[Available again! - BLF special edition light] new Sofirn AAA twisty high CRI 5mm LED

Boaz · 2018-08-09T01:47:07.000Z

I have numbers of AAA lights but most of them don't tailstand ...OR tailstand so poorly it's not worth talking about

jetbeam Jet u

Eagletac D25AAA

olight i3

Eoslamp SP11-S

Lumintop titanium tool

Eagletac and the ti are clearly the best .rock solid tailstanders

The olight and theEOS lamp tailstand kind of average

and

the Jetbeam Jet-U is a pretty tipsy tailstander

The magnet on a litle light like this is very nice useful and cheap to accomplish .

a trit on a 6$ light makes almost no sense and 99% of the people who will use this kind of light haven't ever seen and most never heard of a trit .

My vote would be for a bigger magnet or a hole / magnet option

Eraursls1984 · 2018-08-09T01:49:05.000Z

defloyd77:

Venice:

May be crazy but my favorite UI is tighten to turn off. To me it is more secure. Two of my AAAs have this and great for one-handed operation. It may be more expensive as it is on pricier lights.
Very excited about this project.

The only light I’m familiar with to have tighten off is the Mag Solitaire, so I’m not too familiar with the differing mechanisms used in such twisties, but the Mag has extra parts twist on switches don’t have. Twist on switches are much simpler and reliable.

The Tain Ottavino has tighten off, it’s a twist only.

Eraursls1984 · 2018-08-09T01:56:35.000Z

DavidEF:

…I don’t want an empty magnet hole on the outside of the tail of the light. First of all, it won’t really look good (empty)…

I’m not expecting a $6 to look good in the first place.

defloyd77 · 2018-08-09T02:02:38.000Z

Boaz:

I have numbers of AAA lights but most of them don’t tailstand …OR tailstand so poorly it’s not worth talking about

jetbeam Jet u

Eagletac D25AAA

olight i3

Eoslamp SP11-S

Lumintop titanium tool

Eagletac and the ti are clearly the best .rock solid tailstanders

The olight and theEOS lamp tailstand kind of average

and

the Jetbeam Jet-U is a pretty tipsy tailstander

The magnet on a litle light like this is very nice useful and cheap to accomplish .

a trit on a 6$ light makes almost no sense and 99% of the people who will use this kind of light haven’t ever seen and most never heard of a trit .

My vote would be for a bigger magnet or a hole / magnet option

Let’s be real here, 99% of the people who will use these lights are people on flashlight forums.

Venice · 2018-08-09T02:09:16.000Z

Eraursls1984:

defloyd77:

Venice:

May be crazy but my favorite UI is tighten to turn off. To me it is more secure. Two of my AAAs have this and great for one-handed operation. It may be more expensive as it is on pricier lights.
Very excited about this project.

The only light I’m familiar with to have tighten off is the Mag Solitaire, so I’m not too familiar with the differing mechanisms used in such twisties, but the Mag has extra parts twist on switches don’t have. Twist on switches are much simpler and reliable.

The Tain Ottavino has tighten off, it’s a twist only.

Correct. As does the SP 11. That is what I was trying to say.

djozz · 2018-08-09T07:12:24.000Z

You can’t say that Sofirn does not have the dedication to this light. They went ahead with the drawing of the tail and sent me this render.

Mind that I brought the holes as an option that we are still discussing on, but they put them in the drawing anyway. This is good because now we have better material to base the decisions on. I see that they sticked to the slightly narrowed tail, I guess for their own aestetic reasons, but I estimate that tailstanding will still be good. I gave them the size of the trithole (6.4x1.7mm) but it seems somewhat large (or maybe not), have to check that.

djozz · 2018-08-09T07:17:49.000Z

My personal opinion is that it looks rather good like this. If we go for no holes, the tail will look more slick even, but also with holes it looks good, and me I like the options for magnet and trit.

Phlogiston · 2018-08-09T07:46:55.000Z

Those look good to me!

I’m definitely adding clips to my order, now that they’re reversible. Being able to clip lights to my baseball cap is amazingly useful.

I’m very impressed by the way that Sofirn are engaging with us on this project. It’s cool to be even a small part of it

defloyd77 · 2018-08-09T07:54:18.000Z

I’m pretty happy and impressed with that look and just how involved Sofirn is with this/us.

The magnet and tritium holes in the tail look like stylistic design choices rather than 2 empty, out of place holes.

GREAT job!

huey18 · 2018-08-09T07:55:41.000Z

I agree Phlogiston. I just ordered their SP23A 2.0. I like their community involvements in the other projects too, so I will support them.

They seem to be a company who is willing to innovate and try new things to set themselves from other brands. You see many clones and homages but Sofirn is willing to take risks like their C8F with a side switch and triple led. The company wasn’t on my radar before, but I am paying attention to their releases.

Sofirn is not just building a light, they are building a brand.

Macka17 · 2018-08-09T07:56:39.000Z

At that price put me down for 2 x 5600k
0-2.
They’ll go well with the Astrolux AO1 and the Jetbeam Jet 1

huey18 · 2018-08-09T08:00:02.000Z

@djozz

Has Sofirn commented on the reflector? Are they still planning on using a smooth parabolic reflector, a brush aluminium cone, or any other forms?

Noir · 2018-08-09T10:54:09.000Z

The CGIs (post #598) look good. Not sure why they stuck with the slightly reduced tail diameter, maybe you could poke Sofirn about that.

Regarding the "reflector", I think is best to stick with a simple cone (like the E01), it is a straightforward, easy to make and proven design (KISS).

I don't think a parabolic reflector will have much benefit, considering it won't reflect all that well due to the lack of a highly reflective coating (such coatings are very delicate and scratch very easily, plus it would add cost).

DavidEF · 2018-08-09T11:22:58.000Z

defloyd77:

I’m pretty happy and impressed with that look and just how involved Sofirn is with this/us.

The magnet and tritium holes in the tail look like stylistic design choices rather than 2 empty, out of place holes.

GREAT job!

I have to admit. I thought it wouldn’t. But it does look good. Good job Sofirn!

MiG0 · 2018-08-09T11:25:35.000Z

Any possibility for other colours?

DavidEF · 2018-08-09T11:26:07.000Z

This light looks so good, I hope they use this design (or similar) for a more powerful emitter as well. Maybe 100lm or so.

DavidEF · 2018-08-09T11:28:10.000Z

MiG0:

Any possibility for other colours?

It has already been mentioned that they are considering a few different colors for this light. But no update has been given for a while. Colored anodizing doesn’t need to be “designed” so they are concentrating on the body shape right now. Colors can be done at any time later.

defloyd77 · 2018-08-09T11:29:13.000Z

Noir:

The CGIs (post #598) look good. Not sure why they stuck with the slightly reduced tail diameter, maybe you could poke Sofirn about that.

Regarding the “reflector”, I think is best to stick with a simple cone (like the E01), it is a straightforward, easy to make and proven design (KISS).

I don’t think a parabolic reflector will have much benefit, considering it won’t reflect all that well due to the lack of a highly reflective coating (such coatings are very delicate and scratch very easily, plus it would add cost).

The E01’s cone is a proven design with a different LED with a different beam angle. I’d hate to see an LED not used to it’s fullest potential due to misinformation.

I’m going to trust Sofirn’s engineers that have the LEDs these lights will be using in front of them to test things out with rather than the hypotheticals on a forum.

TheShadowGuy · 2018-08-09T13:48:39.000Z

Update from the survey:

We are up to 42 responses.

Question 1: 2 people definitely want a trit slot. 4 people would like one. 15 do not care. 13 said no, they would never use it. 8 said they would prefer it without a trit slot.

Question 2: 18 said tailstanding is vital, 13 said it would be useful. No respondents said they prefer a non-tailstanding tail design.

Question 3: No magnet is leading 21 to 19. That is not a wide margin.

Question 4: The Lumintop Ant tailcap is in the lead by a narrow margin, followed by the Olight i3s then the Manker E02. The rest are still far behind. The mini pineapple tailcap is the most divisive, with a significant number of both higher rank finishes (think 2-5) but also has the second highest number of 9/10 rank finishes.

Question 5: The concern was raised that magnets/trits may become large sticking points for a small number of vocal members while not being of consequence to the goal people signed up for: a cheap and robust light. Also another vote for the Noir/Djozz tailcap design.

If you haven’t taken the survey yet, you can take it at this link: Free Online Survey Software by SurveyMonkey: Closed Survey

If you really like or dislike the Noir/Djozz tailcap that Sofirn has shared renders of, you can mention it in Question 5.

dealgrabber2002 · 2018-08-09T13:49:42.000Z

It looks great. When can they start production? Or are we still trying to change things up?