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:
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.
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.
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!
It sounds like the luminance of the SFT40 is similar (but not better!) than the SBT90.2 . Think twice before swapping it into the WT90, you win runtime but maybe not throw.
Yea, thinking it's a draw at best for throw. Hard to do apples-to-apples compare with variables such as the reflector, focusing, etc. I'm sure a reflector that's good for a SBT90.2 is not always the best for a Boost HX, etc...
The more I think about it, probably the best comparison is in an aspheric, and I got a couple with SBT90.2's, the 1504 for example, with swappable pills.
Will34 ,Well worth putting in a C8
I did like you say to upgrade from XPL HI with X5/X6 driver ,thinking a mild uplift in power/throw ,but it’s much better than I expected , now my best C8 thrower overtaking my old champ ,C8+ with a CSLNM1 @ 5amp by quite a bit ,maybe 25% better
They like 6500k because those bins are usually the brightest-lumens sell better than beam quality, remember? The majority of buyers of these are probably manufacturers of optocoupling instruments (like fiber optic stuff, optical scopes, lighting, endoscope, etc) or display illumination, automotive, and so forth. Cars mainly use cool white stuff for accent lighting (or DRLs). That’s mainly where domeless LEDs go anyway…they make the most of what they sell the most, so go figure.
The SFT40 can be pushed close to it’s limit with just one cell so it would probably outthrow the SBT90.2 in a single cell light. For multi cell light the SBT90.2 seems the better choice though it is also more expensive.
TomE, how many amps on the BOSS mod? I think it’s easy to over current this emitter looking at the Vf.
And according to my calculations, SFT40 may outthrow a 90.2 by 5% when both are at their peak. In the real world, the SFT likely pulls a meaningful margin at 30s in anything but massive, multicell lights.
On the BOSS1 with just 1 GOLISI cell, I measured 9.5 amps at 4.12V. Fully charged for the test, it must be higher -- see I didn't note it, so probably didn't measure it. I backed off from using 4 26650's which the BOSS1 is capable of, afraid I'd be past the peak with amps. It's an insane light to say the least, massive, the handle is really quite handy for it, not just for heat but to hold it in one hand.