Sofirn SP36, impressions of a sample

Thanks ToyKeeper for the work on the SP36. I think the SP36 is worth developing well because Sofirn already made a good start with designing it as it is, it has a nice size-performance ratio (better than the Q8 for me) and personally I like reflector beams better than TIR beams (and reflectors look a lot better too :slight_smile: ) . They could have made the design a bit more exciting (the ROT66 has that extra glamour) but because of the plain design it feels more like a working light to me, while I’m afraid to use my ROT66 in fear of scratching it :innocent: .

Now that I know how to do it, it is pretty straightforward, the main obstacle is that you need a pretty powerful solder iron (mine is 80W with a quality chisel-style tip) to attach the handle to the brass ring. My driver btw clamps well in place when pushed back into the head.

Btw, with a good mains USB charger plus short USB->USB-C cable (both Blitzwolf), the charging speed that I got was 1.95A, so the 2A charging that I was told by Barry it should have is met if the conditions are good.

I let the SP36 charger top off some cells. It runs at about 0.7 A when plugged into my USB hub, but that’s not surprising. Just slow, when divided between three cells. Anyway, it terminated right at 4.20V. I don’t know if this is normal or if I was just lucky to get one with an accurate chip, but it’s nice that it did exactly what it’s supposed to.

:person_facepalming:

Thanks a LOT guys! ANOTHER light I HAVE to have… more cells, always more cells…

*crosses fingers for NW tint option, minimal/no glue, decent price

So would 30Q or VTC6 button-top cells be good choices? Any others?

Samsung 25S will deliver the most power for the longest time, at a better price typically. There is a new 24S that might best it if it can be found. Either of these will outperform the Sony VTC5A which itself outperforms the 30Q or VTC6.

The GA and 30Q are likely candidates for a blending of power and run time, just saying.

The SP36 is now in their store.

New Sofirn BLF SP36 4*XPL2 6000LM

That is a pretty hand holding that flashlight, nice carpet too. And a ROT66 in the background to please the competition. :smiley:

(they never asked for using my BLF pics, but oh well…)

It seems that there were just two samples made of the SP36 and I have one and ToyKeeper has the other. So Sofirn had no SP36 samples themselves to make pictures of for use on the website. By request of Barry I made new pictures of my SP36 sample this morning and sent them to him, but it appears that they already made the page with my old BLF pics.

Sofirn SP36 : glued driver, no batteries carrier, long unfined (screwed down ?) aluminum tube head without bezel = 75.25$

Now the price is $ 54.95 for a flashlight without batteries and $ 63.55 for a flashlight with batteries.

Im glad this has no battery carrier. I hate dealing with battery carriers. Does this fit protected cells? Wonder if it will be on sale on 11/11.

I was a bit upset when, the day after posting my D4S review, I found Neal using the same pictures to sell it.

Have been considering some sort of watermark system ever since then, if I can find an easy way to do it which doesn’t require manually editing each image and doesn’t significantly reduce image quality. Will probably just need an ImageMagick script of some sort, but I haven’t done it yet.

I really want this light but I was hoping it was going to be in the $40 range similar to the Q8 promotion. The wait begins.

Thanks for the heads-up. I’ll bug Sofirn about the usual GPL stuff, since there doesn’t appear to be any source code available from the product page. It talks about Narsil, but doesn’t actually provide a copy or a link.

Barry told me that the SP36, even in promotions will at least be a bit more expensive than the Q8, and that is fair enough since the USB-C charging adds some development and production costs, and can be considered as a valuable extra feature. Time will tell if it is also as robust as the Q8 (I have not seen much wrong sofar but I can not test everything).

The cost of all the glue they will have to use and this unproven 6000lm rating definitely means more money

I would just be happy for them to just put it at the Q8 coupon code price of 46,50$US.

I also love it that they include cells inside of the light.

Makes it so much easier IMO to gift.

I measured 5000 lumen, but they are “honest lumens”, calibrated to maukka’s standard. If you average the reported “ANSI-measured” output of many high-end manufacturers (Nitecore, Sunwayman, etc.), you end up with a considerably higher number than maukka’s calibration. So the 6000 lumen that Sofirn reports may not be correct but it may not be less honest than numbers of any of the other manufacturers.