Review: Olight S2 Copper

First of all I’d like to say thanks to Olight for sending me this light for review. I probably shouldn’t have accepted, but it was the first Olight I’ve used and I was curious.

Second of all I’d like to apologize to Alicia at Olight. Soon after I got this light my life got a bit busy and all things flashlight fell on the back burner for a couple months. So this review is quite late. Hopefully me disappearing with this expensive light didn’t cause her too much trouble at work.

I just hope Olight actually uses this review for feedback, and not to just sell lights and generate clicks.

Now to the review:

I am not going to go into a bunch of detail because there are other reviews out there and Olight publishes their own specs. I’m just going to give my impressions and the things that stuck out to me as a first-time Olight user.

The presentation is very nice, which I expected from a more “premium” company than what I usually buy, but it was still well done. The box fit the light well without being too big, and since this light is bare copper (that develops a patina very easily) they vacuum sealed the light in a little pouch inside the box. As such it came out very shiny and beautiful. Definitely a good first impression.

It also came with a few accessories, one of them a hard plastic diffuser cone that is a tight fit over the head. This cone may have been my favorite part of the light. I haven’t had one before, but I can see it being used in many situations, one of them being bathroom runs. This light has a good moon mode, and a nice low mode too, both of which combined with the diffuser and the tailstanding capabilities make for soft, even lighting. It also is itself GITD, which is a nice touch.

Brightness is par for the course, the typical 900-1200 lumens or whatever people are claiming these days. It doesn’t make much of a difference.The moon mode was more impressive to me, it’s the lowest one of any light I have, and I like that.

The size is also great for an 18650 light, the tail magnet is actually strong enough to hold in most situations, and the clip is well-designed.

There are a couple things that make me want to leave this light on the shelf though.

The Copper.
I can think of two reasons to use copper in a light, to look fancy, or to suck up some heat. The Olight has a terrible thermal path because of how Olight saves space, but it doesn’t make enough heat to need it anyways, As far as looks, this is up to preference, and I know I am different from other people. When the copper starts to “patina”, it just looks dirty to me. If it had a coating to keep it shiny like it arrived in the package, that would give it the premium look. But as it is, in my mind, it makes it look worse than an anodized light. The copper weighs way more than aluminum, and it really adds nothing. Plus, it makes your hands smell :confounded: .

All of that can be avoided by just saving your cash and buying the aluminum version. So again, it’s preference.

The knurling doesn’t help with the dirty look though, and that’s the same for the black version. It’s very grippy, so that’s a plus, but the grooves attract a lot of dirt which would take a long time to clean out with your fingernail or a toothbrush.

The other thing I didn’t really like was the UI. I have mixed feelings towards it. In some situations, it was really nice. I liked the shortcuts from off to moon, your last mode, or turbo. But it never really felt natural, and it always felt slow.

Lastly, Olight, you really need to offer more tints. As far as cool white goes, this one wasn’t bad, but in many people’s opinions cool white is always bad. You lose a lot of buyers and lower buyers’ satisfaction by not having more options. This copper light was begging for something in the 4c-5d range

Most of my dislikes were related to the copper. Anybody want to trade for an S15R? :smiley:

I most certainly would, if I had one. Nice review. I agree that the copper really should have a warmer tint. Even though I don’t like anything warmer than Neutral usually, the warmer tint would just feel right coming out of a copper light.

S15R for S2 Cu?

I like 14500 lights, and I like the looks of Olight’s little charging dock. I didn’t pay for this light, so maybe myself and another member could both get a good deal out of it.

Might cost a little more to ship the S2 though…

cross-reference, one among many (the Search tool will find them all)
Teardown: Olight S2 tear down

(includes how to pry the bezel off, etc.)

Yeah…. after seeing how many reviews Olight had going I was really hesitant, but I had already received and used the light so I felt obligated to post my thoughts.

Precisely! To be honest, I can't stand my Astrolux A01 Cu too. I only accept copper flashlight with clear coating from now.

Men come in all shapes and sizes. And so is their sensory perception, of which smell is the most significant. There are smells that make some people vomit on the spot while other people can’t even tell if the source of it is in the room or not.
The smell of copper reminds me of ancient steam engines with open coal fires and copper bearings that are so pushed to the limit that the lubricant is almost set on fire. Maybe it is not the smell itself, but what it stands for.
Closer to home: sitting on the sofa after walking the dog in the rain. Feet on the table, hot mug of coffee in the hand. And the dog jumps next to you and lays its still wet head on your knee. If lightning would strike that second, I would die a happy man. Not if my wife jumped on the sofa, smelling like that. :wink:

Thanks for the honest review.

I also was unhappy with the smell on my hand after I first tried a copper light. But I found out some information that helped me see it from a different perspective. Copper kills germs, really quickly. If your read this link Oligodynamic effect you will learn more about the germ killing properties. I now intentionally buy copper lights, because of the germicidal properties.

trivia: Putting a silver or copper coin in a water container, prevents algae, kills ecoli bacteria, and keeps the water sanitary. I now think of the copper smell as being sanitizing, as if its the smell of dying bacteria (thought it is not exactly that, the copper does kill them).

If copper is coated with a shine protectant, that eliminates its germ killing properties. fwiw, there is a quick way to reshine copper, Catsup! Yes, soak a copper light in catchup, and it comes out shiny again. Its actually the vinegar in catsup that does it. You could use vinegar instead.

here is a video about that

For people that do not like the dirty tarnished copper look Olight offered the S1 in “Rose Gold Copper”. The Rose Gold version does not tarnish, because it is a PVD coating, a type of Titanium that is colored to look like copper, but is actually Titanium. Titanium does not kill germs, but it stays shiny. Choices are good.

I don’t know what Olight uses for their Rose Gold lights, but true Rose Gold is actually an alloy of Gold and Copper.

Edit: Fixed. Thanks, PD!

Im talking about Olight “Rose Gold”:
https://olightworld.com/store/flashlight/s1-baton-raw-copper-98.html
“there are two finishes available which include the raw version and the polished rose gold version”
“The polished rose gold PVD coated body of S1-CU provides the light with a clean and elegant appearance”

the way Olight defines their Rose Gold, has nothing to do with real Gold, it is Titanium Vapor Deposition. It is not a Copper surface, it does not tarnish, and it is in no way Real Gold, nor Real Copper. Olight just made up a name for a Titanium finish that does not tarnish.

you may also know that Olight called one of their lights “Copper”, but its actually Brass. The words Olight uses are not very accurate.
https://olightworld.com/store/flashlight/i3s-cu-eos-matte-finish.html
“The I3S- CU EOS (I3S-CU) is an all new flashlight powered by a single AAA battery in titanium-gold color. It is made of high heat conductivity and low electrical resistivity brass alloy.”

Note Olight called the I3S light CU (that means copper), but the light is not copper, it is titanium coated BRASS. BRASS is not COPPER. And Olight Rose Gold is a Titanium color, not a precious metal alloy of real gold and real copper.

http://goinggear.com/olight-i3s-cu-eos-limited-edition-matte-brass-1-x-aaa-cree-xp-l-180-lumen-led-keychain-flashlight.html
NOTE: These flashlights are NOT COPPER, but actually a BRASS flashlight. The labeling on the light is misleading, and is not actually a copper flashlight.

anyway, yes the S2 is Real Copper, and it tarnishes, and it kills germs, and it can be cleaned with Ketchup.

That comment was enormously amusing. :slight_smile: Thank you. I truly appreciate when someone uses words to paint a picture like that. :+1:

> brass alloy

yeek

Totally agreed. Companies that stubbornly refuse to use anything other than cool-white LEDs, lose a lot of potential business.

However, I have noticed that XP-L cool white is a big improvement over the cool white of early XP-G2 and XM-L2. There’s a lot less of the sickly green tint in the corona. But, even a clean cool-white tint suffers from (usually) low CRI washed-out colors, harsh on the eyes, and lots of back-scattering in humid conditions.

Bare copper lights are my idea of cool. Love them. Love the look, ever changing, love the smell, love the taste. Just love them. The muckier the better.

Hey PD, I happen to have a leftover Christmas gift S15R still new in the box. As I already have one in my EDC rotation I would be willing to trade. Only Cu light I have is the Astrolux, would like to have a larger copper light. What do you think? Thanks, Terry.

Dang Scrumpy! Don’t lick your flashlights. I think it’s like a rule or something… :stuck_out_tongue:

A few photos added

Well I now have an S15R instead of a copper S2 (I think I got a good deal?)

Much better now. I just need to get in there with a different tint…

Pilotdog68, if you think it’s a win-win-situation, then it IS a win-win-situation :person_facepalming:
If only I lived one ocean less away from to you (sigh).