The Headlamp Thread
 

A headlamp is a pretty essential piece of gear. I've been through a bunch of them, having killed quite a few. Well, I tried going without one for about 6 months, instead relying on a phone flashlight, a little flashlight on my spare battery, and a keychain light, but there's something about having both hands free that just works.

And so, I did a bunch of research and selected what I thought was the "best" headlamp, and thought to share my thinking here so that maybe someone else can use this as a shortcut. It would also be cool to get a headlamp thread going, so that new tourists have a resource.

Here are my headlamp parameters:

1. Brightness - I am not using this as a "riding" light. I have a 350 lumen light for that. This is for night tasks in camp, including late-night bathroom runs in the dark woods. 70-90 lumens is about perfect for this.

2. Battery Life - This may be my most important concern. I don't like to stop to charge things, so if my lights last longer, I can keep riding and ignore the batteries. I also wanted something that would charge via USB, because I have aspirations for a dyno setup.

3. Price - I don't want to spend a fortune because, like I said, I may kill this headlamp by accident.


I looked first at Petzl, having several good experiences with them. They used to have a "CORE" rechargeable battery system, but that has apparently been discontinued and the new system has yet to be unveiled. I was very frustrated with Petzl:

- The website was very unhelpful in telling me which lights were rechargeable and which weren't.
- Some product descriptions described options (like the CORE) that are no longer available for sale.
-Some product descriptions were wrong. The Actina was described one place as being USB rechargeable, in another place as being CORE compatible, in a third place as having a prioprietary, unique rechargeable block, and in a fourth place as being USB compatible right out of the box. Ugh!
- The price of these headlamps was higher than most others.

I also looked at some other headlamp brands and manufacturers. here were some issues I ran into:

- The Amazon market is flooded with headlamps from unknown brands. Most are foreign-based. There's nothing inherently wrong with equipment made in China or whatever, but there's no knowledge of reliability, long-term durability, etc. It's frustrating having to wade through so much no-name stuff to find an actually thoughtfully produced item. And, there could be some gems in the murk, but I don't have the patience to try and weed them out. Too bad.

-Most headlamps either fall into a "cheap and simple" price point of ~$25 with no features, low lumens, bad battery life, or heavy weight. Or, they're designed for caving/night-alpinism with 200+ lumens and 1.5lb belt-mounted battery packs. In other words, way more headlamp than I need. Petzl doesn't seem to have a middle-of-the-road option that is USB rechargeable (or, it was too hard to find whether or not it was).

I looked at Black Diamond. The ReVolt checked all my boxes:

-USB rechargeable with a very long battery life
-Can run off of regular batteries in a jam
-$47, not too pricey considering rechargeable headlamps from Petzl and Princeton Tec seem to start at $85
-Simple. Nothing fancy.

http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/SI4AAO...CNn/s-l300.jpg

So, that's the one I went with. So now I have this headlamp, and a bike light that is bolted onto the bike.

Hope this "review" is useful in some way. I'll follow up with a long-term later. Now there's one more potentially useful thread when people search "headlamps" on here - it would be great if people could chime in with what they like/dislike about their own headlamps.

I use my helmet mounted light on the lowest power for setting up camp after dark. Keep a pee bottle in the tent, so no need to make bathroom runs at night. No need for a headlamp.

I have a small AAA flashlight that I hang from the tent ceiling. It works well as a night light kind thing. I have the non-recharge version of the Black diamond. nice light. I have trouble with the controls sometimes.
Anything to say about waterproofness of your light?

Too bad you didn't ask me first.
I've owned two of these. They both failed. Batteries failed first. (You've got to get theirs) Then if you don't recharge it exactly right via a computer USB (not my dynamo hub) it starts to function squirley, where nothing makes sense.
I give it two big thumbs down.

Aha, I did read that, and I also read that BD did a voluntary recall and has since "fixed" the problem. So I have my fingers crossed, but I will take advantage of that 3 year warranty if I need to.

Good thread, Max.

I just picked up a Black Diamond Storm a couple months ago. https://www.rei.com/product/105855/b...storm-headlamp It's been a decent headlamp, and a significant upgrade from my 17 year-old Petzl Tikka. It's somewhat heavy in regards to the three AA's it requires, but I'm not a fan of rechargeable stuff. I like to keep it simple and just bring extra batteries. If I forget the spares oh well, this old relic can always go back to the old reliable femur wrapped in cloth and soaked in animal fat.

I have owned the BD Revolt since Jan. 2014 and have had no problem. I use mine mainly to read in my tent at night so it does not get real hard use. I also looked for the USB rechargeable feature because I do have a dynamo setup and can keep it re-charged. I have owned Petzls and off brands in the past and really like the BD.

Interesting. Like you, I don't use my headlamp for night riding (unless the head is a ways from my campsite), but rather for around camp and (mostly) reading at night. I have a more powerful PrincetonTech light, but it chews up batteries like crazy. To combat this, I bought some Watson rechargeable NiMH batteries, but that requires me to carry the charger, which plugs into a normal wall outlet. Since I already carry a phone charging cord with a USB/wall outlet adaptor, this lamp might be a better option for me for longer tours, reserving the PTech light for things like three-day trips.


BTW...Would you please review a stove so we can get a food flame war (no pun intended) going? ;)

I considered the Revolt, but I could not find out if the charging circuit is a smart charger or dumb charger. A smart charger senses the battery charge and shuts off the charging circuit when the batteries are full. A dumb charger just keeps charging and charging, but theoretically at a slow enough rate that the batteries should not be damaged. I am a bit picky with my charging, I want to use only smart chargers. Some of the reviews I saw on the internet suggested the charging circuit was not very good, so I decided against it. That said, don't rely on my comments, research it yourself if you are interested as maybe they have improved it since I did my research.

I bought the Black Diamond Storm a few years ago, this is my third or fourth LED headlamp. It uses four, not three AAA cells. Since most AAA chargers work best with two instead of one battery, I wanted an even number of AAA batteries. I carry a charger for AA and AAA batteries since I use AA batteries in my GPS and my bike taillights use AAA. Battery life in the Storm could be better, but I like it. I think mine is several years old now, has 100 lumens but newer ones are rated higher. The various lighting circuits in it are very complicated to use with one button (red, white wide beam, white narrow beam, flashing, dimable beams, a lock circuit) so I have to re-read the instructions before each trip so I remember how to use it.

I picked up a headlamp on a free shelf at a campground on my last tour. I of course had to put a new battery in it, but it works great. Two beams, narrow and wide. It takes one AA cell, not AAA. Tiny and light weight. Since I carry several spare AA batteries, this is great. Brand is Kalahari. I have never seen this brand sold in USA, so I suspect a European left it on the free shelf.

Of the Storm or the Kalahari, I am undecided which to bring on my next trip, but since I leave in less than 24 hours I better decide fast.

I have had lots of incandescent headlamps going back to the Wonder light with C cell adapter, those of you that are as old as I am might remember those. I think my Wonder is still in a box in storage somewhere. Compared to those older lights I used to use, any of the modern LED lights are outstanding.

Does an RF emitting light strapped to your forehead give anyone pause?

Never had that light, but my first lamps were the incandescent petzls with the spare bulb in the housing, and four batteries at the rear. Later got the one that had the batteries in the front, still incandescent. Nothing like using an incandescent keychain backup light to change batterys in the dark in those. If you ever used those things, new lights are indeed pretty good, and incredibly cheap for what you get. I forget what I paid for the first Petzls, but it was far more than I could afford at the time.

Ive since gone through LOTS of headlamps. Most brands failed at the switch eventually, both the cheap ones and the expensive. My current Black diamond is going on three years, and its getting fiddly to use, and the elastic is almost dead.

My Eco lite that runs off of two 2032 batteries is almost nine years old and is still my main "ultra light" choice. Not bright enough to ride with safely, but great for light trips. It also gets taken on longer backpacking trips as a backup light. It has no switch, just a turn of the lamp to close the circuit, thats why its lasted so long.

A month ago I was riding with some friends on some urban bike trails, and we were out after dark. I had forgotten a light, so stopped at a walmart neighborhood marked and got a cheap energizer brand light, 10 bucks with batteries. Usually I dont like to be a thoughtless consumer, but I needed a light for the city streets. Turns out I like it. Its bigger than most other lights I have, but not bad. Will use it till it wears out.

I use a cheap chinese light that has both a white main lamp and a two red ancillary LEDs. It has Full/Half and flashing for the white, and solid and flashing for the red, via two different buttons, and is USB chargeable so I can charge it while riding via the dynohub, which takes just over an hour from around 1/2 discharged. I never used it for more than 90 minutes on half power, but thats plenty of time to set up camp and have dinner. I really like the way one lamp can:
A. be available in case of bicycle mechanical problem at night
B. be used as auxilliary front light in case of failure
C. be used as auxilliary rear light in case of failure
At $7 it's hard to go past and I now have one for both of my two main rides.


(https://www.aliexpress.com/item/DIU-...608.0.0.zkcGTE)

edit: p.s. if buying you need to read the description carefully, there are two variants of this lamp in identical casing. One has the flashing red LEDs activated by the second button, the other has a movement sensor mode for the main lamp, and no red LEDs.

We all gotta die of something.

BD and Petzl drove me to the on-line flashlight market where I was a CPF flashaholic for a spell. You can really do so much better in terms of efficiency, output, runtime, regulation, UI, tint, batteries, durability, cost, etc. For example, manufacturers use 3x AAAs with cheap unregulated PWM drivers to achieve the LED's forward voltage (3+ volts) - this saves the cost of more expensive 1x AA current-regulated boost drivers, and passes costs along to the consumer since a single AA has as much energy as 2.5 AAAs, yet cost nearly the same as a single AAA.

I'm personally a do-it-all type ultra-lighter and use a single 16650 (~9AAA equiv) flashlight for everything (bike headlight, headlamp, lantern - output ranging from 0.3-400 lms) and can run on 1x CR123/AA/AAA with tinfoil spacers, or in a pinch, any cell (eg, 9v/D/18650) with a paperclip.

I don't have one but I have wondered about that. When touring I have been known to finish the day with a full sugar cola which is not too good for me. The headlight might be the final straw....

I bought two cheap AAA led ($5) headlamps for my kids to use camping and wound up taking them on several tours so far. I figured if I smash or lose one no big deal. Good for reading and looking around the tent.

For actual riding I have a decent dedicated bike light. Two actually, one being a strobe aimed at the ground and one a forward headlight.

Cane sugar is OK, but beware of HFCS. I've heard that stuff can cause serious problems.

this one doesn't meet the OP's needs, but for others, it might be useful to know this one works well & is bright

Petzl - TIKKA 80 Lumens

https://www.amazon.com/Petzl-TIKKA-8...B3M?th=1&psc=1

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....L._SL1200_.jpg

I'm with tspoon and Happy Feet, just whatever cheapies I find when I lose my last one. I prefer to have just enough light to do what I am doing at night, to not ruin my night vision too much, and mostly they are just for around camp purposes.

Headlights are simply awesome, though, so much nicer than sticking a flashlight in your mouth.

Fenix headlamp using single AA battery for me.

Looks like a great one to me :thumb: My headlamp use is very frequent (multiple times a week) so the rechargeabe option appeals. If I were camping just now and then, one of these simple ones can and would work great for me.

I have an old Petzl of this style that is going on 10 years old, still works ok for reading but I'm guessing it's down to about 20 lumens now. But, at 10 years old.... good value!

Petzl Tikkas are trusty loyal companions.

+1
My wife and I use them for bike touring, skiing, and backpacking. Nice little LED lights that use 3 AAA batteries. The batteries last forever—OK, but they do last a long time. One set of batteries lasted 3 months on a tour, and carrying a spare set is not a problem. There is a rechargeable option.

My wife using her Tikka to finsish her Journal at the end of the day.http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/y...to%20River.jpg

+1 - I use my bike light at night. I keep an empty bottle in the tent as well. She keeps a Shewee in the tent. If you're not familiar with a Shewee, Google it :thumb:

https://olightworld.com/store/flashlight/s1r-baton.html

This, clipped to a ball cap. Clips perfectly onto a mt bike helmet visor as well. Super easy to charge, and you can still carry a spare battery to switch out if needed. Great user interface, super low, and super high modes, plus good medium ones in between.

I love these lights. Use every night around the home, tinkering with bike, etc...