Thorfire PF04 Review

It’s a good light.

Disclosure: the company wanted reviewers, found me, offered me a free light from Amazon, so I said OK, but they didn’t have any other influence.

GOOD:
color of the light is cool white, which i actually like better than more warm/red/yellow tints. this is somewhat blue with purplish rings on the outside of the beam, which might bother someone who has $100 to spend, but not me.

high mode is pretty bright, i believe their lumens for that, and for what they call “low” (which i would call medium).
those are good, useful levels.
the moonlight mode though, is too dim for me to use.
even in total darkness, you can’t see anything over 3 feet way.
I would prefer a 10 foot range.
I also think their lumen rating must be inaccurate for moonlight - i have a .07 lumen light which is at least 8x as bright as this, making my guess for this at about .01 lumens.
1 lumen would be more useful for me… but you may like it that dim… just saying.

the instructions say the mode order is moonlight~~high~~> low, but mine is moonlight->low-high, which i like better.

if you have weak batteries, like old or discharged nimh cells, the low will not be different from the high, though this is not really the fault of the light.
though they COULD regulate that if they really wanted to.

there is mode memory, which is fine. some reviewers said it does not have it but it does.
this means when you turn it off and back on, it is in the mode it was in before.

the User Interface is different than a lot of button switch lights, it distinguishes between tapping, and a full click press.
full click turns it on and off.
tapping while on, changes modes.

it does not have zoom, blinkies, SOS, or strobes - this is a good thing, none of them are worth @#$ to me.

it is waterproof from what i can tell.

batteries rattle slightly, not a big deal

batteries are polarity protected.

it is long, but only compared to a single-AAA light

fits in shirt pocket nicely but so does a single-AAA

it works well for handsfree operation - what? - i mean “MC” - mouth carry :slight_smile:
i might have thought it to be too heavy, compared to a single-AAA, but it works ok for handsfree MC. not as good for BBCC {baseball cap clip carry} as a single-AAA light, maybe, but ok for MC.

the beam pattern is a widish center spot with another ring the same size outside that.
i wish it was less floody but floody is useful too.

there isn;t a lot of ‘knurling’ which is fine.

i found the clip hard to use but you may like it. it is a little stiff.

price is good, though i would not pay $40 for it, the suggested retail, $20 , current amazon price, is good.

the anodizing is good and thick. almost looks like black paint.

BAD:
it will not tailstand, this is because of the rounded button switch.
they could have made it do tailstand, though a long thin light like this would be hard to balance even if it did have a flat back end.
so maybe that is why it doesn;t do it, would fall over even if the base was flat.

wle.

nice review

i did try to cover subjects that i didn;t see mentioned in the other reviews…

wle

Nice review
You must be a young fellow… Believe me going to take a pee at night once and a ultra low moon makes complete sense :wink:

yes, 61 :slight_smile:
i guess we have night lights in the bathroom
wle

Lol
nightlights? No no sir that’s where flashlights are for :wink: