Broadband absorption spectra and ab initio calculations are combined to complete and reinterpret part of the vacuum ultraviolet spectra of the CF radical. We have found a new band at 190.8 nm which we have assigned to the CF C (2)Sigma(+)-X (2)Pi (1,0) transition. Ab initio calculations show that the band at 186.6 nm formerly assigned as CF C' (2)Sigma(+)-X (2)Pi (0,0) by White [J. Mol. Spectrosc. 75, 318 (1979)] corresponds to the CF C (2)Sigma(+)-X (2)Pi (2,0) band. The CF C (2)Sigma(+) state is heavily perturbed by the A (2)Sigma(+) state and by repulsive (2)Sigma(+) states. The observed predissociation pattern for the C (2)Sigma(+) (v'=0,1,2) states is well reproduced by the calculations. Information on the CF C (2)Sigma(+)-X (2)Pi and D (2)Pi-X (2)Pi electronic transition moments and corresponding oscillator band strengths is also presented. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.