I made no such experiences. LEDs from Sofirn took a month, ok. Things from int outdoor and kaidomain likewise. Normal. The Jetbeam was here within 10 days or less. Nothing changed for me except Clemence cannot send via economy these days.
Let’s see what arrives first: My C01Rs or those lights at Amazon warehouses.
My order took very long. Also the new site asks me to pay for shipping. I dont mind that but would be nice to offer a few options. I dont like paying 5 dollar for shipping and have to wait 10 weeks for something to arrive…
I wonder if - in times of difficult logistics - it was more cost-effective for Sofirn to send a considerable number of different flashlights into Amazon's distribution channel than waiting for better times with normal shipping duration. I could imagine that more and more customers feel reluctant to buying things they have to wait 2-3 months for. However, in Germany most airlines seem to be soon returning to their standard schedules as of July 2020, so maybe things will be alright in the near future. Anyway, I do not expect the shipping rates to ever drop to their original rates again. I expect a major increase in prices as we can already feel in our everyday's life for food, energy etc..
ok weird… what usually took 10-12 days from banggood is now over 1 month so for me ican def say things have slowed down over double shipping time now if not more…. so sorry im not so interested buy this light at the moment and wait up to 3 months 
i guess to sweden the route goes very strange for some reason then stuff from china……usually priority direct mail shipping with postnl is very fast… but now just as slow as normal china shipping….
Ok, I got it. Rarely had 10 to 12 days. But the goods spent most of the shipping time in the german customs, at least with tracked shipping (otherwise I wouldn’t know). PostNL got my last order 2020/06/06, six days later it was in Germany.
The item has arrived in the country of destination 2020-06-12 18:25
The item is on transport to the country of destination 2020-06-09 15:25
The item is processed at the PostNL sorting center 2020-06-07 11:38
Consignment received at the PostNL Acceptance Centre 2020-06-06 17:20
Not very unusual from my experience - even in times without nasty viruses. Most items I ordered from China were kept/processed longer by customs than actually shipped from Asia to Europe. With less goods inbound, I guess the ratio of checked items is higher than before.
Update:
Sofirn will soon start selling C01S in new colorful anodizations. There are some delays but production is about to commence next week. These new lights will also be offered on Amazon. OP is updated and cleaned up a bit.
Still 2-mode driver, right?
Those colours look great!
Yes, as far as I am informed it still uses the 2-mode driver/UI. I don't know if they can put the new dual-modegroup 3-mode UI of C01R onto the MCU of C01S. The driver of C01R cannot be used "as is" for C01S as it is developed for LEDs with a very low forward voltage, e.g. XP-E2 photo red or maybe Osram Whiteflat 1mm². I wish they were able to source some Nichia E21A with 1.800K - 2.200K 98CRI to test a mule version of C01S but the odds look rather bad.
I would definitely buy a C01S with the 3 mode driver and a 4500k Nichia E21A. Doesn’t need to be a mule.
I think in a mid-term perspective the odds look good to see the 3-mode UI in C01S, too. Most probably Sofirn still has quite some 2-mode UI drivers left on stock and retrofitting these with the 3-mode UI will not be reasonable in terms of costs. I talked to Barry about Nichia in general some months ago when discussing UV LEDs and he mentioned that it's very difficult for them to get Nichia LEDs. However, I'm confident that with enough demand there would be some way to get these. Hank Wang also got them for his KR4 lights. The question is: What demand would be necessary to achieve at least a breakeven with these special emitters. Maybe I should create a new "interest check"? ;-)
Making an interest check sounds like a really good idea. :+1:
Would Nichia LED and a 3-mode UI raise the cost to a $30-40?
Seems these colors are on the Sofirnlight website! Green and no-ano don’t seem to have images up yet, unless my browsers are both acting up.
These colors (desert tan, orange) just got put up on amazon, as well as a “no-anodization” version. The no-ano one shows the BLF-C01S style polished/machined no-ano finish. I wonder if this version of the no-ano is making a comeback, or if this is just misrepresented bead blasted stock?
UPDATE: Sofirn has messaged me on amazon to state the no-ano is out of stock
Is the new silver like colour non anodized or ckear anodized?
Edit: Maybe Lux-Perpetua or Barry can confirm, but I talked to Zoe from Sofirn and was told that “the warehouse” doesn’t have the no-ano version. It has been taken of amazon so I’m pretty sure the correspondence I’ve had has been solely in reference to what is available via amazon, despite my more general request for information about getting these colors elsewhere. I’ve ordered off Sofirnlight instead since it’s cheaper anyway.
I also noticed the sofirnlight website has been updated with new product images for all colors. including a raw, no-ano version which quite noticeably doesn’t show “BLF C01S” but the standard “Sofirn C01S”. They also updated the missing green ano image.
I will ask Barry.
If they would willing to source and use nichia LEDs also for a few others existing models, the demand could expand more largely than for the C01 only.
I cant even think of a light they have an E21A is suitable for. This is the closest one and still may require new optics.
Anything FET, no.
Anything reflector, no.
Well there goes their whole lineup.
Edit; there is one, the lantern.
Actually, there is a feasibility check for C01S with Nichia E21A already...
https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/62571
It seems 2.000K and 3.500K are highly requested by BLF members. You are right about the TIR optic. It will probably require to use a frosted wide angle lens to reduce tint shift. I don’t know if the new C01R boost driver (approx. 1.2A at max with XP-E2 PR using a Vf of 2.4V) would work best with E21A but it looks very promising.