Olight M20S Crimson

Just read about this on Olightworld, anyone know what's different compared to the normal M20 Crimson?

slemmo said:

Just read about this on Olightworld, anyone know what's different compared to the normal M20 Crimson?

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The "S" indicates side switch, the new dual switch tail cap where the side switch changes modes and the rear button is a forward clicky on and off only. I have the M20-S S2 model and it's a very nice feature.

Aha, sounds exellent. But since the original Crimson only have one output, what modes will the new one be switching?

I'm not actually finding an M20S crimson but if you get the new "S" tail cap ($15) then it should work on the current Crimson. When my M20S S2 came in I put the tail cap from it on my M3X and it worked great, 3 modes plus strobe and strobe from off just like the M20S.

The M20S Crimson was listed on the news page on olightworld as a soon to be released light, but today it's gone actually. Maybe they changed their mind

Here it is: http://www.olightworld.com/en/products_show.aspx?ProId=1219

Three levels + strobe.

It's in the tailcap. I put my M3X tail on my M20-S and it was a single mode high only with no way to change levels. Putting the M20-S tail on the M3X worked perfectly with 3 modes+strobe as long as the head was tight but acted weird with the head loosened (M3X has two modes normally changed by the head)

As an incurable flashoholic I have hard to resist some nice and interesting flashlight. Especially if it's discontinued and I find it at an outsale. Since earlier I have Zebralight 1AA red headlamp and recently I found an Olight M20 Crimson at lower price. It's the single mode version at 105lm. I received it today.

Impression: while 105lm is a moderate output for a "normal" tint, it's really bright considering the red tint. I compared it to Fenix TK15S2 with Fenix red filter. This red filter lowers the output to ~1/5. M20 Crimson is significantly brighter than Fenix TK15S2(400lm) with the red filter. The tint of M20 Crimson is deep red and makes the tint of the Fenix red filter looking towards orange.

Olight M20 Crimson has a beefy hotspot, like Surefire P2X Fury, which surprised me because the red emitter is very small.

Just for fun I attached the Fenix red filter to the M20 Crimson. I expected the output would be much lower, but not.
I hardly could see a difference! According to the lightmeter the brightness remained around 80% as without it. While attached to a cool white LED it dropped to around 20%(in both cases some of the light loss is because the filter cuts of a part of the spill).
I understand some of you here can explain the physical explanation to this "phenomenon".

However, I find this light to be interesting and will try it out more at the end of august(we have midnight sun here now).
The possibility to have a pretty bright flashlight with some throw and still not totally damaging the night vision is attractive.

The red filter does just at the name indicates, it blocks all but the red spectrum. That's why you get the readings you do.

Hows the Olight crimson tint compare to the Zebralight red? I got a feeling its the same emitter, I have the H51Fr

CarpentryHero said:

The red filter does just at the name indicates, it blocks all but the red spectrum. That's why you get the readings you do.

Hows the Olight crimson tint compare to the Zebralight red? I got a feeling its the same emitter, I have the H51Fr

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Ok, that's the simple explanation!
I will compare them as soon I find the red Zebralight.

Regards,

Cool

I'll try a fancy explanation, coloured lenses (filters) only let there own colour spectrum through. Blocking/converting light to a specific color has a huge loss in output. Incandescent would suffer from less light loss due to a greater spectrum of light (higher cri) more red in the beam.
a coolwhite S2 led doesn't have as much of the colour rendering index as a warm white or incandescent.

CarpentryHero said:

Cool

I'll try a fancy explanation, coloured lenses (filters) only let there own colour spectrum through. Blocking/converting light to a specific color has a huge loss in output. Incandescent would suffer from less light loss due to a greater spectrum of light (higher cri) more red in the beam.
a coolwhite S2 led doesn't have as much of the colour rendering index as a warm white or incandescent.

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Do I get it right that it's then more efficient with a red LED than a white LED through a red filter?
While I have no possibility to measure brightnesses with a sphere, I use to measure ceiling bounce. Actually I got 80% higher lux value with M20 Crimson than Fenix TK15S2 and red filter(close to the value of TK15S2 at 165lm mode without red filter), which seems to show that the 105lm of the Crimson may be a modest statement, looks more like ~140lm.

Swedpat said:

Do I get it right that it's then more efficient with a red LED than a white LED through a red filter?
While I have no possibility to measure brightnesses with a sphere, I use to measure ceiling bounce. Actually I got 80% higher lux value with M20 Crimson than Fenix TK15S2 and red filter(close to the value of TK15S2 at 165lm mode without red filter), which seems to show that the 105lm of the Crimson may be a modest statement, looks more like ~140lm.

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Yep red led through a red filter is more efficient.

I just compared Zebralight red LED headlamp to M20 Crimson. In my eyes the tints are identical. They could use the same emitter, even if the emitter looks much bigger in the Zebralight. But that's likely only because of the magnifying lens.

CarpentryHero said:

Yep red led through a red filter is more efficient.

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I meant a red LED without a filter compared to a white LED through a red filter. Yes, I understand it's also the case: to get the same output with red filter as M20 Crimson, the TK15 would need at least 700lm.

Thanks for the comparison, 630nm is a great red tint.