Thread: Head lamps

Originally Posted by whanahuia

Yeah My first two were definitely the cable. The last one they went to a brittle material for the battery cover and that broke.

Same experience here with the Led Lensers

I've got a black diamond storm. Runs on 4 AAs. A few years old now and still going well.

Red and white light armytec.
18650 battery. tuff as fuck, plenty of life.quite a few people have bought them after seeing mine.
Not cheap but quality

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Originally Posted by RUMPY

I've got a black diamond storm. Runs on 4 AAs. A few years old now and still going well.

For about 15 years I had a black diamond. From the days when a head torch still used a halogen bulb and one of the first L.E.Ds that was pretty weak. It was great. But I bought a Cosmos a couple of years ago and it started to play up some time back. I know its a less than 100 dollar torch, but really for what they are, I kind of expect more than 2 years as fair use from something like this.

Yep Fenix are solid. Led lenser are garbage

Used a Black Diamond for many years and very reliable, but a year or two back got a Fenix HM65R so i didn't have to buy batteries all the time, and its been brilliant ,battery lasts a week easy on lowest settings which are ok for around camp or walking along a track. 400 lumen flood light and 1000 lumen spot light.

It all depends what you are after, and then how premium you want to go.

For lumens I like <1 for moving around a dark hut, 20 for a night hike on a trail, and 200+ when I want to see something further away.

Do you want your beam wide or focussed, or adjustable?
Do you care about the colour of the light? warm, neutral or cool
Do you care about how accurate the light renders colours? CRI index
How rugged?
How heavy?
How much battery life?


You wont beat cheap aliexpress for $$ to lumens ratio but you can be rolling the dice with quality and reliability.

Fenix is a good solid brand that has something decent at every point in the market. Nitecore are similar, maybe not quite as reliable.

For me I rate my Zebralight H600c MkIV. Small, light, rugged, fully potted, good colour temperature, good CRI, good interface, good sub-lumen modes, 1600lumen max if I ever need it.

If I wanted something with some more modes at the expense of some bulk I would be looking strongly at thishttps://www.piercingthedarkness.co.n...ge/sofirn-hs21

https://www.piercingthedarkness.co.nz/headlamps

Originally Posted by XR500

My first Maxtoch headlamp is still going strong, 6 years and a zillion step step whoops crash fall over get up, repeat. My second lies out in a vast sea of tussock. Seeing as they no longer make them, it would be good to stumble over it one day.

The nitecore ones look decent. The ones where all the battery and guts are in the same container seem to last better. I did in multiple led lensers, they just always shat themselves for me. eventually the dealer stopped replacing them on warranty, despite them being less than a year old

I have a Maxtoch headlamp as well but for what we hunt the Fenix is better. My son runs the model up from me with the 21700 battery.

Fenix HM65R

I’ve got a Nitecore hc35, which is a great light, albeit a little heavy and bulky for some folks. I also have a Petzl IKO, that I use for trail running. It is a weird looking contraption, but I really like it. Doesn’t move around at all while running, has plenty of light for running trails in the dark.


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I've had a Fenix HM65RT trail running head torch for 3 years. Not cheap but really good - bright, long lasting, rechargeable.

Nightcore, never go back to led lenser

Zebralight - period

https://youtu.be/5eI_3gmAXng?si=WCDbbU89WJaBtsSk