I like the 519A, or use one of the high CRI Yinding round die LEDs. In general, with most zoomies people care less about a ring when it’s zoomed to maximum throw, and care more about there not being a ring when it’s zoomed to flood mode.
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Not saying I agree or disagree, but they want to make one, soo…
What would you rather they focus on? Cheap flashlight market is pretty saturated, perhaps refreshing current models with more efficient drivers? Bring back the HS10? I dunno, I’m not the mass market target audience 
Would AA also mean 14500 Li-Ion?
Looks like the zoom part has been decided on already. For what it’s worth, I think I liked the NiteLab UHi 20 MAX idea serving the spot/flood usefulness without the moving parts and with the possibility of smoother beam pattern when used with OP reflector.
Not high CRI, and the EDC33 implementation with the tail switch was too militaristic for me. Are there similar LEDs, like Yinding, but with better colour rendering that could be used instead?
I’m not big on zoomable lights. It’s not just that the ones I’ve tried in the LED era have not been good. It involves extra stuff and more that can go wrong. Echoing @AK-Adventurist , I fondly remember my days with Maglites. (That was before LED and it’s easy to forget all the artifacts and such.) My old Maglites managed to be very sturdy and resistant to the elements despite the twist-mechanism for “zoom”.
If a zoomable modern flashlight could be sturdy, that might change my mind. Still, I feel like my needs are met very well by any of the non-zoomable flashlights I have with good emitters and more medium beam patterns.
(BTW, the 519A looks better here. Personally though, I don’t think I ever carry anything cooler than 4500K these days. I feel like 4000K is good for all-purpose and warmer is better at night.)
I just don’t want a zooming light.
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My advises…only if you’re planning on using it as a free shipping vessel for Sofirn 14500 li-ion cells.
The yellow ring is there because the LED is not yet at the focal point of the lens–the sliding/zooming mechanism needs to be made longer to allow the lens to go farther from the LED.
For the cool white version a small, round-die, high-intensity emitter should be used over the TN. The AA format cannot take full advantage of a large-die emitter like the TN, which results in loss of peak intensity.
Out of these 2 I would pick the 519A.
Not sure how hard the emitter is driven in this zoomie, but for low to mid power the SST-12 could be a good candidate with its round die + high CRI options. The SFT-12 should give higher intensity but I don’t think there is high CRI options yet.
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May I know why don’t you like zoomable light? But the biggest Amazon runner is zoomable light. 
That dose trouble me.
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Look at the poll results.
Currently 41% of those that voted don’t like zoomies.
I would guess that most of the other 59% don’t usually use a zoomie, but I could be wrong about that.
I own a few zoomies, including at least one really good one, and I never use them.
I prefer a nice traditional flashlight that throws at least a little because I find that more useful than a floody flashlight, but I’ll take a floody traditional flashlight over a zoomie any day of the week.
Zoomies make compromises in flood mode, in throw mode, and in everything in between. 
Some people do like zoomies, and some (newbies) don’t know any better, but I think most flashlight enthusiasts don’t usually use a zoomie.
However, if Sofirn makes an excellent zoomie, that’s great for those that like zoomies. 
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Zoomies are popular on amazon as they are cheap and most of the buyers dont have a good “enthusiast” level flashlight to compare it to. Most fans dont prefer zoomies as they not not good at either a flood or a throw. The flood mode is not actually very floody as the lens produces a beam with a very hard cut off with no spill.
My first flashlight ever was a cheap zoom flashlight and i gave it away after i bought my 2nd light, which was a SC31 pro. The difference in beam quality and usability was massive.
I think it does not make too much sense to base your zoomable light results on an enthusiast forum tbh.
Us enthusiasts usually know what we want, are ready to use 2 separate lights over a single compromise that could work for both applications. I would rather have a good thrower and flooder in my pocket than a single zoomie that loses a lot of light in throw mode and has a weird beam in flood mode.
The average consumer buys based on brightness and size, and they will only buy one light, so a zoomie sounds enticing.
Different lights for different target audiences, really. So not sure enthusiast opinions will help in development of this.
I would put a 5000-5700K low CRI LED to make it as efficient as possible - the more lumen the better for the average consumer audience.
I’m happy to see Sofirn works closer without the enthusiast community (IF24, for example), but I don’t think this is a light for that.
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I must agree with @ebastler - I think maybe this model is not the right fit for BLF. 42% of BLF users who voted don’t like zoomie because for these folks, zoomie flashlights have more negatives than positives. Even the so-called ‘positive’ part of zoomies (the ‘adjustable focus’) actually gives worse performance for both flood and throw, compared to a proper flashlight with a good, balanced beam.
So, Sofirn must answer the question. Do you actually want to make a zoomable flashlight that is unique and appealing to enthusiast users? What is the difference between your new design versus the 18,000,000 different versions of cheap zoom flashlight available on AliExpress/Amazon/Taobao? Is the only difference that it has ‘Sofirn’ logo? Honestly - that is not enough.
Either you make a completely unique design never seen before or you build a version of zoom flashlight that fixes all the problems that normally zoom flashlights will have - which enthusiasts don’t like.
- Waterproofing around zoom mechanism issue (and waterproofing in general)
- Build quality
- Yellow ring around corona issue
- Better emitter choice
Sofirn is usually guilty of using the cheap but powerful/efficient emitter. There is nothing wrong there - but you must know your audience in BLF, many of them care a lot about light quality. Not everybody, even myself I don’t mind if it’s powerful and efficient too - but I want to have options to choose. Not everybody has the skill or tools to reflow emitters, if you give the choice I’m sure more will appreciate it.
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I like zoomies, but don’t use them a lot.
For me, “push-pull” zoomies work better than “twisties”.
I would use it for some “throw” instead of flood, so I would prefer a round led over a square.
As a suggestion take a look at the On The Road i3 flashlight, which is a 16340 zoomie.
Make it a 14500 and I’ll buy some!
You wrote a review full of info here
there are many good photos of the beam shape, it works well for a wide view at close range.
I like that kind of wide even beam indoors.
the biggest Amazon runner is zoomable light
BLF and Amazon are very different audiences.
I see people seeking advice who think they want a zoomable light all the time (more on Reddit than on BLF). They usually have no idea that most of the light is wasted when zoomed in, and that lights with very usable spill often have hotspots at least as bright as similar-size zoom lights. They genuinely expect the zoom light to be more versatile than a fixed-focus light, while most enthusiasts consider it a specialty tool.
It’s easy to explain it to most people who make a forum post, but not to people who type “aa zoom flashlight” into an Amazon search box. With that in mind, I suggest tuning it for more throw regardless of ugly beam artifacts.
The BLF audience would probably be happier if you put the 519A and a better clip in the SP10 Pro instead.
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The things I would like to see in a new Sofirn AA/14500 are
- Single 519a 4500K in a 16mm diameter reflector. (or 17mm pebbled Tir w 30 degree beam angle)
- buck boost driver with NoPWM
- Switch button w RGB LED, fully controlled by Anduril 2
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The alternate clip that Wurkkos sells for the TS10, I found it works really well with the SP10.
I use my Convoy Z1 each night in the backyard when I take the dog outside. On flood to check there are no stray cats roaming around the yard and we’ve also got trees about 70m away that often have flying foxes (large bats) flying around. So I can zoom in on them if I want to as well (to deter them from roosting in the area permanently.) I’ve got an SFT40 in it with an 8 Amp driver, a round emitter would be way better, but you get used to the square beam.
I’ve had a zoomable light before, it was a LEDLenser and not a random Amazon cheapie but even so I didn’t find the zoom function useful and disliked the telescoping motion to zoom it. 99% of the time I had it set somewhere in the middle to get a compromise between throw and flood and just left it there.
Zooming is compromised in throw, compromised in flood and compromised at every point in between. I’d much rather have a light with a well-balanced beam and just use that. Zoomies are a classic example of a multi-use tool that’s better than nothing if that’s all you have to hand, but not as good as a dedicated tool that does one job properly.
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