The TF84 is Sofirn’s first dedicated entry to the Tactical Flashlight (hence the “TF”) category. For a first entry, it’s surprisingly good. It comes out of the box ready to go, all the accessories you’d need, including a remote switch for when using the light mounted on a weapon.
The light comes in a no-frills all-business cardboard box with foam padding. Inside is the light with included cell inside, multi-language manual, charging cable, extra O-rings, and the remote-switch tailcap. The carrying clip is already attached, and is black and not the usual chrome. It’s quite firm, which is good, but is a standard clip and not a deep-carry clip.
The light has a nice front bezel with enough “grab” on the crenellations to make sure it’ll do some damage if you use it as a pummel. :laughing: Front glass doesn’t seem to have any antireflective coatings, so shouldn’t “color” the beam like so many coatings do.
Anodisation is flawless, a nice semigloss black all over with no dings or marks anywhere, not on the edges, not on the knurling, nowhere. Just flawless. (And I looked hard. :smiling_imp: ) No dust under the front glass or on the reflector, either. Everything is crystal-clear.
The cover over the charging port is thick and seems to plug the port securely, but the tab used to grab the flap might catch on things, so you decide if you want to trim it down or not. When pressed down, it holds very securely, which is nice.
There are three switches on the light, a side-switch used conventionally like most e-switch lights, as well as a tailcap pushbutton and lever, similar to the Nitecore Tiny Monster lights. The lever switch has a really nice feel to it, easy to operate and no “play” anywhere, so clicking that is easy and decisive. The pushbutton switch has a bit of a soft mooshy feel, what I compared to an eyedropper’s rubber bulb. The switch underneath, though, has a nice solid feel to it, even though you could feel the “dimple” when pushing down on the rubber. The side-switch includes an LED indicator for battery state and charging state, but the switch cap itself has a bit of wiggle. Offhand, the two pushbutton switches would be the only weak points on the light, as everything else seems spot-on.
The charging port and side-switch are opposite each other, so you can angle the clip wherever you want it relative to them, to aid with grip and finding the side-switch purely by feel.
The emitter is a high-CRI LH351D, one of my personal favorites. It might not be a high-output screamer, but good color-rendition could certainly help in visually identifying what you’re shining at. Definitely quality over quantity. The tint is a nice creamy-white, not a hint of Angry Blue. The beam has a bit of a bullseye pattern but no nasty artifacts like rings or lobes.
Charging the internal cell is simple, just plug it in and let it charge. No “tricks” like having to turn on the light or anything like some tailswitch lights, just plug’n’go like e-switch lights. The tailswitches are just for signal, as the TF84 uses a dual-tube design. That’s also why the remote tailswitch doesn’t drop the output due to relatively high resistance in the wires and switch. By just passing along signals, the driver itself turns the light on/off, not the switch. As for charging, its state is shown in the sideswitch: red means charging, green means done, simple!
When using the tailswitch pushbutton, a halfpress gives momentary on, and a full press clicks on to constant light until clicked again. The light always comes in its highest mode. Either the mode-switch (lever) or the side-switch clicks through the 4 modes ordered from low to high. You must “unclick” the light via the tail pushbutton to turn it off.
From off, pressing the mode-switch on the tail gives instant-on momentary strobe. So from off, the pushbutton gives you “turbo” and the lever gives you strobe.
Now, with the light off, you can work the light as an EDC light via the side-switch: press on to the last-memorised level, press to go through the modes, press’n’hold for off. A longpress (press’n’hold) from off gives you a 5th mode, moonlight. What’s nice is that moonlight is memorised as any of the other 4 levels.
The only two quirks I noticed in the “outdoor” UI is that moonlight can only be accessed from off, and via the shortcut, and that once you use the side-switch to get to any of the 5 levels, a momentary click on the tailcap pushbutton will give you turbo as expected, but releasing it does not go back to the previous level, but to off. I was expecting the opposite, that you can use the side-switch for any level, use the button for momentary turbo, and then releasing it would go back to the original mode.
Now, from off, pressing both the lever and side-switch for 6 seconds or more will switch from “outdoor” mode to “tactical” mode, and repeating same will go back to “outdoor”, and so on.
“Tactical” mode is similar to “outdoor” but only has 2 modes, low and turbo. No other levels, no moonlight. Strobe works the same, etc. So if you’re on patrol or going a-killing, you probably want “tactical” mode.
I used the light rather extensively for a while in “outdoor” mode to get used to the UI, and it’s really quite usable and not just in “tactical” settings. It makes a great table-light, where you can use the tailswitches for turbo/strobe for checking out noises out back, etc., but still have a perfectly usable light with the other (lower) modes, including moonlight. And being that it does memorise moonlight, you can simply click-on or use the press’n’hold shortcut.
One nice thing is that the manual says you can use a pair of CR123As, not just a single 18650 cell. That’s nice in a pinch, or to use them if anyone supplies you with them. 
One issue is that despite the manual saying it’s possible, I found out that it does not have physical lockout. I unscrewed the tailcap almost all the way, and it stayed lit. Unscrewing the tailcap even a fraction of a turn will stop the signal, ie, you won’t be able to change modes or turn the light on/off via the tailcap, but if the light’s lit and you unscrew the cap, it will stay on until the cell runs out. But power to the driver will remain on. And the side-switch still works just fine, even if you unscrew the tailcap multiple turns.
That makes sense to me because the threads on the tail end aren’t anodised. So the light doesn’t have soft or hard lockout, so be careful it doesn’t activate accidentally. You might not want to have lockoout on a tactical light anyway, so the manual should be corrected to reflect this. 
Finally, the remote tailcap has a nice switch attached, with a momentary push-on/push-off switch just like on the normal tailcap, but also a larger momentary-only pad which is easy to grab.
All in all, this is a good tactical light when used from the tailcap switches, but still has the flexibility of an EDC light when you use the side-switch. The remote tailcap lets you use it remotely and intuitively. In fact, most of the controls are set up intuitively so you don’t even need the manual. :laughing: But it’s good to have so you know and learn all the features of the light.
One bonus is being able to use it as a nightstand light. You have that flexibility to use moonlight mode for mundane indoor use, but if investigating outdoor noises, the tailcap switches give you instant access to full-blast and strobe. :smiling_imp:
Definitely a winner to me.
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Odd, I would have sworn I posted this last week but just never got any love.
So here it is (I hope not “again”), but I’ll have to come back later to add links to the pix, as I wanted to get this posted asap.
Stay tuned…
( < ok? Or too much? )
. I think there should be an unheard mode-set were momentary/FC activates the chosen mode and the lever activates turbo, so there are two modes directly available on the tailcap. No need for strobe.
