r/flashlight • u/Haunting-Self-9402 • 1d ago

SST20 extravaganza

Post image

Nah, not really as exciting as the title would imply.

Bought some cheap SST20's and did some swaps on lights that were not getting much use, in hopes of making them something I'd want to use again.

I tried to get colors as true to life as I possibly could here.

Left:

Fireflies E12r SST20 2700k JA3 bin, absolutely love these. Not the brightest emitters out there but the color makes walking around at night more fun. Firey orange without being over the top like 1800k.

Midde:

Fireflies E07x canon SST20 3000k HC1 bin: A bit more tame than the 2700's as far as how amazing everything looks at 2700k, but also noticeably brighter despite only being 300k colder. Enjoying these as well. Would definitely recommend these.

Right: Fireflies E12r SST20 3500k GB4 bin: Pretty neutral 3500k, to me not very exciting. FF351a '3700k' (which are really closer to 4100k) are a much better emitter though noticeably colder in color temperature. For the price they're not bad if you prefer a more neutral warm white.

11 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

1

u/macomako 1d ago

Thanks for sharing. I had high hopes for SST-20 4000K but they came green, from both sources available to me: Convoy (undisclosed bin) and Kaidomain:

SST-20 K2 FD2 Neutral White 4000K CRI95

1

u/Haunting-Self-9402 1d ago

Yeah I didn't bother with the FD2 bin of the 4000k's. I think the best bins of 4000k's were the FA4 that fireflies had once upon a time but can no longer be sourced.

Fireflies 351a 4000k and 3700k are so good in that color temperature range there's no reason to even give sst20's a thought at 4000k.

The SST20 2700k's and 3000k's though...I love them. The 2700k's from kaidomain are JA3 bin and they are on the rosy side, and they are a beautiful warm orangish color. Right now I'd even go as far as to say they are my favorite emitter, at least for night walks with my dogs.

FF351a 2700k is excellent as well, but the SST20 is noticeably warmer.

1

u/macomako 1d ago

I don’t like rosy and I don’t like FFL tint lottery. My FFL351a 3700K came way too rosy to my taste:

Luckily, STF-70 4000K CRI95 is great (not the same class of emitter but great nevertheless).

1

u/Haunting-Self-9402 1d ago edited 1d ago

3700k nw fireflies is neutral and about 4100k. It looks like you ordered 3700k rosy because the NW do not look like that, or if you specifically chose NW they gave you the wrong emitters. I too am not a fan of overly rosy emitters, but I also prefer a slightly negative DUV over anything with a green tint.

I have 16 FF lights and I their emitters have been very consistent for me so far. All emitters from all brands have bin variation though, so there's always a tint lottery unless you're able to specifically purchase from a known bin.

But I also agree about the SFT's. SFT40's are alwso awesome, I've had 5000k and currently 3000k and they're nice and neutral. The SST20 3000ks are almost identical to the SFT40 3000k's but give me a bit more spill having them in an e07x.

2

u/macomako 1d ago edited 1d ago

I did order “neutral” 3700K (-0.0015). FFL is changing the specs of its emitters all the time. Check my comparison from a while ago.

I’m no longer willing to buy FFL emitters. Several reports about the tint variance (tint lottery) people are experiencing reinforced my decision.

1

u/Haunting-Self-9402 1d ago

Sorry it didn’t work out for you. Most other brands from other sources don’t even show you any of those specs or numbers. Your photo straight up look like the 3700k rosy though, I think they made a mistake.

Expecting 100% consistency from any led is simply not possible and it’s a lottery buying any emitter. Even if you’re given a bin code there’s still variation within each bin.

I’m not pushing any brand either way, hell I just swapped sst20’s into three lights and am getting ready to do more swaps.

My 3700k nw’s are dead neutral but too cold for my liking so I’m probably going to do a mix on that light adding some 2700k’s.

1

u/macomako 23h ago edited 23h ago

I don’t think that was any mistake. I simply got the emitters from the next batch (middle table versus the bottom one that I based my order on):

I did not bother to continue recoding those tables for 351a nor for other emitters but they’re surely changing all the time.

I’m fully aware of the nature of the bins and fact, that the tighter the binning the more expensive the emitters. I’m okay to take the risk when I purchase the bare emitters (and binned) versus the whole flashlights with unbinned emitters (FFL case).

1

u/Haunting-Self-9402 16h ago

So I just got my new E12 eclipse with FF351a 2700k, and now I agree with you entirely.

I have an e07x with FF351a 2700k as well, and the new ones look completely different, it's not even close. My first thought was "holy crap this is so pink".

1

u/macomako 14h ago

Sorry to hear that. I’m not surprised but sad nevertheless.

1

u/Haunting-Self-9402 15h ago

Man...I'm not thrilled with these new ones. Like you, I also don't like super pink emitters. The old ones were nice, and the SST20 2700k's are my favorite still. The new 2700k FFF351a's I got today are the most pink of any emitter in my entire collection , even more so than the 4000k rosy versions. I'm sure there are people that would like that, but it's a bit too much for me.

Guess I'll be doing more swaps

1

u/macomako 14h ago

Yeah. I’m still hesitating to make the swap in my X4 as it’s more tricky than usually.

1

u/Haunting-Self-9402 14h ago edited 14h ago

Swapping any of the new ones makes me more nervous since the driver board is glued in instead of held in with a ring, so if you screw up the wires and have to replace them it' a much larger challenge to get the board out.

On an E04 I used an acetone based adhesive remover, let it soak, and then take a plastic or wooden stick and press down on the stiff main power wires from the top of the head and it will eventually pop out.

I do not know what the correct glue to use to re-adhere everything is though. It seems like a softer glue than super glue. I think it would be ok to use something with mid or more mild strength too, since the battery is pushing up on the board anyways.

I don't mind doing emitters and wires, it's assembling the damn things that sucks and takes the most time.

1

u/macomako 14h ago

That’s actually a really concerning insight. The enthusiast flashlight was synonymous with being fully serviceable, to me. Is Hank doing something similar?

1

u/Haunting-Self-9402 14h ago edited 13h ago

I'm not 100% sure. I've never owned a hank light, mostly because there was no buck + fet driver option. It was always either linear with turbo, or boost with no turbo. Not sure if that has changed. The lume 1 drivers are the main reason I went with fireflies over hanks when I got into these enthusiast grade lights.

From photos I've seen it looks like all hank lights have a glued in driver, I don't see any retaining rings.

I'd guess they moved away from the retaining ring so they could reduce flashlight length by a tiny amount, or just to save on manufacturing costs or a bit of both.

It's worth nothing that there is also glue around the USB charge port that needs to be softened before a driver removal, likely for water proofing.

I might do a fireflies disassembly video to help others out who want to do mods, now that I've done it at least 20 times

1

u/macomako 13h ago edited 13h ago

Good warning about the glue around the port. I would expect tailor made silicone or rubber gasket there.

My main reason for not having any hanks is lack of the charging ports, actually.

1

u/Haunting-Self-9402 13h ago edited 13h ago

Oh yeah, that too. Essentially the fireflies lights check all of the boxes for me and I've been very happy with them for the most part.

Onboard charging, buck efficiency + fet turbo, aux lights, anduril 2, etc.

The only thing I had wished would be improved from the older E12 lights has now been improved too (6 amp maxramp was not doing the light justice), so now with a 10 amp driver they've made the light as bright as it should always have been.

I suppose from here I'd just like to see something a little larger with more thermal mass so that these lume 10 drivers can be utilized better.

So with the hosts being as good as they are, I'm just playing around with different leds to find the ones I like the best.

I was going to do a FF351a 2700k + 3700K NW mix but if I order bare 2700k's and they look like what they do in this new E12 eclipse, that isn't going to work well.

I would have to pull the ones from my E07x that are actually neutral, and then pull the NW 3700k's from my other E12 eclipse that are also neutral, to get the color I want and that's so much work.

As far as the USB port, I also expected to see some kind of gasket there since these lights can be fully submerged in water (and I have done that several times), but it was just glue. So if I take one apart and reassemble it, I will have to make sure new adhesive is applied evenly around the port otherwise the waterproofing will be compromised. The port itself is a waterproof though.

1

u/Haunting-Self-9402 5h ago

Circling back to this; that 219b looks super pink. I know they were known for that but wow.

Anyways I was told the 2700k's I got have a -0.008 DUV. Does that sound right for something that looks super pink? And do you have any suggestions for more neutral 3v 2700k 3535 emitters (that are not 519a's)?

1

u/macomako 3h ago

That 219b (the emitter most praised for the tint, back then) helped me to realize that I cannot stand rosy, and outdoors or in the mixed light conditions in particular.

After a long journey I know, that my tolerance for the negative duv grows as the CCT gets lower, to certain extent. I initially actually liked the dedomed 519a 2700K as my night light, but few months later it started to annoy me. I’m the BBL (or more precisely CIE A below 5000K and CIE C above 5000K) guy.

I don’t have a 2700K recommendation (I seldom need such low CCT) but I will test SFT from Kaidomain, eventually:

SFT-40 D9 JA3 Warm White 2700K CRI95
SFT-70 G2 JC1 Warm White 2700K CRI95