[Review] Sofirn SF32UV ( Nichia NCSU276A, 18650)

The flashlight was sent to me by Sofirn Official Store in Aliexpress.
Here's the product's link: Sofirn SF32UV

The flashlight comes in the classic Sofirn cardboard box.


The package's contents are minimal - a wrist strap and 2 replacement o-rings are what's included.


It's my first time handling an SF32 model and I must say that I am really impressed by the host's quality.
The light comes with matte black anodization, while its overall design is stealthy.
Bonus points given for the brushed aluminum bezel.


The knurling pattern applied in the flashlight is my favorite kind - it's similar to the knurling used by Wuben in their TO46R model.


The tail button sits below the two protrusions and as a result the flashlight can tailstand.


The flashlight's threads are square cut, with the tail's ones also being anodized.


Here's the tail's assembly taken apart.


The switch is a simple reverse clicky.


The head houses the simple 1-mode driver.
The driver is pushing 550mA to the emitter.


The flashlight uses a copper pill to house the head's components - similar to the Convoy's S2's design.


The reflector is also screwed onto the upper threads of the pill.
Overall, the heatsinking provided by the pill/reflector assembly is more than enough to withstand the heat of the emitter.


The 365nm Nichia NCSU276A emitter sits inside a smooth, deep reflector.
The reflector creates a tight hotspot with no artifacts.


And here's the flashlight lit up.


And a wall beamshot, although the actual color of the flashlight was captured kind of washed out.


To sum everything, I am very pleased by the SF32UV.
A UV can be quite handy at times.
I have been using mine mostly for charging up any fluorescent items I got and for detecting bed bugs (hail the army) :P

I prefer tube lights in general. They’re very handy. The deep reflector makes it extra special, even without the UV.

What things fluoresce at 365nm (besides bed bugs)? I have 400nm UV and not much shows up with that. It does charge up my daughter’s GITD stuff really well. I also have some bare 385nm emitters that I haven’t tried yet. I’m clueless what shows up at each level.

https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/49853/2 Here are some things you can do with your UV light. In general the longer wavelengths will just show less fluorescence than 365nm.

Wow that’s a nice list.
To be honest I didn’t value the usefulness of a UV light until I got to handle one!

@bilakos10
Could you please make a picture of the driver (to check if it is possible to mod it). And can you check the ledboard? Is it a Copper or a Aluminium board?

And thanks for the review!

Tomorrow I am hoping to get some time off duty and I will answer both of your requests :slight_smile:

You might not want to. UVLEDs are rather current-sensitive, and go pop for little to no provocation beyond their rated maximums.

Unless you want a UV strobe or something…

Oh yeah, even the Convoy UV light is a bit overdriven, so it’s not recommended to keep it on for too long in one sitting.

I have the convoy nichia UV light. Its driven by 2 350ma amc7135’s for 700ma. I modded mine with 380ma 7135’s for 760ma. 60ma increase, nothing to get excited about, really :person_facepalming: . From djozz graph on the UV nichia about 800ma is about the limit with good cooling. 4 more 365nm UV-leds tested

Sorry for reviving this thread but I've been consider this uv light recently. I notice it doesn't come with a filter so quick question: what size ZWB2 filter will fit in SF32UV?

Looks like it’ll take a 20mm filter, just like the S2+.

A 20.5mm by 2mm ZWB2 filter fits into both my Convoy S2+ Nichia 365nm UV and Sofirn SF32UV.

The SF32UV clear lens it replaced was just barely thicker than the one in Convoy, but about 1mm smaller in diameter.

I don’t like the look of this light’s hotspot.

I have the s2+ UV and the blue hotspot even with the zwb2 filter is annoying because it is much brighter than everything around it.

I’d much rather have smoother uv flooder type light.

Thanks for the response. I knew the 20.5mm ZWB2 fits in the S2+ but wasn’t sure about the SF32UV. This clears things up. Would you mind taking a picture what the SF32UV looks like when it fluoresces things with the ZWB2?

Agreed. SF32UV throws better, but the hotspot isn’t very uniform. I prefer the flood of UV light from my Convoy.