Sofirn C8A from 77 Outdoor
I was kindly offered this light for review by 77 Outdoor (prior to their account being removed). There’s been some discussion about 77 Outdoor, and I won’t touch that here except to say that my experience with them has been positive. As with any reviews I do, I have made my best attempt at keeping all remarks honest, fair, and impartial.
In the Box: the C8A arrived in a plain but sturdy brown box with a 3000 mAh Sofirn-branded battery, a basic charger, and a micro USB cable.
Overview: the C8A has the appearance of your typical C8 flashlight, but rather than focusing on throw (see what I did there?), it mixes things up with an XP-L2 driven by a FET driver for some serious lumens.
What I Like:
- As usual for Sofirn, it has nice quality: lubed square-cut threads, even anodizing, and a very solid feel to it
- Decent CCT: also typical of Sofirn, it’s just on the cool solid of neutral
- Two different mode group options (Low-Med-High-Turbo-SOS or Med-High-Turbo)
- Output is really good, lots of lumens for a stock, commonly available light
- Low battery shutoff worked properly, shutting down at 2.88V in my test
- The saddle shape of the tailcap is nice, it would be easier to press with s gloved hand than the Convoy C8 where there’s a full time around the button
- For those that need a battery and charger, offering this as a kit is pretty convenient
What Could be Improved:
- The anodizing is a bit too shiny for me, it seems to have a higher sheen than most of my Sofirn lights (including a Sofirn C8 host), so I’m not sure if this was just an odd batch or what
- The beam of the XP-L2 looks like the beam of an XP-L2… looks a bit like a fried egg. Not great if you’re staring at white walls, but not terrible out and about.
- The default mode group has SOS included, that seems like a really strange choice. And if you switch to the other group, you no longer have to deal with SOS but then you also lose the low/moonlight mode
Lumens and Current:
table(table#posts).
||Low|Mid|High|Turbo|
|Measured Lumens|1.5 lm|104 lm|758 lm|2502 lm|
|Measured Current|75 mA|196 mA|1.735 A|7.15 A|
Runtime Measurements:
The C8A output stayed pretty steady for the first minute, then started ramping down until it hit 3 minutes. It then slowly tapered down until it shut off around 175 minutes I took a few temperature readings (still room, no wind or other cooling) and it never got above 48°C.
Conclusion:
This light challenges what I usually think of when I think “C8”. Before this, every C8 I’ve owned and built was made for throw: usually XP-L HI or other dedomed LEDs. This one isn’t purely a thrower, but due to the immense output, it still throws pretty well. Overall, it seems pretty nice if you’d like a mix of throw and spill.
And now for some comparison shots:
Left to right: Convoy C8, Sofirn C8A, Sofirn C8 (from host - note the differences in anodizing)