Hello all!
I’ve just joined up but have been lurking here for a while.
My interest in flashlights was reignited recently when my partner inherited her dad’s Maglite 4D c2003-2009.
It’s an impressive beast - until you turn it on and realise how dim and yellow its standard Krypton bulb is.
I looked on the internet and found an LED upgrade for it - a 4.5W unit with settings for 630/190/30 lumens.
It is a definite improvement, but nothing like what a modern LED can do…
So, recently - after much research - I splurged on Amazon and got myself a Sofirn Q8 Plus.
It was like the sun had been compressed into a coke can!
After playing with it for a while, I put it on the charger to test it out that first evening.
Wanting to see how it coped during typical usage, I held it in my hand, set it to High (not Turbo) and pointed it to a corner of the room, expecting it to ramp down over the next 10 minutes.
It got progressively hotter ( I had not altered the original 45C setting) to the point that it was burning my hand after 7 mins or so and had dimmed to a lower output.
I turned it off for a minute to cool down and when I turned it back on, something had changed.
The Eco mode only worked with 2 out of 6 LED’s and when I ramped it up to Med or High, the colour had shifted and was no longer white, but all 6 LEDs worked.
I tested voltage - 3.9V flashed - with 2 LEDs.
Turbo and high modes showed colour shifts and didn’t last more than a few seconds.
In the end, I boxed it up the next morning - having seen it do the 2 LEDs on Eco mode again - and shipped it back to Amazon.
I have now ordered another Q8 Plus in case the first was a dud.
But I have also ordered two more Sofirn - a BLF SP36 and a latest model SP36 Pro.
I’ve heard good things about the light quality of the BLF version so I wanted to see it for myself.
All three arrive on Friday, so I’ll compare them over the next few weeks - assuming they last that long - and decide on which one to keep.
1 Thank
Glad to be here, raccoon!