My Sofirn S11 zoomie arrived. Here are my initial impressions:
Extremely small and light for an 18650 zoomie. This is the smallest and lightest 18650 zoomie I own that came stock with a side switch. I have a few that were smaller, but they came with standard aspheric lenses and tailswitches.
Narrow cylindrical shape is good for pocket carry.
UI is a mixed bag - having 5 different mode groups is nice and stepless dimming in Group 3 works well. However, there is definite room for improvement. Not every mode group has a single-click-to-off shortcut. And all mode groups would be improved by having double-click go to turbo rather than strobe.
Magnet in tailcap is removable.
LED Lenser style 2-element TIR optic rather than an aspheric lens. This type of optic is nice since unlike an aspheric lens no lumens are lost cycling from spot to flood. However, it isn’t perfect. Spot mode isn’t very focused, probably owing to frosting over center section of the TIR and possibly due to choice not to have elements of optic and bezel position optimized for maximum throw in spot mode.
USB-C charging supposedly - I plugged in my USB cord for my Samsung and it fit in the jack. However, nothing lit up on the light so I have no idea if the charging circuit works. This is a first impression so I didn’t actually try charging the cell for more than 2 seconds.
Switch is fairly small and flush. Less chance of accidental pocket activation than some, but may occasionally still activate in the pocket.
LED - at a glance through the frosting looks like maybe a cool white XPL.
Overall, I’m fairly impressed. This is the smallest and lightest 18650 zoomie that comes with a side-switch in its stock configuration that I’ve found. Small enough for pocket EDC without modification. It has quite a few impressive features for a zoomie, all without breaking the pocketbook.
That said, it isn’t perfect.
As a zoomie it could use a more intense LED. Perhaps an XPL HI or Oslon White 1 or White 2.
The UI in all group modes is inferior to Anduril or Ramping IOS from the original Emisar D4.
Modding Potential - Unsure at the moment.
Most zoomies require the bezel to be unscrewed. With the bezel off, you can remove the optic and the head, then have access to the star and pill.
In the S11, the bezel doesn’t seem to come off in the traditional manner. There are two phillips screws in the side of the neck underneath the bezel. Perhaps they are used to lock the pill in position and with them out, the pill and bezel can be removed just by unscrewing the bezel past the normal position. I haven’t tried this yet, but will have to give it a shot.
Assuming modding is possible, possible improvements:
Emitter swap - to something throwier and/or with more better color temperature.
Remove Frosting from center element of optic - I haven’t tried this myself, but I do recall reading a thread where someone removed the frosting from an optic like this by heating the optic up with a torch while disassembling a Fenix zoomie. That modder wasn’t actually intending to remove the frosting… it just happened as a byproduct of the heat from the torch. A less risky option might be to try to grind some of the frosting off with jeweler’s rouge and a soft cloth.
Driver swap - perhaps a driver with Anduril would be nice. This would likely mean no more onboard charging though. So if doing this, maybe glue a circle of aluminum over the charging port. Black anodized aluminum sheets are available from Amazon.
I ordered 2 units (the C version) as I’m looking into changing the driver w/ moppy from MTN. Had some previous success gluing as piggyback and retaining the onbord charging. This gives the light 2 modes: 10 & 50, double click for 100. I’m not into varying / tinsel lights for actual work.
I don’t see the use of Anduril or any premium Ui on a zoomie that may not be all too robust. As for the frosted lens, Funtastic didn’t like initially and after some walkabout, preferred over the die shape zoom in. Given this doesn’t suit as a pointer, it may be very good for spot illumination at say 10 m. Btw, the alternate version comes w/ LH351D NW - so it may be better suited for this lens.
Thanks for the detailed feedback. The info about the two screws under bezel (which I assume when extended) makes sense. It would limit the travel before disengagemnt.
Unfortunately, the unit would step-down at 35 seconds from high. Perhaps thermal issue (the ‘star’ / pill may not transfer the heat to the body being in a helicoil), or they put in a 30 second timer? :confounded:
As I have the D25S and find the engineering somewhat overly done* but a rather well-designed light with just the right illumination for my needs albeit the 6250ºK. So it picked my attention to this zoomie.
The inner tube has 5 rails for passing two (and only 2) wires to the head. They actually used an offset bore with extrusion!
Then the switch end cover that unscrews to reveal the charging port; the Helicoil (fast) thread. I haven’t dismantled the light to find any other ingenuities.
Bezel retaining ring - I see from your pictures the optic has a tiny retaining ring that keeps it inside the bezel. This retaining ring is press-fit and comes out when something is inserted underneath and wedged upwards. I do wonder if that is really a good way to construct a light. Won’t it get loose especially if you take it on and off to change the LED? Would it pop out if you accidentally drop the light on its bezel?
Tiny star is ok - This light has a tiny star sitting on a post. I expected this as virtually all LED-Lenser style zoomies are setup this way. This is because in order to capture all outgoing light, the pocket in the optic must surround the LED in all zoom positions… including when the bezel is retracted into flood mode. The LED is mounted on a pillar which is sized to fit into the opening on the bottom of the optic.
Another possible mod:
This is a twist-style zoomie - Twisting zoomies have the advantage that the bezel can be made much stiffer than in a push-pull zoomie. This lets them be made waterproof. But on the other hand, the push-pull style is much easier to cycle one-handed.
It should be possible to convert the S11 to a push-pull zoomie by filing off the threads on either the bezel or neck of the light.
There doesn’t seem to be any mention yet above about this, but the S11 (both S11-B and S11-C as they are the same body) flashlight can also be used as a headlamp, it uses similar headstrap as the Boruit RJ-02 / EHL0628 headlamps or the Sofirn D25S headlamp.
The indents on the flashlight body are exactly the distance to be used on the headstrap.
Swapped out the cool white XPL emitter for a random 4000K neutral white XPL HI that I had laying around (either 5A2 or 5D).
The emitter swap was fairly straightforward, but not the easiest owing to the small size of some of the parts:
remove black plastic optic retaining ring by inserting a sharp object between it and the optic and levering up.
Unscrew the two side-screws under the neck. These screws hold the driver in place.
Using an 18650 battery push from the back. This will push the pill and optic out of the light.
With pill removed, pull the driver backwards. The driver wires are long enough to allow it to extend maybe 1 cm.
Push the driver aside and unscrew the 2 tiny screws on the underside of the shelf. These screws hold on the black plastic cover around the LED and keep the star pressed into the pillar.
Lift off the black plastic cover. The star is now completely exposed.
At this point you can desolder and remove the star and reflow your choice of new XP size LED onto it. It’s just like reflowing any other LED except the star is tiny.
Before reassembling, reach into the body tube and push the rubber USB cover out of its socket and remove it from the light.
Now reverse the disassembly steps to reassmble. The final step is to push the USB cover back into its socket.
With the new emitter onboard, the light looks quite yellowish (as expected), and is a bit throwier. I’d still like to get hold of an Oslon White 2 and try it in this light. Anyone know what the best place to order them is?
My order back a month ago took 9 days- a record! But the latest (made a week ago) still hasn’t posted tracking so I suspect I got tossed on the back-burner until they physically shipped out a lot of product.
The beamshot video starts at the most focused (zoomed-in) position (otherwise my camera has difficulty focusing the scene). Later in the video, also shows the zoomed-out (widest) position.
Been contemplating further modifications to this light:
Possible driver swap - would be nice to swap in an Anduril driver. Unfortunately, I don’t have a spare one on-hand and am not sure I want to destroy a perfectly good Emisar light just to salvage the driver. Also, while the higher output would be nice, the S11 is so lightly built it might get burning hot in seconds if run at full FET power.
Convert screw-zoom to push-pull-zoom. This mod looks like it would be easy to accomplish with half an hour and a handfile. I’ll probably try this next. The goal would be to grind flat the threads on the neck of the light. I think the head would still feel fine since it is stabilized by 2 o-rings.
Emitter Swap to Oslon White 2. Gotta buy the emitters first though.
Possibly attempt to shorten the light. It’s already quite small, but it would be really nice if I could take off another 3/4 of an inch. this would be pretty hard to accomplish though. I’m not sure if such an effort is even practical. One issue is the pill isn’t threaded. It’s a smooth cylinder that inserts straight into the light and is held in with the 2 sidescrews. I can’t shorten the pill beyond the screws or the light won’t stay together. Also shortening the body tube would be tough. Might have to try Old Lumens’ “human lathe” method.
Some weaknesses of the S11:
Optic Retaining Ring - this is probably the biggest weakness of the light in my opinion. most zoomies have a screw in bezel that keeps the lens in place. the S11 instead has an optic that inserts from the front and is held in with a tiny plastic press-fit retaining ring. I get the impression that if the light is dropped on its head the retaining ring and optic will pop right out…. especially if you’re like me and have manually removed and reinserted it multiple times already to mod it or take a look inside. I can see why they did it this way as it produces pretty much the slimmest possible head, but the sacrifice in durability makes me a bit uneasy.
The light is extremely lightly built. This is both a plus and a minus. It’s super-slim and lightweight which is good for EDC, but on the other hand it feels pretty flimsy and feels like it might break if dropped. Especially if dropped on the head. Drop it on its head at an angle and the aluminum near the bezel might warp. And if that happens the optic retaining ring and optic will probably pop right out. Still… sacrificing durability in order to have the slimmest and lightest stock 18650 with an LED Lenser style optic is still probably worth it.
Driver UI - it’s adequate. But it’s also quite inferior to Anduril, Olight or Wowtac UI.
The USB-C charging does not work with two of my USB-C cables. I have a third one I haven’t tried yet though.
Negative connection to driver - It works, but I’m not quite sure how. The bottom of the pill where it rests on the body tube has no anodizing, so that could be it. But the pill isn’t threaded so I’m not sure there would be sufficient pressure pressing the two pieces together. The driver also has 2 bent pins resting in slots that press against the pill when inside the light. Perhaps those pins are the ground connection and the pill gets its connection to ground from sidescrews. If that is the case, I wonder if the steel sidescrews might add some resistance.
Not waterproof - Most zoomies are intentionally not waterproof since some air flow is needed so air pressure can equalize for a smooth zoom function. I haven’t tested it in water, but I expect the S11 is no exception and is not waterproof. the optic and optic retaining ring have no o-rings and I expect would should be able to sneak in from the front.
1) Regarding the distance — so far I’ve been using the same distance of 18 meters / 60 feet from the wall as my ‘reference’ for testing beamshots of various flashlights, this “reference” makes it possible to see how beamshots from different flashlights look like when at the same distance — this is part of a list of flashlights beamshots all taken at the same distance from the wall, and makes it possible for directly comparing flashlight beams — beamshots videos here (all taken with the flashlights at around 18 meters / 60 feet from the wall) : https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjb18Y1SKATJ8gOdGKT_JlGVS4PBdBPjE
However for this S11 zoomable, your suggestion to test at some 2-5 meters would probably be more meaningful, as the light is weak when fully zoomed out — I may try to re-do this distance beamshot for the S11, but it wouldn’t be including in the same ’flashlight beamshot comparisons” as the beams are taken at a differnt distance from the wall. (Maybe will try to do a shorter beamshot distance test specifically for the S11…)
2) Regarding movement - as I’m holding one S11 flashlight on each hand and trying to twist-to-zoom each with 1 hand is a bit difficult to do without the light moving much. This shows that this zoomable preferably needs 2 hands to twist zoom properly. But also, I likely have to move the beam a bit more slowly at each zoom level (I hadn’t realized I was moving quite fast, until I was reviewing the video taken by the camera…) Will try to keep this in mind for future beamshots too (I notice some comments by others too, that the flashlight beamshots are moving “too fast” in my videos… So it’s true that while I was doing the video, I didn’t realize it’s moving very fast until reviewing them.
