I’m looking at two Sofirn lights: SC21 Mini and the IF19. The former uses 16340 battery while the latter 18350, I believe.
These maybe silly questions, but the Sofirn batteries of both types seem to have similar capacities. So the first silly question is: are there batteries if either type that would have significantly higher capacity or performance relevant to those two lights?
And the second one: is it possible/wise to ‘standardise’ in say 16340 battery by using some kind of wrapping for the larger tube if necessary?
The highest capacity 16340 I know of has 850mAh capacity.
the Sofirn 18350 has 1100mAh capacity
There is no 16340 w 1100mAh capacity.
The highest capacity 18350 button top I know of is this one. It has 1400mAh capacity, but it is slightly longer than the one Sofirn uses. I have not tried it, but it might fit in the Sofirn 18350 light, not sure.
yes you can use a 16340 in an 18350 light, no need for a sleeve, but there is no capacity benefit
@jon_slider
An unrelated question for you as well :-)
You have both SC21 PRO and SC13. I thought I wanted SC21 Mini (flat outputs, nice emitter, balanced beam, nothing wrong with UI). How do you find the newer SC13 in comparison?
FYI, SC13 is either $12 or $14 depending on whether you want a battery. This link may not work if you are not in the USA. The deal price may change from time to time. Aliexpress Super Deal
From Vapcell, it is the T8 (850mAh) in the same 3A current class as the F16. Not sure if there’s any better 16340s, it is not a format that’s gotten much innovation/use recently.
I think the F16 is probably using similar chemistry to the new ultra-high capacity 18650s and 21700s (N40 and F60) where you only get the full capacity at a very low current.
For the IF19 since it’s an SFT40 light I would instead use an M11v2 or a similar cell (10A 1100mAh) for performance in turbo, though not the A11 as it’s not as good at higher current.
I don’t know how much the two differ in practice, but TS11 has almost twice the cd/lm ratio, indicating tighter spot and less spill. There was a recent discussion on what beam profile could be more helpful in finding things:
I have 2 TS11, I would say the beam with the SFT40 is pretty useful for looking around outdoors. It is bright and has some gradual spill around the hotspot, that is why the SFT40 is such a popular choice when combined with that TIR (the Sofirn IF22A has it, if you want to look at reviews)
Also, if you want a longer runtime you can get an optional 18650 tube which more than doubles the capacity (going from the stock 1200mAh 18350 to an 18650 with over 3000mAh)
