[review] Odepro TM30 kit

I have to say, I usually am quite skeptical when I see the word “tactical” anywhere, like a “tactical”… cigarette-lighter??, but the TM30 is actually geared towards “tactical” use, vs usual EDC (everyday carry) lights. That said, the TM30 actually comes across as “tactical”. :smiley:

Just opening up the blown-poly carrying-case, you have the foam inserts that hold everything: the light, two (2) cells, charging cable, lanyard, charger, extra O-rings, holster, probably something else that I’m forgetting. But you’re all set, no need to buy anything else. And having 2 cells is a nice touch. Have the second one charged and ready to go if you run down the first no waiting.

First, the holster. Very nice! Stitching is perfect, material seems top-notch, and enough room to carry the light lens-up or lens-down. That’s a first that I’ve seen, with wider-head lights (vs tubelights). It also has a dual system for simple belt-carry or Molle system (with snap). Nice!

The charger is quite nice, but has a glitch, at least on mine. Being able to quick-check the battery level with the 4 LEDs can come in handy, at least for a ballpark idea how much juice a cell has left. A quick press on the side-button lights up 1-4 LEDs as a quick “gas gauge”. The glitch? The slider. It pushes back easily when done parallel to the slider, but when pushed at an angle, eg, with the negative end of the cell, it binds tightly and won’t slide back. I had to push it all the way back with my finger and then put the cell into position. Kinda clumsy in practice, but I’m hoping it was only mine and isn’t common to all chargers.

The light itself has flawless ano, a nice semigloss black. No nicks or bare spots anywhere. I hate clips, so I immediately removed this one, so can’t really comment on it. Also, I hate “tactical rings”, but removing mine leaves a small gap between tailcap and battery-tube, so I put it back. I generally hate lanyards too, as they just get in the way, so again I removed mine. I just want a simple bare light, no “flashlight bling” at all. But, hey, people like them and use them, so go crazy. They work, no complaints.

I can see purple coming off the front glass, telling me it’s AR-coated (anti-reflection, better light transmission). A really nice orange-peel reflector gets rid of any artifacts and smooths out the beam, and I’m a fan of OP reflectors, so yay! No greening of the beam because of the AR-coating, either!

There are two switches on the light, a tailswitch at the end (on/off), and a selector switch on the side of the tailcap, the first I’ve seen. That’s perfect for me and anyone else who holds the light “icepick” style, or if you use the blasted “tactical ring” by holding the light “cigar style”.

With the light off, pressing the selector switch immediately goes into strobe. I know, I know, I hate strobe, too, but for a tactical light, if you want to annoy your target to death, use the strobe. It’s there, even from off. Revel in it.

With the light on, pressing the side-switch changes modes, 4 levels, from “turbo”, to high, medium, low. I’d personally tweak the mode-spacing, as turbo and high are very close in brightness, and low can always be lower. But turbo is, as I mentioned, hella bright.

Tint is on the cool side, 6500K if I had to guess. I prefer warmer, but cooler tints usually provide more brightness vs warmer tints, so the aim being Massive Light Output™, Odepro went with cool-white, which is understandable.

So, to quickly wrap up…

Pros: it’s hella bright, everything is included, two cells vs one or none, nice “gas gauge“ on the charger even without needing external power, top-notch holster, instant access to strobe if/when you want it, built like a tank, and even looks pretty, really handy-dandy carrying case.

Cons: binding slider on the charger, mode-spacing could be more evenly spaced, tint could be at least neutral- instead of cool-white, tac-ring isn’t removable without leaving a gap.

All in all, it’s The Whole Package™. Nicely thought-out, it does the job and does it well, and as long as you keep in mind that it’s a tactical light vs everyday-carry, it ticks all the boxes.

Nicely done!

Thanks for sharing and hope you like our TM30~~~

You gonna Strooooooobe it tactically :wink:
It is a nice flashlight after all, right, LB? :beer:

Yep, I was very pleasantly surprised. The kit is really an entire kit, everything you need to get set up with the light, no need to hunt around for batteries, or a charger, or cable, or holster, or any of that.

This can be pushed to security guards, mall-cops, anyone who needs a (I know, I hate the word for being so overused) “tactical” light vs an everyday-carry.

I didn’t “take apart” the light itself, as we had pretty bad thunderstorms last night, but I’n dying to know how the tailswitches work. :smiley: I expect <something>-from-off to be handled by an e-switch near the head, but not in the tailcap. Clever! :smiley:

I mentioned elsewhere that instant-strobe can have some legitimate uses. :smiley:

As for “self-defense” like you see on teevee on the Tac-Light commercial, strobing a house-intruder in the face would likely only annoy him that he’d take the light away from you and beat you to death with it.

But for joggers, especially on dark roads at night, when you see a car’s headlights coming your way from around the bend, either in front of you or behind you, unless you’re lit up like a Christmas tree, the car can be right on top of you (maybe literally) before the driver would even see you. So at the first sign of headlights coming around the bend, just strobe the road/trees around you to wake up the driver and make sure he knows something or someone is out there.

I gave my gf an older SP10A, with the older 2click-for-strobe UI, and she uses that when jogging. So a 2click from on or off will start strobing the surrounding scenery.

This might be a good marketing aspect of the TM30. Add joggers to the list of potential buyers. :smiley:

Really nice, I’d say. Threads were smooth and nicely lubed, had a nice hefty feel to it without being overly heavy, even the switches had a nice feel, nice and solid.

They done good. :party:

Oh yeah, was the TM30 the one you reviewed a while back? I probably asked this already before, but forgot the answer. :smiley:

Wait I thought this is 600 lumens only. That doesn’t sound so bright for an 18650. Even top of the line AA lights can reach 550 lumens.
Thanks for the review.

Indeed, I deed (reviewed it) and reached the same conclusion you did about walking at night :wink:
I even added the diffuser to walk at night that is very handy to warn drivers without blinding them directly :wink:

Hum, for joggers maybe it is a bit heavy (if running) but for “walkers” it is definitely a pretty nice flashlight either using strobe or the “tactical” instant switch! Maybe runners need lighter flashlight as the SP10A with which they can run without doing weight lifting :smiley:

I do appreciate this flashlight very much and I knew that you’d like it too, despite the strooooobe :smiley: I will not mess around when the full click is done, only when it is OFF :stuck_out_tongue:

More than that, ODEPRO delivers flashlights with awesome anodizing and overall quality! And…we can also mod them in some things (I did with the KL52, driver and LED)! :+1:

Might be. I accidentally got myself in the face when trying to tailstand it, and only saw big green blobs for a while after. :person_facepalming:

But shining it on the opposite wall, it seemed pretty bright. I’ll have to look again tonight.

Aaaah, I’m burning down alkaleaks in my SP10 instead of using 14500s. Couldda skewed my “relative brightness” judgment.

Hah, just went through your review and noticed a few differences. The glass on mine seems to be AR-coated, as it had a purple sheen when reflecting(!) a table-lamp. Also, the lanyard hole isn’t in the tac-ring on mine, but at the edge of the tailcap, kinda hindering tailstanding. Not that I use many lights for tailstanding anyway, but if it’s “tactical” enough for people to want, keep it in mind.

Still am now, but even back then, man, I was hostile to lanyards and clips and tac-rings. :smiley: Nah, all that junk just seems to get in the way. But there may be circumstances where you’d want one or more of them.

Eg, someone using a small light in a purse might want the lanyard to loop through a key-ring or something. Or a nice deep-carry clip to sit low in a pocket, as long as it doesn’t get in the way, either. Tac-rings, sorry, I just don’t see the appeal in any circumstances, unless you’re a devout cigar-hold fan.

And I tend to call it a “syringe-hold” anyway, as I don’t know many people who hold a cigar that way. It’s just not a very secure hold, for a cigar or especially a flashlight.

But, on the bright (haha) side, most of that junque comes off! :smiley:

I’ll poke around some more and look into details, maybe grab more pix…

Hum, the lens on mine is not AR, for sure! They may have improved it! But…doesn’t yours have a tint shift due to that (as the Zanfkare F1)?

About the lanyard hole, maybe I didn’t mention in on the review, but mine also has it in the edge of the tail, see here:

Once the light doesn’t tailstand, I don’t mind using the lanyard there :stuck_out_tongue: But I got your point!!

Yeah, I also took mine out, it doesn’t help much here! I also did it in the Nitefox UT20 as the grip wasn’t improved. However, in a light like the Odepro KL52 (Brynite B158) I wish there was an optional tac ring :smiley:

Man, you’re awesome inventing names for the stuff :smiley: Serynge-hold is much better than cigar grip xD We must inject some light in the world :sunglasses: