Olight WML Flashlights Review
Olight makes a little bit of everything in the light department. This includes penlights, EDC lights, tactical lights, and even weapon lights. Today we are diving into their weapon mounted light options. We are starting from big and working our way down to the smallest Olight WML out there. Olight has produced some interesting designs, and these are our favorite Olight WMLs.
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Olight Odin
The Olight Odin is Olight's first dedicated rifle light, and it's an impressive specimen. The Olight Odin is a full-sized weapon light designed to provide a blistering bright white light appropriate for a rifle. The Olight Odin is 5.37 inches long and weighs a hilariously appropriate 7.62 ounces. The Odin is a svelte 1.05 inches in diameter and clings tight to your rifle's rail system.
The Olight Odin is a powerful beam with a 2,000-lumen turbo mode that casts a beam 300 meters. That type of throw is necessary for such rifle light. If you have all the accuracy and long-range potential of a rifle, why not have a light that lends you the same power?
The Odin's beam casts that 2,000 lumens for 2 minutes before stepping down to 1,000 lumens for 9 minutes and then 760 lumens for two hours before settling into 300 lumens for the final 24 minutes of battery life.
The Odin can be manually set to 300 lumens for indoor use, and at 300 lumens, the battery will last for 8 hours. That's an impressive life span, and the battery is rechargeable. The battery is not fixed and can be swapped if you purchase additional Olight batteries.
The beam does an excellent job of cutting through the darkness and provides a clean white light that makes it easy to see the vivid details of an outdoor environment. At the higher lumen counts, the light can overpower photonic barriers and cut through street lights, other flashlights, and even bright car lights.
The Odin's included mount is designed to function with Picatinny rails and allows you to mount the light any way you desire. The mounting system is incredibly versatile and allows the light to be mounted at various different positions and in different ways. The mount is simple, and moving the light around to find the right spot is easy to do. Being able to tinker to make the light fit an existing setup is a smart move by Olight.
The Tail switch is a magnetic mount, much like the charger. It slips on but then also locks down to ensure it can't accidentally be removed. The design is good. However, I would like more customization and the ability to use different tail switches. Not that it's a bad switch, but shorter or longer options may be desired, and the proprietary design limits that.
The Olight Odin packs an impressive degree of power, a good battery life, and a very ergonomic and well made mounting system. The Odin is a blindingly bright option for home defense, and Olight has finally looped in long gun owners on the Olight experience with the Odin.
PL Pro Valkyrie
It's rare you see a modern handgun without a rail these days. In fact, unless it's a super small subcompact design, then I don't think such a thing exists. If you have a rail, you need to have a light, right? Well, Olight has you covered in more ways than one. Let's start with the PL-Pro Valkyrie. The PL-Pro Valkyrie is a full-sized weapon light designed for full-sized pistols. If you are rocking and rolling with a Glock 17, or an FN 509, an S&W M&P full size, or the like, then the PL Pro is for you.
The PL Pro Valkyrie is 3.27 inches long and weighs 3.25 ounces with its rechargeable battery. The light is 1.42 inches wide and 1.26 inches tall. The PL Pro Valkyrie is big light but packs both a powerful beam and impressive onboard battery. The beam has a max lumen count of 1,500 lumens.
This is a powerful option for a pistol weapon light. Behind that 1,500 lumens is 19,600 candela, which is also quite impressive. This gives the PL Pro Valkyrie awesome power and range for a pistol weapon light. The PL Pro Valkyrie powers through that 1,500 lumens for 90 seconds before powering down to 600 lumens. From there, the battery lasts 45 minutes.
The low setting gives you a 300 lumen light that lasts for 90 minutes total. While it doesn't match bigger lights like the Odin, the battery life is plenty impressive. The PL Pro Valkyrie also packs a strobe function that can be quite disorienting to the bad guy on the wrong side of it.
The light itself is relatively bright, and when used as a momentary option, the PL Pro's power will last longer than you'd expect. The PL Pro Valkyrie is well suited for home defense and gives you a bright and punishingly white light that will give a potential bad guy a few moments of blindness.
The rechargeable battery uses a proprietary magnetic charging cable. The charging cable plugs into a USB mount and can be charged on your nightstand, in your car, and beyond. The simple design makes it easy to keep the light charged regardless of what you are up to. The light can also be easily and quickly detached via the QD mount on the side.
This allows you to charge the light without having to constantly use an Allen wrench to remove it or attach it. Pop it off, put the weapon in the safe, and get on with your day. The PL Pro Valkyrie's side switches are ambidextrous and make using the light effortless. Hit one of the switches, and the light is in action and cutting away layers of darkness with ease.
PL-2 Valkyrie
The PL-2 Valkyrie is similar to the PL Pro in many ways, but there are some significant differences. Both the PL-2 and PL Pro are full-sized weapon lights designed to outfit full-sized pistols. Lights go with full-sized pistols like peanut butter goes with jelly. The PL-2 Valkyrie looks almost identical to the PL-Pro, and the controls, mount, and everything is identical.
So what's different? Well, the PL-2 Valkyrie is powered by traditional CR123A batteries, two of them in fact. The PL Pro utilizes a rechargeable battery, and while some prefer the rechargeable, others want the ability to swap batteries on the fly. This can be valuable in the field when your light dies, and you have the time or the ability to simply plug your light in and go.
The PL-2 Valkyrie has a slightly lower max lumens, but PL-2 casts a bright 1,200-lumen beam that is perfectly powerful for inside and outside the home. The 1,200-lumen beam lasts 90 seconds before down throttling to 600 lumens. 600 lumens is a bit more comfortable to use for extended periods of time and allows battery preservation.
The 1,200-lumen beam is bright and white that's slightly warmer than the PL-Pro. A warmer beam means it's slightly more yellow than white or blue. These warmer beams are often a favorite of shooters who might face photonic barriers. They tend to be more punishing against people on the other end as well for a good blinding effect.
The beams throw a reported 235 meters. In practical use, it's well beyond the average handgun's effective range, and that's fair enough for me. It's I'm shooting beyond two football fields something has gone really wrong, and the zombies have arrived.
The big beam has plenty of spill to fill a room with light as well as fill your vision with light. The PL-2 Valkyrie is well suited for home defense or even concealed carry.
The PL-2 Valkyrie's ambidextrous paddles are quick and easy to use. It delivers fantastic tactile feedback that makes it easy to use and responsive to every touch. The PL-2 has a strobe mode for disorienting an enemy and a momentary mode that functions from a long press rather than a short quick one.
The PL-2 Valkyrie is an excellent alternative for a full-sized Olight weapon light with standard batteries over rechargeable models. If you prefer a standard battery setup, then the PL-2 has you covered. This little fella is well suited for full-size handguns, and it's a powerful option.
Baldr-Mini
Our final light is one of my favorites and is a very interesting design that services a series of firearms that are often underserved, and that's subcompact firearms. Often these weapons are adorned with rails, but lights are rarely made to be small enough for them. That is where the Baldr Mini comes in. The Baldr fits those little lights and makes them an outstanding choice for teeny tiny handguns.
The Olight Baldr is designed to fit subcompact and compact pistols. It squeezes on guns like the Taurus G3c or the Springfield Hellcat and can fit on guns like the Glock 19 and beyond. The mount allows the light to move forward or rearward to accommodate and fit your weapon and improve its overall ergonomics.
The Baldr Mini is a mere 2.24 inches long and is 1.41 inches in diameter with a head diameter of 1.29 inches. The Baldr Mini is a tiny little fella, and it adds only 3.07 ounces, including the battery.
The internal battery is rechargeable, and the included magnetic cable makes recharging easy. Mini size doesn't mean mini power. The Baldr Mini comes out swinging with 600 lumens of white light. The light has a shorter throw but a wider spill than most. This means the light is super wide and fills a room or your vision with range. Small guns are made for concealed carry, and concealed carry events happen at close ranges. After a minute of 600-lumen power, the light throttles down to 100 lumens.
At close range, the wide spill of the light allows you to see from one side of your peripheral to the other. The throw casts the light out far enough to effectively use your handgun. In fact, like the full-sized lights, it's well beyond your average defensive range.
The Baldr Mini is more than a light, though. You see Olight tacked on a visible green laser. It's a powerful and uber bright green laser that gives you a secondary aiming device. In a low-light situation, this makes some serious sense. It might be hard, if not impossible, to see your sights. The bright green laser is easy to see and highly visible. It's always intimidating to see it on your chest.
The Baldr Mini can be used in multiple modes. This includes laser only, light only, or light and laser at the same time. Keep in mind the laser has to be zeroed for your gun, and that zero may need to be confirmed if the Baldr Mini is removed from your weapon.
The Baldr Mini has ambidextrous controls that allow you to easily use the light and laser with either hand. It makes it easy to control the light and both its constant and momentary modes. The controls are two switches, and both switches deliver an excellent degree of feedback that makes the light easy to activate and use.
The Baldr Mini fills a niche that hardly any other light does. It fits small guns while providing more than small power. The Baldr Mini is a capable little light that delivers an exceptional amount of power for such a little fella.
Oh, it's Olight
Olight's catalog of weapon lights is impressive. They seem to be dedicated to shaking things up with powerful mini lights, turbo modes, rechargeable batteries, and beyond. Olight seems somewhat fearless in their weapon light design and fearless in the prices they attach to their lights. Olight weapon lights are an affordable option with features not found on any other weapon light system. What's your favorite Olight WML?
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