The flashlight was sent to me by Sofirn's Official store on Aliexpress.
Here's the product's link: Sofirn C8F
The flashlight comes in a simple cardboard box that includes a user manual and a couple of spare o-rings.
Nothing important right there, so we jump right into the flashlight itself.
The C8F, as proposed by its name, is a C8 styled flashlight.
It comes with an excellent satin black anodization and the whole host is basically identical to the C8A and C8T, with the exception that the F model
utilizes a side mounted e-switch.
The head contains some wide heatsinking fins, while the rest of the body is kept free of knurling.
The electronic switch has a tactile feel and sits slightly above the flashlight's surface.
The switch is held in place via a brushed metal ring, while the rubber boot has a textured surface.
The tail's threads are square cut and arrived nicely lubricated.
Thanks to their anodization, the C8F can be mechanically locked out.
The tail's spring assembly is held in place with a brass retaining ring, while the spring itself comes bypassed by the factory.
I would advice anyone getting this light - or any C8 model by Sofirn - to redo the spring bypasses using a heavier AWG wire as I found the factory bypass
to fail quite easily due to the thin wire used.
The C8F uses a FET + 7135 driver that can also be purchased seperately in Sofirn's store.
As with the tail, the driver also comes spring bypassed.
Of course, the main attraction of the C8F is its triple emitter setup that's quite rare for a C8 styled flashlight.
By default, the light comes with 3 x XP-L NW emitters and a smooth triple reflector.
The reflector is solid which makes the light heavier torwards the head.
The triple copper DTP MCPCB is screwed onto the reflector and is adheared to the aluminum self with thermal paste.
And here's the triple setup while lit up.
And there's the whole Sofirn family: C8F, C8A and C8T
User Interface
The lights comes with 4 mode groups, the 4th of which is a Kid's group that limits the flashlights output (and disables Turbo) to make it safer for kids to use.
Here's all the actions supported by the firmware.
Turn on: Single press.
Turn off: Long press.
Mode cycle: Single press while on. The flashlight always cycles from dimmer modes to brighter ( Low -> Mid -> High -> Low).
Turbo: Double press from anywhere.
Last used mode: 0.5 second long press from off.
Moonlight: 1 second long press from off.
Change mode group: Quad press presses while on (1st -> 2nd -> 3rd -> 1st -> ... ).
Change to kid's group: 10 second long press while on.
Lock out engage/disengage: Quad press while off.
Battery check: Triple press.
My only real complain about the UI is the fact that in order to get to Moonlight, the user has to firstly access the last used mode for 0.5 seconds.
That might result in getting momentarily flashed by 1000+ lumens while trying to access Moonlight.
Other than that, the user interface is nicely designed and provides quick access to lots of nice features.
Performance & Wall Beamshots
In order to get my measurements I used a fully charged Samsung 25R 18650 cell.
Here's my ceiling bounce measurements along with the current draw for each power level.
Here's Turbo mode compared to my other lights:
Judging by my measurements, the C8F should be pushing more than 3000 Lumen at start!
The standby current was measured at 11μΑ.
Here's a few wall beamshots of the different brightness modes.
The wall beamshots are taken in Group3 which includes all of brightness levels.
Moonlight -> Low1 -> Low2 -> Medium
High1 -> High2 -> Turbo
Outdoor Beamshots
C8F - C8A - C8T
@ 20m
@ 35m
@70m
@ 300m
Things to note:
1. The C8T is undoubtedly the throw king in here - and possibly in the C8 category in general.
2. The C8A, while still being able to throw well, it's quite brighter that the 'T' version and has a larger hotspot.
3. The C8F is by far the flood king. It has a massive hotspot and can push a serious amount of light.
I am glad to say that Sofirn's C8 family is more than impressive.
