Sofirn SP36, impressions of a sample

Sure ;-) ► click here ◄ (just make sure you choose the "EN" version on my sharepoint for English language)

To be honest, it's "only" the NarsilM manual, so the first page where Sofirn states some information about it, where you can find more resources about NarsilM and the BLF Q8 etc. is missing. I asked Sofirn if they allow me to publish the entire manual but so far they did not want me to because it's not being sold on Amazon yet.

Thanks Lux-Perpetua I will try google translate ,any English version.

Edit:I got it Thanks again.

So you are the first to receive this pretty cool new flashlight and all we hear is a question about the pdf? :smiley:

Mine is still en route to me (stuck in Shenzhen since 11/29/2018) but I will be happy to tell about the SP36 as soon as it arrives. :-)

I’ve been using this light for one day. I like it but I think it could be improved a lot with just 3 changes.

My Sphere shows 5400lm stock with 30Q

I just don’t like three things:

-No lanyard attachment. The light is heavy and easy to drop, they should try to put an attachment for a lanyard wherever they can. Or just a thread for a tripod mount like the Q8
-Usb cover protrudes a lot, it should be recessed and harder to open by accident
-Leds choice. I don’t like the xpl2, ugly tint and lots of tint shift. This light should use the same xpl hi as the Sofirn Q8

I was wondering about the lack of lanyard attachment and think that I might try this one again if I can find the directions again. I used a knot around my Zebralight headlamp that works well. Unfortunately I completely forgot the name of this knot, but someone might know the name if they take a peek at the picture below,

I agree with the lanyard attachment, it is one of the things that I reported back to Sofirn about the prototype. You can see that in the current design is would not be easy to find a good spot for one so I understand why they left it out, but they may had better tried a bit harder.

I have not used my SP36 in a camping situation outside, but I can see that the USB-cover could suffer from real use (I did rip the USB-cover off my EagleEye X2R recently).

The XP-L2 is the only current led that will get them over 5000 lumen in this flashlight so that will sell, simple as that. And I must say that in the SP36 this led has a better beam than in some other lights that I tried it in.

How can I say in short SP36 is a small version of Q8 with type C port with small different as

!!

-SP36 is more comfortable to hold

-SP36 is the brightest of 3 (from ceiling bounce app 0s / 30s)

+SP36 stock with Sofirn battery = 590/528lx

+Sofirn Q8 stock with HG2 = 524/494lx

+BLF Q8 bypass spring with 30Q = 542/501lx

-Tint and spot size

From left to right BLF Q8 ,Sofirn Q8 ,SP36

!!

Some thing missing in SP36

-No lanyard hold

-Look too plain black need SS bezel/tail cap

Is your bezel glued, or can it be removed to change emitters?

Yes seem it glued :person_facepalming:

Looking Good Sofirn!

Perhaps the Samsung LH351D would perform well? I’ve found them making big lumens in a D4S quad, so they should do well here too. Just a thought, lot nicer beam and tint anyway. :wink:

Edit: Well rested my D4S just tested at 5961.6 lumens with Samsung emitters. :smiley:

Bezel is not glued, but driver is, and you need to remove it to swap the leds

Right my mistake

Load the battery tube with the best cells you can lay your hands on, run the light til you’re afraid the bezel is going to melt, the driver should pry out easily. :smiley:

Mine has a 2 min stepdown to 1500lm. I guess this can be configured with narsil

A double click gets back to turbo for another two min. I measured the light at 72 degrees. How hot it needs to be to remove the driver? :slight_smile:

The last glued driver I had to remove was my Amutorch X9 and they just used plain old silicone RTV which was real easy to remove. I guess Sofirn isn’t that nice.

I went back through the posts and now I understand why the driver has to be removed to swap emitters.
I was getting over the blah looks of this light; I have a need for a bright, mulitcell light with good run time, but not if I have to do this to get good emitters.

The Emitters are good, I think. They are genuine Cree XP-L2

But for me, the problem will be, that they use CW LEDs. And for that, I will not buy it, because I can not change it easy.

For me, those are opposing statements. To my eyes, a cool emitter cannot be a good emitter. I like soft white, warm emitters. 3000K to 4000K. I can live with a cool white emitter if it doesn’t have a noticeably bad tint shift, but every time I use a cool white light, I wish it was warmer. The only reason I leave cool white emitters in a light is because the light is too hard to mod (like this SP36) or because I don’t like the light enough to spend more money on it. I have spent too much money on lights that had features I really liked, but had emitters I don’t like, or drivers I don’t like. If the light is mod friendly, I will fix those problems. But this light is not mod friendly.

I don't mind glued drivers, soft silicone style, when you can poke thru a LED wire hole and pop it out easy enough - done this many times, usually couple light taps of a hammer on a solder pick or something. But if we can't do that with this, plus the fact every time you open access to the batteries, the driver is loose - that's not good, unless you have to re-glue which I would not want to do.

I ordered one, shipped on the way. Guess we'll find out soon enough what everyone is doing to get access to the driver and LED's. Right now my favorite LED's are 351D 4000K 90 CRI's and XPL HI V2 5D's from Richard, so one or the other is my plan for this light. I always preferred the 5D tint goin way back to early XML2 days, and the XPL HI's in 5D are bout the most perfect tint I've seen - creamy white thru all areas of the beam pattern.

All the small Sofirn e-switch lights I got have been so disappointing with right angle driver mounted switches . I also got an SP33 on order, so hoping it's an easier mod.