minerals, several of which are fluorescent. I would like to develop an exhibit on mineral fluorescence.

I have a glass display case, and I am planning to paint the sides and back with black matte paint. What I'm running into are issues finding shortwave lights to mount in the display case, as well as what sort of protections need to be applied (either to the light or glass) to make it safe for the public to view. I would like the light to be able to be turned on easily by passerby (like through a corded switch) and automatically turn off after a set amount of seconds

Ideally, I would like a light that is battery powered OR corded that is not too bulky and under $250, and under 1.5 feet long. I've found a few things that would work, but they're all longwave and I think I need something that is shortwave to really get the most visible fluorescence out of these minerals. I greatly appreciate any advice you may have that can help me get started in the right direction.

Thanks!

I want to buy my first uv light for gem hunting at beach and i dont know how many watts i need there is a lot of option like 3w 5w 15w 30w... Can you tell me which i need?

Taken with full spectrum converted EOS M, 35mm f/3.5 lens, 350nm / 50nm bandwidth filter, and 255nm flashlight. The yellow-green hue of the hardystonite is indicative of shorter UVA wavelengths and the purple of the scheelite is indicative of longer UVA wavelengths.