Head lamps?

Can-down said:
These are the units everyone I toured and hiked in the 90's had.... :)
Way better then what the miners had back in the day!

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Oh yeah, I went through a few of these. When I moved to the Yukon in 97 I took two of them to make one, wired it to a 4 D cells battery pack mounted two bezels to the head band so I could have one pointing down and one pointing forward or both forward for a bit more light one in wide beam and one for far…. Change the bulbs for HID bulbs and man it was like have a bunch of candles strapped to you forehead instead of one 🤣!
 
I run the Fenix. They are decently priced.

I just picked up for the wife a Wuben H1. Same battery, a 18650. Similar brightness. Lots of settings and the moon light mode has lots of hours of runtime. USB C chargeable. I went for this because she doesn't use headlamps as much as me and worried she might lose it.

We have not done any testing but only providing the option of a cheaper light of what seems to be a good runner up.

I also picked up the L3 to replace my fenix pd36r (which turned out not to be dead after all) I really like the L3 and Wuben is growing on me. Check out their reviews
 
luckythirteen said:
I run the Fenix. They are decently priced.

I just picked up for the wife a Wuben H1. Same battery, a 18650. Similar brightness. Lots of settings and the moon light mode has lots of hours of runtime. USB C chargeable. I went for this because she doesn't use headlamps as much as me and worried she might lose it.

We have not done any testing but only providing the option of a cheaper light of what seems to be a good runner up.

I also picked up the L3 to replace my fenix pd36r (which turned out not to be dead after all) I really like the L3 and Wuben is growing on me. Check out their reviews
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I grabbed a couple wuben's a while back as well.... good value for some loaners and spares to have kicking around!
 
If anyone, like me for instance, wants to try out one of Ubermeir's recommended Petzl Swift RL headlamps, the best deal I've found is at the old MEC, the former co-op that went into US ownership and which to my surprise is now back in Canadian hands, as they claim anyway. There, said headlamps are now 25% off for a saving of abt $40. This was in person but I assume that applies online until I hear otherwise. I have mine in hand, that is all for now.

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Well I tested the Swift RL a bit last night and it's definitely a superior unit. The reactive function can be turned off for 'normal' operation but works surprisingly well so I would only switch it off for extreme battery conservation. There's a switchable red LED that can also be made to strobe for a distress signal or whatever, USBC charge port (cord provided), water resistant, available power gauge, comfortable mildly reflective headband, 100g total weight Run times on a full recharge are impressive and in all cases there's said to be a 2 hour power reserve with of course a low output. This becomes my main working unit and I'm pondering buying a spare Petzl battery, or an off market version for half price, or a whole new head lamp as backup ("one is none, two is one"). Respective prices are roughly $80, or $40(+$5 delivery) on Amazon, or $120 for a whole other unit from MEC. And of course I'm not throwing out my other Petzls that take regular replacement batteries.
 
Big Bad said:
I've looked at those self-adjusting units before, did not realise they'd become workable and reached up over 1000 lumens. Amazon has them at three quite different price levels, from their description the only difference between them is the colour of the strap and plastic body. I don't suppose you've done any in depth research that would explain why an orange strapped one is about $90 cheaper than a white one (that would disappear if dropped in the snow)? I'm willing to pay more if there's a significant difference in performance and I do note that the orange one specifically allows the reactive lighting to be turned off, or does that indicate a problem....
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Without knowing what links you have been looking at, I couldn’t say. Amazon in my experience often has erratic pricing between sellers.

When looking, I noticed there is an older gen, which only goes to 900 lumens, and is micro-usb rechargeable, while the new one that goes to 1100 lumens, and is usb-c rechargable.

I checked, mine is the old gen at 900 lumens, and it works for me.
 
Big Bad said:
Well I tested the Swift RL a bit last night and it's definitely a superior unit. The reactive function can be turned off for 'normal' operation but works surprisingly well so I would only switch it off for extreme battery conservation. There's a switchable red LED that can also be made to strobe for a distress signal or whatever, USBC charge port (cord provided), water resistant, available power gauge, comfortable mildly reflective headband, 100g total weight Run times on a full recharge are impressive and in all cases there's said to be a 2 hour power reserve with of course a low output. This becomes my main working unit and I'm pondering buying a spare Petzl battery, or an off market version for half price, or a whole new head lamp as backup ("one is none, two is one"). Respective prices are roughly $80, or $40(+$5 delivery) on Amazon, or $120 for a whole other unit from MEC. And of course I'm not throwing out my other Petzls that take regular replacement batteries.
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Nice to hear you are as impressed as I am.

I have the spare battery, and wouldn’t be without it. It’s light, on day trips having it in a pocket is all the insurance you need if you end up being out all night.

On multi day trips I would add a small 1000 mAh battery bank to charge the batteries with. If you plan your charging you have light and the ability to keep your cellphone and Garmin mini, etc. topped up too.
 
Ubermeier said:
Without knowing what links you have been looking at, I couldn’t say. Amazon in my experience often has erratic pricing between sellers.

When looking, I noticed there is an older gen, which only goes to 900 lumens, and is micro-usb rechargeable, while the new one that goes to 1100 lumens, and is usb-c rechargable.

I checked, mine is the old gen at 900 lumens, and it works for me.
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Yes, thanks, that's pretty much how I worked things out; what threw me on Amazon was that they were recommending the 900 lumen unit over other two- there's usually a good reason for their recommendation. However in this case I decided that's because they've been selling the older white coloured version for longer and have had few returns of it. Whatever, their pricing is messed up.
 
Ubermeier said:
Nice to hear you are as impressed as I am.

I have the spare battery, and wouldn’t be without it. It’s light, on day trips having it in a pocket is all the insurance you need if you end up being out all night.

On multi day trips I would add a small 1000 mAh battery bank to charge the batteries with. If you plan your charging you have light and the ability to keep your cellphone and Garmin mini, etc. topped up too.
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I already tapped out a reply here but it has vanished, no doubt to reappear as soon as I post this one...

But anyway, yes my stash of headlamps was overdue for an overhaul, mostly because of the advances in LED technology in the past 8-10 years. I can but look back even longer and think about how nice it would have been to have a Swift RL which would have allowed me to much more safely ski down an ungroomed wooded slope rather than with the firefly glow of an old Wonder lamp. But anyway, for a mere $40 more, I've pretty much decided that it will be best to buy a second Swift RL rather than just a spare battery-- that's as long as I can buy the second one while the current sale is on.
 
Big Bad said:
I already tapped out a reply here but it has vanished, no doubt to reappear as soon as I post this one...

But anyway, yes my stash of headlamps was overdue for an overhaul, mostly because of the advances in LED technology in the past 8-10 years. I can but look back even longer and think about how nice it would have been to have a Swift RL which would have allowed me to much more safely ski down an ungroomed wooded slope rather than with the firefly glow of an old Wonder lamp. But anyway, for a mere $40 more, I've pretty much decided that it will be best to buy a second Swift RL rather than just a spare battery-- that's as long as I can buy the second one while the current sale is on.
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Good call!

Now you have more than just the spare battery, you have full back up!
 
milkbone96 said:
I have a Black Diamond Storm 450. Excellent headlamp. Currently on sale (25% off) at MEC.
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That reminds me that back some posts ago I said Princeton Tech made a good waterproof headlamp that I still own, my recent inventory uncovered that said device was actually made by Black Diamond and it's so tightly sealable and tough that despite its weight and somewhat low output I'm keeping it as my downpour and sea kayaking-type headlamp. I'd say it's sort of a father of the 450, has a battery pack behind the head that holds 4 AA cells.
 
Big Bad said:
That reminds me that back some posts ago I said Princeton Tech made a good waterproof headlamp that I still own, my recent inventory uncovered that said device was actually made by Black Diamond and it's so tightly sealable and tough that despite its weight and somewhat low output I'm keeping it as my downpour and sea kayaking-type headlamp. I'd say it's sort of a father of the 450, has a battery pack behind the head that holds 4 AA cells.
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Good info there. It does seal tight. I've had it out for hours in the rain both here in ON's deer season and on the bogs of NL during moose hunts, and its never quit on me. I like it because it takes either AAA batteries or a battery pack, and is very light and comfortable.
 
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