Sofirn SF13 2×AA - First Impressions

I found two others that look interesting, but again are dated, the 4Sevens Quark Mini 2AA and the Lumapower Connexion X2 2xAA. Both have a more streamlined look to them and not quite as tacticool.

I actually have 4 of these in which I have put a 3500K SST-20 in one and a Luxeon V2 In another. Other 2 are still stock. The V2 is wonderful. Great little lights.

I guess the MCPCB on these is ∅16mm, doesn't it?

Yes, it is

I just received mine in the mail today. For the record, it’s the first light I’ve ever bought online, and it’s the latest version of the Cree LED I’ve had any experience with. Other than this one, my best 3 lights are an Energizer 2AA with a Luxeon Rebel at 130 lumens, a no-name spotlight that runs on 4AA and uses a Cree XR-E and puts out 220 lumens, and a Nebo Redline 3AAA that has a Cree XR-E that claims 220 lumens, but I have my doubts about that. I did side by side comparisons between the Sofirn and the Energizer since they’re most similar.

The brightness of the Sofirn is said to be 420 lumens, which may or may not be accurate. My eyes thought it wasn’t that bright, but it’s possible. Hard to tell for sure. I think distance and other circumstances make it easier/harder to tell. Definitely greener than expected, as SIGshooter mentioned.

The overall build quality is really nice, and far beyond anything I’m used to seeing in brick and mortar stores at similar prices (I paid $9.60 for the Sofirn, $22 for the Energizer and $25 for the Nebo many years ago). The pocket clip is rather shallow, but seems strong enough to hold it in place.

The shipping time was something I was impressed with. I was expecting to wait around a month, or even 45 days to get it, but I ordered it on Feb. 9th, and got it today, which is the 23rd. That’s exactly 2 weeks. The latest tracking info. showed yesterday that it was going to come on Monday, so I was surprised to find it in my mailbox today (Saturday).

Now it’s becoming a habit to see what else Sofirn has to offer. Their prices seem almost too good to be true. The Sofirn SF13 reminds me most of the old Quark 2AA tactical that used to cost $78, and wasn’t anywhere near 420 lumens.

@LEDlove, can you open up the head without any tools?

I would like to know, thank you.

I’ve tried, but haven’t been able to by hand. The head itself unscrews from the body easily enough, but the head itself doesn’t disassemble. I’ve heard it can be done if enough force is applied with a wrench. I haven’t tried that.

The head of my SF13 appears to be glued on. And the SP10 V2 I bought this past December is also glued. What a pain :frowning:

The instructions of my SF13 says that it’s glued on and that opening up the head could void the warranty. Probably not worth taking a chance on messing anything up by opening it, although I notice while looking at the LED from the outside using a strong magnifier, there’s a speck of dirt on the LED dome that I wish I could wipe off.

Ah, yes, the same Quarks I have 2 of but never use because of the green beam… :person_facepalming:

I don’t think that voiding warranties bother many on BLF :stuck_out_tongue:

The problem with gluing the head is that one can’t change the led, say for example to get rid of the green tint, or even replacing the lens if it cracks at some point. My SP10 has some sort of film on the inside of the lens but I can’t easily get to it because of the glue :cry:

The second unit I received had more glue inside and was a lot harder to open. I changed the led but not because of green tint (I had ordered the 320lm version). Did you guys order the “420 lm” version?

I would tell Sofirn to stick the glue up their arses and nowhere else. I generally don't care about warranties, and much less when the potential ship back cost is a real hurdle.

I only care about warranty when I light was more than 100€ . But then again I don’t own much expensive lights. I buy lights mostly for looks and other properties like (what size drivers/leds it takes). Most lights I buy gets the a led and driver change anyways. And this glue crap really sucks because there is a larger change I damage the body.

There are ways to remove glue: gasoline, turpentine, white spirit, etc. Unfortunately these spirits will also damage o-rings, for example. I know this by experience (ThorFire TA13). I later opened the head of its almost twin sister Sofirn SF30 (different head design) by submerging the head upside down the essential required height for the lens. Unfortunately once more, I have to admit the aspheric lens in my TA13 is all superficially cracked on its backside now, and I have not hammered it (my nephew gave it a few forceful pumping hits on the head's zooming mechanism, though). Not sure if this last mishap has something to do with the white spirit bath it once had (I bathed it for 2 or 3 days).

By the way, Sofirn has switched to the original ThorFire TA13 design:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Sofirn-SF30A-blablabla-bullshit-LoL/32829068272.html

The torch takes 21700 cells.

;-)

Yes, the one I received 2 days ago is the 420 lumen version.
I have no way to know for sure exactly how many lumens I’m getting, but the “high” level on mine is said to be 196 lumens, which look to me to be exactly the same as my Energizer with a Luxeon Rebel at 130 lumens. The “turbo” level is brighter, but I’m not sure it’s 420 lumens.

Can anyone confirm the manufacturer’s runtimes ? They just don’t seem right.

Do they really mean a “900mAh Alkaline AA”? Not 1900 (which would be expected out of a typical Alkaline)? Either they _did _test with 900mAh cells and runtime with normal cells or Eneloops should be twice as long (probably not on Turbo), or they really meant 1900mAh and the driver is horribly inefficient - something I don’t expect with a 2xAA light.

I’d really like to know, because that would mess up an otherwise pretty nice light.

I think there may be plenty of inaccuracies in their figures considering how their instruction manual reads. Lots of mistakes in translations makes the manual kind of amusing. In mine, it seems to state that the flashlight was used in a rainstorm when referring referring to the waterproofing. As for their runtime figures, it was noted earlier that the 8 lumen low level was probably closer to 15 or 20 lumens. For the record, I wondered about that 900mah figure as well. That’s more like what you’d get from a AAA battery.

All in all, for the price they are charging, it’s really nice. Far better than anything I’ve seen in stores for the same price, or even more. It’s what caused me to make my very first online purchase of a flashlight.

Remember they used protected AA alkaline battery. Protected and a single one LoL.

Jokes aside, alkaline cells are a really poor choice for anything remotely high drain. At 0.5A an AA alkaline will already deliver less than half of its peak capacity and if you go even higher they'll plummet in a flash. Maybe this is why they say “900mAh :-D alkaline”.

Cheers ^:)

Looks a good bit like the Zanflare F2.