Review: Singfire SF-536 headlamp

Other Types of Lights LED Headlamps
1

Note: This is the third time I write up this review, I fully lost it two times after write-up hitting the 'save' button at the time of the recent server change and its aftermath, mainly my own fault because I was too lazy to make a back-up first. So please excuse the grumpy tone now and then, but I promise that the opinions and views in the review are not affected by my mood .

Recently I 'won' this headlamp from dx in a BLF thread in which they asked for reviewers for two head lamps. I am not so much the headlamp type, but was curious about how a powerfull xml-light on your fore-head would be like. I got the high,low,strobe zoom one and received the lamp two months ago, the delay writing this review nicely meets with dx-standards (I haven't seen the other review yet btw...). I will do my review first and then report about some actual use in the 'wild' during a camping trip with friends. This is the link to the dx-site, it is sold for $34.30. I will not repeat their specs here because they messed that up wildly (it is not 800 lumens, it is far from waterproof, it does not have a tail clicky, where actually is the tail on a head lamp?, and more..).

This is the lamp, the Singfire SF-536, an XM-L lamp running on 2 parallel 18650 batteries. Ugly, isn't it? But to their credit, they did not design it, it is actually a copy of an other ugly light I found:

meet the Led Lenser H14 series.

The first thing that Singfire did wrong is choosing this massive Led Lenser to copy, it sure must be possible to design a high power XM-L head lamp that is a bit slimmer and more elegant? Next they decided to change the battery type: the Led Lenser conveniently runs on 4xAA's, safe batteries, widely available. Singfire decided to stick 2x18650 batteries to the back of your head and chose to deliver the lamp with two unbranded (though protected it seems, they better be) batteries of unknown quality, and an el cheapo wall charger that charges the batteries via a directly connected to the batteries charge port. It could work alright, who knows, but I am not going to use that charger. Last, they made the light as leaky as a possible, this is really an accomplishment: holes everywhere. In my country that is a very bad idea, rain can be expected at any day of the year.

Some pictures guiding you through the lamp:

The battery box, no clicky, just an electronic switch that can easily be fired inside your travel bag, heating the light nicely up insulated by your clothes. The only way to lock-out the lamp is to remove the batteries, but the flimsy plastic clips that close the box will not withstand too may open-close cycles.

The led housing, top view, you see where that wire goes into the pill? Guess where the rain will go. That pill is a massive block of aluminium by the way, if they just made the outer surface a bit bigger for cooling..

The obligatory zoom chart. It used to annoy me because of the great nonsense, but I grew into it and it actually makes me smile nowadays . (Same as I love the 'caution, hot surface' sign..... Oh no, the Singfire does not have that one )

As far as I have opened the light up. Notice the groove around the lid of the battery box, they could have used rubber waterproofing, but it isn't there. Would not matter much because water can come into the box via the switch, or via the hole where the wire to the led comes out, or via the charge port that actually does have a rubber, but that does not fit.

The electronics, squeezed between plastic. Note the direct connection going from the charge port to the batteries, this is very unsafe: the connection is a widely used plug-type, plug in any wall adapter giving off more than 4.2V will blow your battery. But even if you are not that stupid, do you trust the adapter that comes with the lamp?:

Looks like an ordinary 'travel charger' that charges 500mA right up to 4.2V and then keeps pushing. I guess no current lowering when close to fuly charged, and no switch off at full charge. A guy reviewing the head lamp at the dx-site said that with this charger he already managed to melt the battery-wrapping and then quickly decided to unplug the thing.

So now to the performance.

First: the head lamp wears very comfortable, you can wear it for hours (providing no one is around to see you wearing the silly thing).

Some output measurements on high:

zoomed out: 401 lumen OTF, throw 700 lux@1meter

zoomed in : 209 lumen OTF, throw 7200lux@1meter

Conclusion: I find this a bad head lamp that I certainly would not buy myself, the performance is mediocre, but worse: IMO without knowledge of what is going on inside the lamp, it is very unsafe. Even for part scavenging it is not usefull, I just may have a use for the pill somehow.

But now on a bright note: I am of course a bit of a depressed flashlight snob, so it is not surprising if a light is badly made, a review comes out as the one above . So to give the head lamp a fair chance, I took the lamp out camping (luckily it stayed dry all weekend ) and decided to have it tested by J., a good friend of mine. He has been travelling around the world, including spending months in the African rainforests with his trusty four-led Petzl, but he is not a flashaholic (yet). And he was delighted, he did not know that such a powerful headlamp existed, he used the lamp all weekend and directly wanted to keep it. He was especially very fond of the square beam when zoomed in . Here he is, doing his thing with the lamp on his head:

His only complaint was the battery blob on the back of his head, reading a book lying on your head is just not possible with it. I really wanted to give him the lamp, and if it had been the Led Lenser I would not have given it a second thought and gave it to him. But this very unsafe light, with Li-ions that require maintenance, no, he was not going to get it. I will give him a nice singleAA head lamp for his next birthday instead .

So here's the end of the review, thanks for reading and happy camping (but please with a different head lamp)

2

Thanks for the review! I personally like the small headlamps that take a single battery and don’t use wires. Looks like this is one to avoid. I often wonder if the engineers who dream up these bulky monstrosities actually use them?

3

I haven't had one in my hands but I can imagine that the Led Lenser, of which this light is a copy, is just bulky because it is a very robust light to be used under rough circumstances. But I do not want to go into the mines with this Singfire.

I forgot to mention in the review that many versions of this head lamp are for sale now on the dx-site that look very simliar if not identical to this one, and are usually cheaper, one is 23 dollars. So if there is anyone that is not put off by this review.....

4

I never saw this review. I was one of the early purchasers of the 4AA version (identical but for battery compartment). I've used mine quite a bit, but the battery contacts won't withstand frequent battery changes. I also don't trust it to be waterproof (though the 4AA battery compartment is more waterproof than yours). Mine did not come with a charger, but has a charger port. I've wondered how the 18650 version compared, thanks!

Garry

5

i got the same or very similiar headlamp from ebay for only $15 shipped. but mine is about 700 lumens.
i actually like this headlamp alot because of the brightness and flood it does. the throw is not too shabby either.
i dont have a meter but i have lots of lights to compare the lumens, it is alot brighter than my uf h6 headlamp.
and thats supposly 500 lumens.

6

I did not know that a 4xAA clone also existed. That changes the whole story actually: this headlamp for less than $20 and on four AA's is totally worth the money because it performs just ok, and with the safe AA-batteries you don't have worry so much about water coming in, it is a waste to ruin the thing in pooring rain and for the rest you'll be fine.

7

It is nice if yours does 500+ lumens, that is the performance that you want from a 2x18650 XM-L light. My main complaint concerns the safety of the lamp, but if you are aware of the risks, the performance is on par and you got the light for 15 dollars, it sure is a nice light to have.

I might have been a bit harsh in my review .

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Here's the link to my "Impressions" thread. They are much more in abundance on Ebay (and starting to show up at other online retailers like T-mart and DX even sells the 4xAA version) than back when I first got mine. I even posted about being a clone of the LED Lenser version.

-Garry

9

Thanks a lot for the review! Frontpage’d and Sticky’d.

10

I think that you were way too harsh. :frowning:

I use one of these lights on a daily basis, and I find it wonderful. It is powerful and floody enough to walk across broken ground in complete safety (because I can see everything), and to search in a shed without any regrets about not having lighting installed there.

I have also found it remarkably robust. I have dropped it onto stone several times, sat on it many times, banged into things while wearing it, all without damage. Yes, the waterproofing is non-existent, and I live in a very rainy place, but I have had no problems with water ingress.

You are right that 18650 batteries on the head are a potential risk, but they are in parallel rather than in series, which is a bit safer. I use protected batteries, and I discarded the dangerous-looking supplied charger in favour of a Nitecore I4.

Frankly, these lights are a bargain. If you want to spend 5 times as much on a LED Lenser-branded model,then go ahead … but I prefer not to throw money away.

I am now on my third one of these lights, because my puppy ate the cable on the first two. (One of these days I will patch in a new cable). I keep a few spares in stock rather than risk being without one, but I keep on having to order new ones, because my neighbours beg me for my spares, and are thrilled with them.

Take care of the batteries, and these lights are one of the best flashlight bargains anywhere.

11

Anyone know what size MCPCB this light takes? I’ve got this light ordered and want to try an 80+ CRI emitter in it. From the photos it looks like a 16mm?

12

I have a cheap little XML 3 mode head light that I got for $10 that I use occasionally, it works ok however it is quite questionable overall.

I ended up wiring it to take my lipo packs vs running the included pack, which is quite questionable; eventually I’ll rip it apart and evaluate the cells. I still need to build a waterproof box/seal the light with some silicone and it might be pretty useful as a hands free light for working out in the dark, however the low pwm refresh rate (It’s viable) and poor quality means it just won’t hold up very long overall.

Lipos are great in this setup since I can hook it up to a monitor tap so I can have an alarm go off when it dies (Although remember to unplug it or that will drain the cells) and balance cells with hobby chargers with no problems. Long run-times and light weight are great too, however you will need some kind of waterproofing setup.

13

It is 16mm, note also thin MCPCB press-fit in place with a hard to remove plastic containing ring, hollow pill, no thermal grease. In stock form it probably works ok like this, if you use a driver with more current (I would :-) ) it needs a thicker PCB and thermal grease.

14

It is $12.60 at Wallbuys now...

15

Thanks for the measurement! Looks like it took some effort to remove the MCPCB.

That’s a pretty sorry looking pill design, but at the price what can you expect? I’ll be modding this light for long battery life since it will be used as a work light, so the heatsink design isn’t such a big deal.

Is the driver PCB located in the battery compartment, or is that the charging circuitry?

16

See the review above, the driver is in the battery compartment floating between plastic layers, and there is no charging circuitry in the lamp, the batteries are directly connected to the charging socket, any charge regulation relies on the wall charger which I doubt does any regulation at all exept for delivering 4.2V.

17

Just saw that review, thanks. First thing I’ll do with it is desolder the charging port connections from the PCB, since I’ll be charging batteries on a dedicated high quality charger and do not want anyone accidentally trying to charge batteries via a wall-wort. Maybe the internal charging circuit isn’t bad, but at the price I’ll assume it’s an IED detonator.

Since I’m more interested in runtime than output, I’ll try the original driver but replace all the wiring with 16 AWG wires - going with the heavy gauge because I’ll probably put the battery pack down on my belt.

I’ll update with pics and details on my mod, but delivery will likely be a month or so.

18

Thank you for the review.

I get it: ugly & unsafe :cowboy_hat_face:

But

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You’re so cute little pumpkin !!! :8) :bigsmile: :heart_eyes: