Luminus SFT40 test



I ordered from Simon on June 17th and received them last Friday. The parcel got on the plane without a hitch this time but I've had a couple that waffled back and forth between airport and carriers over and over and over again until they finally found a flight (it can be maddening to monitor the tracking information while this is happening but it isn't uncommon). It's still luck of the draw right now as far as shipping is concerned, and you hope that some other parcel in your container doesn't get flagged and delay that entire container from getting on the plane. Lately USPS has taken as long or longer to get it to me once it's onshore as it did for the package to make it from seller to airline. I notice also that time varies greatly depending on which customs hub the package arrives at. Chicago and Florida seem to take ages, and double that if it ends up in Memphis or Phoenix on its next leg. Los Angeles and Texas seem to have it together.

Ohh, yes - received the pair mounted, and also received a separate order of 5 bare!

  • The pair of mounted ones were ordered June 8th, delivered July 6th.

  • The qty 5 were ordered June 30th, came in yesterday July 10th (10 days, near record time)

  • But the 3x21A (SFT-40's) ordered June 23th last updated July 3rd and appears on the way to the US.

Unfortunately I'm backed up a bit on modding, so haven't had a chance yet to try them. One will definitely go in a FT03. I got a bunch more lights (of course... ) to try them out in as well.

nice i cant wait to see what you do with them! ive changed my plan with them, not doing 4 in one light (ea01s) anymore, going to do 5 seperate lights instead. the ea01s is getting CULPM1 osrams instead

AFAIK SST-40 is 5050 footprint, and the “40” refers to the die area. Just like SST- 20 are 3535 and SST-10 are certainly not 1010 pad (couldn’t tell you what their actual pad size is though!)

Yes, SST40 are a 5050 footprint so they won't work on a 4040 MCPCB. Very few LEDs have a 4040 footprint.

And the SST10 LEDs are a 3535 footprint same as the SST20 AFAIK.

To add to further confusion SFT40 / SST40 / SST70 / SFT70 have 5050 footprint and SFT20 has an entirely different footprint from SST20.

http://kaidomain.com/Luminus-SFT-40-White-6500K-LED-Emitter

KD has them…

Fixed link. Interesting it's the same bin info N5 BC but doesn't list the full part # with voltage level spec (VJ, etc.).

When you try to buy one led it says item not available

But they are in stock (as long as no one orders them).

Finally got a chance to try one of these out, pre-mounted on a 20 mm from Convoy. I modded a Nitenumen TK-35 a while back with a SST-40 5000K and FET+1 driver. Figured I'll swap the LED in this one so got a more or less apples-to-apples comparison.

Wow this LED is impressive! Not a fan of the tint, but the numbers don't lie.

The TK-35 has a 53 mm diameter head. Lumens taken at start and 30 secs - maukka calibrated #'s, throw taken at 5 meters:

SST-40 5000K, VTC5D: 8.5 amps, 2060-1840 lumens, 141 kcd

SFT-40 6500K, 30Q: 8.35 amps, 2430-2220 lumens, 313 kcd

It doesn't even look well focused, not a well defined hot spot, messy corona. But the throw #'s are pretty crazy. I'd have to check how a Boost HX compares to this thing.

Impressive numbers, Tom.

Looks like Simon has SFT40 back in stock

The more I play with it, guess the tint isn't so bad for CW. 5000K is about the coolest I go, lately preferring 3000K-4000K. The beam tint is rock solid consistent at least, and don't see green at all, maybe a bit blue compared to my other warmer tint lights, but only more noticeably blue at higher amps.

Would love to hear other tested results. Haven't seen much posted, and Simon rarely included throw specs on his lights, and his lights are all "amp limited", not that it's a bad thing but we are not seeing the full potential of the LED, as djozz's test shows. 8-9 amps seems like the sweet spot for this one.

is there any opportunity to get sft40 below 6500k

like 5000k?

i would like to send link to fenix, as i am not happy with sft40 model they sent to me. tint is total greenish and crappy

Not that I know of. Only trusted source I know of is Simon, and all he has is the 6500K.

thanx,anyway. strange, as once that is dedomed sst40, this led should have 5000k option. i like its perfprmance, so, i hope, sst40 5000k should be way more attractive from the staindpoint of tint and overall throw usability

It's a different design from a SST-40, as djozz explained in the OP. Definitely not a straight re-packaged, de-domed SST-40. Looks like a new generation and the resulting output proves that. If the manufacturer dedomes (XPL-HI), or you manually dedome, you always lose a fair amount of lumens but this SFT-40 holds it's own with a SST-40 domed, and in fact handles higher amps better.

Agree though - I'd love to see this in 5000K, or warmer. I wouldn't hold your breath over a 5000K version. Look at freeme's group buy thread on a FT03 w/SFT-40 started in 2019 -- still not available!

hm, thanx for details..i thought that it is nothing but dedomed sst40

In a Palight BOSS1:

Close up view:

It hit 990 kcd in the 100 mm head diam BOSS1 on a single GOLISI 26650. This BOSS1 is direct wired, no driver.

Lumens on 4 old EFEST 4200 mAh 26650's: 2640 at start, 2315 at 15 secs (maukka calibrated). On my old lumens standard, it's: 2965-2600 ! Wow!

Best #'s I've seen from a single dye 5050 LED, and not bad tint shifts in the beam (ex: multi-dye XHP50.2 3v).

Thinking about opening my Q8 once again. This seems to be a convincing LED. If only the CCT were a little lower :weary: .