Luminus SFT40 LED - Beam Shots (Convoy M21c; unofficial)

Hey There! I was just scanning the forum seeing if anyone has done a review yet and it doesn't look like it.

This is NOT a Review.

Im just sharing some pics and thoughts. No one has asked me to do this - Simon nor anyone else, I am not receiving anything for this

I know there has been interest in this new LED and little information online about it because it is so new, so i figured i would start this thread showing some beam shots I took of the M21c (8amp driver, sft40 6500k) i received from Simon a couple of days ago.

Please, post your Beam shots here too!

First thoughts:

-The LED is impressive!

-The tint is nice, it is listed as 6500k but has a nice look to it and does not appear Blue or anything like that.

-The spill area is large and well lit, this reminds me of the xhp35 (sft40 = 3volt LED, great news for me and my simple mods!)

-The heat (in the m21c host) builds up, but not too quickly. i can get a couple minutes on Turbo.

-The beam quality is Really good (no "ringiness", nice LARGE hotspot).

-Due to this LED being 3 volts, I am Very Excited for it's numerous applications. i have some on order and will share them here, later (EA01s & KR1 for now. later FT03 and FT02s).

-SFT40 emitters I ordered from here (Not affiliated): https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002783273284.html?spm=a2g0o.cart.0.0.45393c00Gi1itu&mp=1

-I cant wait to see what other BLF members do with this LED!

Here are the Links to the Data Sheet for the SFT40 and SFT70, supplied from Simon @ Convoy:

https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/54654/4832

Below, the farthest trees are about 240 300+ meters out**(i checked google maps). this hits them No Problem.

Great picture!

This looks like a really nice LED.

Convoy is on fire lately.

thanks! It really is!

they really are, especially with those new 3x21 releases! I wasn't expecting a triple reflector sft40 option, they are crushing it! Having a year like Astrolux had in 2020 (back to back constant AMAZING releases)

Not the best comparisons, but it's what I could pull together this morning. I unfortunately do not have a sst40 in a light right now I have a Convoy m21a that had come with an sst40 but i swapped it out for a osram CSLNM1. I will try and do an emitter swap soon and show the 5000k sst40 vs the sft40.

Once again, great shots, sir. That beam looks super clean.

SFT40 vs SST40.

Here it is, just swapped that cslnm1 out real quick. Look more similar than i would've expected, not this similar in real use.

Thank you, the beam is super clean! I wasn't sure if the angle of my dresser (what the lights are sitting on) to the wall was OK enough to share these. Glad to know if they help.

Nice photos, I see the same with my own eyes. I received it 5-6 days ago, it shines great.

Nice beam shots! I got a few SFT40's on order but not enough. I hope they come back, don't see any response from Simon yet about what happened to them - probably all sold out.


Thanks Tom! Glad to hear you grabbed some, i didn't even notice Simon had taken them off the page until i read your comment here. I have (5) LED's on order but i didn't want to order a light with them so the are taking a long time to ship (I always order a flashlight with me small parts orders from Simon, or else the order ships in a small box or envelope and takes twice as long to get to me.. I did throw a holster in with it, but probably not enough).

I definitely already have plans for my 5 coming in!

I think maybe by comparison here it looks a little green, and maybe it does in general, but in usage it looks, well.. honestly it looks almost "perfect" (Perfect as in "pure white light" my actual perfect look is that one xhp35 4000k i have in the K1 shot, but thats because its warm and rosy lol).

I dont have a single LED light with sst20 4000k, but i will throw up a multiemitter in the shot :)

Sorry, I EDITED the photo, i felt overly compelled to add the notation to the top of the photo, for those who may not read my long-winded explanation in the text below

OK, so im only adding this because i have more of a question about why this happens while taking pictures of beams. Well and because Morelumens asked for a picture with a sst20 in it lol.

So in the following picture, the FireFlies e07x has a sst20 4000k in it, and IN THE PICTURE that sst20 looks VERY rosy. It LOOKS like the rosiest by far. It Is Not! It is actually, by far, the most yellow of the 4 lights in the picture!

But, every time i try to take pictures of beams (like this, and i have tried often to show off why i like my very Rosy xpl-hi 4000k 5D) the damn sst20 4000k in the picture looks like the rosiest, even though its the most YELLOW.

Why does this happen? Why does the most yellow in real life look the most rosy in the picture, and the exact opposite also happens - the most rosy in real life looks the most yellow in the picture!? It honestly makes me hate the sst20 4000k even more lol. its being a picture imposter!

Any help anyone can give me for taking these pictures would be great. im using an Iphone 12, but i downloaded a picture app by the suggestion of another user so i could manually adjust white balance and stuff, but i am having a hard time figuring out how to set the app correctly, obviously! lol.

Here is the picture, and take from it what you will. BUT JUST KNOW - in real life, this is how they look:

sft40 = perfect white light, not blue, green, or anything

sst40 = a nice slight rosyness, very nice actually

sst20 4000k = yellow, boardering green, but not really green, just YELLOW.

xpl-hi 4000k 5D = the most rosy LED i have, its the "older 5D", before they became yellow from intl-outdoor

And i know its not my eyes my job partly consists of me selecting and matching color, and before this i managed and ran a paint store for 10 years+ and i matched color and stain (stain is much harder than matching paint, because it can only be done by eye, not with the computer like paint can be now) and i was recognized by co-workers & customers for being "more than decent" at it. so my eyes, they are OK. for now. Although we all aint gettin' any younger

I think it's a Bin thing (I particularly remember a thread by LuxPerpetua mentioning two different bins of sst40). Because even in "real Life" (not behind the delusive camera lense) the sst40 i got in this M21a from Simon, it looks rosy and "warmer" and nice. I have had sst40 5000k's looks just "natural white" too though, and not be rosy and warm.

Thanks for the SFT40 beamshots, the more i see of this LED the more i like it.

As for your rosiness issue, i can only guess that there is an issue with color reproduction in the camera in that the camera is reducing the specific band of colour that would ordinarily mask the rose in the SST20, and that there is enough difference in the colours produced by the SST20 and XP-L HI for the XP-L to not be affected as much.
It would have to quite a specific and unusual set of circumstances for this to happen though which makes me think this is not the right explanation but i can’t perceive another one at the moment.

Have you got another camera you can try? Or does this happen with multiple cameras?

EDIT - Another thought, the hotspots are irrelevant here because they are blown out so the rosiness is reversed in the spill only. Is the XP-Ls spill that you can see in the picture rosier in RL than the SST20s spill?

Unfortunately i do not, just an ipad, which i will try, but that camera is shyit!

I should've been more clear - i am only talking about the spill

Yes, in RL the xpl-hi's spill is MUCH ROSIER than the sst20. in RL the xpl-hi's spill is NOT yellow at all, and the sst20's spill is NOT rosy at all. pretty much, they look the EXACT OPPOSITE in RL versus this picture.

Another thing i find interesting - the SST40 that looked rosy and warm in the picture a few posts back (Specifically see Post #9), looks yellow and not rosy in this post (#17)

*I only capitalize to illustrate the emphasis of the words, i'm not angry. well I'm not angry at you, just my picture taking abilities

SST20 4000K (FA4) in my E07X is not yellow. Its rosy compared to SST20 4000K (FA3) HL3A. That is how my eyes are seeing. And all my lights are 2700K to 4000K.

I’ve experienced the same phenomenon with inverted pink-green shift in the past. Very weird indeed.

One tip though when posting shopping links… only copy the URL up until the ‘.html’. Everything after that is tracking BS