Olight Osight S 2MOA Red Dot | Can Olight Make An Optic? Leave a comment

I’ll come in hot and say I’ve never used an Olight weapon-mounted light I’ve liked. I’m not a massive fan of their handhelds, but the Obulb is a handy camping light. Ultimately, I’m not a big fan of Olight. Osight and Olight are different companies under the Olight tag, but that’s not always been the case. The first Osight was made by Olight, but they’ve split ways to what I assume to better focus on their chosen product.

Olight Osight S 2 MOA Red Dot

I tell you this so you understand I didn’t have high hopes for Osight. The original Osights didn’t do too well and didn’t review well. Perhaps revamping into a separate company with an individual focus could fix that? Osight now produces three optics, and I’ve received the Osight S. The Osight S is a micro-enclosed emitter optic, which instantly got my attention.

The Osight Out Of the Box

As a resident Florida man I’m in an abusive relationship with Florida weather. Rain and open emitter optics don’t play all that well together so for daily carry I go enclosed when possible. Admittedly I was also impressed by the Osight presentation. Inside a rather large box sat the optic, charger, attachment tool, and two things that stood out.

First, we get a ton of screws. This ensures the dot can easily fit various guns. Osight provides a list of firearms and the appropriate screw to use that gun. It’s a decent list, but I didn’t see the PSA Micro Dagger listed. Luckily, their website has additional listings for guns, so they seem to keep a running list.

The other thing that caught my eye was the provided torque specs. I love it when a company provides torque specs, and it’s even better when they provide screw-specific torque specs. This makes it easy to attach and doesn’t leave me guessing. A quick turn of the Wheeler Fat wrench and the optic attached to my Micro Dagger.

The Osight S uses a Shield RMSc footprint and is sized to fit smaller guns but would work fine on larger guns as well. Osight claims to use a new material known as OAL. According to Osight, it’s a proprietary aluminium that’s supposed to be as light as 7075 but 19% stronger than 7075.

Charging The Osight S

The Osight S uses a proprietary charging method. There is no removable battery, and Olight is known for its internal batteries and odd chargers, so this wasn’t a big surprise. The charger is an optics cover that itself is a rechargeable battery.

It’s like a set of wireless headphones. The headphones and case both have batteries. You can change the cover separately from the Osight S or charge the Osight S directly via the cover and a USB charger.

Battery life is reported at 21,900 hours on level 3 brightness. To be clear, level 3 works fine in dim environments, but it’s too dim for outdoor use or even bright indoor use. I don’t think level 3 is the best metric for judging battery life. The cover can charge the optic three times.

The Osight S features a shake-awake design that shuts off after ten minutes of inactivity. Then, as soon as it detects motion, it comes back to life. You can disable the shake-awake feature, but why would you? Additionally, the optic has a light behind the buttons that helps indicate the battery level. Green is 50% and higher, yellow is 50 to 20%, Red is 10%, and red blinking is below 10%.

Zeroing the Osight S

The Osight S comes with three reticles: a 2 MOA dot, a 32 MOA circle, and a 32 MOA circle with a 2 MOA dot in the center. The 32 MOA designs are large and eye-catching and tend to work well for shooters with astigmatism. They also make the optic better for use on long guns, especially shotguns, and the Osight S has a Picatinny adapter available for it.

The first thing I needed to do was zero the optic. I did so at 15 yards. The adjustments are 1 MOA, so they are broad but much smaller at 15 yards. My first group was low and left, so I adjusted up and right. I shot again, and my group was still low and left. In fact, it landed directly on the first group.

I’m not the flinch type. The reticle simply didn’t adjust. I channeled every IT person, turned it on and off, and dialed in my adjustments again. This time, it took and zeroed right up. I dialed in a few more right clicks, and the Osight was ready to rock and roll.

Shooting Straight

I spent the next six 15-round magazines shooting a variety of drills, experimenting with the reticles, and shooting at multiple ranges. One of the first things I noticed was some odd distortion at the top of the optic. As I fired some rapid-fire strings, I noticed the reticle disappearing at the top of the optic when the gun recoiled.

It’s easy to replicate this dry, and sure enough, the reticle ‘bends’ and distorts at the top couple of millimeters of glass and disappears. That’s odd, and I prefer to be able to see the red dot blur as I shoot so I can better track the dot throughout the recoil impulse. This odd effect is most noticeable with the bigger 32 MOA dot.

I will note that the refresh rate is good. It doesn’t lag but blurs nicely and can be easy to track—that is, until it hits the top of the glass and disappears. The reticles are nice and crisp, and the brightness is adequate for a sunny spring day in Florida shooting against a white berm.

Drop It Like It’s Hot

After a short break to reload magazines, I gave it a few drops to see what would happen. I started by just dropping the gun on the range ground, unloaded, of course, to see if the zero remained. I dropped the weapon and Osight S at multiple angles to give it the whole ground experience.

I reloaded and fired fifteen rounds into several two-inch circles. The zero remained intact, and the optic was seemingly up and running. Next, I dropped it on a bit harder material. My range is devoid of cement and rock, but I had some wood handy and left it fall on the harder material. Again, we did it from chest height at multiple angles.

I retrieved it, reloaded it, and shot another 2-inch circle with 15 rounds. The Osight S remained zeroed. Since it was dirty from being dropped, I tested the IPX7 rating by hitting it with a stream of water. Once more, I observed zero water entry and no loss of zero. This ended my first range day but not my last with the Osight S.

Light and Glare

Over the next few days, I shot the Osight S on the Micro Dagger in varying conditions, from early morning at sunrise to sunset. I even fired it under a white light to test the automatic mode. Like most automatic modes, it’s fine, but not good enough when used with a forward-facing white light. Unlike other automatic modes, you can adjust it up or down one setting to compensate.

The Osight S performed well in varying lighting conditions. When exposed to bright sunlight from the sides and rear, there wasn’t any noticeable glare. I had issues only when I was directly facing the sun. The glare made it slow and difficult to find the dot because red was everywhere.

The Osight S – Final Thoughts

The Osight S is mostly fine. The biggest problem is the disappearing reticle at the top portion of the window. I’ve never encountered that before. The charging method is novel and doesn’t seem objectively bad, but I do prefer a battery I can just hot swap and go. The Osight S has a retail price of $250, which makes it a fairly affordable, multi-reticle option with an enclosed emitter.

It seems to shrug off abuse decently, but I’m concerned about the durability of the top part of the optic where the charger engages it. It seems like it could be problematic in the future, but that’s speculation. I like seeing new options, and maybe splitting Olight and Osight will create better sights than lights.

About Travis Pike

Travis Pike is a former Marine Machine Gunner, a lifelong firearms enthusiast, and now a regular guy who likes to shoot, write, and find ways to combine the two. He holds an NRA certification as a Basic Pistol Instructor and is the world’s Okayest firearm’s instructor.