Folomov is back on the channel after a few years break with their new EDC C2. It’s a very small “EDC” style light running a 14300 battery, and a Cree XT-E LED producing 525 lumens. I am going to try and keep this one short but still through. Thanks to Folomov for sending this to me to take a look at.
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Pick up the Folomov EDC C2 (2022 Version) at Amazon: https://amzn.to/36y3fdP
Packaging & Accessories
The name of this light is confusing. So to understand this you have to understand that in 2019 Folmov released a small light called the EDC C2. The new light is has printed on it “EDC” however the marketing material and manual say it’s the C2. I asked Folmov about this and they said it’s the same name as the old but a different design, LED, UI, with a similar battery. A real head scratcher why they would call the two the same when they are similar but quite different. So prepare for confusion in the market place for the purposes of this review I am going to call it the EDC.
Packaging is a small retail box in orange and gray will all the relevant info on the outside. Included accessories are the pocket clip, the 520mA 14300 battery, 2 extra orings, manual and USB-A to MicroUSB charging cable.
Construction and Design
The light is made from aluminum, anodized black, with no construction or anodizing issues. The overall design is basic, the tail is flat and non magnetic. There is no knurling on the light and all the surfaces are smooth. Only the rear tail cap is removable and it’s not interchangeable with the previous model. Internally only the rear has a short spring, the front is a brass post.
The button is an eswitch, with a silicone/plastic cover, with no LED under. The front bezel is brass, very flat and holds in the diffused TIR style optic.
Retention
Your main retention is the pocket clip on this light. It’s a captured snap on style clip, and is in a tip up configuration only. The clip has plenty of room for pocket material. Mine is secure however its slightly away from the body. The very end of the clip is flared out and this makes it easier to snag on things like a seat belt.
The you could attach a lanyard (Not included), although there isn’t a dedicated mounting place on the light itself, I think the idea is to attach via the hold in the clip. Not the most secure design. You could put a split ring here to attach as a keychain light but again not the most secure option.
Size & Weight
Length is 42.4mm, minimum diameter on the body is 16.1g, maximum diameter is 17mm at the head. Weight with battery and clip is 24.2g. The light is IPX 8 water rated and drop rated to 2 meters.
LED & Beam
The LED being used here is a Cree XT-E LED in a very cool white behind a TIR style reflector to diffuse the light. My Opple meter measured between 5400 and 6100k with a 77 CRI but to my eye it’s cooler then that, probably closer to 6500k. The beam coming out of the TIR reflector is fairly diffused with a huge hot spot creating the flood and minors spill. A good beam for EDC. PWM is very minimal on all modes and fast.
Parasitic Drain was measured at 135uA which is pretty significant. This was a problem with the previous model and this light actually has a slightly higher drain rate. That said Folomov says this light is still good for 166 days of standby, but my recommendation would be to mechanically lock out the light instead to avoid the drain issue. There is a pretty big jump between high and turbo here, other then that mode spacing is good.
Official Output numbers
- Turbo – 525 Lumens
- High – 150 Lumens
- Medium – 50 Lumens
- Low – 10 Lumens
- Moon – 1 Lumen
Heat & Runtime
For my Runtime tests I did my usual tests of comparing the percentage of relative output of the light while measuring runtimes here. Starting in Turbo it lasts a good 3 minutes before it starts dropping all while heat climes to 45C out at the 4ish minute mark. Turbo steps down considerably and then starts a very linear decline starting at about 30 minutes. Runtime out to FL1 at 10% is roughly 1:20:00 however the light still produces light out to 5 hours, just very very little between 0-1% of relative output. LVP Kicks in at 2.806v.
I did the same comparison test but with Turbo compared to high output. High on this light is only 150 lumens so it was able to sustain this for longer, the output here is very linear so possibly not regulated or it didn’t make enough heat to actually regulate itself. FL1 is out to 3:20:00, but again it keeps running just making very little light out to 7 hours.
UI
The light has a low, medium, high, turbo mode progression. It has a memorized mode feature as well. Double click unfortunately takes you to strobe instead of turbo. Once in strobe you can double click again to cycle between Strobe, SOS, and beacon modes. Personally I find these blinking modes unnecessary on a light this small and would have preferred a shortcut to turbo.
Moonlight mode can be activated by long pressing when the light is off. To turn the light off from any mode you have hold the button for half a second.
Recharging
The light runs off of a 14300 battery with a capacity of 525mAh. It has onboard microUSB charging built into the battery. 14300 batteries are not common, a quick google search doesn’t bring up any listings for them and Folomov doesn’t sell replacements direct but mentions their resellers may in the future.
Charging is slow here which is what you want. It took 1:53:00 to charge from LVP at 2.806v to full at 4.128v. Max changing speed I saw was about 0.26A. No problems detected with the charging curve.
Final Thoughts
My final thoughts on the EDC C2 (2022 Version) is that it’s an interesting space to be in due to it’s size. It’s small enough yet functional that this would make a great keychain light, but it doesn’t have a solid keychain attachment point.
Unfortunately what I loved about the older Folomov EDC C2 was the warm (3000k) high CRI (98 CRI) Nichia 21A LED. The new light however uses a far inferior LED in my opinion, as it’s low CRI and very cool white. It’s user interface is less useful for a light this size, with a double click going to strobe instead of turbo. This is a small enough light your not going to use it to blind someone and practically I don’t know anyone that actually uses strobe for signaling.
The new light is smaller, has a better pocket clip, and a nice TIR reflector, while not giving up any battery capacity. It’s still plagued by the high parasitic drain though that the older model had. So I have mixed feelings on the new EDC C2, it’s not bad but I don’t think the sum of the parts are an improvement for me over the outgoing model, mainly due to the LED being used here. However I am a tint snob and prefer warmer tinted lights to cooler tint lights and that’s a personal preference and your opinion may vary.
Pick up the Folomov EDC C2 (2022 Version) at Amazon: https://amzn.to/36y3fdP