Olight M30 Triton (new and first pictures

[JKL]

Flickering present just on low mode, at any rate no problem with two 18650, IMHO the M30 is a nice flashlight.
:devil:

 

[mementos]

Hi,

I bought the M30 Triton, it's pretty nice but mine is noisy, what about yours ?

When i set it on 700 lumens, it's making a sound "zzzzzzzzzzz", do you think it's normal ?

Thanks !

 

[daveman]

Let's cut through the chase, the only M30 review that matters at this moment is one comparing it with the Tiablo ACE.

The two lights are basically the only competitor in size, price, and brightness.

Where is Ersanada and self-built?

 

[Ryanrpm]

Where is Ersanada and self-built?

They're out selling blood, kidneys, etc so they can fund these new lights. Haha.

 

[1dash1]

Let's cut through the chase, the only M30 review that matters at this moment is one comparing it with the Tiablo ACE.

The two lights are basically the only competitor in size, price, and brightness.

Where is Ersanada and self-built?

The single output ACE was designed for one thing only: providing a very bright light. That limits its application as a general purpose light or as an EDC. So, while they may bear some physical resemblence, I tend to think of them differently. I.e., apples and oranges.

.
.


The distinction between the multi-output M2/M2X and the M30 is even more subtle.

• IMO, Eagletac aimed for a bright general purpose light. Instead of starting at 10 lumens, they started at 30+ lumens on low. They bumped everything up a notch from there - so their low, medium and high are like most other flashlights' medium, high, and turbo respectively. And they top it off with a superhigh turbo level. This is like a P3D on steroids!
• Based on information provided by MattK, it seems that Olight aimed for a duty light, one that would provide service for a full workshift. Instead of starting low and configuring the output levels upward, they started with a 120-lumen medium (to meet their targeted performace criteria), then added a sub-10 lumen low because of customer input and topped it off with a superhigh mode. This is like an LEO's Surefire or MagLite that's been overhauled with the latest technology, just in time to qualify for the Federal Stimulus or Homeland Security funding.

The M2/M2X was designed as a general purpose light - albeit a very bright general purpose light. While the M30 was designed as an EDC (duty light) - albeit a very bright EDC. Each flashlight's performance characteristics and features follow accordingly. Again, in my opinion, apples and oranges.

And I appreciate that others may disagree with me. The light does what the light does, regardless of what it was intended for.

 

[yert43]

While I'm an admitted newb to highend flashlights, I would never have noticed the slow PWM if I hadn't read it here. There have been a lot of little complaints, but I think this is a fantastic light. Unless you are really finicky with these things, as I'm sure many of you are, I wouldn't worry about it. I'm very happy with this light, and I definitely recommend it. I just got it today, and I cannot wait to see it in the night.

 

[Henk_Lu]

Hi,

I bought the M30 Triton, it's pretty nice but mine is noisy, what about yours ?

When i set it on 700 lumens, it's making a sound "zzzzzzzzzzz", do you think it's normal ?

Thanks !

Unfortunately, that is quite normal on some lights and the M30 seems to be part of them, mine does it too, but not always. I can't explain it to you, but it has to do with the function of the electronics. An LED doesn't shine continously, it kinda strobes that fast your eye normally doesn't notice it. I guess we come to PWM now...

So, if a light whines, it's pretty annoying, but doesn't affect the light. :candle:
I gave away both my Fenix L1D-Q5 and L2D-Q5 because of the buzzing.

 

[MattInTheCouv]

personally i could only notice the PWM issue if i tried to notice it (waving it around like a crazy person and seeing the trail of "dots" on the wall). i cannot foresee a situation in which this could be anything more than a very minor nuisance, if any at all (with my eyes and my light...yours may differ). the real negative here i think could be lost efficiency. someone tech geekier than me may want to devise a test and see just how much runtime is lost via the less efficient regulation vs regulation in some other well known light from a similar market segment tactical light. who knows, maybe it's negligable.

as far as the lost spill from the crenelated bezel goes, i really don't think it will be possible to make one that does NOT interfere at least slightly with the spill. if you remove it, turn the light on in the dark and look at the threads to which the bezel screws into, even they catch a wee little bit of light, so naturally anything you attach to those threads will too. life's full of tough choices... losing a couple percent of the very outer part of your spill or losing your ability to make someone need [as many] stitches after you hammer-blow them with the thing... the call is yours to make.

also it seems as though the strobe although totally overwhelming, doesn't have quite the same "i'm drunk" effect as my "first light tomahawk" or my gladius. i think this may be due to a faster strobe rate. i would be mucho curious for someone else to sacrifice their corneas as i have in a comparison with other known good tactical strobers.

my only other negative is also one that has not been brought up as of yet, and it is probably nit-picky. the finish on the light should be matte. preferably the same sort of rough and battle-proven coating that is applied to firearms and knife blades and a lot of other "tactical" flashlights. it kind of has a semi-gloss thing going on and i'm not a fan of it.

with that being said, it's a solid 9 out of 10.

 

[veleno]

- At low and medium settings the slow PWM frequency is very noticible and quite distracting at times.

I disagree.

IMO the PWM frequency is barely noticible, not a real issue for me.

 

[JKL]

I agree with Veleno.

I confirm again, the M30 Triton is a very nice flashlight and have a great UI.

Some pictures from my italian review on cpfitalia:

Greetings from Italy

jkl/klm12

 

[MattK]

....[*]Based on information provided by MattK, it seems that Olight aimed for a duty light, one that would provide service for a full workshift. Instead of starting low and configuring the output levels upward, they started with a 120-lumen medium (to meet their targeted performace criteria), then added a sub-10 lumen low because of customer input and topped it off with a superhigh mode. This is like an LEO's Surefire or MagLite that's been overhauled with the latest technology, just in time to qualify for the Federal Stimulus or Homeland Security funding..

Well said. The M30 is made for a market/purpose. If Olight wanted to make it brighter that would be easy it's not complicated to overdrive an LED but it would come with other penalties; heat (would have required a larger, heavier head/bezel), runtime, major efficiency losses, close to dangerously high discharge rates for CR123A configurations, etc. I think, BTW, that they had to use PWM to provide the very low low that CPF likes to have so much because CC drivers cannot have such broad input/output variability.

They're out selling blood, kidneys, etc so they can fund these new lights. Haha.

Hardly - mfrs/dealers supply many of the lights for review.

personally i could only notice the PWM issue if i tried to notice it (waving it around like a crazy person and seeing the trail of "dots" on the wall). i cannot foresee a situation in which this could be anything more than a very minor nuisance, if any at all (with my eyes and my light...yours may differ). the real negative here i think could be lost efficiency. someone tech geekier than me may want to devise a test and see just how much runtime is lost via the less efficient regulation vs regulation in some other well known light from a similar market segment tactical light. who knows, maybe it's negligable.

as far as the lost spill from the crenelated bezel goes, i really don't think it will be possible to make one that does NOT interfere at least slightly with the spill. if you remove it, turn the light on in the dark and look at the threads to which the bezel screws into, even they catch a wee little bit of light, so naturally anything you attach to those threads will too. life's full of tough choices... losing a couple percent of the very outer part of your spill or losing your ability to make someone need [as many] stitches after you hammer-blow them with the thing... the call is yours to make.
.... it's a solid 9 out of 10.

Exactly; one will probably never notice the PWM unless you stare at the light on a fan or similar looking for it; simply not a real world issue.

Regarding efficiency, PWM is very efficient. I think most people aren't aware of this but pretty much all types of real regulation use PWM to some extent because it is such an effective, efficient method.

Yah, real-world the bezel isn't really doing much harm in terms of spill and of course it is easily removable.

I agree with Veleno.

I confirm again, the M30 Triton is a very nice flashlight and have a great UI.

Some pictures from my italian review on cpfitalia:

Greetings from Italy

jkl/klm12

Great pics!!

 

[alexcc]

Mine just arrived today - played a little bit. So far awsome, will make a video review and post it over the w/e.

 

[MrGman]

from Matt K "Well said. The M30 is made for a market/purpose. If Olight wanted to make it brighter that would be easy it's not complicated to overdrive an LED but it would come with other penalties;
heat (would have required a larger, heavier head/bezel), runtime, major efficiency losses, close to dangerously high discharge rates for CR123A configurations, etc. I think, BTW, that they had to use
PWM to provide the very low low that CPF likes to have so much because CC drivers cannot have such broad input/output variability."

My testing to date has shown that overdriving LEDs does not get you more light because the output simply drops substantially from turn on because of the heat created with the excess power.
I am just mentioning this as a "general" statement. People who want more and more power from smaller form factor lights and are willing to have the manufacturer create one that is over driven
will actually get less. the only way to successfully get more power from the LED is to make sure it has a bigger heat sink and good thermal coupling to the final heat sink, otherwise turning something
on that is chewing up 14 or more watts of power simply causes that output to drop faster then in the original lower powered light that stays within the limits of the host/design. So I am agreeing with
your point of "other issues" that it comes with the penalties of heat but I am also adding that you don't get the extra light. I will only last for a few seconds and the output tapers off quite dramatically
as I am finding out more and more with all these lights I have tested (not published yet as of this writing). G.

A fifteen watt incandescent light bulb needs no heat sink for the filament to work. a fifteen watt LED chip needs an excellent heatsink for both the chip itself and the phosphor coatings to not lose
substantial output after turn on. My new meter has a "peak" reading capture mode on it and that first turn on value is much higher than what the light puts out 1 second later, which is the normal
integration time for the meter when its not on "peak" mode. I won't bother to publish and of those true instantaneous peak readings as no light holds them and your eye never sees it.

 

[JKL]

Great pics!!

Thank you very much Matt K .

:thumbsup:

JKL

 

[MattK]

from Matt K "Well said. The M30 is made for a market/purpose. If Olight wanted to make it brighter that would be easy it's not complicated to overdrive an LED but it would come with other penalties;
heat (would have required a larger, heavier head/bezel), runtime, major efficiency losses, close to dangerously high discharge rates for CR123A configurations, etc. I think, BTW, that they had to use
PWM to provide the very low low that CPF likes to have so much because CC drivers cannot have such broad input/output variability."

My testing to date has shown that overdriving LEDs does not get you more light because the output simply drops substantially from turn on because of the heat created with the excess power.
I am just mentioning this as a "general" statement. People who want more and more power from smaller form factor lights and are willing to have the manufacturer create one that is over driven
will actually get less. the only way to successfully get more power from the LED is to make sure it has a bigger heat sink and good thermal coupling to the final heat sink, otherwise turning something
on that is chewing up 14 or more watts of power simply causes that output to drop faster then in the original lower powered light that stays within the limits of the host/design. So I am agreeing with
your point of "other issues" that it comes with the penalties of heat but I am also adding that you don't get the extra light. I will only last for a few seconds and the output tapers off quite dramatically
as I am finding out more and more with all these lights I have tested (not published yet as of this writing). G.

A fifteen watt incandescent light bulb needs no heat sink for the filament to work. a fifteen watt LED chip needs an excellent heatsink for both the chip itself and the phosphor coatings to not lose
substantial output after turn on. My new meter has a "peak" reading capture mode on it and that first turn on value is much higher than what the light puts out 1 second later, which is the normal
integration time for the meter when its not on "peak" mode. I won't bother to publish and of those true instantaneous peak readings as no light holds them and your eye never sees it.

As I said, overdriving the led, comes 'with other penalties; heat (would have required a larger, heavier head/bezel), ' you said, bigger heat sink and good thermal coupling'. To realize those output gains you've gotta keep the temps down. Same difference, right?

I think you just agreed with me.

 

[MrGman]

"As I said, overdriving the led, comes 'with other penalties; heat (would have required a larger, heavier head/bezel), ' you said, bigger heat sink and good thermal coupling'. To realize those output gains you've gotta keep the temps down. Same difference, right?

I think you just agreed with me. "

Yes I was agreeing with you. I was emphasizing what you said for everyone else to drive it home that you may not get the extra output from the higher power consumption at all, its a risk. If the light already has really good heatsinking, chances are its already being driven to optimum power levels. If the vendor is underdriving the LED for what its rated for, its probably because they know it doesn't have the heatsinking to support full power.

 

[alexcc]

Mine just arrived in South Africa Very happy with it so far... Will post a video or normal review over the weekend!

 

[Ecodelosandes]

Mine arrived today. :thumbsup:
This light is really beautifully built, the side switch is simply perfect, and the output is a mix of sensations:

The high is nothing short of awesome! The spot is relatively wide, but the throw is not lessed by this, the light proyect an impressive S P O T., with a density of light i've never seen before from a flashlight. Very usefull.:twothumbs

The mid, is a great setting. Is clearly the more apropiated for general purpose IMO.

The low.... well, it is a good low too, in terms of level, reach and runtime, but i'm affraid that the strobe effect is definetly there for me, is not likely to be noted in much situations, but in some cases (rapid movements of the light or the objects iluminated), is clearly there. I can feel a certain degree of visual fatigue :tired: when used it for a while that's not present using others lows (for example the M20's).

Finally, the strobe: Oh my GOD! the first one i think can fulfill its purpose. Not good to be in the "wrong side", believe me. And you don't have to ask an agressor to kindly wait until you switch it

. Great UI.

Put the provided diffuser on and you'll get a spill mounster to show the proximity under daylight.

A great ligh from Olight, if only they could manage to raise the Hz for the PWM on the low setting, i'll can tell it's "perfect". In the present form it's very close to it.

 

[imgadgetman2]

I love mine. You can see the strobing by shining the light at running water from the tap. The medium level does not show much strobing, but the low is quite noticeable if the flashlight is moved quickly. I think I will keep it!!

 

[selfbuilt]

I had no idea so much about this light had already been discussed here. I wrote my review last weekend, but was out of town with limited internet access until yesterday morning. For those of you who haven't seen it:

Olight M30 Triton Review: RUNTIMES, BEAMSHOTS and more!