Olight Flashlights - Quality/Value vs others?

In the past I've run Surfire, Streamlight LAPD Gear, SolarForce, Duracell and Fenix. If I was a first responder and lives depend on it, then SureFire would be my first choice. But I'm not and it seems that that Surefire is too expensive for general use. So I prefer the Fenix these days.

One of the things that I can't stand is 18 modes of operation. If the light always comes up in the "default" mode and you need to adjust it, good luck on having THAT dexterity when you need it. It should come up in what ever I set it for and not change until I do something. SureFire still offers single mode lights and and Fenix has a second switch for the mode. The StreamLight have an option for that programmed through the Ten-Tap system (WTF)?

I've seen some people with Olight products. The seem to have a little different take on things and are innovative.

Does anyone have experience with Olight Flash lights in different uses? Any issues?

 

@Toy_Runner ?

 

Haha, thanks for the tag-in.

I actually don't have much personal experience with olight. I don't collect lights like I used to. I do try to keep tabs on what is kinda going on with LED development.

Olight kindof gets a bad rap. They ha e some very interesting designs, but unlike a lot of other makers, they stick with cold white, low CRI leds almost exclusively. They offer some lights with built in charging, which is very handy, but generally this also means using one of their proprietary cells.

I've also been very late to begin to adopt Li-ion cells for most of my lights. I am stacked pretty deep with lithium primary AA and CR123, so most of my lights use these, or I now look for lights that can use both 2CR123 and a single Li-ion.

I can point you towards an excellent resource for perusing what all is available out there.

http://flashlights.parametrek.com/index.html

Lets you pare down literally thousands of available lights, based on what specs you are looking for.

From the sounds of it, you are definitely looking for lights with "mode memory," which will turn back on wherever you last had it set. You may also want to look at flashlights with rotary controls, where physically turning a control ring lets you adjust the output.

These days, I tend to really stick with High CRI and low-to-neutral color temps. You can still get relatively high lumen output lights, they just won't be *as bright* or *as efficient* as low cri, cold white LED lights. However, being able to effectively see things more than makes up for that, in generalnuse lights.

If you are not looking for necessarily "hard use" lights, you may want to look at Wurkkos. I've been gifting wurkkos FC11's to friends and family. They have a flat tailcap with amagnet that is strong enough to hold the light, a n electronic side switch that flashes to tell you the condition of the battery charge, as well as when it is completed charging. It has two selectable user interfaces, one with either stepped outputs, or the other where it will ramp up and down in brightness as the switch is held. Either UI has mode memory, as well as immediate access to both the lowest output and the turbo output from off. Has USB-C charging for its 18650 battery, and comes with a cable to plug into any USB A port to charge. It is not a spot light, but offers reasonable reach for such a small light, and is available with LEDs ranging from 2700k warm white to 5000k, all in High CRI.

 

That's an awesome resource (http://flashlights.parametrek.com/index.html)

For "hard use" I have a SureFire, StreamLight and the Fenix (seems to hold up fine). The first two are a bit dated and lack the lumens for outdoor use, but for indoors work fine. However, they love CR123A batteries. More please.

This is for a second yard (standard suburban 6K SF lot) light, something to walk the dog or leave in the cars. So anywhere from 500-1000 lumen is pretty good. Although, it's easy to get caught up in the lumen wars and want the 25K Lumen just to annoy the neighbors! Anything over 150 lumens indoors is just a waste and just a little blinding. Maybe when I build my mansion on the mountain will need a bigger house lights.

I will check out the Wurkkos.

Thanks!

 

I have an olight sr2 2 - I've had it for about a year and a half as an edc flashlight. It's roughly the size of a roll of quarters & drops right into my pocket. It's pretty bright (1150 lumens max) for its size & has a very very slight warm (green) color. I've definitely seen worse - green colored beams on other lights.
It's supposed to remember the last setting you used but mine seems to default to the medium setting for some reason. Other than that, it's been a great little light; the battery is starting to fade lately though.
Some people don't like the magnetic changing system, but I love it - it's kiss simple and will not wear out like a micro USB will.