Thrower Comparison | Sofirn IF22A vs Convoy C8+ vs Convoy M21E

Today we’ll compare three popular throwers:

Sofirn IF22A
Convoy C8+ (5A driver)
Convoy M21E

All lights use the Luminous SFT40 led.

Model	Lumens*	Throw	cd/lm**	Switch	Estimated perceived range***
Sofirn IF22A	1650lm	661m	66.2	e-switch, side-switch	220m – 330m
Convoy C8+	1650lm	810m	99.4	reverse-clicky tail-switch	270m – 405m
Convoy M21E	1900	870m	99.6	e-switch, side-switch	290m – 435m

* – Approximate lumens.

** – Candela/lumen ratio explanation

A good way to determine the beam profile of a flashlight is to divide its candela (cd) by the lumens (lm) it produces. In return, we will get the cd/lm ratio. Here’s an approximate scale of what those values mean:

0.1 cd/lm: light bulb
1-3: flooder
5-15: balanced EDC-style beam
30: compact thrower
100: dedicated thrower
500+: extreme thrower
10000: laser

*** – Explanation

The throw/range of a flashlight is defined by the ANSI FL1 standard. It says that a flashlight’s range is how far it will light up a surface to 0.25lux, which is about as bright as full moon.
This most of the time isn’t bright enough to actually see what you’re shining on, so I added in an estiamte to what you can expect the maximum range of the flashlight to be.