Gerber Lariat in good condition, found on Ebay.
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Got a sample of SFT42R 5000K for my next Fresnel build. I’m very impressed by this emitter, which has
- More even phosphor distribution than the 6500K variant, which has a slight yellow center and blue ring.
- Best 70CRI 5000K tint I’ve ever seen. Subtly rosy, but not excessively so. It feels warmer and creamier than the W5050SQ5’s 5000K.
- No measurable output difference compared to 6500K (an older sample), per Phyphox app on OnePlus 12.
Also an Osram red flat just for fun:
The beam is much dimmer (and deeper red) in person, which is fantastic for minimizing backscatter. My phone is claiming 557kcd/1490m (normalization: C8+ SFT25R := 240kcd/980m), but don’t take the number too seriously as the phone’s luminosity function may deviate significantly from that of the human eye, particularly at the tails of visibility.
To my eye, the orange-red does not seem noticeably brighter than deep red (previously SST20-DR sliced) at the same power level.
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“I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.”
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Turns out that the 2.5A driver is only drawing 0.7A from the tail, which is less than 1.2A at the emitter. I swapped the driver to the regular 3V 5A in group 8 (50% max), and the light got much brighter. At the same drive level (10%), the 625nm orange-red is indeed perceivably brighter than a SST20-DR triple running the same driver.
Now my phone measures 1.2Mcd, which is surely wrong because the regular white Osram only measures 1.4Mcd in the same light, driven at 5A. It appears that the luminosity function of the phone is indeed much different from that of the human eye.
Have you been able to compare it to DA bin SFT-40 5000K? That emitter looks great in a reflector, not so much under a TIR.
I’ve been meaning to try out some of these “new” emitters, just haven’t been able to order yet. This SFT42R sounds really nice.
I bought an SFT40 5000K from Simon about a year ago, not sure what bin I got. The SFT40 is more neutral, I’d say the tint is between the SFT25R and the SFT42R. I don’t have the SFT40 in a light at the moment to compare directly, but have the impression that the SFT40 is noticeably warmer (maybe like 4700/4800K) at low-medium drive levels. At higher drive levels (5-8A) there is very noticeably shift in both tint and CCT toward blue, whereas the SFT42R has no such shift.
Whether an emitter looks great under a TIR depends heavily on which TIR is used. Which one do you have?
The SFT42R 5000K has become my favorite general-purpose low CRI emitter! If you have no immediate use for one, I’d wait until Simon stocks the 95CRI SFT70 in 4000K, that should be a beauty.
I got my Sofirn Q8 Plus today!
I wasn’t planning on buying a Q8 Plus, since I already have one, but it was so cheap on Aliexpress that I couldn’t resist it. With several discounts it ended up costing €42,79(!) (including batteries).
(In comparison: just over 2 years ago I paid €55,63 for my first Q8 Plus and that was without batteries and that wasn’t a bad price at the time.)
The reason I bought a second Q8 Plus, besides the price, is that I still wanted to mod my original Q8 Plus, but I was hesitant taking apart, since it was functioning perfectly well.
Now that I have a second Q8 Plus, I can leave one of the two in stock condition and I can do all the mods that I have in mind with the other one.
(I’m planning on doing a LED swap (possibly LHP531, the upcoming F45R or maybe SFT-60), swapping the FET’s for better ones (Infineon mosfets) and installing spring bypasses and maybe thicker driver wires if needed.)
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I lost similar knife some years ago. Last week I stumbled upon someone who sold these Folts Knives at bargain price.
I couldn’t decide if I should buy the wharncliffe or the drop point one. So yes, I get both 
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Looks great!
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Thank you!
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FC11C is my car light, along with a Sofirn head torch. I’m often a bit disappointed with the FC11 519A brightness, or lack of. But once reason kicks in and I realise I don’t need a mighty beam, it’s back to being a great car torch.
Today’s purchase, and not received as it’s still in pre-order, is the FireFlies Z1 Artemis. Toss up between polished raw or matte black, went for classic black EDC with the domed FFK5009 5000K emitter. A practical light and tint, hoping for a chalky finish to the ano.
No bigger than the Zebralight SC600, should make a decent EDC.
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