night diving with UV lights to see fluorescence / luminescence

[birdwrasse]

has anyone ever tried it... we have some of the plants and animals that fluorescence in the PNW, but so far I haven't seen anything glow with any real brilliance. I built an underwater UV light with UV LED's and put it in an old light housing.

the 8 LED's work great and is really bright. the units for sale are usually white light that has a filter but they aren't as bright as mine.

the UV LED's emit the UV spectrum only. I'm doing a night dive this Saturday so will try it at night. my first attempt was during the day in low vis waters...




--c

[video=youtube;78de8IoRY0M]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78de8IoRY0M&feature=youtube_gdata_player[/video]

 

[diverrex]

We did it in Bonaire for the first time and thought it was great.

 

[clownfishsydney]

Have seen some photos taken recently, some are quite spectacular.

 

[gizmo1972]

i have the sola night sea its pricey but amazing fun ! its made night diving fun again for me i love taking photos but you need to be carful with depth!

 

[gizmo1972]

 

[gizmo1972]

just a couple of my early ones hope you like

 

[scubafied]

Since you used UV LED's does this mean you have the luxury or foregoing the exciter filter (required by most UV lights) that has to be worn over the mask or placed in front of the camera lens?

 

[gizmo1972]

the sola night sea uses UV LED's you do need the filters

 

[Doc]

Done "on the cheap". Using an Inova X5 UV light, dropped into a housing previously used for a UK 2C flashlight.

 

[birdwrasse]

the yellow filter removes the blue tinge from everything else but leaves the object fluorescing... when I tried my light without the yellow mask filter, everything was blue or fluorescent.