- Pricing & Availability
- What comes in the box?
- Design & Construction
- Size & Measurements
- Built-In Switches & User Interface
- Remote Switch & User Interface
- Emitter & Beam
- Mode Chart
- Runtime
- Driver & Regulation
- Batteries & Charging
- Carry & Ergonomics
- Competition
- Conclusion
Pricing & Availability
Armytek sent me this light in exchange for an honest review. Here is the official product page where you can see current pricing. At the time of writing it’s $140 USD.
What comes in the box?
The light comes in a fairly standard retail box with a vacuum-formed insert to hold the contents. Inside is:
- The light itself
- Battery (inside the light)
- User manual
- Remote switch (& mounting hardware)
Design & Construction
This model adopts one of the fairly standard rifle-light layouts: a blocky body with 1913/Picatinny rail mount on one side and an angled switch at the back. It’s sleeker than the traditional ring-mounted-tube-light approach.
Build quality seems good. It feels very sturdy and durable. The water resistance rating is 2 meters for 5 hours without the remote switch. With the remote switch, it’s IP67 rated. It’s drop rated for 10 meters, which is excellent.
Size & Measurements
Olight Warrior 3S | Armytek Parma C2IR Pro | Mini Maglite
| Measurement | Measured (mm) |
|---|---|
| Bezel Diameter | 33.5 |
| Length | 147.0 |
| Remote Switch Length | ~265 |
| Included Battery Length | 65.5 |
| Weight with included battery (g) | 187 |
Built-In Switches & User Interface
There are two switches on the light itself; a button and a selector switch.
The selector switch lets you choose between lockout, IR, and white light. It’s stiff with strong detents so it will not move on accident and you know for sure when it’s snapped into position. I love having this separate, tactile switch to choose between white, IR, and lockout.
The button is a momentary electronic switch that’s tactile and audible. Since it’s angled, you can press it down, forward, or at an angle. I really like this switch. Here’s the UI:
- Single press: Momentary on. It will turn off when you let go.
- Double press: Constant on. It will turn off when you press it again.
- Triple press: Strobe. It will turn off when you press it again.
That’s usable but suboptimal. I wish it worked like this:
- Quick press and release: Constant on. It will turn off when you press it again.
- Long press and hold: Momentary on. It will turn off when you let go.
- Double press and hold: Momentary Strobe. It will turn off when you let go.
Remote Switch & User Interface
A remote switch and associated mounting hardware are also included. The remote switch leaves a lot to be desired for me. It’s got two buttons on it, a square one and a larger rectangular one.
The square switch is a simple constant on/off switch. It’s tactile and reliable no complaints.
The rectangular switch is another story. Its not tactile at all so I can’t feel it activating. I have to press it really hard and in a specific spot for it to activate. It’s UI is exactly the same as the button on the body of the light, which I already don’t care for. Since there’s already a constant on/off switch, I think this other switch should be momentary-only instead of having the double-press and triple-press actions from the built-in button’s UI.
Emitter & Beam
I asked Armytek about the LEDs and will update the review when I hear back. The white one is a 3535 footprint quad-die, but I can’t tell exactly what model it is.
The white beam has a relatively narrow hotspot and relatively narrow spill, but is plenty bright. It’s not clean, with rings and artifacts throughout, but that’s only something you notice when looking for it. It’s not a problem during actual use.
In the beamshots below, camera settings are fixed and the wall is 2.8M away.
In the beamshots below, camera settings are as similar as possible, the basketball goal to the right of the hotspot is 39M away, and the power pole in the center is 185M away.
I don’t have a great way to take an IR beamshot, but here’s a photo from the IR face recognition camera on my old Pixel 4 smartphone. As you can see the IR beam has a donut hole but otherwise seems fine.
Mode Chart
Disclaimer: All of my measurements are taken at turn-on. Lumen measurements were taken on a Texas Ace 3.5″ Lumen Tube. A candela measurement was taken at 10 meters with an Opple Light Master III on the highest brightness, and other candela figures were calculated relative to that. CRI, CCT, & DUV data were taken for each mode from a few feet away at the center of the hotspot with the Opple Light Master and Waveform DUV Calculator. Runtime tests were performed with the Ceilingbounce app on my smartphone. These tests were performed with a fully charged included battery unless otherwise specified. I cannot measure moonlight directly, so moonlight readings are calculated based on the brightness relative to the next-lowest mode. None of this is professional equipment, so take these measurements with a grain of salt.
The official specs are 1250 lumens and 320 meters. My measurements are below.
| Lumens | Candela | Throw (Meters) | CRI (Ra) | Color Temp. (K) | DUV (Tint) |
| 1200 | 35000 | 370 | 72 | 6680 | 0.0028 |
Runtime
Performance seems find. I haven’t tested any other rifle lights to compare against recently. Turbo time is about 1 minute, then it drops to 600lm. At room temperature it will then drop to ~400lm after 15 minutes, but if you’re in a cold/windy environment it will maintain 600lm.
Thermal regulation: My Turbo Cooled test shows a significant increase in sustained brightness, but only after 15 minutes, which is odd. I suspect the 1-minute stepdown is timed.
LVP (Low Voltage Protection) is present and works well. It doesn’t rely on the battery having a protection circuit. The light will shut off when the battery is practically empty, but it can be temporarily re-activated at a lower brightness in an emergency.
Driver & Regulation
The driver: I asked Armytek about the driver and will update this review when I hear back from them.
Regulation performance is good/average. It maintains most of the Turbo brightness down to ~25% charge.
PWM: No flickering is visible to my eyes nor audible to my ears, but my phone camera can detect some flickering.
Parasitic Drain: I can’t measure parasitic drain because the battery is inserted from the front.
Batteries & Charging
The battery included is an Armytek-branded, unprotected, flat-topped, 3500mAh, 18650 cell that works well. Protected cells fit and work just fine, unless they have a USB charging port built in. Then they won’t fit. It can also accept two CR123A batteries instead, but I didn’t test those.
No charging solution is included. You’ll need an external bay-style charger. Batteries with a USB-C port built in won’t fit.
There’s no battery indicator, so you’ll have to keep on top of it if you’re using it regularly. Some kind of charge indicator would have been nice. Perhaps a few ascending LEDs that come on when you press the switch in Lockout mode.
Carry & Ergonomics
I wasn’t planning to include this section for a weapon light review, but it turned out to be quite comfortable in a handheld reverse grip. The integrated mount makes it bulky to carry though.
Competition
Here are some lights in the same class and how they compare.
Streamlight Protac Rail Mount HL-X Pro: mainstream alternative without IR
- no IR light, white only
- similar price & battery
- more flexible mounting options (scout mount, MLOK, and Picatinny/1913 options all included)
- more traditional shape
- much better remote switch
- not quite as bright (1000lm)
- more throw (50,000cd)
- very popular, has been reviewed and tested extensively
- much better remote switch
- configurable UI (choose from three mode groups)
Surefire Scout Light Pro Infrared: expensive mainstream alternative with IR
- about 4x as expensive
- made in the US
- takes two CR123As instead of one 18650
- off/IR/White selector ring on the head
- traditional tailswitch
- not nearly as bright (only 350lm)
- very popular, has been tested and reviewed extensively
- requires less rail space for mounting
- optional remote switches sold separately
This section is not comprehensive. If I didn’t include a particular light here, it doesn’t mean it’s bad or doesn’t deserve to be here. I simply cannot list every possible competitor.
Conclusion
Parma C2IR Pro is well built with decent performance and great switches (on the light itself. I’m surprised how comfortable it is as a handheld, and I’m glad it uses a standard 18650 battery. I’d like to see a basic charger included, and the UI updated to be more intuitive. I found the remote switch cheap and unreliable. Overall, it’s a solid rifle light that’s very well priced considering its dual light sources.
Thanks to Armytek for sending me this light for review!
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