Folomov EDC C2 Flashlight Review

The Folomov EDC C2 Flashlight is a tiny light, with a 14300 li-ion cell.  It’s a nice little package; read on for more testing and thoughts!

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Official Specs and Features

Here’s a link to the Folomov EDC C2 Flashlight product page.

Versions

Just one version!

Price

I’m not sure where all this is available but I got mine from Going Gear, and you can too.  It’s $34.95 there.   (That’s a referral link!  Please click it!  It’s fun to click!)

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Short Review

This has become a go-to bedtime light for me.  Often when going to bed I’ll walk around with a light in my mouth, and this one being so small and light is absolutely perfect for that.  It’s…. probably not the best idea or practice but it’s what I do.  ¯_(ツ)_/¯

For this purpose, I love a very warm emitter, and again, the EDC C2 is perfect for that reason.  I don’t love that the cell is practically unheard of, so if you ever need a replacement, it’ll probably be hard to find.

Long Review

The Big Table

Folomov EDC C2
Emitter:	Nichia E21A (≥98 CRI)
Price in USD at publication time:	$34.95 Buy yours at Going Gear!
Cell:	1×14300
Turbo Runtime	High Runtime
LVP?	Yes
Switch Type:	E-Switch
Quiescent Current (A):	0.00012
On-Board Charging?	Yes
Chargetime
Power off Charge Port with no Cell?	–
Claimed Lumens (lm)	400
Measured Lumens (at 30s)	189 (47.3% of claim)^
Claimed Throw (m)	157
Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s)	141lux @ 4.268m = 2568cd
Throw (Calculated) (m)	101.4 (64.6% of claim)^
All my Folomov reviews!

^ Measurement disclaimer:  Testing flashlights is my hobby. I use hobbyist-level equipment for testing, including some I made myself. Try not to get buried in the details of manufacturer specifications versus measurements recorded here; A certain amount of difference (say, 10 or 15%) is perfectly reasonable.

What’s Included

• Folomov EDC C2 Flashlight
• Folomov 14300 Lithium-ion cell with built-in charging
• Spare o-rings (3)
• Charge cable (USB to micro-USB)
• Manual

Package and Manual

The EDC C2 ships in a metal tin, which has been customized.  Inside is soft foam.

The manual is comprehensive.

Build Quality and Disassembly

Build quality is good.  No complaints.

Is that a teardrop I see there on the head?  It’s a nice adornment.  The bezel is just proud of the head (on not in), and so if you needed to you could probably remove the bezel.  I didn’t need to.

The tailcap has a spring that holds in the magnet.

The threads on the tailcap end of the body are square-cut, anodized, and decently lubed.  They’re quite long though, maybe 4 rotations to unscrew the tailcap.  The pocket clip gets in the way just a little.

The head end has only a button, which is pretty fine since the cell you’ll use is the one that ships with the light, and probably no other cell, ever.  As such, fitment is perfect and there’s no bounce within the cell tube.

Size and Comps

Officially 18.5mm in diameter, and 54.4mm long.  With cell, the light weighs 30g.

All the product photos of this light really just don’t give a clear picture of how tiny it is.  It’s a truly tiny “real light” – not a keychain light (though it’s small enough to be used that way.)

Here’s the test light with the venerable Convoy S2+.  Mine’s a custom “baked” edition Nichia 219b triple.  A very nice 18650 light.

And here’s the light beside my custom engraved TorchLAB BOSS 35, an 18350 light.  I reviewed the aluminum version of that light in both 35 and 70 formats.

Retention and Carry

There’s a friction fit pocket clip which is very reminiscent of many Lumintop clips.  Those two circles and the big slit down the middle… These openings can be used for connecting a lanyard, too – the pocket clip is very secure.

I wish the clip was just a shade shorter (maybe 4mm) so that unscrewing the tailcap was more fluid.  This wouldn’t affect how the clip works, either.  Otherwise, I’m very satisfied with the clip.  It’s not stiff, and the mouth allows fairly easy placement on the material.

The orientation of the pocket clip does mean that the light can be used on the brim of a hat very effectively.  I’m not sure the clip’s shoulder is broad enough to fit over a cap, but the body of the clip is long enough that it’ll still work fine.

There’s also a magnet in the tailcap, which is very much strong enough to hold the light.  I believe it’s removable, after removing the spring in the tailcap.

Power and Runtime

As stated above, the EDC C2 runs off lithium-ion power.  In this case, it’s a custom (or “rare” – I’m not certain it’s a Folomov custom item) 14300 lithium-ion cell, which also has built-in charging.

Bigger cells won’t fit.

The included cell is a button top.

The EDC C2 is rated at 400 lumens, and it does hit that at startup, but for FL1 measurements, I’m seeing only around 189 lumens.  The light does have LVP.

Output claim for High is right on target, though.  The output tracks downward with the cell voltage, and then ultimately shuts off with a cell voltage around 3V.  The claim of “0.5h” is approximately true as is the case with most runtime claims.

Charging

The cell has onboard charging, by means of a micro-USB port on the positive end.

Folomov provides a cable, in case you don’t already have a million lying around somewhere.

Charging goes about as fast as you’d want it to – over 1C, and the on-cell claim of 250mAh is met quite readily.  Charging is also very consistent, which is a good trait.

Modes and Currents

Mode	Mode Claimed Output (lm)	Claimed Runtime	Measured Lumens	Tailcap Amps
Turbo	400	0.4h	189	3.16
High	160	0.5h	165	0.75
Medium	50	1.5h		0.28
Low	10	5h		0.07
Moon mode	0.5	20h		0.03

Pulse Width Modulation

On the scope, I see PWM on every mode.  Yes every mode, even Turbo.  This is probably a good thing, and a thing I think Folomov learned with the early EDC C1 lights – uncontrolled Turbo output on the Nichia E21A is the best way to burn out a bunch of emitters.

The PWM isn’t bad – I don’t notice it by eye.  Note the timescale below, which is 50us.  That’s very fast.

Here you can see a “baseline” – a chart with almost no light hitting the sensor.

Then there’s the Ultrafire WF-602C flashlight, which has some of the worst PWM I’ve seen. It’s so bad that I used a post about it to explain PWM! Here are multiple timescales (10ms, 5ms, 2ms, 1ms, 0.5ms, 0.2ms) to make comparing this “worst” PWM light to the test light easier. That post also explains why I didn’t test the WF-602C at the usual 50us scale.

User Interface and Operation

There’s a single indicating e-switch on the side of the head of the EDC C2.  It’s gray (really translucent) and small (remember how small this light is overall), and quite clicky.  The switch is proudish and easy to find.

And yes, in case you’ve made it this far and are still wondering:  The EDC C2 is a different-cell, side switch version of the EDC C1 v3.  Same UI, same basically everything (even same PWM fingerprint).

The switch also stays lit at all times, when the light is on.  It’s always indicating the (approximate) cell voltage.

There are two UI’s.  Illumination mode (default), and Tactical mode.  To switch between them, from off click 7x.  The light will flash 6x to confirm the change.

Here’s a user interface table for “Illumination Mode”!

State	Action	Result
Off	Click	On (Mode Memory)
Off	Hold 0.5s	Moon
Moon	Click	Mode Memory
On	Click	Mode Advance (LMH)
Any	Click 2x	Turbo
Turbo	Click 2x	Special Mode Advance (Turbo>Strobe>SOS>Beacon^)
On	Hold 0.5s	Off
Off	Click 3x	Lockout (Three flashes to confirm)
Lockout	Click 3x	Unlock (One flash to confirm)
On	Click 3x	1-minute countdown timer (One flash to confirm)^^

^ This isn’t a typical beacon – it fades in and out approximately every 5 seconds.
^^ Countdown starts at 1m but minutes can be added. After the timer, click three more times to add one minute. The light will flash twice to indicate the timer is now 2 minutes.  You can add up to 10 minutes total.  The manual seems to be incorrect on this matter, but the above works on my copy.  The timer seems to activate a lowish mode, not really corresponding to Low.  But it’ll time in Moon as well – so really two modes are available in timer mode.

Here’s a user interface table for “Tactical Mode”!

State	Action	Result
Off	Hold	Momentary Turbo
Off	Click	Turbo
Off	Click 2x	Strobe
On	Click	Off

LED and Beam

The emitter of choice in the EDC C2 is a Nichia E21a, at 3000K temperature, with a CRI of ≥98.

There’s a reflector too.  The beam is one of my favorites, too.  There’s a hotspot, with much less spill (than on the EDC C1 v3 for example).  This spot beam is great for walking around the house at night.

Low is quite low – maybe a little higher than 0.5 lumens, but still low.

These beamshots always have the following settings:  f8, ISO100, 0.3s shutter, and manual 5000K exposure. These photos are taken at floor level, and the beam hits the ceiling around 9 feet away.

Tint vs BLF-348 (KillzoneFlashlights.com 219b version) (affiliate link)

Test light left, Killzone 219b right.

I compare everything to the Killzone 219b BLF-348 because it’s inexpensive and has the best tint!

Conclusion

What I like

• Very warm emitter, great for night use to not disturb people around the house
• Full package kit includes everything you’ll need to get going
• Spot beam is a great beam profile
• CRI of greater than 98 is astounding
• Size – this thing is just tiny

What I don’t like

• Turbo rated at 400 lumens is a bit misleading
• 14300 cell is quite unusual and will be hard to replace
• 14300 with only 250mAh is going to provide very limited runtimes

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Notes

• This light was provided by Going Gear for review. I was not paid to write this review.
• This content originally appeared at zeroair.org. Please visit there for the best experience!
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