WARNING: This is no ordinary flashlight.

LED flashlights have improved by leaps and bounds since they first hit the market, and the M30 Triton by Olight is no exception.

The M30 Triton is a light source that uses a super bright Cree MC-E LED and three or four CR123A batteries to operate.  The reason it uses either three of four is because the light is supplied with a removable extension tube that holds the additional CR123A battery, which can be removed if one desires to decrease the overall length of the light.

When using the extension tube, one can use two 18650 batteries, which should provide more running time than the four CR123A’s.  With the extension tube attached, the light is 8.3” in length, and without it, it is 6.96”.

The Olight M30 Triton Tactical Flashlight

The body is made of rugged virtually indestructible aluminum with anti-scratching type III hard anodization.  The body has flat sides to prevent rolling.  There is a push button tail cap switch which turns the light on and off and another push button located on the side of the light next to the tail cap that regulates the amount of lumens output and the strobe mode.

The light has three levels of brightness plus a tactical strobe mode.  The levels are 8 lumens, 120 lumens, and 700 lumens.  I did notice while using the light on 700 lumens that the bezel area of the light became very warm.  In cold conditions this could actually prove to be useful.  The maximum running time, advertised to be a continuous 90 hours, is on the 8 lumens setting.   Olight says that the M30 provides 1.5 hours at the high intensity 700 lumen setting and a very reasonable 7 hours at the 120 lumen setting.

While the on/off switch is easy to use, I did find the brightness control switch hard to find at times with gloves on, although using it was easy once located.  When the flashlight is in the off position, pushing this button activates the strobe only.  In my opinion, this is a good defensive option for those of you who go into harm’s way.

To test the strobe I incorporated the assistance of my German Shepard dog, Ruger.  At night, while shining the strobe on Ruger, he had a hard time orienting himself to approach me.  He would walk sideways to the light and twist his head back and forth as if he was having trouble navigating.  Once the light was off, he would come right in (thanks, Ruger).

The M30 Triton is also supplied with a beam diffuser which forces the narrow beam of the LED to work as a flood light.  Lastly, the light is supplied with a battery magazine tube which will hold three CR123A batteries at the ready for easy refilling into the flashlight.

The Olight M30 Triton Tactical Flashlight shown with and without the extension tube installed

I found myself using the light during an outing in the Linville Gorge area of North Carolina.  The flashlight was dropped, rained on, left running for extended periods of time, mishandled by some, and used to tap down a rusty nail with no breakage.  Having said that, I would not recommend treating a light of this quality and price as I did, but I wanted to see if it would hold up under extreme use and it did without any problems.  I even submerged it under water as far as I could reach (the mountain water was cold) and worked all of the functions with no leakage.  As I am a certified SCUBA diver, I may give it a go sometime during a dive just to see how deep it can be submerged without leakage.  Never-the-less, I spoke with Jian Li of Olight and he has assured me that the light would be replaced without question if it fails under normal use (see warranty supplied with light).

I found the body of the light to be easy to grip and could operate the tail cap with gloves on.  The light has defensive scallops at the bezel and tail cap ends which appear to be able to do the job if called upon by an experienced person (Ruger did not volunteer for this).

I like everything about the light, especially the strobe.  I spoke with a friend of mine who is a tactical officer with a department in the hills of North Carolina.  He said that their team uses strobes on every tactical search warrant entry and found that it greatly increases officer safety by disorienting the people inside the residence upon entry.  They use the strobes in conjunction with the super bright settings.  The strobes are usually directed into the eyes of the suspects while the constant super bright light allows them to navigate.

To say the least, I found the M30 Triton to be a very capable flashlight.  It performed well for me and I believe it will hold up to some of the worst conditions and perform as good or better than other comparable designs.  I am going to add this one to my gear in the event that I find myself in less than desirable conditions.

T. T.

Durham, NC