Welcome to the Olight Array 2S Headlamp Review by FishingMad. Lighting has become a key component of my fishing and camping adventures in recent times. I can recall many situations where good lighting helped me to stay safe, organized and excel with fishing in low-light situations. This has included
- Fishing the mornings before sunrise and evenings after sunset for snapper
- Surface lure fishing at night for Bass and Estuary Perch
- Night-time site casting at night for flathead in the shallow flats
- Setting up camping after sundown
- Nighttime hiking whilst camping
- Carp fishing the Murray river at night
These are just some of many examples of how having good lighting can allow you to excel in low-light situations. Historically I had not taken my lighting solutions quite so seriously. But now I realize the importance. The lightweight, portability, battery life, ease of usage, and genuine difference in brightness make a huge difference that cannot be underestimated.
So, let’s deep dive into those important factors and why I have been using OLIGHT as my lighting solution. In mid-2022 I started brainstorming ideas of what fishing adventures we were going to cover for the upcoming 5th season of FishingMad on free-to-air TV and YouTube. Ideas that had been heavily requested were kayak fishing for snapper in low light conditions, sight casting for fish in the shallows at night, and surface lure fishing after dark. Exciting fishing adventures that we knew our audience would love. But to truly capture these moments properly and to excel at catching we needed bright portable lighting solutions that would be easy to use and that’s how we stumbled upon OLIGHT.
I picked up the OLIGHT Array 2S 1000 lumens headlamp and the OLIGHT Marauder Mini 7000 lumens RGB torch. Both with very different applications that would help with our fishing filming and adventures.
Olight Array 2S Headlamp
The OLIGHT Array 2S with 1000 lumens globe was going to be essential for hands-free fishing in low light situations. Of course, I would have a rod and reel in my hand, a backpack on my back, and GoPro mounting to my chest or head so the very bright headtorch would be the key component bringing it all together. Allowing me to fish hands-free and have bright lighting without needing to hold a torch. The Array 2 features a bright flood and spotlight, and you can easily change between modes and brightness. Swiping your hands over the sensor from left to right to change modes and from up to down to change brightness. It’s a simple and clever idea that provides ease of use in dark conditions. It also remembers the last setting you used which is handy as I tend to use certain modes more frequently than others. You can also tilt the light 60 degrees which are important when setting up, tying knots and leaders, and picking lures and certain angles work better depending on the style of fishing that I’m doing at the time. It has up to 140 meters of lighting distance which is excellent for a headlamp.
You can also use the OneTouch button on the unit to scroll through light settings. Press once to turn it off and on. Press twice to scroll between red led, white led, and floodlight. Then hold the button to adjust the brightness. It takes a little bit of fiddling to get used to but soon enough you’re doing this effortlessly.
The elastic head strap is comfortable on the head and the brightness of the light is exceptional. It features the light at the front of the strap and the power pack at the back. The strap is easily adjustable. It’s a massive step up from the headlamp solutions I have used before. Overall, the battery life was very good with a max advertised runtime of 30 hours and easily rechanged via USB type C which for me is so important as I’m often on the road days at a time and simply use an external power bank to recharge cameras and now lights on the go.
OLIGHT Marauder Mini Review
The OLIGHT Marauder Mini 7000 lumens RGB torch is an exceptional portable lighting solution. It’s intuitive with a lighting indicator for brightness and battery life which makes ease of use super simple. It is lightweight and portable and fits easily into the small zipped-up compartment of my backpack. It’s also a great size in the hand. At 7000 lumens it’s exceptionally bright, and the light can travel up to 600 meters. It has a central floodlight surrounded by 9 LEDs with various light modes so you can adjust the brightness and white, red, green and blue color usages which sparingly can be very handy in different situations. Whilst fishing certain colors allow us to see lures better on the water and spook fish less. Blue lighting has been an excellent choice when fishing whilst red light is great when you need to bring attention to something. It has excellent battery life powered by a 24Wh 32650 rechargeable lithium battery. You can also have spare batteries on hand which are very easy to replace. Its solid and rugged construction with built-in thermal sensors and cooling fins ensures it doesn’t overheat. This is especially important when fishing in warm balmy summer evenings in still conditions.
This lighting solution was very important when camping, walking at night and scoping new ground, site casting for fish without the rod in hand, and allowing us to set up our fishing gear and campsite in the dark.
OLIGHT Shipping and Warranty
Shipping is free and my items arrived within 48 hours.
The 2S headlamp is backed with a 2-year warranty and the Marauder Mini 7000 lumens RGB torch is backed with a 5-year warranty and both with a 30-day money-back guarantee which says a lot about the quality of these products.
Want to purchase OLIGHT Products
Ordering the lights above was a very simple process. I purchased them online from https://www.olightstore.com.au/s/GW6269 with free shipping the headlamp and torch arrived within 48 hours which was great.
The cost of the Array 2S headlamp was $116.95 which included delivery and the Marauder Mini 7000 was $299.95 which also included delivery. For durable and well-thought-out lighting solutions the price is very fair and reasonable.
As you see good lighting solutions play an important role in so many low-light situations. Whether is fishing and camping like me or whatever your favorite pastime might be like hiking or bushwalking. Next time you’re looking at a lighting solution consider the OLIGHT headlamps and portable torches which are excellent choices.
Use this weblink to the Olight Offical Website and use code FM10 to receive 10% on checkout
