Review : Thorfire C8s Flashlight (upgraded) + battery & charger + bike mount (4+1 modes , XM-L2 , 18650 / 2xCR123 ) + bonus mod

Thorfire C8s + 18650 battery & charger + bike mount

Overview :

Product name: ThorFire Upgraded C8s LED Flashlight with 18650 Battery USB Charger Bike Light Mount For Cycling Camping Hiking
Brand: ThorFire
Model: C8s Upgraded
Emitter Type: XM-L2
Material: Constructed from aero grade aluminum alloy
Mode: Moonlight/Low/Mid/High/Strobe****
Lumens: 0.5LM,30LM,280LM,900LM
Battery Configurations: 1 x 18650 battery or 2x 3V CR123A
Switch Type: clicky
Switch Location: tail of the flashlight
Max Output: 900lumens
Range: 600 meter (max)
Reflector: Smooth reflector
Waterproof: IPX-8 waterpoof
Color: black
Weight: 200g without battery
Size: 7.4 x 2.1 x 3.3 inches

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First Look :

Flashlights comes in a brown box :

Package Contains :

- Flashlight

- Lanyard

- Spare o-rings

- USB cable

- Battery Charger

- 18650 3000mAh Thorfire battery

- C8s Manual

- Customer satisfaction & service card

Later in this review there will be a discussion about included accessories .

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Extended Review :

The flashlight itself :

Good quality reflector , producing a nice beam :

Lens aren’t AR coated , but “clear” enough :smiley: :

Some words for the accessories included :

- Battery is a true 3000mAh protected battery , test showed 2.890mAh on Lii-500 (discharged to 2.8V not 2.5V that battery manufacturers rate the cells) .

- Charger provides 0.75A charge current , and termination voltage is 4.21V . Great!

- Bike mount accepts great variety of diameters , fully adjustable . It can also rotate !

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A Quick Teardown :

Head , tube and tailswitch :

Tube threads (tailcap side) , anodized and “square”. Note that it has an o-ring , and threads are well lubed :

Switch (regular reverse clicky) :

Switch assembly (classic & trustworthy little omten switch used) :

Flashlight head . You can see the driver , with the driver retaining ring and driver’s nice gold plated spring :

Bezel removed , no glue :

Flashlight head , no pill as you can see . Also , emitter mcpcb is copper (non-dtp board) :

Driver is a buck driver , that accepts single 18650 battery or two 3V CR123A batteries .

Modes : It has 4 basic modes , and a hidden strobe mode .

Operation :

  • Full click enables/disables flashlight .
  • Half click navigates through the 4 basic modes
  • A quick double (half) click enables Strobe

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Measurements :

Battery used : Thorfire 3000mAh battery (the one that comes with the flashlight)

Lumens on highest setting : Approx. 940 Lumens

Intensity on highest setting : 29.5 kcd

Amperage Draw :
Hi : 2.9 Amps
Med : 757mA
Low : 90mA
Moonlight : 17mA

Runtime (tested) :
Hi : 60-70 minutes
Med : 150-180 mins
Low : 27 hours
Moonlight : 42 hours

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Beamshots section :

A picture of the beam – Wall @ 12 meters :

Tree @ 90 meters (ISO 350 , Shutter speed 1/4) :

Control shot :

Beamshot :

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Conclusion :

The review says everything i think . A very good quality C8 : good anodization , anodized threads , a nice buck driver and the high quality reflector . 4 basic modes (and hidden blibky) , with nice spacing from moon to high , what else can we ask for ? Performance wise , it isn’t the most powerful C8 in the market , but yet has some great throw and a great looking beam . Check post #2 with an optional mod also :wink:
thanks!

Flashlight was provided by Thorfire for review purposes . You can find this flashlight here (non-aff) .
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Updates list ( to do ) :

- Wall @ 12m beamshot (updated)

- Switch assembly (updated under “Quick Teardown”)

- Extended driver view + mod (see 2nd post in this thread!)

- Accessories review (battery , charger , bike mount) (updated under “Extended Review”)

- Conclusion (updated)

  • DTP board (updated under “Guick Teardown”)

3$ mod (well , some skills involved :p)

As i mentioned in the review C8s uses a buck driver . It is moddable , with only a resistor you can get a ~25% increase in amps LED gets .

Here is a pic of the stock driver :

The brown component you can see in front of the coil , is an R050 (50mOhm) resistor . By adding an R100 (100mOhm) resistor on top (parallel) of the R050 , total resistance reduces to 33mOhms .

Current without any mod : 3.25 amps (using VTC5A in all measurements)
Current after resistor mod : 3.4 amps
Current after resistor mod and spring bypass : 4.05 amps

Other mods i did :

  • I reflowed stock LED , from the stock mcpcb ( non-dtp) to a 20mm Noctigon (dtp) .
  • De-domed the emitter using gas .
  • Changed LED wires to AWG 20 (not needed , no increase measured!)

Parts before re-assembly :

Dedomed LED in place :

Results time :

Stock flashlight : 29kcd
After mod : 82kcd

Total cost : ~3$
2$ for noctigon , 1$ for 100*R100 resistors .

Reflowing and dedoming the emitter needs some expirience , it’s a bit tricky … Thanks for reading

Beamshot @ 12m before mod :

Beamshot @ 12m after mod (tint isn’t that yellow/green , it was in daylight setting :person_facepalming: ) :

Both pictures taken with the same settings , iso 250 , shutter speed 1/30s .

Under construction, yet already looking good!
nice review man

Do you have a Convoy C8 perhaps, for comparison?

I really like these lights. Thorfire did a great job with the driver, in my opinion. Perfect spacing, with a hidden strobe. It appears to be a slightly higher amp output than the models I have with the screw in pill, and aluminum Mpcb. I do like the new tailcap design. I’ve been waiting for a deal to come up on these new ones, for a while now (Barry, are you listening?). I guess I’ll just have to bite the bullet, and order one.
I have been buying their protected batteries for a while now, at first they were samsung ICR18650-30b’s, but the last pair I got were Panasonic ICR18650BE, which are 3200 mAh (and they test out to that).
Looking forward to pictures of the driver.

I have one Convoy , but it’s modded with xp-g2 .

As a host form :

Both flashlights have : High quality Anodization , Superb Reflector , Nice anodized threads on tailcap side , Retaining ring for the driver mount and high quality switch . There isn’t any difference in quality of those mentioned .
A nice addition is Thorfire’s tailcap (look only , no difference in quality or operation) , it has a unique design with cut-outs (allowing tailstand , and easy operation with the thumb) .

yeah for the comparison out the outside it doesnt matter what driver/led is in there :slight_smile:

Beamshot of the Convoy C8 (Fet driver + xp-g2 dedomed) vs stock Thorfire C8s :

tight but very bright too (around 175kcd) .

Hey Dusty, what kind of price do you think a good deal?

Thanks for the review, interesting charger, looks like a Xtar MC1. I like the matte finish of thorfire more than the convoy.

Great review as always George!

Nice review George
I like the Thorfire C8S, it’s a real solid performer
I have 3 in our house (kids a me all have one) and I have gifted another 4 out to non flashaholics and they love them too.
I feel confident in giving these out because of the low voltage protection and can take protected Panasonic NCR18650B’s or the Sanyo 18650GA protected too
I give these out with Liitkala i200’s or 100’s
All up around $30AU a perfect gift set
I find it’s really useful for up to 100-130 metres and can reach about 300 metres but I wouldn’t say it lights up much at that distance but you can definitely see a bit of light hitting that distance

I got and modified several of both (Thorfire C8s and Convoy C8). In quality they are comparable but I like driver and and tailcap of Thorfire C8s more.

Thanks for the kind words people !

I’m already modding the C8s , a <5$ mod (not something “new”) that can make it throw waaaay better .

Well, you weren’t the Barry I was referring to in my post :confounded: , but I was buying them for $13 to $14 (for the older, upgraded model :D), through Slickdeals a while back. They are actually $17 on Amazon right now, but back-ordered. I’m going to order 1, and a TS07 I’ve had in my cart for a while.

very curious…what is your mod?

Nice review. Got one several months ago. The cutout in the tail cap is a big improvement in my opinion. It fits the Convoy C8 also. I seem to remember TF had a coupon code for a short period, that brought them down to $14 or so.

Resistor mod , led dedome , installed a DTP board (yes , stock board is non-dtp) , bypassed springs and thicker led wires.

I will write a post with the mod , and step by step amp draw change (before resistor mod , after res mod , after spring bypass , led wires change etc .)

2nd post updated with the mod , i will update soon OP with the rest . Review is complete :wink:

Nice review giorgoskok. I have read a few reviews of this newer model, but since I already had a few older ones, I never got one. Your review pushed me into hitting the Accept button, lol. I’m impressed that you got 4+ amps on the stock driver. Do you measure with a clamp meter?

Thanks! Yes ,i use the Uni-t 210e .

Just add one resistor and voila :smiley: