I've noticed that certain other places on the internet, especially those focused more on EDC gear than just flashlights, seem to be big fans of Olight. But it seems like Olight doesn't get much love here, or at least not nearly as much as elsewhere.
Is there a reason for that? The only thing I could come up with is that their lights seem a bit resistant to modding. Is that it or is there something more?
I think it’s their refusal for the most part, in supplying more options for emitters and tints. They seem to really like their cold white emitters leaving a bunch of folks feeling left out. They have made a few warmer emitter options and a few high CRI lights but the vast majority of them continue on with cold white emitters and pretty steep prices. Yes, some of them can be quite difficult to get apart as well.
Here are some misfeatures Olight has been guilty of, often repeatedly:
They’re a large enough, experienced enough company that they’re not doing any of these things by accident. Instead, they seem to think the average consumer doesn’t care or know what to look for. They’re probably right, but BLF is more discerning.
I think I found a new favourite post on this forum. Well done.
Although I’d amend one thing: not only does Olight offer cool white emitters almost exclusively, it’s exceptionally rare to get one that doesn’t tote a weird tint shift, often tilting towards green.
From my point of view its the lack of tint choices and proprietary batteries.
Im looking at an Olight H2R nova right now but you can only use the charging feature if its an olight battery you have in the flashlight.
Now bearing in mind even the cheapest chinese makers can manage to figure out how to add usb charging for any battery how can olight not manage this? The logical answer for me is that they chose to have this limitation, so you have to buy THEIR batteries! Thats apple level naughty.
And for me i get a bit annoyed with the prices, sometimes i see the price and do a double take thinking its a misprint!
zak.wilson’s post is very on point though, i agree with his assertions.
I have an M2R and I agree, the tint shift is horrible and ugly. I am always on the brink of swapping it out for an XHP-35 Hi like maukka did. Contrary to most people on BLF I don’t like warm tints so I am good with that too. I don’t know how you can be “guilty” of using cool white LEDs. I wonder if people who are not on BLF would even care. I have a D4 in XPL-Hi 5000K and even that seems a little warm for me. Still good though. I ordered my FireFlies E07 in 4000K 95% CRI to test it and then swap emitters even though I already know I probably won’t like it but it was the cheapest E07 option and I can test 95% CRI before attempting the swap. For some reason unknown to man I did not see that there is a 5700K option for the Samsung LH351D as well. Meh.
On the other hand, my M2R charges my Klarus batteries with the internal charger just fine. It does not flicker. It does not start a fire when the port is bridged (and they fixed that for the H2R and shipped fixed end caps to anyone asking for it for free). It works just fine and I am very pleased with it. It seems that Olight tends to mess up on some models but others not.
Edit: Okay. I just ordered an XHP-35 Hi 5700K for the M2R. Let’s see what will happen. 
I would like to make a difference between general and particular (perspective).
From a general perspective I do agree with zak.wilson and Jack Kellar.
From a particular perspective I would like to ad that I am very pleased with my MX2UT with dedomed XM-L2.
I guess the dedoming takes care of most of the bluish tint that a cold white led normally emits. And while your first impression of this light might be that it has a very lean body, it does not feel fragile in any way at all.
Chemical dedomes tend to shift tint warmer and greener. My M3XS-UT was about 4000K and super green.
I think this is the reason, and not exclusive to Olight per se:
—— People (including me) discover flashlights, mostly at first the major brands like Olight, etc…
—— Then we discover/stumble onto BLF.
Olight is pretty decent in quality. But customer service FAILS big time. I saw some heavy duty resistance on youtube. Man those lights stood very well. I saw Powertac Warrior put through the ringer and still worked as well.
I guess depends on what you like. I own a few Olights and they perform well. Pricing is ANOTHER story.
One of my top 5 lights is a Olight. It’s a old M18 Maverick. Super simple dual switch light. Easy to open so it has a better emitter now. Only 3 modes with a hidden strobe and 500L max. Most of the time that is more than enough. Works forever it seems on a MJ1. Has held up well. Don’t really own enough of them to talk about longevity or customer service.
Todd, you are the man when it comes of 500-800 lumens lights.
I agree with all the stated before me.
Also their value/performance ratio is pretty low.
the only good think about olight is their superb customer service, at least from my experience with two of their flashlight, no hangups like klarus, not too much questions like nitecore, they just fixed it right away and even sent an additional flashlight just incase if the replacement part for the tailcap doesnt work.
their olight warrior series has been a really solid deal back in 6 years ago, most of my buddies from the military and reserve unit has sworn by them and still probably is until today, but unfortunately the last light(s) i have from them will be olight M20 javelot and S1 baton until they actually come up with something decent
ever since they moved away from true tactical design and inserted plenty unnecessary modes into it, flat tailcap which made uneasy access with surefire handgun grip technique, rendering the tactical grip ring useless to be put on in the first place, adding in reviews from tacticool-operator wannabe guys with dozens of “cool” phase rather than “practical” driving olight seriously off track from what the real user needs
i get what they’re doing, even people who dont care about flashlight are seen using them due to their marketing, but sadly thats what they get from moving into another field
Much as I may give Olight a hard time, this checks out. I’ve had bad parasitic drain issues on an S1 Baton and a defective driver on an S30 Baton purchased on clearance a few years back, and they sent me a new S1 and a brand new S2 to replace the S30 (they no longer had any more) after I contacted them.
Just remember: if your Olight is messed up, contact them, not a middleman. I went through Battery Junction to get warranty on an S10R that up and died a week after arrival, and in the end it cost me 120 frickin’ dollars, original purchase and shipping included :-T
Can’t say much about UI options and tints, the Olights I have had experience with have been broken (which is why they ended up with me) so I’ve been modding/rebuilding them with my own drivers and LED choices. I can say that the Olight hosts I have dealt with are top notch though.
I think the majority of olight users dont need anything else then cool white, and their selection of lights is good it was because of them that got me into the buying expensive brands coming from lame ultrafire lights from the beginning.
I think you’re right. I do seem to have more than a few of them. I do have 11 lights over 1000 and 4 over 2000. Lots of AA and 16340 lights much below 1000. I had never really counted or thought about it till you mentioned it. I still swoon over the MF01 or the DX80. Just haven’t been able to bring myself to do it.
I have a lot of Olights and so far, none of them have the flicker issue.
I have 5 of their lights, two are modded so their is no tint issue there. I like 4000K to 5000K the best but deal w/ the cooler tints.
I never had an issue with any of these lights except for the S1 mini baton that I won in a GAW ,Christmas 2017. I thought it may be the driver,I was wrong. They sent me a brand new battery first, before they wanted me to send the light back. The battery was the issue.Not sure why I thought it was the driver.The point is, even though I got this light for free, they took care of me.
Anyway, they resolved the issue for that, sent me FREE cigar rings for my M2X and sent me another FREE holster. I have ZERO complaints about Olight.Although, like others I do wish they would have lights w/ warmer tints.
Lastly, I do NOT like lights with Proprietary batteries, whether it be theirs or another manufacturers. I have zero lights w/ this set up and will never buy a light that has it. I like using my own batteries and Do NOT want to depend on the manufacturer for their EXPENSIVE replacement!