The Convoy L6 is on sale at Banggood now for 38,99
Good deal though.
Putting in XHP70 instead of XP-L would have not only cost more, but would require different much more expensive electronics, would produce much more heat, have less throw, and put out a worse looking beam.
The Sofirn SP36 uses 4x XP-L2s with a FET driver, meaning it runs directly off of the battery on turbo, so the XP-L2s are pushed beyond 1000 lumens.
Hello
I thank you for these very interesting explanations,i better understand the flashlight now 
luckily just now i found this great video and at 26:10 : Sofirn SP36 vs Sofirn Q8!
I was convinced that the sofirn sp36 would be much more powerful than sofirn Q8 because it is announced at 6000 lumens and has a driver narsiLM v1.2 while sofirn Q8 only has the driver narsiLM v1.0 and as you just explained to me Johm, that a better driver increases production costs, i told myself that the sofirn sp36 will brighten further and wider
-But in the video at 26:10 to my astonishment: Sofirn Q8 lights up further we see the portal better than sofirn sp36!
on the other hand the beam of the sp36 is wider than that of the Q8, but i prefer a thousand times the Q8 the portal in the video is much clearer and detailed!
I think i’m going to run and buy the Q8 i like it a lot but another video that i had already seen 1 month ago now makes me hesitate: The convoy L6!
in this video there is the BLF Q8 vs convoy L6. Even if i found that the sofirn Q8 illuminates a little better than the BLF Q8, i can pretend that in this video it was sofirn.
well we see in the video that the light of the convoy L6 is a little more powerful! But in the description of his video he says:
“Please note The Convoy L6 is modded with Direct Drive TA Driver from BLF it draws 10.5A at start and producing 5000 Lumens.So this is not your typical Convoy L6.”
so i need your help, should i buy the convoy L6 and moded the driver like him?
or is it possible to install a better driver on the Sofirn Q8 for that it becomes as powerful as the convoy L6 moded of this video?
Another problem is that i am completely novice to changing the flashlight drivers 
I have already updated firmware on my smartphones with odin or TWRP or made maj on my TV by usb, but concerning the flaslight i do not know nothing … but want to learn of course!
What you’re seeing here is candela versus lumens, which I explained before. Here’s a more extreme example:
In this case, the target in the middle is so brightly lit as to be overexposed in the image on the right, despite the light on the left having 16 times as many lumens.
Hello
I looked at your link, it is very good with the pictures with the same landscape on each side thanks. we can see the difference in lumens of both.
And the width of the beams of one and the other.
In your message on page 1 of this topic you said to me:
” candela (throw / beam distance) ”
you made me understand, i thank you, that the candela are the distance beam.
but the beam distance is well illuminate far is that?
but the candela also influence the beam width?
No, it just tells you the intensity of the light at it’s hotspot (the center of the beam). But if you have to lights with about the same Candela rating and one has three times more lumen the beam of this light will be wider. You can very roughly estimate how floody or throwy a beam is by dividing the Candela by the lumen output (cd/lm). The higher this value is, the throwier a lamp is (~ it has a narrower beam but reaches farther) The Emisar D4s has about 8.8 cd/lm (Emisar D4S review). The BLF Q8 has a ratio of roughly 10.45 which is not too far off.
Please bear in mind that you also need a battery charger for the batteries you buy.
thank you for these very technical explanations.
Other than that, no one answered me for my questions about the convoy L6 and the drivers?
For the battery charger, i had not thought about it :person_facepalming:
I have a battery charger La crosse RS720
it’s written on my manual: For all types of NiCd and NiMH batteries
Will it be able to charge the 18650 batteries of sofirn Q8 if i buy it?
No. 18650 is Li-Ion.
yes that’s what I thought would not be good
a battery charger costs expensive? here on BLF forum is there a cheap but good quality model that you advise?
for sofirn Q8 and runtime in hours for each mode, i found this on a site:
Mode,Lumens and runtime:
Mode Groups: Runtime and Lumens (manufacturer tested,it will be a little bit different from the real data )
Group1: Moon 2LM/1500h Turbo 5000LM/40min
Group2: Moon 2LM/1500h Low 160LM/33h Turbo 5000LM/40min
Group3: Moon 2LM/1500h Low 70LM/66h Mid 1250LM/8h Turbo5000LM/40min
Group4: Moon 2LM/1500h Ultralow 10LM/150h Low 160LM/33h Mid 1500LM/6h Turbo
5000LM40min
Group5: Moon 2LM/1500h Ultralow 10LM/150h Low1 70LM/66h Low2 160LM/33h Mid 1500LM/6h Turbo 5000LM/40min
Group6: Moon 2LM/1500h Ultralow 5LM/150h Low 70LM/33h Mid1 240LM/17h Mid2 1100LM/10h High 2500LM/3h Turbo
5000LM/40min
Group7: Moon 2LM/1500h Ultralow1 10LM/400h Ultralow2 35LM/140h Ultralow3 95LM/54h Low1 160LM/33h Mid 1350LM/8h High 2500LM/3h Turbo 5000LM40min
Group8: Moon 2LM/1500h Low 160LM/33h Mid 750LM/17h High
2100LM/5h
Group9: Moon 2LM/1500h Ultralow 10LM/150h Mid 520LM/20h Turbo
5000LM/40min
Group10: Moon 2LM/1500h Ultralow 10LM/150h Mid 1500LM/6h Turbo
5000LM/40min
Group11: Moon 2LM/1500h Low 160LM/33h Mid 1350LM/8h Turbo
5000LM/40min
Group12: Moon 2LM/1500h Ultralow 5LM/600h Low 150LM/33h Mid 1700LM/5.5h Turbo
5000LM/40min
but all this does not indicate anything
because I do not know which group is the sofirn Q8 
You set the Group (use flashlight button to go to config) and this gives you the different number of modes.
You can select any group you like.
The L6 is not a bad choice, it is not as new or fancy as the Q8 but is bigger and can handle the heat better (remember, big is your friend) so will give you more light over long periods of time.
The stock driver is good, you don’t need to upgrade.
(Unfortunately not on sale anymore)
The other lights discussed here will only give you the maximum advertised output for a few minutes before thermal regulation kicks in.
If you want lots of light for 3 hours you have to go bigger.
I just checked your budget, bigger lights are much more expensive.
So, Q8 vs L6
Q8 pros:
- easier to carry
- 33% more battery life
- better User Interface with more options
- more light on turn-on.
L6 pros:
- lots of constant light for extended use
- more throw (I think)
The code AC18 at banggood will bring the price of L6 down.
thank you johm
but you mean that i can choose for example with sofirn among the 12 group i posted in the settings of the flashlight?
what i want to know is also:
if i change the driver or even the emitter of the convoy L6, as for example with the person of my video above where he says:
” Please note The Convoy L6 is modded with Direct Drive TA Driver from BLF it draws 10.5A at start and producing 5000 Lumens.So this is not your typical Convoy L6.”
the convoyL6 will pass to 5000 lumens will become a little more powerful towards the end of the video than sofirn Q8 as seen in this video
in this case i buy it, but:
Or is it possible to install the best driver and the best emitter in the sofirn Q8 to illuminate even better than the convoy L6 modded of this video?
if yes the problem is that, as i am a novice, will i be able to change the emitter, do the weldings if it is complicated and especially change the driver?
and in the case or we would modify as best as possible the convoy L6 and sofirn Q8 by changing their emitter and their driver, which of the two will light up the longest in each mode: turbo, hight and other ?
Thank you in advance for your answer
Liitokala Lii-402. About $10 on Aliexpress.
Yes, you can select any one of these groups. It’s user configurable.
There’s a standard answer to that dilemma here.
“Buy both.”
great thank you i found it on aliexpress it is top it is also for the 26650
a thousand thanks for this explanation, in this case i will choose the group 7 because 2500LM / 3h in High
Hello 
before paying ?
Having only 24 flashlights in my collection makes me a noob here but , the q8- sofirn is my go to light for walking through the forest to get to town…it has very good run times with 30q Samsung’s. But i just bought a hopped up sofirn q8…flashlightitis !
so just get a few flashlights, because 1 flashlight is just plain wierd and not much fun.
and for battery 18650 i know nothing at all can you help me? what would be the best of you? Those who maintain charge the longest time possible… if the forum forbids to quote brands i do not know … in this case you can answer me in mp