OLIGHT Flashlights and Headlamps for Camp

What Olight makes, and what this page covers

Olight makes portable lights. Its brand book sorts them into outdoor lights (Seeker, Marauder, Freyr), EDC lights (Baton, Eos, O'pen, Arkfeld), tactical lights (Javelot, Warrior), ambient lamps (Obulb, Olantern, Haloop), headlamps (Perun, Array, H05) and bike lights.

This site covers two of those: flashlights and headlamps, and the grid above has a filter for each. Flashlights are most of it. The grid changes as listings come and go, so I'll write about the series and what separates them, not this week's count. Bike lights, ambient lamps and accessories aren't types this site lists.

Olight's brand book names three headlamp series: Perun, Array and H05. Only Perun lamps are in the grid right now, alongside the EasyWave. The brand book also dates Olight's first multi-use LED light, the H1, to 2016. The Perun 3 and Perun 3 Mini are multi-use lights too, per their listings: headlamp in the band, flashlight out of it.

Lineup notes: Olight flashlights

People search for the Olight flashlight more than anything else the brand makes, and the names they type are the Baton, the Arkfeld and the Warrior. Here's how the grid sorts out. All but one list a rechargeable battery; the specs come from Amazon listings, and the grid marks them.

Baton: the everyday pocket lights

Olight's brand book files the Baton under its EDC lights, meaning everyday carry. The grid has the Baton 4, the Baton 4 Pro, the Baton 4 Premium Edition and the Baton Ultra. Their listings put output in the low thousands of lumens, and the ones that give a length come in at a few inches. The Baton 4 charges on a magnetic USB cable, and the Premium Edition listing names a charging dock instead.

The brand book says the series goes back to 2014, when Olight released the S10R, the first magnetically rechargeable light of the line. (Walt asked where the cable plugs in. It snaps on with a magnet. He's still looking for the hole.)

Arkfeld and ArkPro: the other EDC line

The brand book lists the Arkfeld under EDC lights too. The grid has the Arkfeld Pro and three ArkPro lights: the ArkPro, the ArkPro Lite and the ArkPro Ultra. All are rechargeable per their listings, with output in about the same band as the Batons. The Arkfeld Pro lists a magnetic USB cable, and the ArkPro Lite lists a red light.

Warrior 3S and Prowess

Olight's brand book puts the Warrior in its tactical series, and the Warrior 3S listing calls it tactical. On the spec sheet that means a tail switch, a strobe mode and magnetic USB charging, plus one of the longer beams among the handheld Olights. The Prowess listing gives several thousand lumens and USB-C charging. The tactical flashlight guide explains what the word covers.

Seeker and Marauder: the big outdoor lights

The brand book files the Seeker and the Marauder under outdoor lights. The Seeker 4 Pro and Seeker Ultra list several thousand lumens and USB-C charging, and the Seeker Ultra lists a runtime in the hundreds of hours on its lowest mode. The Marauder Mini 2 and the Marauder 3 are the brightest Olights in the grid. The Marauder 3 lists tens of thousands of lumens and a beam past half a mile. That's a searchlight. It goes in the truck, not the coat pocket.

Oclip and i3T EOS: the small ones

The Oclip Pro, Oclip Pro S, Oclip 2 Pro and Oclip 2 Ultra list a few hundred lumens, USB-C charging and a red light, and the Oclip Pro S adds a green one. The i3T EOS is the odd one out: one AAA cell and a tail switch, per its listing. Eos is one of the EDC names in the brand book.

Flashlights from every brand are on the handheld spotlight page, with ranked lists for rechargeable flashlights and the brightest flashlights.

Lineup notes: the Olight headlamps

Olight Perun 3: the bright one

The Perun 3 is a right-angle light. The body is a short tube with the LED on the side, so in the headband it points forward, and out of the headband it works as a small flashlight. Its listing calls it a 2-in-1 headlamp flashlight and mentions a magnetic tail, which lets it stick to a steel surface like a truck fender.

Listed specs: 3,000 lumens, a 525-foot beam, a maximum runtime of 480 hours and a red light. It's rechargeable. That 480-hour figure is the lowest mode. The 3,000 is the highest. Those two numbers are never true at the same time, and the listing doesn't pretend they are.

Real talk: you'll spend most of the night on the lower modes. Point 3,000 lumens at anybody across the fire once and you'll hear about it until Thanksgiving. The high mode is for finding the trail marker, not for reading the stove instructions.

Olight Perun 3 Mini: the smaller right-angle lamp

The Perun 3 Mini follows the same idea in a smaller body. Its listing gives 1,250 lumens, a 509-foot beam and a red light, and it says the light detaches to work as a flashlight and comes with a Type-C charging case. Its listing doesn't give a runtime figure, so the grid leaves that blank.

On paper, the beam is nearly as long as the full Perun 3's, with less than half the top output. The section on reading spec numbers below explains how both can be true.

Olight EasyWave: the AAA lamp

The EasyWave is a different animal. It's a conventional headlamp with a front-mounted head, powered by three AAA batteries that come in the box, per its listing. It lists 380 lumens, a 184-foot beam, spot and flood beams, and a red light.

The name comes from the wave control. The listing describes switching it with a wave of the hand instead of finding a button with a glove on. (Walt asked if he could wave it off from across the cabin. He can't. He tried anyway, and now the whole camp waves at him.)

On paper, the EasyWave has the least output of the three. It also has the one feature the other two can't match: you can buy power for it at any gas station between Scranton and Hemlock Run.

How to read the Olight spec numbers

Lumens are total light, beam distance is reach

Streamlight's explainer of the ANSI/PLATO FL 1 standard is a handy plain-language guide to these numbers. Light output, in lumens, is the total light a lamp puts out. Beam distance is how far the beam goes before it drops to 0.25 lux, a very dim level of light.

So a lamp with fewer lumens can still have a longer beam if its reflector squeezes the light into a tight spot. That's the Perun 3 Mini next to the Perun 3. The beam types line in the grid tells you whether a lamp has a spot, a flood or both. The EasyWave lists both.

Runtime ends at 10 percent

Under FL 1, runtime is measured until output falls to 10 percent of the starting figure. A lamp can still glow after that. It just isn't the lamp the box described. When a listing gives a single maximum runtime, like the Perun 3's 480 hours, it belongs to the dimmest mode, not the brightest.

Red light keeps your night eyes

All three Olight lamps list a red light. The National Park Service explains why that matters. Night vision depends on a pigment in your eyes called rhodopsin, which takes 20 to 40 minutes to build up and a few seconds of bright light to wipe out. Dim red light doesn't break it down. That's the setting for walking to the stand, reading a map or checking on somebody without blinding them.

How to choose within the Olight lineup

Pick the power source first

My one opinion on this page: pack a spare that runs on store-bought batteries next to any rechargeable light. The Olight grid splits cleanly on that line. The two Peruns and nearly every flashlight are rechargeable. The EasyWave and the i3T EOS run on AAA.

There's a cold-weather reason too. The U.S. Fire Administration says not to charge lithium-ion batteries below 32°F or above 105°F. At a November camp, that means you charge inside the cabin or in the truck with the heat on, not on the porch overnight.

Then the output you'll actually use

Ask what the lamp is for. Walking in before daylight, dressing a deer or cooking needs a few hundred lumens and a flood beam. Spotting a reflector tack at the edge of a field, or scanning a hillside, uses the long spot beam. The Perun 3 sits at the top of the range, the Mini in the middle and the EasyWave at the low end.

Then the form factor

A right-angle lamp like the Perun does two jobs. You can pull it out of the band to look under the truck or into a gear bin. A conventional lamp like the EasyWave stays on your head and does one job. Neither is wrong. It depends on whether you'd carry a separate flashlight anyway.

Then the small stuff

Look for a red light (all three have one), a tilt or a right-angle body so you're not nodding at your work, and a battery indicator if the listing gives one. More on red-light lamps across brands is on the red light headlamp page.

Matching an Olight headlamp to the job at camp

• Walking in before daylight: low white or red mode, any of the three
• Field dressing after dark: a flood beam at a few hundred lumens, so your hands are in light and not glare
• Scanning a field edge or tracking: the long spot of a Perun
• A spare in the truck's glove box: the EasyWave, with spare AAAs taped to the band
• Under the hood or in the gear bin: a Perun out of the band, or a Baton from your pocket
• Finding the truck across a cut cornfield: a Seeker or a Marauder

Lamps from every brand are compared on the headlamps page, and rechargeable ones are on the rechargeable headlamp page.

Charging and battery care

Charge lithium-ion lights at room temperature, inside, and keep them out of a hot truck dashboard in September. The U.S. Fire Administration lists the warning signs to stop using a battery: an odor, a change in color or shape, too much heat, leaking or odd noises. Keep spare batteries away from anything that burns.

For the AAA lamp, keep a fresh set in a zip bag with the lamp, and write the date you bought them on the bag in marker. (Renee found a bag of mine dated 2019. She held it up like evidence.)

Olight facts

From Olight's own brand book:

• Founded: 2007
• US subsidiary: started in 2016
• Production: an independent large production base built in 2017
• Product series: outdoor, EDC, tactical, ambient, headlamp and bike lights, plus accessories

Charge the Perun and the Baton at home, drop fresh AAAs in the EasyWave, and put the red mode on before you leave the truck. The deer have better night eyes than you do anyway.