Thorfire has released an updated version of their take on the venerable C8 flashlight. The new model is designated a C8S and does have some improvements to the driver and body worth note. I PM’d Thorfire here on BLF when they posted looking for reviewers, and they sent me a code for a deep discount on this light. Just to get that straight, I got this light for a very cheap price, the compensation I am getting for doing this review. I did not say that this was going to be a positive review to them, so should there be any negatives, they will be mentioned.
Another good review to read by member freefly is HERE Linked back to him as he linked to my review, he has some great beam shots in the review.
Thorfire has an advantage over any other budget light that I have found, they have a strong presence on Amazon.com, as can be seen HERE . This eliminates having to do the long wait from China, and their pricing remains very competitive on Amazon, considering most of their stuff is available via Prime and can be at your door in two days with that option…. In fact, I ordered this light Thursday evening and it was delivered 04-03-2016, on the Amazon Sunday deliveries, pretty fast. The typical, and well done, Thorfire box was well padded with foam and bubble wrap, there was the light, a operating manual, a lanyard and a couple of extra O-rings included.
The new Convoy clip does NOT fit this model, the new tail cap does not let it sit close enough to the body for a good grip. The threads are a beautiful square cut and came well lubricated, a good thing on a light and it seems Thorfire wants to make its customers happy.
They have a great 40 day warranty (plus Amazon protections) and if your light fails within two years, they repair it for cost of the components. They have a US address for this, so no need to ship a $25 light back to China with $30 in shipping costs…
On to the differences…
The physical size is unchanged, the head diameter and length remain close enough to call the same. In fact, at first glance, the C8S is almost indistinguishable from their earlier 3+5 mode C8. Upon a second look, there is now some difference noted at the tail end of the light. There are larger lanyard holes, and the ring around the button is cut away to allow gloved hands or actuation by pressing on a corner of something should you have the other hand full. There is also knurling now on the tailcap. All of these are improvements and there is no functionality lost. The Knurling looks great. The light still tailstands and the larger lanyard holes are easier to use, some small clips may even fit now. All net improvements to a classic design.
The finish on their original C8 (one of my favorites, and the first light I ordered due to BLF) was a good matte anodized finish. The new C8S takes this to an almost parkerized look and feel for a matte finish. I really like it, though some will not. But it is a flat finish and non-reflective for those that like this look. Pocket or holster wear will make it look good, as the matte will polish out in the rubbed areas… It is even and with no flaws visible out of the package, where it was well wrapped for delivery.
Starting at the head, taking the bezel off, the reflector looks to be the same dimensions, but a bit better finished than my original stock C8. There is no “pill” anymore that can thread out with the driver and emitter, instead, the emitter sits on a solid shelf carved from the head itself. This should make for better thermal transfer and allow you to mod the light to run hotter if you wanted. There is one drawback that I see with this, in the old C8 with the pill, the MCPCB the LED is on, it was held in place by screws. On the new shelf version it is not. Now the reflector has to hold the board to the head, so changing the LED will still be possible, but getting focus and the reflector to sit down hard enough to keep the LED board pressed onto the head for good thermal transfer may be a bit more tricky. On the plus side, a couple of my mods with the threaded pill were a pain to keep the pill at the right level until the loctite took effect. The fixed shelf will now require sanding of plastic spacers or shimming, neither of which is a big deal, except to get it just right… Thankfully those parts are cheap and plentiful.
Taking the driver out of the light is still done via a threaded retaining ring, thankfully. All to many manufacturers are soldering the drivers in or making use of pressed in rings, having a threaded one means that us modders will have an easier time… The driver is now Moonlight-Low-Medium-High and a hidden strobe that can be accessed from any mode via a quick double tap of the tail switch. The tailswitch is a reverse clicky, which works well in this kind of light. A forward clicky can be installed as it could in the older C8, with a couple of mods to the washer and maybe filing of the switch corners. Honestly, I have never put a forward clicky into a C8, they are great with the regular reverse clicky switch to me, never seemed worth the effort… It can be done, search here on BLF for how to…
On to the driver, which is very improved over the old 8x7135 3+5 mode one that was just sufficient for modes (couldn’t stand the blink on low to change modes, didn’t bother me at first…) and very nice on power at the rated 3A. This is some kind of torrid/fet/chip driver that has four well spaced modes. The Moonlight is nice, and while on something like a C8 where it is just a small ball of light on the floor with almost no spill on ML, it has its uses and is a valuable mode to me. I would rather have a ML mode than not. It makes for a nice nightlight for instance… The Low and Medium are about matched visually with the original C8 driver levels, very useful for more than ML level in the case of low. In the case of Medium, less than High, but at a big savings in mah on the battery. The reality when measured by a quick check of the amps is that the new C8S is much more efficient on lower modes. The Moonlight mode is about 15ma, Low is 80ma and Medium is 600ma. Compared to the 3+5 mode driver where low is 140ma, and Medium is 1A, there is much more runtime available in the new C8S on anything other than High. I did this with regular multimeter leads, I will get the clamp on meter tomorrow at work and check it out for better numbers. Right now though, a 2000mah battery will get you 3 hours and 20 minutes of medium, that is a good runtime for the output. The low will run over 23 hours and Moonlight can run over 130 hours, good times for the levels. The older 3+5 driver would give about 14 hours on low, and 2 hours on medium…
When we get to High level, the new driver beats the old. How much do you say? By enough that unless they were closing out the old C8 at less than $15, I would order this one at $25 to give away to someone new in lights, and they would have a great light with an even better High level than the old C8. Remember, the old C8’s were no slouch in their own regards, this one just bests it. Nothing like more lumen. My Lux meter says it beats it by about 20%, 14000lux at 1M for the 3+5 mode, and 17400lux at 1M for the new driver. I have no integrating sphere yet, and have not done a ceiling bounce test to my satisfaction, so I will not guess the lumen… On skinny multimeter leads, 2.4A for the 3+5 mode driver, and 2.6A for the new C8S driver. I will get better amp readings tomorrow with the clamp on meter at work. The C8S is visually brighter than the old one on high as well.
There is also a hidden strobe mode on this light. I am not a fan in general of strobes, but this one is easy to access, but not in the cycle of regular modes. Lets say you were out on the side of the road to change a tire, using this light. Keeping an eye on the nearby traffic, a quick double tap on the switch from whatever mode you were in, puts out a good strobe to bring drivers awareness up that someone is on the side of the road, a quick tap and you are back at your original mode. A strobe like this, well executed like it is in the C8S is welcome. I am sure on occasion that it will be activated while accessing another level too quickly, but I can live with it. The driver in the C8S also has mode memory, the book states it is after 2 seconds on the level before you turn the light off to get it to memorize the level. This seems about right when in use. The big feature and upgrade in my opinion, this has some form of Off Time Memory. What does this mean? One click to change levels from another level, no matter how long you have been on the previous level. This is different from the Qlite driver in the older C8, you had to bump the switch twice after you had been in a mode more than three seconds or so, to get to the next mode. This one you just bump once, it is very nice to see this in a stock driver.
Another beamshot gif this one is side by side with the levels.
In conclusion, this light is an improvement in finish, output, User Interface (UI) and ergonomics over its predecessor C8 from Thorfire. Is it worth the $5 price difference? It is! Just the driver alone is worth $5 more in a good stock light like this, in my opinion. The modes are well spaced with no visible PWM and the hidden strobe is there if you need it. The increased output from the driver on High will be useful and is always appreciated too. The tailcap is nicer in feel and the larger lanyard holes are good to keep the light with you as well. I personally like the (even more) matte finish myself, though I know that some will not. It will wear well and look awesome when it is broken in.
Are their any other improvements I would like to see on this C8S? None off the top of my head as far as the majority of the light is concerned. I would like a NW emitter and perhaps an XP-G2 option for more throw, but in reality, this is a great light stock, so that is all I can think to “improve”.
Update:
Did some readings today with the clamp on ammeter. The light outdoes the old 3+5 mode driver in the previous C8 by a good amount….
Moonlight: 42 hours runtime on a 3000mah 18650
Low: 27 hours runtime on a 3000mah 18650
Medium: 3.5 hours runtime on a 3000mah 18650
High: 3+ Amps! About 1 hour runtime on a 3000mah 18650
Previous version 3+5 mode “3A” driver” on High @ 2.39A
So this one lives up to the promise of improved output by far. A good job by Thorfire on improving the driver.
Some more pics of the lanyard holes and how far the battery can go into the C8s, plenty of room for protected cells.