To me the 2018 Sofirn C01 is an hommage to the 18 40 year history of all these previous iconic flashlights woven together into a single object, and that in itself makes it special. A flashlight I can enjoy as a material pars-pro-toto â:Pars pro toto - Wikipedia of its progenitors. Well, I guess I am in good company here where âenjoying plain everyday use objects as collectibles is not frowned upon.â:https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/4t56w2/top_5_plastic_chairs_enthusiasts_would_die_to_own/
One might object that perhaps I am reading too much in a cheap Chinese copy-cat flashlight here, but hey, doesnât wine also taste better when you have a richer vocabulary to express the different ingredients of your taste sensation; and arenât movies much more fun when you recognize the film quotes to previous ones, the more obscure the better?
As a âmeta-flashlightâ the C01 closely resembles another flashlight: the Barbolight Apollo APFL1 Penlight. That âre-imagined replicaâ is also flashlight, and âmeta-flashlightâ at the same time; referencing and recreating the aura of authenticity of the NASA Apollo spaceflight penlight. Even its alkaleak batteries are a space-flown collectible worthy of museum display.
Co-creation of Community & Chinese company
The Sofirn C01 came into life as a co-creation between the BLF community and the Chinese flashlight manufacturer Sofirn. BLF is a great birthplace of flashlight innovation, scaling up ideas emerging from individual tinkering into commercial products. Seriously, someone should do a case-study on BLF as an example of the general pattern of âdemocratizing innovationâ.
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The C01 is not only wonderful as a product, but as a process as well. Kudos to the whole BLF community in general and in this case Sofirn in particular.
Ironic identity
The combination of the low CCT, high CRI, tritium slot, and magnet in a low-budget light is simultaneously a stroke of genius as well as an ironic reference to much more expensive and exclusive flashlights. Just looking at the end result of a 6 USD tritium vial in a 6 USD flashlight makes me smile. To hell with low CCT, high-cri LED, tritium vials, or magnets as artificial price discriminators exclusively available in much more expensive limited edition jewelry lights.
So with the C01 at the other end of the spectrum versus the exclusive high-end lights, I really like the term âcockroach lightâ. I think the term is particularly apt, if only for the fact that cockroaches can feed of crumbs of human waste (âbattery recyclingâ), they shun bright light, their existence depends on humans (at least for 20 or so subspecies), and their reputation of resilience to forces of nature.
Strong light with a strong character
This flashlight is not a crowd pleaser; although it is suitable for a wide audience, including kids, grandparents, flashlight novices, as well as die-hard flashaholics. The 60 degree LED makes the C01 extremely floody, in a light with a maximum output of 6-8 lumen (!?). There is just no throw at all. Absolutely nothing. Just a flood of extremely evenly distributed high quality moonlight. The C01 makes me really re-appreciate the throw of my angry-purple Fenix E01. Djozz mentioned this as well: many people will initially be disappointed by the perceived low light output of the C01, as well as its real low light output. Like djozz, I predict a trend of modding the C01 with a 45 degree Yuji LED, lumens will not increase but brightness perception will.
And then, after this first impression, the C01 starts to grow on you. Well, it did on me.
Even worse, now I can no langer stand the ugly green tint of my Zebralight H53Fc, that light [shrugs], it just feels dirty.
While my 3500K Nichia E21A Virence-modded Armytek C1 has a more correct, almost âclinically neutralâ tint, the rosy beam of my 3200k C01 is certainly as much, if not more pleasing. And a lot cheaper as well.
[Please, bear with me, a short flashlight anthropomorphism detour: your own welcome of the C01 in your life, might resemble the following situation, where at work you welcome a new colleague, who at first seems to be a bit of a strange person, trying to smile at everyone while looking around at this first team meeting, but instead actually showing a distorted grimace, and then in his introduction to the rest of the team falls into this moment of too-long painful silence after his first two sentences. Right, you think, welcome Mr. Silent Bob, and you all move on with the next item. However, after a few weeks, it appears that in the rare instances when this guy actually does speak, he has a great sense of humor, razor-sharp analytical skills and encyclopedic knowledge. And when silent, he just keeps going and going, finishing task after task. Then at a group meeting when the pointy-haired boss comes up with this really stupid idea, he is that guy shouting the emperor is wearing no clothes. And he even gets away with it, because he is right, and everyone knows it. By then, you realize you might actually slowly start to like him after all. Even with his sporadic grimaces and sometimes painful silences; at least he has character. Bonus points for him stubbornly and even proudly wearing his vintage 1991 Casio F-91W, while you caving in to peer pressure, are sporting a G-shock with a cool looking although rather illegible âreversedâ LCD display.]
Back to the C01; there is a valuable trade-off in its characteristic design choices:
- light quality, instead of light quantity
- double digit hours runtime on a commonly available easily replaceable safe single-cell power source, instead of double digit âturboâ minutes runtime on a built-in proprietary non-replaceable limited-life potentially thermally runawayable lithium-something battery
- resilience, (presumed) reliability and robustness (âkeep it simple stupidâ) instead of fragility and featuritis (âletâs add another marketing gimmickâ)
graceful degradation sacrificing the battery instead of the user, instead of a sudden death in utter darkness in case of empty battery.
The C01 is characterized by its core values simplicity, runtime, robustness and reliability. While I write this, I can imagine flasholics thinking out loud the motto of HDS Systems âthe light that takes you homeâ. Or, hey doesnât this resemble the philosophy of that special edition Malkoff Nichia 291b low-low-low P60 drop in. Well, in my view the C01 is âthe *moon*light that takes you homeâ. Even with extremely depleted batteries its light output remains both pleasant and useful for close-up tasks, such as reading. I like the C01. I even think it is fantastic. You might like it as well, or not. But without doubt, the C01 has character, that will make it stand out in your flashlight collection.
Wrapping up:
I wish I would have all this fancy equipment to do CRI analyses, an integrated calibrated sphere, or the equipment to create runtime graphs. However, I donât. So instead of a review of, I wrote a reflection on the C01.
Sofirn was perfectly right to label the C01 âNew BLF Sepcial lightâ.
This is no spelling mistake but an acronym:
Safe&simple, Endless-runtime, Pocketable, Commemorative clone, high-crI, A-class reliability, Low-lumen.
[EDIT: addition of McGizmo Sapphire and Maglite Marquis/Solitaire]
As I mentioned before, I will continue updating the list for the present time, just in case it provides any benefit (and because I enjoy seeing the count keep rising ). List is now updated through post 1718 (Kavin). Total is now 1096.
Parkerdude, no worries about the count. I knew what you meant. I just have been adding new post numbers to original post numbers since itâs no extra effort on my part, and could potentially help users finder past posts if they have trouble remembering what they stated.
I enjoyed this, and it makes me even more eager for the rest of these to hit the market. Iâm hoping I can wait until the color versions are available and just order my planned quantity in a single order.
Ordered my 6 and got the discount using BlueSwordMâs instructions. Took maybe an hour or less for them to adjust the order price after I sent the message.
Ordered one a few days ago, after they reappeared as available on the site. Followed instruction here to get the discount by leaving a message â- worked. But now, every time I go to pay I get this:
Payment failed
Reason: System error.
Suggestion: The system is busy. Please try again.
I was able to buy the lights at the group buy price. Basically. I went through the order, put in a note asking for the group buy price and selected PayPal and committed the order, it sent me to PayPal which I canceled, then select orders from my account on AliExpress and messaged the seller as well with the same note. Then waited 6 hours and checked orders again and it was reduced price then paid. To pay with PayPal I had to cancel the aliexpress payment to get the PayPal option again.
Anyway canât wait to get my lights. Iâm probably going to buy more colors and wondering if the number I signed up for is that important because I already bought my allotment but like most here I have a problem.