team olight or fenix?
- Thread starter vimastec
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Not sure if this is a question or just showing us some lights, but for me, it's Fenix
Olight lost my interest with their proprietary battery nonsense, but both have their up- and downsides.
Fenix lights are, to my knowledge difficult to modify / do LED-swaps, and their LED choices are pretty much low-CRI all over the board. And they absolutely had to chase Nitecore in the pointless Lumen race, exchanging runtime for thermally unsustainable Turbo-modes.
Olight have a larger range of LED-options, and typically a more aesthetically pleasing design. Though I have personally always been a more function over form-guy. And Olight is supposedly, at least with some models, easier to modify.
Both have as far as I know good build quality and warranty, and I would overall give my money to Olight if not for that special battery requirement BS.
I know not all Olight lights uses a proprietary battery, but they are really bad at conveying which of their models needing a special cell, and for that alone, I go with Fenix.
Olight lost my interest with their proprietary battery nonsense, but both have their up- and downsides.
Fenix lights are, to my knowledge difficult to modify / do LED-swaps, and their LED choices are pretty much low-CRI all over the board. And they absolutely had to chase Nitecore in the pointless Lumen race, exchanging runtime for thermally unsustainable Turbo-modes.
Olight have a larger range of LED-options, and typically a more aesthetically pleasing design. Though I have personally always been a more function over form-guy. And Olight is supposedly, at least with some models, easier to modify.
Both have as far as I know good build quality and warranty, and I would overall give my money to Olight if not for that special battery requirement BS.
I know not all Olight lights uses a proprietary battery, but they are really bad at conveying which of their models needing a special cell, and for that alone, I go with Fenix.
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Same. If those were my only two choices, I'm going with Fenix.
Fenix for me. The Olights I've had have not impressed me very much. I detest models that give short turbo bursts and quickly step down. Also, anything with a proprietary battery is a total deal breaker now. Can't swap the cell with something commonly available?.......hard pass. Thanks for playing.
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Once and only once was I able to crack open a PD40Rv2 and swapped the emitter out with a high CRI XML. It was a beauty with the rotary control. I regret selling it.
rwolfenstein
Enlightened
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Olight went away from dual fuel models and uses crummy specialty batteries. Fenix still makes most of their models dual fuel and I also feel like the build quality is a bit better.
Hanging round these parts, and members, or better described as enablers. You're gonna need a table to take a photo of your lights! .... :yellowlaugh:
Good catch, I didn't even consider that. :O
Fitting all the lights in the hand is a good start, but you are right - in these parts of the interwebz, it shouldn't be long until that is no longer possible, and a table becomes a requirement to lay all the lights out.
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Schokokeks
Flashlight Enthusiast
I'd be pretty sad if that were my only choices.
To be honest, I find both brands to carry a premium price for better-than-average-but-still-Chinese quality. While I tend to be kind of hard on Zebralight for having what I consider a reputation that's a bit overboard for their quality, I do find their lights to still be a better value than both Olight and Fenix.
That being said, the small AAA Olights can be had for $5 shipped? I think those are a great value, and the Perun Mini headband is excellent for a LOT of other lights.
I've not really seen anything from Fenix that excites me, ESPECIALLY for their prices. They're often at Weltool prices, and I think Weltool is the best made Chinese brand. Fenix seems to only offer hideous, low CRI beams in a very, very expensive package.
At least Olight runs some fire sales.
I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think I might prefer Olight as a brand. The ENTIRE POINT of Chinese manufacturing is to be cheap, and Olight - on sale only - can be an okay value, while I just find Fenix to be chronically overpriced. When they're on an aggressive sale, I think some of the Olight offerings to offer a good value. Off sale? No way. If Fenix regularly blew out lights for half price, I'd 100% pick them over Olight. Fenix products are absolutely superior, but just not worth the price premium.
For some of the prices of Fenix lights, you're getting into Malkoff prices. I can get a Convoy to have a big blast of light with a drop down in output, so I'm not sure the value proposition of a more durable Convoy with similar performance - with durability nowhere in the same league as Malkoff. Plus, let's be honest. 750 lumens vs. 3000 lumens in person isn't as impressive as it looks on paper.
I'm guessing most of us here have gone through the BIG NUMBER CHASING phase, only to realize how little difference it makes in the real world, haha.
So, at the end of the day, I think both of these brands are charging a HUGE premium for a quality level that's just not there, so the fact that Olight blows stuff out regularly near half price makes them my pick.
Still, I'm only buying that AAA light and that headband from them, unless they can figure out what CRI means, haha. I'd pay $15 on sale for one of their AA lights in a high CRI variant, and feel it was a good value.
I could be wrong here, but doesn't the output power have to be 4x to make a 2x perception in illumination?
So 750 Lumen to 3000 Lumen should come across as twice as bright. Which is pretty significant.
I went from a Fenix PD35 (2014 model) with 960 Lumen to an Acebeam EC50 Gen. 2 with 3000 Lumen as a work light when I got a new job back in the day, and for me that went from barely usable to definitely usable. My current worklight is a 10000 Lumen Fenix LR35R, and I don't need anything more powerful than that pretty much ever.
And oh yeah, I have tried chasing the Lumens. Too much money for not much improvement, I agree. That said though, I bought an 18000 Lumen Fenix LR80R on behalf of a friend of mine, and I have NOTHING that can match that.
Okay, I can easily match it for pure throw with my Fenix TK30 LEP, or even my 30 USD Convoy L21B, but when comes to throw AND flood, I don't have anything close. Closest I have in Lumen on paper is my 12000 Lumen Sofirn Q8+, but side-by-side, the LR80R teabags it.
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Easy choice for me
I have not, and will not, purchase Olight flashlights
I have not, and will not, purchase Olight flashlights
Schokokeks
Flashlight Enthusiast
Sure, but 750 lumens is really bright as a baseline, so "twice as bright" (unless we're talking wildly different candela ratings) just fills in a bit more light around the edges whenever I play around with this outside. I find candela differences are really easy to see, but at a certain point, jaw dropping differences require jaw dropping increases in lumens.
I've found reflectors are a lot more important that overall brightness, most of the time. Philosophically, I do think Henry at HDS is kind of on the money about brightness. That being said, 200 lumens vs. 2000 is clearly a large difference, and an impressive one at that. Perfectly like for like, with say, a Malkoff M61N (400) vs M61NL (200 lumens) is frustratingly hard to see a difference. I have a perennial aggravation using my Malkoff M361 in neutral because I RARELY am in a situation where I can tell if I'm at medium (200 lumens) versus high (500 lumens). I usually have to stop what I'm doing, cycle through while counting in order to figure out which is which. Unless I am staring at a wall, or something at the very edge of the illuminated area, I just cannot tell a difference.
I spent a bunch of money on this Acebeam E75, which was just over 3X (950 vs. 3000) as bright as my Wildcat, and...yeah, it's clearly brighter, but man...I was disappointed. It reminds me of the first time I got a 1000 lumen light, and turned it on. "I mean...yeah..." It's clearly brighter than my ~200-250 lumen lights, but it's not as much of a difference as the huge gulf between the numbers would lead you to believe. 80 lumens to 800 is "Wow!" I'm starting to come to terms with I need a factor of 10 increase to be "impressed" by one light being brighter than another. Otherwise, it's more of a, "Well, I can see that's brighter, and tell a difference, but..."
Of course, if you're talking about using a light at the EDGE of it's ability, and THEN increasing the brightness, that doubling IS significant.
For my environment, candela being the same, I find about 500-750 lumens is as bright as I use outside to light everyone up in my focus range. Additional brightness above that doesn't really add anything, as I can already see things clearly at the distance I can see things clearly with about 500-750 lumens.
This reminded me why I think this is an interesting conversation.
Because, despite my argument for Olight being the better brand, I 100% agree with this. I REALLY hate Olight as a brand. They've just been so scummy in the past. I hold Fenix is much higher esteem, and I find their products to be MUCh better - but Olight gets aggressive on pricing.
So, despite me saying Olight is the "better" of the two, I'm still MORE LIKELY to buy a Fenix before an Olight (save for those $5 AAA lights).
I think I understand what you mean. With a narrow beam angle, pretty much any increase in Lumen won't come across as visible. But the Candela number, and the intensity of wherever the beam hits, that will definitely be perceptible with a doubling, or even quadrupling in the Lumen.
I'm almost all about floody lights, so I need a significant increase in Lumen (like, 3x at least) for the perceived brightness to feel like a worthwhile upgrade. Which reminds me, I need to get that Emisar D4K / DT8K 519A mule order sent to Hank... [Insert *will ship accordingly*]
And yeah, the reflector definitely matters. I quickly saw that in my auxiliary headlight upgrade on my car, going from a cheapo LED-bar to an expensive one, with the Lumen output on paper being almost the same and the E-mark reference number being the same. The difference was (besides the expensive LED-bar being almost triple the price...) was the throw distance, where the expensive one threw the beam almost 40 % further down the road (when comparing the manufacturer testing on paper). That was all the reflector as far as I could tell.
And don't diss the Acebeam E75 - I sold the EC50 Gen. 2 a couple years ago, and recently bought the E75 as a replacement (the EC50 was a 26650 light). And I am happy with it. Got it, along with a Red wand, in my backpack in case of emergencies while driving. But I know, it's all about the usecase. :)
Schokokeks
Flashlight Enthusiast
Floody lights are funny, because you can go NUTS with the lumens, but there really can be minor differences. That's a great point.
Similar to your experience with car lights, I got a Busch & Mueller light for my bicycle. It has a proper reflector assembly (and, because it's German, it has a proper vertical cutoff), and WOW! I have Chinese lights that are literally 20X the lumens, but that thing is just spectacular at its job, and blows them away. It's so much NOT about "how many lumens," but "where are you directing them."
The B&M website has this image of the performance, and this is maybe the most accurate beamshot I've seen on any company website. This is actually what it looks like when riding. I've had so many cyclists and joggers stop me about it, haha (ALL because they were so impressed, and half of them being from oncoming traffic, amazed that so much light never blinded them). I actually wish my headlights were like these. The hilarious part is it's just a single LED run on four AA batteries. I think I tracked down some testing once, and it's about a whole 135 lumens.
Sure, there is some uneveness, and it's not purely bright, but as for a usable beam while riding at speed, you'll have to pry this thing out of my cold, dead hands.
I don't HATE the Acebeam E75, I was just expecting it to absolutely destroy my Malkoff Wildcat, and it's only a marginal improvement (again, reflectors are so important). But, of course, my M91BN actually performs similar to both, but in a single drop-in format, so then REALLY depressed me, haha. If I could do it all over, just would have saved the money I spent on the E75, despite getting a great deal on it. I'll probably end up giving it away to a family member or friend. They'll be super impressed.
I'm not really 'team anybody', but if I had to pick a manufacturer, I guess I'd have to say I'm 'Team Streamlight'.
That said, to keep to topic, I do have a few Olights and somewhat more than a few Fenix lights, and between those 2, I much prefer the Fenix lights using most any criteria - hands down - no thought required;-) I'm pretty sure I've bought my last Olight, but probably not my last Fenix.
Same, I'm not a fan of (blind) brand loyalty. But humans are creatures of habits by nature, so I think we tend to stick to a certain brand that we are overall satisfied with, before we are considering other brand options.
But at this point, with 78 lights to my name, I buy the lights that suits my needs - or, more accurately, I buy the lights that I want, as I am well beyond any sort of "need". ^^
I think this priority list is accurate for me when choosing a light: Output (sorry, it's hard NOT to look at the Lumen number, and the manufacturers knows this), ease of operation, CRI - and further down the list I have build quality / materials and body colour. But all that depends on what I will be using the light for. For the lights I keep in my car, I have body colour as the primary consideration, then ease of operation. In case I drop it in the dark. For emergencies, I just want a light, because the alternative would be nothing.
As to what this topic really is, I don't actually know. I mean, just a picture and a question? What is the meaning of the question? "Are these good lights?", "what should I buy next", "which brand should I stick to?" And the original poster have been completely quiet here. That green Olight piqued my interest, so I'd like to hear more.
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crislight01
Newly Enlightened
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- Apr 12, 2007
- Messages
- 199
Team Fenix here!
I'm a huge StreamLight fan myself
If I had to pick a "team", for me it would be Malkoff
I would tell a non-flashaholic person that my top 3 flashlight manufacturers are Malkoff, StreamLight, and SureFire
4th would be Fenix
5th would be MagLite
I still recommend MagLites for many/most novices, as almost everyone understands what they are, and how they work, I also have to say that their newer offerings are very good
I agree to trying not to "blindly" follow any brand, but I certainly have certain brands that have worked extremely well for "me", and those brands get my loyalty
It may be that I'm getting older, or simply that I know what I need for "my" flashlight usage, and I've found the manufacturers that provide those flashlights, appropriate for my needs
My thoughts --
I'm SO tired of flashlights advertised as 1000 Lumens,
when they are actually 200 Lumens
which can Briefly reach 1000 for a few seconds.
I'm SO tired of flashlights advertised as 1000 Lumens,
when they are actually 200 Lumens
which can Briefly reach 1000 for a few seconds.
