Sofirn C01R deep red [sold out, discontinued]

So I missed this, can the li-ion AAA cellsbe used with this light? Or only alkaline 1.5v or NiMH 1.2v?

No, 10440 (3.7V) li-ion batteries must not be used with this light. You will most likely kill the LED within seconds.

I use a white Eneloop that is 3 years old but was never used before and see a significant difference between mid and high mode for at least half of the battery capacity. Maybe in the last third the high mode isn’t that bright anymore but still notable brighter than mid. With a high capacity 1000mAh Panasonic Ni-MH it feels similar (having no measurement equipment). All in all the low mode is perfect for keeping night vision or going to the toilet half-asleep, the slightly larger step to mid mode is for actually seeing something and high mode was used for the lightpainting and is otherwise only used for assuring myself how bright this little beast can go. :sunglasses:

Initially I thought I should wait for another deep red light with a longer runtime but came to the conclusion that losing it would be a pity and orderd two more - one as backup and one for the next jealous person I will show it to (it’s such a beautiful color). There may be use for a floodier type of this but I really like the throw characteristic that illuminates only the spot of interest. So after >10 days of daily usage I’m still impressed by this phantastic little light.

How low is the low practically? Can it be shone into dark adjusted eyes from 5m without causing pain / ghosting? The 15mA measurement someone posted seems a little high for a true dark-adjusted-eyes low mode.

You’re right - shone directly in the eye is still critical bright, mainly because of the strong focussing. But in order to illuminate something I found it okay - as I said, I like the controlled throw. But I live in a very light polluted area, so in pitch dark a diffusor may be a good idea.

Thanks. I may just try frosting the optic. Or changing a sense resistor. I imagine this could be a popular light for people who operate in pitch darkness if it had an extreme low. Astronomy / astrophotography / etc. That red is a standard in these situations and not ultra-low white is a whole other topic.

This is what worries me. This picture makes it look uselessly bright on low without mods. Does anyone have a pic of the driver?

I think this difference may be exaggerated by the camera and different wavelengths of light. When I compare C01R low with SP10S eco (0.5lm) they look comparable, at least by my eye.

Good to know, thanks. Understanding perceived brightness of non white light from looking at numbers or pictures will always be difficult. There’s also a huge perception difference just from focus of the beam, and this one seems to have a relatively focused beam. Nothing that I need this for couldn’t be done with a dim 5mm red LED, but it would be nice to have the build quality and flexibility of optional high modes.

Will do my best to find some alternative frosted/microlensed optic and suggest Sofirn to sell it as a spare/accessory part for C01R. ;-)

Here is a comparison of the C01R low vs. SP10S eco (0.5 lm) @ 1/6s f/2.8 1m distance.

Here is a comparison of the C01R low vs. SP10S low (13 lm) @ 1/6s f/2.8 1m distance.

Hope that helps.

[edit: changed Pictures - the other ones did not do it justice]

I’m still thinking it’s probably too bright for dark sky work as-is. I’ll re-assess when I receive it. Frosting will pull it down a few percent. It’s really easy to cut narrow bandwidth light with film. And realistically, we’ve become somewhat coddled by ultra-low long-runtime lights, which weren’t even available 20 years ago, so I have no reason to whine if it takes a little effort to make it usable.

Also I grabbed a couple of these 45 degree optics to check fit:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32999748949.html

C01R is quite bright, especially for a deep red flashlight. Low mode could be lower, it is likely more than 1 lm. The beam is quite throwy.

You could add a filter or a diffuser to reduce light intensity, or you could move the flashlight further away from what you are looking at, if you need less light.

That said, I like C01R a lot, and it turned out a lot better than I expected. Except for the low mode being too bright, and perhaps medium mode being too close to high mode, everything else is great. It could be improved if low mode became the new medium mode, and there was a new sub-lumen low mode.

The low mode on my Emisar D4V2 and Emisar D18 with deep red SST-20-DR-B120-V660 emitters is a lot lower than the low mode on my C01R, and the high mode is a lot higher. I had these custom built by Hank, because I wanted a powerful deep red flashlight.

Looking at the weegee’s last pictures posted, this is almost certainly prohibitively bright when used close up or in groups. If that’s a 10 degree optic, then a 45 degree should help a lot. Inverse tan^2 math puts center intensity of a 45 degree optic around 3% of the 10 degree optic, if that math is right. Dim AND focused lights are nice though for not shining in other peoples’ dark-adjusted eyes.

I received mine last week :wink:
First impressions: I like it !!
Second impressions: I like it, but…that High mode, on white room or with a “reflective” platform (including hands), gives me a headache!! :rage:

It thows quite well on High, and even if on Low it is brighter than I expected, I still think it does a good job keeping “night” vision.
BTW, the anodizing is slighlty different from the C01. It can be seen on the reflex!

Some photos below, just because!
(Click for bigger photos)

Into the formicary (ant hole)! :beer:

Hey Unheard.. Does that microlensed optic just drop right in and replace the current one? Can you post a couple beam shots with it? Thxs.

I’ll do later today.

The optics needs to be taken out of the white holder to fit into the C01R/S.

Absolutely. My goal is that they offer a (microlensed/frosted) TIR lens that can be used for both C01S and C01R, regardless what LED is "under the hood". So far, SST-20 and XP-E2 are very small 3535 LEDs. I hope that E21A's footprint will not exceed any limitations of the TIR's lower aperture.

Regarding your requests to lower the low mode. I gathered all your helpful suggestions and feedback and reported them back to Sofirn to improving C01R as well as to achieving the best parameters for C01S with E21A. I have no information how much C01R lights are left for sale and if Sofirn plans to release a second batch once the first one is sold out.

Honeycomb TIR C01R vs. standard optics C01S w/ Nichia 219*C*/4000K (I have no original C01S). AWB has obviously been adjusted to 4000K. Be aware C01S spot is significantly larger with the Nichia as opposed to the Luminus.

hth

Edit: Mixed up the Nichias.

Would a sealed/glued head interfere with the idea to change the TIR lens by oneself?