Went outside and took a little video with my smallest camera, probably talked too much but I guess y’all are used to that by now. 
It’s uploading to YouTube, will post it directly. (now, this is unedited so don’t expect too much)
Not sure about the C8F, I’ll leave that for Dale. But I do know they sell C8 hosts in both 17 and 20mm.
Driver in this one is 17mm.
Great review!
And looks like a great light. Sofirn is putting out a lot of quality offerings. :sunglasses:
Another great review, Dale. Thank you!
Ordered one to add to my small collection 
So, a dozen lights is a good start, right?
All the best and Merry Christmas
Mike
<drooling uncontrollably>
Merry Christmas Mike. 
And the rest a y’as too!
Hey Dale, gave you taken a look at the switch pcb yet? I’m curious if it has pads for leds.
This looks like a good candidate for one of Lexels TA drivers.
A rear switch might be nice to avoid parasitic drain. Have you tested the drain yet? I guess the anodized rear threads mean you can give it a quarter turn to lock it out.
Concerning the stock driver, what do you think of the UI? Is it one click to turn on, press and hold to turn off? How does the memory work, do you have to press and hold 0.5 second to get it to come on in the last mode? Does a normal click on always start in low?
I hope it will be offered in CW color as well.
A 26650 version of this light would be really sweet.
The switch pcb already has two led’s on it with resistors for each one.
A simple 1/8 turn of the tail cap gives lock out.
The UI has 4 groups, I like group 3 with press and hold for moon from off and double click from anywhere for Turbo.
Click on, press and hold for off, yes.
A short press and hold utilizes last mode memory, a short click starts in low 1, press and hold from off for moon, which does come on in the last mode memory then shifts down to moon. Not ideal, but easily dealt with.
Pretty complex light for such a new company, nice to see they’re into it and thinking.
As always a great and detailed review Dale, ordered one at Ali. :+1:
Thanks for the review!
Damn. Code’s limited to one-per-customer?
Hmmm, that UI sounds like a pain. Couldn’t they make it one click on/off, press and hold to cycle through the brightness settings? Dbl click for turbo. Have memory stay on all the time.
It still looks like a good host for a TA fet driver, though. Wire up the switch leds so you know when the tail cap is tight or loose. It might give my modded supfire a run for its money.
Agreed. That’s basically what Zebralight, Olight, and Armytek all use on their e-switch lights - some variation of click-on, hold to switch modes, click to turn off. This click on, hold to turn off UI that is so common in budget lights is annoying in comparison.
Would also like to see how this does with XP-L HI emitters - should give it a little more throw, and the HI emitter just gives a nicer beam IMO.
The HI emitter really needs the reflector tailored to it, without special attention to it’s placement the beam can have some ugly colorations and not give a nice beam at all. I’ve had my own ups and downs with the HI, find it works decently behind optics but can be a real bear to get perfect in a great many reflectors.
So, let me get this straight… y’all expect an entry level company to come in with UI’s like the high dollar proprietary firms? Interesting. $80 lights for $30 huh? And this is realistic, how?
I’ve dealt with hundreds of lights, and I suppose you wouldn’t guess that some of those named lights are my least favorite. ZebraLight I’ve never bought, I do have one, never use it as it’s UI is freakishly weird to me. (You know that’s a personal opinion, right?) Armytek, well, they’re the only major brand name light that has ever taken MY PHOTO’s and used them in their Facebook ad without asking. Also have a weird UI that frustrates me every time I try to use the one headlamp of theirs I have. And while I do like Olights, they tend to be somewhat stuck on their designs and are proprietarily overpriced for the most part. I have seem them doing some amazing things to help a “family” member and they’ve given some nice discounts in the past few months so I can’t complain about em too much. The last one I got though, I pulled their emitter and changed it within a couple of hours of receipt.
All to one’s personal taste, of course, but for me the major players make major mistakes in their UI. But that’s only my own personal finding after dealing with some 5 or 600 lights…. My own memory issues directly influence the UI preference I choose, so of course that is my own opinion and everyone else has theirs. (I can say this kind of thing in my own thread, right? )
Sure! It’s just software coding, right? Easy as pie! :partying_face:
Much easier than Narsil or biscotti, etc…
Fair enough on the reflector issue. My personal preference in a light this size is that I would gladly trade a few hundred lumen for extra throw. But I understand it might not be as simple as an emitter swap if you want the best results.
But on the UI, it’s not about how fancy or complex it is. I don’t need or expect the programmable functions offered by Zebralight or Armytek, and all of their shortcuts can be excessive and more cumbersome than it’s worth. I’m actually reasonably impressed with the mode groups offered here. My issue is the simple control mapping.
All e-switches register the same inputs - click, long press, double click, etc. The difference is what they do with those inputs. Do they have “long press” mapped to “change modes” and “single click” to “turn off”, or do they have it the other way around? That is not a difference of complexity, it is just a design choice, and I happen to think the first way is much easier to use. It’s more intuitive to turn off and makes it harder to accidentally register a double click when switching mode groups. When you click to change modes instead of long press, it is too easy to double click. At least here you don’t have to worry about activating strobe I guess. But you are still liable to accidentally activate Turbo.
It’s not a deal breaker, and this otherwise seems like a very nice light, especially at this price. It’s nice to see some competition for Convoy. It’s just the UI is something that I feel could have been made better without adding cost or complexity. It’s like my UTorch UT01 - I carry it every day because I like the tint, brightness, mode spacing, and compact design. But the UI still annoys me because a few simple changes could have made it almost perfect.
Again, excellent light for the price, the UI has just become a bit of a pet peeve for me lately because so many e-switch lights seem to make questionable UI choices.
I think it boils down to utilizing the personnel you have on your staff. A new company wants to build their own product, using their own engineers and inputs. So a lot of the times these engineers will purposely steer clear of other companies known works. They want to be known for what they can do, not how well they can implement other’s works. Many times it’s a pride point, to stand on their own merits and not on someone else’s.
Sofirn is proud of their accomplishments with the 4 mode groups, and I think it’s justly so, as a new company breaking into a complex and comparatively limited world… they’re doing great work. If you think about all the flashlights that are out there, imagine how difficult it is to design something new. They took a legend, the C8, and improved it as a factory offering. From the well done aluminum reflector to the factory spring bypasses, they’re impressing with their efforts.
I say Kudo’s to Sofirn on a job well done!
They’re kicking buttocks.
hahaha, you might could say that.
First factory C8 I’ve ever seen make 3000 lumens out of the box.
AND they even went to the trouble of sourcing a cell that will do it, and supply it with the light, as well as a charger. They’re motivated!