Tiablo A9S and OLight T20 Q5 Arrived - comparison!

MikeLip

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Danger - do not look into these beams! Ouch! :) Seriously. I thought there was something wrong with the Olight, and looking into the beam I finished tightening the tailcap. Yeowza.

Off the cuff comparison;

The Tiablo is brighter. A good bit brighter. The Olight has a very interesting beam - the hotspot is VERY well defined, dropping immediately to a good spill - it reminds me of my little Pal light with it's optically focused beam. Sharply defined hotspot abruptly changing to a wide, smooth spill. Probably a result of the partial OP/partial smooth reflector. Oddly the center of the hotspot is slightly dimmer than the outside. I am sure it will be an unnoticeable difference in the real world. The Tiablo has very strong hot spot which tapers off to nice spill. Both have useful spill and LOTS of light output. I can't wait to get them outside at night!

Beam color is pretty much the same. Both are very white, with the Olight being just slightly cool with just a hint of blue in it. The Tiablo is white. Period.

The Olight is almost EDC size. The large head of the Tiablo makes it a holster or weapons mounted only light. The Olight head gets warm immediately. The Tiablo, not so much :) Of course the Tiablo head is about twice the diameter of the Olight, and the whole light weighs about two Olights.

The Tiablo came with a spare GID clickie cap cover (the black is installed as stock), a lanyand, and few spare o-rings. The Olight came with lanyard, o-rings, spare cap cover and a holster. You can't beat it for value and lotsa light!

The Tiablo is simple two stage operation, coming on low, then going high with a second click. The Tiablo is five stage output and works very well indeed! Turn it on and off with the clickie. A 1/4 turn loosening of the head, then a turn back changes stages. Easy and intuitive. A brief push of the clickie changes modes from one to the various strobes and signals. The modes are there, but out of the way. Nice! The light remembers the mode it was in when you turn it back on. Even better!

I can highly recommend either light. The Tiablo is simple, powerful as heck and looks like it will last forever - build quality has to be up there with Surefire. At least. The Olight is solid enough, but not a Surefire or Tiablo. However for those of us not using it as a weapons light, it should take whatever you hand it. Workmanship of both lights is very, very, very good. There isn;t anything I can see wrong with either in terms of fit and finish.

Neither light came with batteries. I ordered 10 CR123s at the same time, so I have plenty of power to play with them!

Look out nighttime Painesville!

Edit;

Two things to add. The OLight tailcap switch is used to select modes. A VERY LIGHT press will change modes - you don't press anywhere near as hard as you do to turn it on or off. So once the light is on, hands off that tailcap switch! The Tiablo comes with a rubber ring thingy (technically speaking - try to keep up) mounted two third of the way down the barrel. The sales ad copy says this is anti-roll. But when you lay the light down, it barely contacts a flat surface. So it's useless for that purpose and gets in the way of my grip. So I took it off. It just slides off with a little effort.
 
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MikeLip

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No. I bought the Panasonics. They were $1.45 each in qty 10. I was unsure about the Tenergy brand in a high drain application. I don't want them popping in my light! If they're OK then I'll stock up on them, but I hadn't read anything pro or con on them. In fairness, I haven't looked.
 

FASTCAR

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Titanium ( armondo) are 1$ each..they have "tested matched sets"
I got 60 a while back and ALL are good so far..tested 100%
 

uh1c

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..."The Tiablo is simple two stage operation, coming on low, then going high with a second click. The Tiablo is five stage output and works very well indeed! Turn it on and off with the clickie. A 1/4 turn loosening of the head, then a turn back changes stages. Easy and intuitive. A brief push of the clickie changes modes from one to the various strobes and signals. The modes are there, but out of the way. Nice! The light remembers the mode it was in when you turn it back on. Even better!"

Did you mean the Olight is 5 stage or are both 5 stage? I'm confused. (as I often am)
 

MikeLip

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One more Holy Smokes moment;

My previous champ for intense light in a small spot was my Streamlight UltraStinger. Guess what just got blown into the weeds? It looks kind of sad next to either the Tiablo or the T20!
 

Dr.K

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Webster Parish Louisiana
Tiablo comes with a rubber ring thingy (technically speaking - try to keep up) mounted two third of the way down the barrel. The sales ad copy says this is anti-roll. But when you lay the light down, it barely contacts a flat surface. So it's useless for that purpose and gets in the way of my grip. So I took it off. It just slides off with a little effort.

I use this as "grip" for my index and middle finger ( think, holding a fat cigar) This makes the clickie way easier IMO.
 

robo21

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Nice write up Mike. I haven't seen an Olight yet but it sounds like a great light. I agree with you totally on your Tiablo impressions. :twothumbs

+1 on the Titanium brand CR123's from Amondotech per Fastcar's recommendation - so far great batteries. I ordered mine in matched pairs. They don't cost any more, and if using them in pairs I gain a little peace of mind. They come sleeved in plastic and stacked so you can just drop the sleeved stack right into your Tiablo.
 

276

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Danger - do not look into these beams! Ouch! :) Seriously. I thought there was something wrong with the Olight, and looking into the beam I finished tightening the tailcap. Yeowza.

That happened to me, i thought something was wrong with my olight Q5, with the click switch they i looked into it and it came on alll of a sudden. It really sucked but doesn't happen anymore.
 

MikeLip

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Heh heh heh, oops. I mean - Ouch!!!

Fortunately it wasn't the A9S in my case, but I think at these output levels it doesn't matter much anymore. Once your eyeball is fried, you're more or less just stirring up the ashes with more power! :)
 

zpaulg

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Aug 6, 2006
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So where can I get one of these olights then, UK based, preferably with reasonable shipping costs?
 
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