Hi all,
I’m the happy owner of a Sofirn SP36 BLF Anduril 5000K and, since I moved abroad for work and I left my beloved SP36 in Italy, I would like to buy something similar also here in the UK.
I would take the chance to make an upgrade instead of buying the same flashlight.
For EDC usage I will open different topic, while with this flashlight I have in mind a wide usage in different scenario:
for emergency use at home in case of blackout (so I would stay with multiple cells in parallel for long runtime at low power)
to check a wide area around my house during the night from my window (the area is a bit bigger than a soccer field), so I will need a lot of power with a wide flood beam that can throw up to 200m (the SP36 on turbo works fine, but I would like something more powerful that can do the same job easily with some reserve of power)
to put in the backpack for every occasion, for hiking or in general for walking in the nature or near the coast during the night, etc…
I don’t care about the Anduril and I would keep the budget under 80-90$
Starting looking around, for the moment I found
Sofirn Q8 Plus (currently on sale at 60:money_mouth_face:
Wurkkos TS32 (around 100$ but I could use a 25% coupon because I’m buying also an HD01 Pro to use at work)
I’m not an expert at all, so any advice will be welcome.
Better than either option would be the Convoy 3x21C LHP531: it has around double the output of the above lights, throws substantially better, and uses a buck driver that is much more efficient than the FET drivers used in the 2 lights mentioned, so great sustained med/high modes. Price + batteries is just over 80$.
I had a smaller Convoy light with an LHP531 emitter delivered yesterday.
Depending on when my family gets the mail, I might have the flashlight in my hands pretty soon.
Because my light is much smaller than the 3x21C, I don’t think it will throw as far, but it might be throwy enough for me.
EDIT:
I got the flashlight!
I’ll post a short summary of my new toy in the official Convoy thread in a couple of hours (when it’s quite dark here.)
OP, please make sure to watch my video on the Convoy 3X21C should you buy this flashlight. It needs some easy mods to avoid failure. Awesome flashlight, just needs a couple adjustments to increase reliability and turn it into a 31,700 lumen beast.
Thanks for the amazing review!
I’m a newbie, so that may be a silly question…would the SST40 led option give a sort of “in between” behaviour?
I kinda like the LHP531 “wall of light” effect, but I’m afraid that such brightness so close would “overpower” my sight, but at the same time I would prefer a more evenly distributed beam than the hot spot of the SFT40.
In my (limited) experience, lower angle TIR with higher lumen emiter would work best for “close range blindness”. On the other hand - it would not have “football field illuminating” hotspot.
Something like Manker MK37 (excellent walklight, not sure if still in production), Convoy M21J (with caveats) or some TIR SBT90.2 Hanklight perhaps…
I’m still undecided…
I think I have to remove the Convoy 3x21C from the pool, I’ve read that could be quite dangerous to use it without modifying/fixing some design flaws.
At the same time I’m struggling to find a “throwy-flooder” or “floody-thrower” that can do better than the SP36 BLF with its 5000 Lumens and a throw just below 400m.
Q8 Plus seems to be a monster but I’m afraid that can do its best only on open field.
Maybe I’m wrong, but I think that if would have to use in a scenario where I also have some trees close to me, the enourmous floody beam will reflect on the trees providing any possibility to clearly see up to 100-150m away.
My ideal would be something similar to the Q8 Plus but with a flood not so powerful and a bit more light in the center (still not looking for tight hot spot anyway).
Wurkkos TS32 seems to better fit this purpose, giving the possibility to set the output indipendently for the flood and the hot spot.
But I’m still not 100% convinced…in this price range I could consider also the Acebeam L35 2.0…
There are too many lights out there!
Looking at pure data specs in terms of Lumens and Candela, another valuable optio seems to be also the TS23, on the paper, should be similar to the SP36.
Since it’s now on sale at around 30 bucks I’m really tempted to pull the trigger on this one…evend if I don’t usually like high CCT and low CRI.
Yeah, ideally the 3x21C could be the best option, but I’m not confident to buy it, I saw that there are still some design flaws that I will not be able to fix at the moment. So Convoy is not in the poll anymore.
In the end, after speaking with my dad, that will be the person who will actually use the flashlight in the scenario that I described in the first post, I ordered the SK40 to be shipped directly to him in Italy (and I was disappointed seeing the price to increase for the taxes! )
This flashlight will not be able to light up all the field we will use on in one go, but should have a good throw to be used from the window on 2nd floor and also enough spill to be used walking around.
The UI should also be quite easy with the two buttons.
Il will let you know if it will fit the purpose.
P.S. I still thinking to get the TS23 for me and keeping the Q8 Plus in the radar for some flash sale
I finally got a Q8 Plus during flash sale for 60$.
I now travelled visiting my parents and I was excited to test the “big boy” on the countryside!
Just had the chance to make a quick comparison with the SP36 BLF 5000k and to be honest I’m pretty disappointed…
The performance in real Life are basically the same, with only a sligtly floodier bean of the Q8 Plus, while the SP36 seems to throw a little better.
I’m very confused…the Q8 Plus should put out 3 times the amount of light…
I’l try to take some picture in the next day, but I don’t now now accurate they will be.
I don’t know if the SP36 BLF is the best purchase I ever made, or the Q8 Plus is one of the worst…
The Sofirn Q8 Plus, will shine brighter with better high drain battery, but don’t get tempted to use ’ ‘super highdrain’ cell with that one; since Q8 Plus, have several changes in the FETdepartment, a lot different with it’s predecessor Astrolux EC06.
Some members here already confirmed this.
With this light at anduril step 120/30; 8 step, level 7 is already briiight enough to conquer the night
SP35 BLF anduril will throw further since it utilize 3535 led Lh351d or XP-L
Yesterday I picked up my Q8 Plus and I noticed that as soon as I was trying to go to 100% it was flickering and suddenly stepping down.
So I opened it and realised that there were an insane amount of grease everywere! On cells, on the PCB, on the contact area and of course also on the thread.
The strange thing is that I never noticed this before, even if I disassembled it some times already…maybe it melted because of the heat, I don’t know to be honest…it’s really strange…
Anyway, I cleaned it just with some kitchen paper and now the flashlight is coming back to life.
Tomorrow I will buy some isopropyl alcohol to clean it properly.
Maybe it’s for this reason that the performance was disappointing when I tested it against the SP36.
Unfortunately I don’t have a chance to make the comparison again, because I left the SP 36 in Italy and I’m now back to the UK.
If I will have the chance to have them both side by side I’ll update the thread.
My question is if your flat-top batteries make proper contact. Do you use a flat-top adapter?
Also, a high drain battery would be a better choice since each battery has to drive two XHP50.2. As long as you don’t bypass the springs you wouldn’t risk to kill the leds or the driver.
And in case you might want to replace that light with something else, the Convoy M21K seems to have everything you wanted originally. With the LHP73B in 5000K you get a high power emitter with a lovely tint.
Regarding that grease stuff, maybe write Sofirn about that, they might know what it is and why?
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