For more than a couple years now I’ve owned, and on a daily basis carried Olight lights but it was only recently while I was searching for a WML for my 1301 I decided to pull the trigger on a full size Odin. With an advertised “max output” of 2000 lumens, a very appealing price point and the benefit of being able to simply charge the light with the same convenient magnetic charger that I already kept plugged in for my often used Perun 2, I figured why not.
Having purchased the light through amazon as a Prime product, it showed up the next day but my experiences ordering other lights from the Olight website directly were all pleasant and they showed up within the week. Just like most other Olight products the Odin comes packaged in a box that at the very least makes you feel like you didn’t buy a budget tier flashlight
I’ll save you all the details but unboxing the Odin for the first time is quite the pleasant experience. Inside the box you get the light itself, the light mount (picatinny), an Olight proprietary magnetic charger, a pressure pad with a pic rail attachment, two small zip ties and finally the user manual.
Having a WML with all the specs of the Odin at the price of around 200$ CAD is already pretty cool but coming with a pressure pad is even better. Having said that the tail switch is proprietary and can not be used with other brands pressure switches/caps. A nice benefit of having the pressure pad cap magnetize and clip onto the end of the light rather than having to unscrew and install a whole new cap on is that you don’t lose any of the water resistance by doing so. The light is advertised as ipx8 water proof, which should mean tested at 1.5 meters for 30 minutes. Although never submerged my particular light has seen some heavy rain and never skipped a beat.
Upon first holding the light I was surprised at the size, coming in at 5.5 inches naked, its actually really big… slap the pressure pad cap on there and your swinging a lengthy 6 inches. Compare that to what is likely the Odin’s biggest competition in its price range, the Streamlight Pro Tac HL, and you’re a whole inch longer. Though the reality is, depending on where you mount the light, the length likely won’t matter much.
As far as weight, the Odin came up as 212g on my scale (with mount, no pressure pad) and comparitavly the Streamlight at right around 170g (with mount, no pressure pad) Obviously adding anything to your gun is going to add weight, whether or not you want to throw almost half a pound on the front of your gun or not is a choice only you can make.
THE MOUNT
After owning the light and using it on a couple different overnight outings, one of my favourite features quickly became the ability to simply remove the light from the gun and use it as a very bright handheld flashlight for preforming tasks around the campsite or scanning the trees for any lurking skin walkers that are patiently waiting for us to settle in for the night.
The mount provided is for attaching to a picatinny rail, but others can be purchased through Olight as well. Unfortunately you must attach the mount using an Allen key instead of what should have been a convienient finger knob or some other fashion that doesn’t require tools (just my opinion). This particular mount offers the ability to slide the light into two positions depending on how you want the light to sit on the gun. Neither option seem to be the most streamline light setups out there and mounting this light on something like the end of my Beretta 1301 with a nordic barrel clamp pic rail combo makes the light stick out obnoxiously far. I do believe the MLOK mount that can be purchased separately does a much better job at keeping it tighter to the gun but at an extra $ cost.
To remove the light simply push the rotating knob in and spin to the “unlock” position then push the knob down again and pull the light away. I ran many many rounds through the 1301 with the knob left in the unlocked position and haven’t had any problems with the light coming off unintentionally. When you remove the light your left with the “male” part that slides into the lock, still attached to the body of the light with two small Allen screws. After around 300 rounds of various loads of 12 gauge, these two screws came a bit loose, but is easily remedied with some thread lock.
PRESSURE PAD / TAIL SWITCH
Instead of having a tail cap with a push button, the Odin is designed with one permanent tail cap that is only to be removed when removing the battery, a proprietary 5000 mah 3.6V 21700 lithium – if that means anything to you. This tailcap is not only the magnet that the charger attaches too but also the button to activate the light. Push lightly to activate the low 300 lumen setting or click in all the way to activate the max power 2000 lumen setting. The pressure pad on the other hand is a completely flat, one button pad that only activates the max output. Press the pad quick and the light stays on until you tap again to shut it off, hold the pad down and the light will stay lit until you release the pressure from the bad. I find these features very intuitive and for what its worth quite like them.
Removing the pressure pad switch from the back of the light is also very simple yet effective. Pull back on the locking collar and then pull the whole thing off as its only held on by a magnet. Then to reinstall, let the magnet pull the cap right back on and simply push the collar back up to lock it in place and to avoid accidentally pulling it off. I have pulled on this connection on my broken Odin (more about that below) trying to get it to fail but it just felt like the wire was going to tear out before the lock gave up so i stopped on the selfish grounds of wanting a functioning spare pressure pad.
MAX OUTPUT
The Olight Odin puts out a whopping 2000 lumens with 22500 candela… but only for a maximum of two minutes before it progressively dies out. The lumen output steps down like this, 2000 for 2 mins – 1000 for 9mins – 760 for 125mins – 300 for the final 24mins on the other hand the low power mode will run 300 lumens for 8 hours. The automatic decrease of output will definitely turn some people off but for me, I’ve found even running some drills, the light was always ready to throw out the 2000 lumens on demand and in every practical application I utilized it for never gave it enough time to step down into the 1000 lumen range.
OLIGHT WARRANTY
This is a big one for me, although I hope to never have to use the warranty on the things I purchase I always appreciate the feeling knowing if something does happen I’m covered. Upon my second trip out with my Odin, again attached to a Beretta 1301, something failed. I carried the gun in the back of my four wheelers two-up seat and it was just barely able to squeeze in with the Odin protruding out past the front of the barrel I was able to jam it in. I then proceeded to drive the machine as if I was being chased by a grizzly bear. Making sharp turns, plowing into large rocks and logs and catching the odd bit of air, sufficed to say it was not a nice ride for whatever was riding in the back of the two up seat. This wasn’t supposed to be a torture test of any kind just a fun ATV ride but when I got back to camp and wanted to let off a few shells I noticed the light was dim and upon further inspection discovered the glass at the end of the light had completely fallen out. Now I searched forever in the back of my ATV and still to this day have not found that missing lens so I can’t say for certain if that’s what actually happen but can only be my best guess.
After getting back home I immediately took photos and reached out to Olight via email explaining what happened. I wasn’t sure what to expect as I couldn’t find much information online about people who have had to deal with their warranty and looking at Olights website gave me conflicting expectations. To boot I purchased the light through amazon and not the light store so I was worried they wouldn’t honour whatever warranty policy they did have. Nevertheless I sent the email on the 27th of November and on November 30th I received an email back asking for my shipping info and amazon order number and within hours my new light was shipped off and two days later showed up on my doorstep, again being delivered by amazon. Olight also never asked for the return of the broken light and i was able to keep all associated accessories. Needless to say I was very happy with the warranty process and will certainly influence future purchases.
TESTING/PERFORMANCE
Pictures are taken at approximately fifty yards to the trees, about forty five yards to yellow archery target. At fifty yards the Odin’s max output is very strong, although the pictures don’t quite do it justice the light floods a large chunk of my yard allowing me to at least get some sort of visual on anything in about an hundred foot span (at 50 yards), compared to the streamlight the odin’s light is visually whiter and not as hot in the centre. The Olight also floods a far larger area than the streamlight.
