Review: Olight H16 (2xXP-G3, Wave feature)

Budda

Enlightened
Joined
Nov 30, 2009
Messages
590
Location
Italy
I received the H16 from Olight for the review.

The H16 is a simple headlamp with 2 XP-G3 emitters in 2 different optics providing a combined beam, powered by a provided li-po 2000mAh battery pack. The H16 has Olight "Wave" feature, which means you can turn on and off the light by waving your hand near the head of the light without actually touching it.

The H16 comes already mounted on the Olight elastic headband. You can already see its distinctive feature: the double flood/throw optic of the 2 XP-G3 emitters, as well as its small size (54x24x38 mm, everything weights 107 grams).
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Here you can see the blue electronic switch on the headlamp, as well as the LED underneath it.
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On the back of the headlamp unit there are some cooling fins. As you can see the headlamp can tilt into 4 different positions, marked by a distinct "click" of the housing.
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The H16 adopts the same battery pack of the HS2: a 2000mAh lipo battery in a squared box, with 4 LEDs that act as a battery indicator (function that is activated pressing the switch on the battery), and will start beeping once you reach the 10% of the battery capacity. The battery pack is rechargeable via micro USB port.
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The Wave features can be deactivated and the H16 can be used as a regular clicky light (click to turn the light on at high, press again for medium, again for low, again for off).
The wave feature could be assured by proximity sensor near the switch (I tried shining a bright light on them without being able to trick it) that detects the quick passage of a corpse near the front of the light (as if you wave at the light with your hand).
To activate the wave you keep pressed the switch when the light is on. The led under the switch will turn on to indicate the activation of the wave mode. When the wave mode is active, the switch will scroll through the levels and turn the light off, but it is possible to quickly turn off the light (although it's more correct to say that you put the H16 in standby) from the selected mode by waving once at the light (either from left to right or right to left), and turn the light on at the last used mode by waving again (either direction). The motion has to happen right in front of the headlamp unit, with a distance of 2-6 inches.
When the light is in standby mode the LED under the switch will stay on.
After one hour in standby mode without being turned on, the H16 will turn off.

It is not possible to use only one of the two emitters at a time.
Beamshots at 1 meter from the wall.
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Output and runtime
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My thoughts
The H16 is well built and finished.
The tested output are well regulated and the buzzer effectively alerts of your battery running low.
I would have preferred if the light had 4 outputs instead of 3, although given the interface, less levels make turning off the light a faster process.
The beam is fine for a headlamp, with a balanced beam good for close distances.
As far as the wave feature, it can be seen both as a "novelty" feature, and as a working help. There are several situation where turning on and off the light without touching it can be of help, like when in the cold, when wearing big gloves (or having objects in your hand) or not wanting to touch the light because you have dirty hands.
At high level, when you wave, you have to close your eyes to avoid being blinded by the reflection of your hands.

Given the physical nature of the wave functioning system, it is possible to put the light in and out of the standby mode (when the wave is activated) if you move fastly when close to objects in a horizontal (left to right and viceversa) way. The wave works when the object is at a few cm away from the light, so you are going to run in this occasion if you practice close distance wall hunting, if you work inside a strict space (like the inside of a case) or if you wave objects (like the doors of a cabinet) close to your head.
Of course all of this can be avoided turning the wave feature of the H16 off.

I don't like that I have to cycle through all the levels to turn the light off.
I'd like if I could turn the light on at a low mode with a shortcut.
I'd like if I could have a NW version of the light.

Thanks to AntoLed for the camera help and the luxmeter.
 
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