Thread: Anyone ever used a LED Blacklight Spotlight

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Anyone ever used a LED Blacklight Spotlight? I'm trying to replace my floodlights with something not so bright.

Found these LED Blacklights at GardenRidge today, but had never seen them mentioned on the forum before. (Maybe I wasn't paying attention )

It's hard to determine how they'll look in the cemetery, but this is how they look against a sheet inside a darkroom, from approx. 3'.

Anyone ever used them? And were you happy with them?

Thanx.

edited to ask--- do they sell just the LED blacklight bulb anywhere? Maybe Lowe's? And, can I assume it'll fit into a standard floodlight holder? Thanx.

That is awesome! I must have some of these for the graveyard!

I saw those too and wondering the same question, it looks good in the picture, more for indoor lighting ?? Does it produce a good light source for outdoor thought? Maybe against a tombstone would be good.

I have used UV LED floods for the last couple of years. The trick is to have enough UV reactant props to make it worth while. The ones I bought were supposed to last 20,000 hours. After about 200 hours of use over 3 years one is totally dead and in another only half of the LEDs still function.

I've not used that specific type, but I've been using UV leds for years for spotlighting. One thing I can warn you of, they are not a long throw light. They are best used for lighting an object close to them. Ofc, with UV (and infrared also) this is more true than with any other spectrums of light.

The most common comparison that I can give you is with a mag-light. My old (and I mean old...30 years old actually) police issue mag-light my father gave me when I was a kid, has a standard Krypton bulb. When lit, you can easily discern the beam off of even extremely high clouds. By way of comparison, I also have a newer (5) D cell mag-light with the LED bulb, which you can barely see down at the end of the street...and not at all when shined on even a low cloud. Up close, they look similar in brightness. At a distance however, the difference is readily apparent. Also note, that UV LED's degrade faster than regular LED's do. As Walking Corpse has mentioned, around 150-200 hours is all you will get from them. They will still light up, they just won't emit usable UV light.

In short, while I do love UV LED's (heh, you should see my computer...all sorts of UV LED's in that), they are good for spotlighting up close to the target. Anything further away, and I'd start looking to large florescent's. Or better still, long throw pro systems, like Wildfire & such (which also have their own quirks, and safety issues too).

thank you, everyone. I appreciate it.

I purchased four of those from Garden Ridge last year. I have four tombstones that are hand painted by an artist with UV paint. The lights were perfect for lighting the tombstones. Get them while you can. Last year I went back two days later to get a couple more and they were sold out.

The tombstones are your average 21"-23" tombstones. I put the spots a couple feet in front of the stone and they worked great. If you need to spot something with blacklight, I suggest giving them a try.

Originally Posted by creeeepycathy

edited to ask--- do they sell just the LED blacklight bulb anywhere? Maybe Lowe's? And, can I assume it'll fit into a standard floodlight holder? Thanx.

There are a few online retailers that sell just the standalone bulbs.
I don't know of any chain stores that carry them. Gemmy Inc. had a line they were going to introduce this year, but I haven't heard/seen anything more about them. The picture you posted could be one of their products.
Minions Web (one of HalloweenForum's sites sponsors) has them. Not sure of their price off the top of my head. I also carry a few LED spotlight options in my webstore, including the UV bulb.

With incandescent bulbs being fazed out...I suspect colored LEDs will be the norm for both spots and floods soon. If you can't find them in big box chain stores yet, they'll probably be in most stores next year.

We have a few different types of UV LED lights. A couple of different ones with standard light bulb bases, some we made with PVC and such but most of those don't really work all that well. The best UV LED light we have is like this one which is non-DMX. We use it to light our FCG. The UV color frequency works more like UV florescent tubes but since it is a spot light you can direct it with ease.

Here's the link: http://stageape.com/pages/casper.html