Maxtoch Owleyes W Pro v2

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Maxtoch Owleyes W Pro v2 specifications

Brand/model	Maxtoch Owleyes W Pro v2
Flashlight category	Long-range / LEP / searchlight
LED	2x LEP
Max. output	1,200 Lumens
Max. beam distance	4,000 meters
Max. beam intensity	4,000,000 cd
Battery config.	3*21700
Onboard charging	N/A (Battery carrrier has USB-C)
Modes	3
Blinkies	Strobe
Waterproof	IPX8
Review date	June 2023

It’s not too long ago when I reviewed the Maxtoch Owleyes Pro v1, but Maxtoch made sure to make an upgraded version, changing from the relatively unique 2*21700 approach to a wider battery tube, including 3*21700’s.

And if I may believe from the sales page of this upgrade Owleyes W PRO v2, this could be another winner.

If you think that 2,000 meters is a lot.. wait for this one.. It’s supposed to hit 4,000 meters!

And from testing the gen 1, I truly believe they can do this. And if it performs better than the v1, I would gladly accept that upgrade :–D

Package quality.

Maxtoch’s shipped the Owleyes W PRO v2 in a normal carton box. Inside you can find a nice hardcase box with the following stuff on the inside:

• The flashlight: Maxtoch Owleyes W PRO v2
• Battery adapter for 3*21700
• 3*21700 batteries with 5,000mAh each
• USB power adapter
• USB-C charging cable
• Carry handle
• 6 colored filters
• Spare o-rings
• Manual
• Warning reverse polarity battery adapter (not superfluous)

It’s nice to see the change from a slim and long 2*21700 flashlight to a bulky 3*21700 flashlight where the batteries sit next to eachother, instead of in a row.

That makes it much shorter, and with the included carry handle, nice to hold.

This time there is no holster, or anything, and that’s no surprise because of the size of this light, and of course the unusual dual-head design. Maxtoch added a carry handle, which I personally quite like, even though I may not be using it much, becuase it makes the flashlight bigger, and less easy to carry.

There is only 1 switch, which is located on the opposite side of where the handle attaches. This means that you need 2 hands to hold and operate the Owleyes W PRO v2 at the same time.

The switch itself is an electronic switch, which means that you can have the switch behave in multiple ways. A long press turns the light off, and short presses to run through the modes from High to Low.

When it comes to use case scenarios, of course it’s meant to shine really far, so anything from search and rescue to wildlife spotting.

Something that directly drew my attention was the damage on the side of the head. This can be seen in some of the pictures. Shame on you, Maxtoch!

Like all other Maxtoch LEP flashlights, the Owleyes W PRO v2 doesn’t receive any prizes when it comes to aesthetics. They are not meant to be looked at but used. There is no gorgeous looking, high-end materials, but rather a simple straightforward flashlight, without any bells and whistles.

And if you keep this in mind, you won’t get too disappointed when you receive it. No, it doesn’t have any problems when it comes to the build quality, but don’t expect some high-end EDC design, fit and finish.

Its anodization is matte black all around the light, without any blemishes or chipped spots.

The tailcap is removable, and this is where it gets interesting.

When the tailcap is removed, you’ll notice a USB-C port, which is built into the rear part of the battery carrier. However, there are 2 things.

First off, you can’t remove the battery carrier from here, and secondly, there might be a design problem. I would have thought that I could use this USB port to charge the batteries without remove the battery tube + battery carrier. But no, nor the included USB cable, nor any other USB cable I had lying around will fit. You have to remove the battery tube and battery adapter to charge it. It’s a little strange decision in my opinion. They should have extended the battery tube, so you could charge the batteries by simply removing the tailcap.

There was plenty of lubrication on the threads and o-ring near the tailcap. There is only a single o-ring on each end of the battery tube, but there seems to be an extra slot for a 2nd one.

Maxtoch offers a 1-year warranty if the problem is caused by normal usage. But there is a lifetime warranty for repairs with no labor charges as long as parts are available. You will only be charged for the parts needed to repair the light. Accessories like lanyards, holsters, etc are not covered by this warranty. More info can be found here: https://maxtoch.com/pages/–14

If you think that 1 LEP doesn’t reach far enough, what would you do? Would you buy 2 LEP flashlights? Why not build a Dual LEP setup instead? That’s probably what Maxtoch thought when they initially built the Owleyes W PRO. And fortunately, they changed the design slightly to make it shorter, with more batteries, and longer runtimes.

Both bezels have the typical red Maxtoch coating, including slight crenellation. They can be removed, but the threads are relatively thin. Unfortunately, Maxtoch still hasn’t upgraded this, and I think this is still an issue.

Fortunately, there is a glass lens in front of the convex lens, to protect it. It’s much cheaper and easier to find a replacement for a standard lens than for the correct convex lens.

Having 2 beams next to each other looks a little strange, especially when pointing to something close by. After about 30-40 meters/yards, they turn into 1 very intense beam. And since this is an LEP thrower, it’s not meant to light up something at a close distance anyway.

With the kit, Maxtoch also includes sets of yellow, red and green filters. They are made of plastic, and some may get a little stuck when replacing the glass lenses. So keep that in mind when you are outdoors, and lack tools to remove the lens when it’s stuck.

Tip: I got the stuck filter removed by using a suction pad from 1 of the sunshades I have in my car!

The color of the beams are quite neutral, and not too cold. Please have a look at the beamshots towards the end of this review.

Also, the green and yellow filters perform very well, but the red filter reduces the output significantly.

And Maxtoch used 2 mirror-type LEP modules. This is different from the v1, which used the shine-through types. I don’t know why they changed this, but perhaps the performance section will tell.

Dimensions: 

Maxtoch Owleyes W PRO v2	Millimeters	Inches
Length	178 mm	7 in
Head diameter	120 mm	4.7 in
Head width	60mm	2.4 in
Body diameter	51mm	2 in

Dimensions are rounded to the nearest millimeter, and to the nearest tenth of an Inch.

Weight: 

Maxtoch Owleyes W PRO v2	Weight in grams	Weight in oz.
Without battery:	680g	24oz
With battery	888 g	31.3 oz

Weight is rounded to the nearest gram, and to the nearest tenth of an Oz.

Maxtoch Owleyes W PRO v2 Flashlight comparison

Size compared to other LEP flashlights

Group 1: Maxtoch Owleyes W PRO v2 vs Maxtoch Owleyes W PRO v1

Group 2, from left to right: Big Maxtoch flashlights: Maxtoch LA60, Maxtoch L3K, Maxtoch L2KD, Maxtoch L2K, Maxtoch Owleyes W PRO v2, Maxtoch Owleyes W PRO v1.

Group 3: Front row: Lumintop Thor 2 v2, Mateminco FW2, Lumintop Petal.
Rear row: Weltool W4, Maxtoch L2Ks, Maxtoch LA60, Maxtoch L3K, Maxtoch L2KD, Maxtoch L2K, Maxtoch Owleyes W PRO v2, Maxtoch Owleyes W PRO v1.

The W PRO v2 has a relatively simple UI, with 3 modes. Just like a LEP should be. But their listing can be a bit confusing because they refer to a Turbo mode, while in reality it’s just a High mode, so keep that in mind.

Available modes:

• High, Medium, Low (in that order)

From OFF:

• Single-click: to last used mode, mode memory
• Double click: High (they call it Turbo)
• 3 clicks: nothing
• 4 clicks: Lockout

From ON:

• Single-click: runs from High to Low
• Double click: High
• Triple click: strobe
• Long press: off

Shortcuts:

• High: double click from off or on
• Strobe: triple click from off

Mode memory:

• Yes

Blinky modes menu:

• Strobe mode. This can be accessed by 3 clicks from any mode. It doesn’t active from off

Low battery warning:

• No

Lock-out mode:

• Yes, 4 clicks from Off will active lockout mode. If you press the switch, the light will blink very faintly

PWM:

• Not visible by eye

Firmware / UI Conclusion:

Maybe no-mode memory would have been better? If you have no memory, you know it always starts in a certain mode (preferably high). But something can be said for mode memory as well. So to each their own.

Low mode could perhaps be a bit lower to extend the runtime.

The Owleyes W PRO v2 is totally revamped, and changed from a long 2*21700 battery tube into a 3*21700 battery carrier tube. This makes the tube much wider, but also much shorter at the same time.

It arrived with 3*21700 Maxtoch branded batteries with 5,000mAh, which were reading 4.11 Volts. This is a bit high for storage or shipping, but at least you can use the flashlight right out of the box.

They fit in the battery carrier parallel, so the total capacity has tripled, but the Voltage stayed the same. So the battery carrier reads 4.19V when all batteries are fully charged (with a separate charger).

The battery carrier has a USB-C port for charging, and you can see it while unscrewing the tailcap. Once the tailcap is unscrewed there is no way to connect the USB cable though. I feel this is some sort of design flaw? Plus, you can’t remove the battery carrier from the back, only by unscrewing the body, and remove it from the front-end.

BTW. it can only be used by shorter cells, because long 21700 don’t fit.

Note: the battery carrier does not have any physical reverse polarity protection

Once removed, you can charge the batteries inside.

• Total charge of 3 hours 27 minutes
• Charge highest = 9V and about 2.6Amp = 24 Watts
• End Voltage: 4.18V

Unfortunately, I shorted the battery carrier, so 2 springs got deformed, and lost their flexibility. Fortunately, this happened after the throw, and runtime tests. I just had to measure lumens for Medium and High. So those could be a bit off, but not much.

This is the gear I used for testing:

Gear	Purpose	Link to buy
Hagner E4-X	Measuring beam intensity (throw)	Inquire at Hagner.se
Extech SDL400	Lumens and logging runtimes	Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk,
Leica Disto D2	Distance for throw measurements	Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk,
Asensetek Lighting Passport Pro Standard	Spectrometer for LED measurements	–

Lumen measurements:

How Lumens are Measured: Understanding ANSI FL1 Standards How Lumens are Measured: Understanding ANSI FL1 Standards: The ANSI FL1 standards specify that output in lumens should be measured 30 seconds after turning on, as this is the standardized time for measuring brightness according to the industry standard. This is why we focus on this part in our measurements.

The output measurements in this review are based on my homemade integrating spheres, each equipped with an Extech SDL400 Lux Meter. For consistency and accuracy, a calibration light (Convoy S2+ with 249lm and a Convoy S2+ with 261lm) is measured prior to each set of lumen measurements.
For high-output lights, one of the lux meters uses an ND camera filter to prevent the lux meter to max out. This is either the Kenko PRO1D ND16 up till about 80,000 lumens or Gobe ND32 for anything above.

The measurements were taken manually at turn on and 30 seconds. The 10 minute numbers are taken from the runtime graph. I used the included Maxtoch batteries.

Ambient temperature was 25 degrees Celsius, just above ANSI FL1.

Here are the measurements for the v2, and below you can see them for the v1

Owleyes W PRO v2	Advertised lumens	Measured 0sec	30sec	10 minutes
Low	200	262 lm	252 lm	236
Med	600	650 lm	626 lm	585
High	1200 lm	1063 lm	1028 lm	956 lm

High mode was also tested with extra magnets to make up for the lost flexibility of the springs, and got 1% difference. So, I guess it didn’t influence the effectiveness much, since I got similar output with version 1.

From these measurements, the new v2 has a higher output.

Maxtoch Owleyes Battery life and runtime

How Runtimes are Measured: Understanding ANSI FL1 Standards About ANSI FL1 runtime standards: The runtime is measured until the light drops to 10% of its initial output (30 seconds after turning on). This does not mean that the flashlight is not usable anymore. The last column shows how long the light actually works till it shuts off. If there is a + symbol, it means that the test was stopped at that particular point, but the light was actually still running. This happens on certain occasions, with certain drivers, firmware, or batteries.

The runtime test was done with the 50cm home made integrating sphere, combined with the Extech SDL400 data logging Lux Meter.

Mode	Specified runtime	Measured runtime (ANSI FL1)	Time till shut off
Low	8h 45min	9h 04min	9h 04min
Med	4h 20min	4h 22min	4h 22min
High	2h 30min	2h 32min	2h 32min

Peak beam intensity and beam distance measurements

Beam distance was measured at 50 meters, but it was difficult to find the highest reading because I had to walk 50 meters from the moment the light turns on :–)

Mode	Specs	Measured Candeals	Meters	Yards	Miles
High	4,000,000 cd /4,000meters	4,000,000 cd	4000 m	4374 yd	2.49 mi
Med	–	2,500,000 cd	3162	3458	1.96
Low	–	1,107,500 cd	2105	2302	1.31

So it easily reaches 4,000,000 candelas, which equals 4 kilometers or 2.49 miles. And at turn on, it reaches even farther.

Here are graphs that show how it performs in terms of candelas.

Compares the v1 to the v2

I used 2 types of graphs, just to show that the software added those spikes when they drop. But you can also see that the V2 is quite a bit less smooth. The output goes up and down quite a bit.

The v2 performs better in High mode, but not in Low and Medium, except for the runtimes of course.

Would I recommend the W PRO v2 over the v1? Maybe.

They look and feel different, and both have their pros and cons.

Here are some for you to consider:

• V2 is much shorter
• V2 has a carry handle with Picatinny rail
• V2 uses a battery carrier which is easier to break when inserting the batteries the wrong way
• V1 uses a rear switch, and the v2 a side switch
• V2 has charging in the battery carrier, so you don’t get an extra battery charger if you already have 10

Here’s another comparison with the bigger boys

BIG LEP Flashlights comparison

A list of all the largest LEP flashlights we reviewed, including multiple cell setups: These numbers are NOT from the specifications but measured by our reviewers. They include the bigger LEP flashlights with a large diameter head (about 45mm and above). The numbers include the measurement in lumens (lm), measure candela (cd), and calculated distance in meters, and yards. These numbers are all measured 30 seconds after turning on.

Flashlight	Battery	@30sec (lm)	Candela (cd)	Meters	Yards
Acebeam W30	21700	498	1,312,000	2291	2505
Astrolux WP2	21700	303	1,248,000	2234	2443
Astrolux WP3	21700	445	2,412,000	3106	3397
Jetbeam M1X WP-RX	21700	491	2,280,000	3020	3302
Jetbeam RRT M1X Raptor	21700	267	880,000	1876	2052
Lumintop Thor 3	21700	311	1,728,000	2629	2875
Maxtoch Owleyes W PRO	2*21700	966	3,996,000	3998	4372
Maxtoch Owleyes W PRO v2	3*21700	1028	4,000,000	4000	4374
Maxtoch LA60	2*21700	456	2,272,000	3015	3297
Maxtoch L2K	2*21700	445	2,508,000	3167	3464
Maxtoch L2KD	2*21700	548	3,051,000	3493	3820
Maxtoch L2KS	21700	442	2,308,000	3038	3323
Maxtoch L3K	2*21700	484	1,908,000	2763	3021
Nextorch T20L	21700	975	1,284,000	2266	2478
Weltool W4	21700	450	2,184,000	2956	3232
Weltool W4 Pro	21700	550	2,808,000	3351	3665

Interactive graphs (hover your mouse over these graphs for more data)

And below is an interactive throw comparison graph (candela), between all the bigger LEP flashlights with a head larger than 45mm.

Hover your mouse over the interactive graph below to see the details of each specific light. (tip: hold your mobile phone horizontally to see the full graph)

And here’s an overview with another comparsion graph to show the distances and candelas measured at 30 seconds.

Throwers:

For the following beamshots, I used a Canon EOS 5D Mk2 and a 100mm lens. manual settings: ISO1600, .5sec , F4, 5000K

The tower is about 450 meters / 492 yards away.

The following flashlights are compared:

• Maxtoch Owleyes W PRO v2
• Maxtoch Owleyes W PRO v1
• Weltool W4
• Maxtoch L2Kd
• Maxtoch L2K
• Acebeam W30

Disclaimer: I bought this flashlight with my own money, with a reviewer’s discount. Nobody paid me to review this flashlight, nor have I been holding back on problems or defects.