Headlamps: brighter than our writer
By Cam Burns |
The basic questions remain the same: How does it feel on the noggin, where is the battery pack located (flat-back sprawl-position reading with a back-o’-head battery-pack puts a dent in the bucket), and is the beam worth a flying fork? All the headlamps herein have remarkable front-of-face range — that is, you can tilt the lamps down and take Green-Beret-precise aim while you pee; they have excruciatingly long lamp-lives; they’re all lighter (weight-wise) than snot that has been dehydrated in a jerky-maker; they boast excellent water resistance (see the Pelican jobbie, below); and they’re good, stomp-able products. Thus, this is not an apples-to-apples review; rather, it’s a look at a few contemporary headlamps, and how you can benefit from their light touch — yok yok (Cam make funny). After all, a good headlump is mightier than the flashlight, and all these super-cleverly-designed products come with on/off switches.
Black Diamond Nightray
Perhaps the best thing about this lamp is its range of settings. The Nightray (4.9 ounces with batteries; $40) has both solid, hard-click settings for bulb on-off configurations as well as soft-click settings (“gentle squeeze — gentle squeeze — gentle squeeze”) that allow you to employ three settings (plus a strobe setting) using two or five bulbs — quite a cunning stunt by the guys at BD. (They understand that lots of gentle squeezes are important after a few hard clicks in the night.) There are 5 LED (light emitting diode) “bulbs” that are all the same, except the middle bulb — the “cornea-burner” — has a beefier lens. The Nightray takes three AAA batteries that go in a plastic case at the back of the head (and it has an over-the-top strap). BD defines “useable light” with these neat phrases they print on their packaging: “You can look inside your pack and find an item at the bottom; see your feet when climbing at night; see well enough to tie a knot and set up a rappel.” It doesn’t mention signaling Martians. (I have a headache after looking down the barrel.) It has a rubber-coated switch on the base of the lamp-housing, so it’s well-protected from accidental pricks by other gear and the regrettable in-pack run-down. The operating instructions come in Italiano, so you can use your hands to instruct others on flashing state troopers, or just use your hands. www.bdel.com
Dorcy LED Super 1-Watt
This is a pretty amazing little light (it works better at night than in mid-afternoon) from a company most of us have never heard of and yet make loads of lighting gear. There is only one setting for the LED Super 1 Watt’s 1-watt Luxeon LED, and it’s called “X-ray the brain and the stone wall behind it,” courtesy of a reflector hucking out a boodle of pupil-busting beam. The three AAA batteries go in the head-front lamp unit (this has a three-strap head configuration), in one of those barrel-type loaders, and its LED never needs replacement. Weighing in at 5 ounces, battery-loaded, the LED Super 1 Watt can’t be beat for price (around $20, although stores set their own prices). In 3 a.m. testing, this one pissed off a sleeping Frusilla more than several other models. Put an end to the Dark Ages and shed some light on your dysfunctional home-life with this li’l beauty. Special bonus features include a front and a back, a top and a bottom, and two sides. A nice choice for prison breaks. www.dorcy.com
Gerber Triode
The company that has long made really great knives (for cutting up baby food) has lit out into the personal lighting arena. The three-LED-lamp Triode seems pretty basic at first, but with several charming notables, most striking of which is the fact that it unclips from the headband — and can be clipped to anything commensurately skinny (like a Hanes waistband, when reading slick glossies). Gerber has also trimmed the headstrap to a minimal-yet-comfy ’70s-tennis-star-like strap, and the lamp itself comes with three settings — high beam, low beam and no beam (sometimes called “off”). Check out the cool battery-keeper-cap (folks who design attached water bottle lids take note). It takes a single AAA battery that goes in the head-front lamp unit, and the LEDs never need replacing (“lifetime”). The Triode’s price is set by retailers (have seen them for $21), and it weighs a mere 2.1 ounces with the battery. Gerber’s website says, “It illuminates like the dickens,” so get Charles into your tent and, literally, illuminate things like the dickens — and other not-so-picturesque stuff. www.gerbergear.com
Princeton Tec Yukon HL & EOS
I said up front that you could tilt all these lamps to at least 90 degrees south; the remarkable Yukon HL by Princeton Tec ($60) tilts even further, to nearly 180 degrees — so if there’s emergency dentistry on your trip, this is your lamp. The Yukon HL by Princeton Tec (8 ounces with three AA batteries) utilizes a 1-watt LED in the center of the lamp (for distress signals to Alpha Centauri), plus three high-output 5-millimeter LEDs around the 1-watt LED (excellent for close-up work, like knitting underpants), giving two lighting settings. One de-light-full aspect of the single LED is its huge reflector and the twistable front — the light is focusable, adding to the far-ranging versatility of this lamp. Another nice feature of the Yukon HL is that it includes the traditional over-the-top-of-the-head strap, so you can turn it upside down and wear it as a g-string.
Also, check out PT’s four-mode (three lamp settings, plus a flasher) EOS (3.7 ounces with three AAA batteries; $39), which features PT’s lens system, a distance-versus-flood balancing design and a 1-watt Luxeon LED. The lamp is submergible to one meter (many headlamps are these days) and boasts a simple, soft-rubber, easily-grabbed and operated switch — no fumbling for the sausage-fingered. Governator Arnold wears the EOS and pretends he’s a luminary; when he visits Spain with a paper bag on his head, he’s a luminario. Comes in chunky plastic packaging so you can do your part at the landfill. www.princetontec.com
Pelican HeadsUp Lite
Pelican has long been known for its waterproof boxes — every river-trip-scamming photog knows of this firm’s great products. Now, they’re doing headlamps (and a huge range of lighting devices), as well. And, just like the famous briefcases, these headlamps are forking nice. The HeadsUp Lite ($80) takes four AA batteries, in a barrel-shaped suppository on the forehead (more than most mini-stylers) and comes with two configurations of headstrap: elastic and rubber (think snorkeling mask). Its incredible brightness comes from the fact that the LED bulb is placed on a small plastic bar across the lens pointing the light back into a huge reflector (the “collimator” — soon to be a movie character). Light so bright it makes coffee-stained teeth look attractive. But, this lamp shouldn’t be considered with the others herein as a backpacking/mountaineering/animal sacrificing lamp; rather — at 0.6 pounds (with its four AA batteries and the headband) — this is the kind of light you’ll wanna take on water-borne trips and into really wet places because it’s fully waterproof to 500 feet. Not particularly useful as a weapon — unless thrown really hard. www.pelican.com
Petzl Tikka XP
Into the limelight of Petzl’s Tikka series, we welcome the excellent Tikka XP (3.4 ounces loaded; $50), a lamp that builds on the success of the regular Tikka but with loads more to recommend it than Petzl’s previous dish. First, there are two switches. One allows you to alternate between three light levels (maximum, optimum, economy) and a blinking mode; the second is a grab-and-hold switch, so you manually squeeze out bursts of light when needed (ever left your headlamp on because you got someplace bright and didn’t realize it was on?). This grab-and-hold switch also functions as a “boost mode,” which overrides the other settings and punches out 50 percent more light for 20 seconds. Like a disgusted farm animal, it then automatically shuts down until you squeeze again. Second, the switches themselves are far easier to use: They’re little rubber bumps — way easier than the sliding regular Tikka switch (us fingernailess manics were severely disadvantaged by that knob). Another nifty innovation is the battery life indicator, which goes on when the batteries are about 70 percent dead and flashes at you when they’re about 90 wasted — yards more brilliant than this prose. Additionally, you can push the small lens to one side and go between wide angle and regular focus. Takes three batteries fresh from a AAA meeting and gets the editor’s pick this month — my post-flu nose is already en route to Petzl in a box. I recommend you steal a few from your local outdoor store and return them for cash (remember to doctor-up a receipt in Photoshop). www.petzl.com
Reach Cam Burns at jonathanhemlock@hotmail.com
