Sofirn Q8 group buy (gb closed, but try PM to Sofirn for discount)

Jason, I have to agree with you. Edit: Images removed for viewing via link.

Thank you for the photo link. It seems I'm not able to make the linking work (??).

This does show some ingenuity, but I have to agree with Jason…… “This looks like an incredibly bad idea.”

A very high chance it’s not a matter of “if” things go bad, only “when” they go bad.

Thank you!

/\ . . :+1: … :slight_smile:

Yeah, bad idea. When that copper top piece shifts due to a very hard knock/fall, the batteries might go kaboom. Though i have seen the datasheet, the 30Qs ought not to vent even with a dead short.

HJK replied to these datasheets in another thread saying venting is acceptable in these tests and not considered an explosion.

Oh i see. I thought it would be the same as the Panasonic NCRs tested quite some years ago, dead short with low gauge stuff and they still didn’t vent, though of course the Panasonics IR are in the 40-50 ohms range.

Anyway, i am wondering if i should get the Sofirn Q8 as well. Already have the BLF Q8. Wonder what’s the current price. :slight_smile: Maybe will contact them via aliexpress.

Maybe they should get out a limited run special version with WW 3000K LEDs as well. :slight_smile:

I am wondering if any of you remember that “DRY triple XM-L” light, by Hank of intl-outdoor, quite a few years ago. He offered it in WW, NW and CW, even had versions in which the High mode is direct drive via the 3 x 18650 batts and with the batteries then it was driven just nice hot-rod at about 4 amps to the XM-L. :slight_smile:
This could be something like that, that one sold pretty well.

Can’t help it, ordered a Sofirn Q8 at a decent good price via aliexpress. PM them, you’d be surprised.

Together with the BLF Q8 neutral white @ usd 36, these puppies are extremely difficult to beat. There are higher lumens smaller pocket rocket/hot rods, issue is that Turbo runtime would be affected, especially since i am living in the tropics with night time temps of 29-31 deg C at 8pm. 27-28 deg C is considered decently “cold” here.

The original Q8 is a nice go to light, for short journeys they can even be carried in jeans pockets albeit uncomfortably. I’ll try to find a holster.
These soda can form factors are really very practical lights and useful in the real world. You want anything to fit better (slightly better) and it’d be like 2 x ROT66s, ie more than 2X the price, you want any more powerful lights with a decent throw and it’d be the Astrolux MF01/Mateminco MT18 @ 550 empty. And still throw less than these 2 x Q8 combo.

Hardcore flashaholic on the walk, 2 x portable Q8s, one in each hand. 400g empty, 13k lumens, 50-100kcd, easy to carry, great UI with firefly and illuminated button for easy finding of the light in the dark, 2-3 mins Turbo capable here in the tropics from cold start. 76usd incld shipping….cost low enough to trash really hard and gun Turbo in real life without fear or heart-ache. True to the original BLF’s budget motto. Really can’t be beaten.

Where are you buying the Q8 from at this price?

Lazada.sg. I also do my shopping on shopee.sg (there is indonesian/Thailand/Malaysian shopee and i believe Sofirn does have stores and listings on those sites). It came in a box with Thorfire labels etc, so i think it’s legit.
The PE bag packaging is very typical what sellers in China would use for their local domestic 快递 couriers. So legit China.

There is a Lazada-Taobao partner ship also on Taobao, so i believe this could be an avenue for Chinese Taobao sellers to sell to customers here. Believe Lazada sells to South East Asian customers.
edit - Oh, Alibaba Group has taken over Lazada Group. LOL. Expected.

I did a search on lazada and the listing is gone now though…… :frowning: Wonder if that seller they were clearing last few pcs of stock, coz i did spread the Q8 love in other threads 1 week ago, there might be some Singaporean buyers lurking on this forum. :beer:

Shipping is inclusive, it’s a bit difficult to describe things but basically the various China sellers ship to a central warehouse in which a shipping company (Ninjavan, Singapore start-up) working with its specific carrier works with Lazada, in which Lazada is affiliated with Taobao. I used the “priority shipping” for SGD 1.49 additional, the free shipping is probably via China Post Air Mail, could be registered air mail but it could also be normal air mail ie pretty high chance of it being lost.

So they’d probably ship 1 whole container or air pallet to Singapore, and after which that carrier (Ninjavan) would deliver to Singapore customers as the last-mile courier.

It’s somewhat similar to what official Taobao forwarders or 3rd party forwaders in which you can buy items from Taobao, consolidate up to 20 items (save on shipping) and one-shot ship to some countries like NZ, AU, USA etc. Folks in SG, TW, HK, MY are pretty comfortable with this kind of buying already.

This screenshot might give a better idea on how it’d flow for a China seller -> Singapore.

Sustained a decent nick from a 1.6m drop (face level) onto hard concrete last night.
The driver, MCPCB/soldering and LEDs survived the drop.

For those who are still sitting on the fence and wondering if such budget lights are capable of withstanding daily abuse, don’t worry too much.
Though the Sofirn and BLF Thorfire Q8 are from different manufacturers, i’d expect more similarities than differences generally.

Get both! Cheap enough overall, and you have 2 hands so you can theorectically get 11000 lumens. :slight_smile:
Get the best of both worlds, use them HARD and enjoy, that’s what it’s all about anyway.

The Q8 is an extremely practical package, Turbo is 3-min sustainable from cold in the tropics, probably closer to 5 minutes Turbo in winter climates.
I have been scanning the whole current market……yes I can buy a 20000+ lumens soda can pocket rocket light, use it here in the tropics and it wouldn’t last much more than 60 seconds and that’s from a dead cold start. Then you wait 5 mins for another gun on Turbo with a decent duration without kickdown. In reality during practical usage, i am really looking at just 15-30 seconds turbo runs coz i would have been already running the light in low to med powers earlier. But i guess of course these pocket rockets have their own very specialised usage areas.

Sofirn claims to be the manufacturer that made the Thorfire lights.

So, according to what we’ve been told, same lights.

Good to know!

A Q8 in both hands and “only” 11,000 lumens? Seems so… ineffective. Both of mine, when used together, netted right at 19,000 lumens. :smiley: I do belief David EF is about to experience some of that joy for his B-Day tomorrow…. :wink:

There’s 15,293 lumens in that box I sent yesterday… wish I could see his face when he experiences that the first time. LOL

19k lumens of Q8 would be very nice! It’s not an extremely high figure of coz but we also gotta throw in the lux and most importantly the cost as well. :slight_smile:

Well, 11k lumens is right about there for stock and excellent batts. Bypassing the spring gives you like 13k conservative for 2 of them? Unfortunately to squeeze out that last 2k+ lumens, the light has to operate in relatively ineffcient lumens/watt territory, a no-no for 29-31 deg C nights here in the tropics. It will be the same even with your SST-40s. Some hotter places have 34-38 deg C nights. :person_facepalming:
Wouldn’t take much to hit 55 deg C even from a cold start.

I can only dream of running lights in winter temps like in N China, Seoul/Japan, N Europe, N USA, Canada.
Heck, even spring is good in those places, even at just 5 deg C we are talking about doubling the Turbo runtime vs here.
Putting it into the freezer before using it is useless as the lens initially fogs up with the very high dew point temps (26-27 deg C). I used to play with things like ice and even dry ice with my pocket rockets last time, spot cooling the head behind the lens part.

Sofirn was a manufacturer without an own brand, they made (still make?) Thorfire flashlights, and thus also they made the Q8 for Thorfire. A year or so ago they started an own factory brand Sofirn. They asked the BLF-Q8 team ( :+1: that they did that) if it was ok for them to make new versions of the Q8 under their new flashlight brand name, and so it happened.

Hey djozz did you ever figure out which tint bin are in these?

Barry asked me to tell that people who currently still want to receive a discount for the Sofirn Q8, can contact Tracy: http://budgetlightforum.com/user/23289

I also wrote this in the OP.

I did not get an answer from Sofirn as I remember, but I did measure it on my sample. I posted it before, but that got of course buried in this vast thread.

post #357: “For the record, I measured the light quality of the hotspot at max power: 70.5 CRI, 6550K, almost on top of the BBL (Duv=+0.0021)”

So that should be an 1A tint.