Tag: Olight Flashlight Review

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Olight Seeker 2 Pro Review (3200 Lumens, 21700, Triple LED)

Olight has a new light on the market, the Seeker 2 Pro. It uses a triple LED with an optic, and a proprietary 21700 battery, and has the magnetic tail cap with magnetic recharging. Along with this light Olight has included and announced a magnetic L bracket to mount the light and for easy charging of any of the magnetic tail cap rechargeable lights. Thanks to Skyben on Amazon for sending this to me to take a look at and review.

Full Image Gallery: https://imgur.com/a/hLOrymN

YouTube Version of this Review: 

Packaging

The packaging of the Seeker 2 Pro is impressive at this price range. Olight always does a good job but this might be the nicest packaging under $150 that I have seen. It’s a white heavy duty box that unfolds from the side and is held together magnetically. Inside it had the yellow instruction layer tucked nicely in that reminds you to remove the piece of plastic from the battery terminal and charge the battery before use. All of the accessories are tucked into two small boxes either side of the light. On the back you have the stats and more detailed info on the light.

The included accessories are the flashlight itself, along with a proprietary Olight branded 5000mAh 21700 battery. You get a long MCC1AL charging cable, high quality holster (Very similar to the M2R holster), lens cleaning cloth, and then the new L charging bracket. This bracket is a high density glass fiber reinforced bracket with 2 mounting screws in the side (Screws and drywall anchors included, as well as adhesive). The bracket is designed so that the flashlight hangs from it, and the magnetic charger goes on top (Can be reversed), the power is transmitted through. The cool thing about this is it works with all existing Olights that have the magnetic charging system except for the weapon lights because their polarity is different. Olight is also selling this bracket separately.

Construction

The light is made from aluminium and hard anodized black with an eggshell style finish. Machining is excellent with no sharp edges or tool marks to be found. Starting at the tail we notice the magnetic charging port that looks very similar to other similar Olights. It sits flush and allows for good tail standing. In the tailcap is the place for a thin lanyard to attach as well. The grip on the tail cap itself is straight fine knurling. Based on past experience these will show dirt and dust easily and are a little difficult to clean. Inside the tail cap there is not a spring, just a large brass contact and w outer rings with something bass inside it looks like. I would love to see the deconstruction of this tailcap if someone is willing as most of the charging system is here.

The body tube and head are one continuous piece and is one of the areas where things changed the most on this light. Instead of knurling in the aluminum Olight choose to mill in 2 ares and place in silicone grip panels with molding for your fingers. These appear to be held on with adhesive and on mine are very firmly attached.

For me the finger groves don’t’ fit my hands great, but they are small enough it doesn’t much matter. They provide grip and insulation from the heat when running the light in Turbo. They also wash off pretty easily with just some water, which is just fine since this light is IPX8 rated. They also milled in a flat on the switch side of the light for labeling and indexing purposes which is nice. Threads are small, but square cut and well spaced out. It was easy to thread.

Interestingly there are no springs on the head end of this light, but there is a raised structure the battery sits on. It looks almost like a solid brass cone. On the tail side there is a very small amount of give in the tail cap. There is no rattle or play with the cell in terms of rattle and it passes my non marring drop tests just fine.

The head section had 2 larger milling ares opposite the button. The Seeker 2 adopts the switch that the X9R premiered, with a 4 step led indicator on the left hand side for power level, and a 4 step indicator to the right of the button for battery power level. Thee battery counter ramps up over about a second, and ramps down at the end. Visually I think it’s a neat design apart from the PWM these small LED’s have. These LED’s stay on for about the first 8 seconds or when a button is pressed.  Further up the head as the diameter increases the milling decreases. There is the iconic Olight blue bezel on the Seeker 2 pro, and it does have a crenelated bezel, but it’s very blunt. When face down just a little light shows out, it’s more for looks then function I think. The lens itself is similar to Olights TIR optics but in a triple format.

The light comes with Olights first proprietary 21700 battery, As with other magnetic rechargeable Olights, the cell goes in with the positive facing the tail cap. How they do their recharging is on the positive end they also have a negative end. The 21700 adds a plastic spacer ring around the positive pole for a bit of added safety. More on the battery and recharging system in that section.

Size, Weight, & Comparison to other Olights

The new Seeker 2 Pro is a replacement for the old R50 Seeker series of lights. I have a R50 Seeker that I will be comparing it to, and they line up closer than I thought.

Seeker 2 Pro

  • Length – 128mm
  • Minimum Diameter – 27mm
  • Maximum Diameter – 35mm
  • Weight with the included cell – 197g

 

R50 Seeker

  • Length – 133mm
  • Minimum Diameter – 32mm
  • Maximum Diameter – 42mm
  • Weight with the included cell – 258.9g

So as you can see the Seeker 2 Pro is smaller in all dimensions but it’s not an enormous difference. Largest is definitely in the head, and you feel it in the body size difference as well, more so then what the numbers show I think. Weight difference is noticeable as well. Here is a photo of how it compares to some other recent Olight models as well.

LED/Beamshot/temps/Runtime

The Seeker 2 Pro is using Cree XP-L HD LEDs in CW. Olight doesn’t give an official tint number but I would guess mine is between 5000-6000k.  

The tripled LED combined with the TIR style optics means the beam is pretty smooth and floody. It’s not perfectly round but not something you notice at distance. The TIR optic also does a good job of hiding any obvious Cree Rainbow from the LED’s.

  • Moonlight  – 5 Lumens
  • Low – 50 Lumens
  • Medium 300 Lumens
  • High 1200 Lumens then 600
  • Turbo 3200 Lumens then 600

Runtimes

Turbo’s 3200 lumens only lasts for 2 minutes, and then the light decreases to 600 lumens for over 100 minutes, One more major step down came at the 105 minute mark which lasted then for around 50 minutes before the light stopped it’s output and LVP kicked in. Total runtime was right at 145 minutes.

Temps were well controlled during my uncooled runtime tests. The maximum temps I saw was 45C at the head within 2 minutes. The silicone grips provide a bit more insulation as well.

 

UI

UI is is very similar to other Olights, and that’s great because it’s a simple UI that I like. From off if you long press on the button the light comes on in moonlight, which on this light is a little bright for my liking. When the light is on it starts in low, and then you can hold the button and it will cycle from lowest to brightest, just stop on where you want to be. The light does have memory mode for low through high. For tubo just double click and for strobe just tipple click. The light also features a lockout mode and timer that’s available.

 

Recharging

Recharging is using Olights newer MCC1AL magnetic charging system. Olight does include a much longer cable to go along with the LDock on this light, that was just shy of 4ft long. I observed maximum charging speed of .9A which resulted in a total overall charge time of 6.5 hours for the 5000mAh 21700 battery. This is a conservative charging speed for such a large cell. Good for the overall lifespan of the cell if you can wait. Terminating Voltage for the charge was 4.16V.

As mentioned earlier Olight includes the new Ldock with this light and I think it’s an underrated simple add on. This allows you to mount the flashlight vertically or horizontally to charge on most surfaces and route the cable cleanly either down the back or to the side. It’s compatible with most other Olight’s using the magnetic charging system as well. Better yet Olight is selling these separately , or if you have a 3D printer you could probably whip out one of your own in an afternoon.

Pro

  • It’s nice to see 21700 sized batteries continue to enter the more mainstream market. They are the highest energy density form factor battery currently available.
  • This battery choice allows for a light that’s more slim in all dimensions.
  • I like the X9R style button for output level and battery indicator.
  • Less Cree Rainbow then the R50’s XHP 70 LED.
  • Pretty smooth and even beam pattern
  • Love the L charging bracket and that it’s compatible with older lights.

Cons

  • Proprietary battery is more costly when it comes to needing a replacement.
  • Not a substantial upgrade in performance over the R50, I do like the increased runtime and smaller size though.
  • Only CW non High CRI LED is offered
  • Relatively long charge time for a large 5000mAh battery.
  • A bit on the expensive side

 

Conclusion

The Olight Seeker 2 Pro I feel like is an incremental upgrade over the R50 Pro it takes it’s name from. The smaller form factor, and less weight without reducing performance or runtimes is a nice upgrade. I like the new button and external UI options. Performance wise it’s a nice beam, and 3200 lumens is very bright, but with turbo only lasting 2 minutes and it taking such a large drop to 600 lumens after is a bit disappointing. On this price level of light I would like to see active thermal regulation and not timed step down. I would also be happier with less overall turbo output for longer runtimes at lower output. It’s a little disappointing to see moonlight being 5 lumens here, typically moonlight is 1 lumen or less.

Olights proprietary batteries like other manufactures branded cells tend to be pretty expensive and while I love the 21700 format, it’s proprietary nature and cost ends up being a negative for me. Luckily you should be able to use a standard button top 21700 and a small magnet if you want a less expensive second battery option and are ok with charging on an external charger.

Overall it’s a very capable light that I think people who get one will be happy with as long as you know about it’s cons. I can recommend it with reservations.

If your interested, pick it up from Skyben on Amazon.

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Olight M1T Raider (500 Lumen, Tactical EDC CR123A)

Today I have on my Review table the new Olight M1T Raider. This is a tactical style EDC light with 2 modes, a rear tail switch and upto 500 lumens out of a CR123 battery. In looks it is similar to the Olight I3T I reviewed last month. Thanks to Olight for sending this to me to take a look at.

Full Image Gallery: https://imgur.com/a/dqsO18H
YouTube Version of this Review:

Packaging
Packaging is the familiar white cardboard box that Olight has had on several of their recent releases. On the outside is a large picture of the light, and details are all on the back. The box has a pull tap on the top and you slide out the white tray that contains the light and accessories. In the package you get the light with the removable pocket clip preinstalled, a CR123A Olight branded battery (With plastic insulator that must be removed before use), a lanyard, and an instruction manual that in this case is only in english. I suspect that’s due to this light being released a bit earlier elsewhere in the world a little earlier this summer.





Construction
The M1T is made of aircraft grade aluminum and is hard anodized a semi gloss black. The design is pretty similar to the Olight i3T but with some changes. Starting with the tail switch the top is a grippy rubber with a dimpled pattern. The side walls of the button are plastic, this means you need to actuate it more straight up and down not roll onto it from the side. I like this and think it helps prevent accidental activation. The tail cap has very fine knurling on it that seems to attract dust and dirt easily. The there very back there is a place for the small diameter lanyard to fit. Inside the tail cap instead of a spring, it has a spring loaded brass button.



The body of the light has a helix style spiral like the i3T had but this time it has some straight knurling pressed in, I like the look of this and like the additional grip it provides.

The head is rather simple, no additional heat sink or knurling on the body. The front Olight blue bezel has returned and this time with a DNA catcher of sorts on it. It’s not smooth but not sharp enough to damage you pocket. All branding and marking are on the head. The lens is recessed and a TIR style optic. You can see a few of the wires underneath the TIR optic which is uncustomary.

The pocket clip is a scaled up version of what’s been on the M2T, and i3T to fit the size and proportions of the M1T. This is a good clip in my opinion. It sits reasonably deep, can fit onto a hat

Sizes, Weight, and Comparisons
Overall length 91mm, diameter 21mm. Weight is 65g with the included battery and clip. The light is IPX8 rated.


LED/Runtime
This light uses a Luminus STT40 LED in cool white. The tint isn’t super cool, and more on the neutral side of things. As mentioned previously a TIR style optic sits on top.

!{width:80%}https://i.imgur.com/IAAHwUn.jpg Beamshot!

Runtimes
For my runtime tests I used an Olight branded 650mAh 16340 battery. The light ships with a Olight branded CR123A. Total runtime on the 650mAh battery was 70 minutes. Turbo lasted about 5 minutes and what was notable is that there really was not much sag in light output during this stage. The stop down was sharp and put output at about 55% relative output for the remainder of the 65 minute runtime. Runtime at the end was an abrupt shut off.

This light doesn’t have Low Voltage Protection which is disappointing. The manual specifically says to use protected batteries (RCR1234 or 16340) if using rechargeables which to me means that it doesn’t have LVP. This is disappointing to me for a light in this price range and from a premium brand. However with this family of lights it does seem to be what Olight is doing.

UI
The UI of this light is a simple 2 mode only. It’s similar to Streamlight’s protac tactical series lights. The switch on the rear of the light works in momentary with a half press then can lock on in either of the two modes with a full press. By default the light comes on in high mode. To get to low from off you need to do a very fast double click. I find it easiest to do this in momentary then lock on if needed. It takes a little bit of practice to get right but once you do it’s easy to repeat.

High modes is 500 lumens, and low is 5 lumens. Part of me wishes there was a medium mode of maybe 150 lumens which I find would be nice for EDC uses but it would complicate the UI a little for a tactical light.

Pro

  • For a CR123A light it’s pretty slim, but it could be shorter. Either way I find it carries well in the pocket.
  • The Olight blue bezel is back!
  • I like the new clip, it’s 2 way and carries well

Con

  • No LVP
  • Low mode takes practice to access
  • Cool White only

Conclusion
If you want a tactical (High mode first) EDC light this is a pretty nice option. In essence this is a scaled up version of the Olight i3T. They use the same LED, same style lens and rear button, have a similar clip and exterior design. To me the most disappointing thing to me is the lack of Low Voltage Protection on a light of this price and from a premium manufacturer. Lack of LVP only matters if you are using it with rechargeable batteries but that’s what I do for EDC because it’s a lower cost of operation.

As an EDC this carries nice, and is fairly deep in the pocket. It’s minimal diameter and it’s length isn’t too long. I like TIR style optics on EDC lights because I find the beam patterns to be useful. A good mix of flood and light throw. The UI on this light is good when you remember it’s tactical. While it starts on high it does have low but it takes a little practice to get to easily. Overall this is a nice tactical EDC option available from Olight.