300 Lumen Headlamp

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MtnAddict

MtnAddict

10 Year
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Oct 12, 2011
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Colorado
Ok so, didn't know whether to trust this thing off of Amazon, but tried it and it is worth mentioning. I have been through quite a few headlamps, most just mediocre. I have a Black Diamond I used from REI that was 90 lumens and it was good, but this one at 300 is BRIGHT :eek:. I paid like $40 for the one at REI and this one is $15, so well worth the $$.
Just throwing it out there.

http://www.amazon.com/Camping-Hiking-Lumen-CREE-Headlamp/dp/B004NK6Q7Y/?tag=ihco-20
 
The reviews do not look so great for it.
I have a Surefire pocket 200 lumen light I use at work (and for camping), and everyone that sees it gets blown away by how bright it is.

I can light up the tops of trees far away from me with it.

G2X™ Pro
Dual-Output LED

Let us know how it holds up, I would be tempted to try it out for the $$$ to see how it compares to my Surefire, as I know it is a true 200 lumens.
 
I bought a run-of-the-mill Energizer headlight 2yrs ago at Wally World because I needed one right then. I figured I would get a better one down the road, but the durn thing just won't die. Maybe it will have an accident soon... :hhmm:
 
Yea, you can't beat Surefire stuff. That is quality. This is just a cheap one that puts out really good light. One that I don't care if it gets beat around and dropped. For the money, I think it is decent. I am going to take it out tonight and I will let you know.
 
Headlamps are awesome. I picked up this last year

Spark ST6-500CW

honestly I don't see that much difference going from 300 to 500 lumens, but either way it is pretty damn bright. I can light up buildings a 100 yards away with it. The beam is not as focused as I wanted, but after using it for night hiking I think it's a good compromise between spot and flood. I was originally saving up for the Surefire minimus but after trying it out I wasn't impressed with their headlamps.

A friend of mine picked up one of these right after I bought mine.

T6 XML-T6 3-Mode "1200-Lumen" White LED Bike Light with Battery Pack Set - Free Shipping - DealExtreme

This one is insane, makes mine look dim, but it's not that useful with the remote battery pack. I can't verify whether or not it's a true 1200 lumens, but it is roughly equivalent to a car headlight The good (or bad) thing about this headlamp is the beam is narrower, so it throws a good distance, but you get more tunnel vision using it. Also it's meant to be mounted to the top of a helmet, so using it on your head requires some modification.
 
a co-worker has had good luck with the super cheap chinese e-bay headlamps. dunno about longevity.

I just don't have a need for a headlamp that bright. I still use my Brunton L1. three settings with a strobe and extended life battery pack plug in to 40hrs. going strong after 5-6yr use.
 
There's lots of headlamps out there. Haven't had it on a trail yet, but walking the dog, I can light up the neighbors yard 4-5 houses down. The cool thing is that you can pencil in pretty tight and then throw a flood just by pulling the lens out a little. Keep in mind, this is not a $100 lamp, but I am hard on things and it is one that works well and would't break the bank if lost/broken. I am not trying to sell it, just putting it out because it is super cheap compared to most and it is actually pretty bright.
 
I just read some more of the reviews and it does have some bad ones. It locks in the upright position and has a few settings. Like I said, it is a cheap light, but it is bright. I took it out in the yard with my Black Diamond 90 lumen that I use for hiking and it blows it away as far as light out put, quality, not so much. I don't really see it falling apart after 1-2 uses, but who knows... I definitely wouldn't take it on a 14'er climb as my sole light source, but walking the dog, working on something, not bad for $15.
 
I hope that headlight works out for you, can't beat that price!

We (3 in the family) each have different Princeton Tec headlamps that are ancient but still work well. I also will occasionally use some smaller Streamlight (1AA or 1AAA) flashlights clipped to a baseball cap, dorky but it works.

We also have 2 Fenix LD10 and 1 Fenix LD20 that are bright, practical, and can be found on eBay for ~50% off retail.
 
I have a lowly Petzl, something like 60 lumens IIRC.
I like it a lot. (BTW, one nice side use for it is for reading in bed after the :princess: is asleep, with the red LED. Not that great for red text on white paper magazines :) but never mind that.)

I imagine the problem with 300+ lumens is that you gotta get a lot of power from somewhere, which suggests either short runtimes or fancy/big batteries.
 
This one takes 3 AAA's, we will see how long it lasts.
 
The human eye responds to light intensity in a roughly logarithmic fashion. So, 500 lumens does not 'appear' twice as bright as 250 lumens.

I build LED driver electronics for a business and to create somewhat linear appearing steps in brightness requires roughly doubling the current per step. So, if you have 5 nicely spaced steps in visual brightness you would have e.g. 100mA, 200mA, 400mA, 800mA, 1600mA. In this example 1600mA does not look twice as bright as 800mA. More like 1600mA compared to 400mA....

This means that when comparing products, it really does NOT matter if one light is 400 lumens and another is 500 lumens (real measured lumens, not marketing b/s), you really will have a tough time being able to see any difference.

That's one of the really nice things about LEDs, they are easy to dim and you can increase runtime dramatically by just dropping down one step in brightness, in my drivers you will approximately double your runtime.

Too much light at night is counterproductive, since your iris will also get into the act as things get too bright. Then you lose night vision and burn more power in your light than you need to get the job done.

On most of my camping trips I usually just have some LED lights that are set to low level and that is plenty of light once you are use to it. Extreme runtimes and you get to see things you never would if your camp is lit up like a sports arena...

Finally, I would NEVER believe any of the Lumen figures that manufacturers claim for their products unless they provide some real proof (integrating sphere tests with certified data). Certainly Chinese/Ebay Lumen numbers are about as trustworthy as the winning lotto numbers on chinese fortune cookies :) Most of those numbers are the theoretical numbers from the LED manufacturer with 25C die temperature and top bin parts and full current regulation. Most headlamps have no regulation other than a resistor and then use pwm for dimmng, that's why they get dimmer as the batteries drain. etc etc etc...

Oh, Lumens is a measure of the total light output, so two lights with the same Lumen output could look very different depending on the reflector/collimator that is used. Focus the beam to laser-like dimensions and you can light trees 200 yards away, put a flood optic/reflector and it will barely light a tree 50 yards away but instead puts out a much more useful light pattern for a camp area. Both are still putting out the same lumens...

cheers,
george.
 
e9999 said:
I imagine the problem with 300+ lumens is that you gotta get a lot of power from somewhere, which suggests either short runtimes or fancy/big batteries.
Click to expand...

Most of the newer LED headlamps on the market are multi-level, so you can turn down the brightness with proportionately longer runtimes. In the first one I posted above, the runtime varies from 1 hour to 8 days, depending on how much light you need. The problem is, no matter how much light you have, you always want "just a little bit more", so it's very easy to always use the brightest level. A few years ago a 60 lumen headlamp would have been considered more than enough for hiking or camping, but in reality your eyes adjust very easily to bright light. Adjusting to low light is not as easy. So while technically you don't "need" that much light, its sure nice to have the capability on hand. There has never been a time when I've thought, "this is just too much light, I wish my light was dimmer"

Normally, when comparing lights, you can't trust the lumen ratings as George said. What I would normally look for is power draw. If one light claims 1000 lumens running off 1AAA and a runtime of 500 hours, while all other lights in that catagory use high power lithiums and measure the runtime in minutes, you know something doesn't add up. It's not perfect, but can give you a general idea if the lights are comparable.
 
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Some good info here, guys. :popcorn:

These days the market seems obsessed with sheer output. I'm normally pretty happy with the output of a headlamp that was advertised as 30-ish lumens. Lately I've been looking for one with better RED output for stumbling around at night while stalking unsuspecting quadrupeds. Most of the cheaper Energizer spot/flood combos have the capability to switch to red, but the output is dismal at past 3-4ft in front of you when dodging thorny brush. I've read some good things about Petzl's TACTIKKA Series - COMPACT: TACTIKKA | Petzl
PetzlTactikkaXP.jpg

Anybody had any experience with these?
 
Kinda OT, but I'm looking for something like the Tactikka Plus headlamp which had a good strong white spot AND a fast switch to red flood mode. Night ocean sailing where you need red light for instruments/charts without destroying night vision, and a good flamethrower when tuning/changing/checking the rig. Hard to find this combo with a decent say 5 Watt Luxeon emitter [or similar].
 
I purchased a bunch of these , 14500 cells, removed the band strap to stop head squeeze , attached it to normal cap , plus a few other head gear.

I have bought many of these type of lights. Heavy , bulky and squeeze pain is tossed in a short time. I wear one of these lights for helping old eyes see. Recharge 4/5 cell swaps a day , two hats if the one is soaked in sweat.

I have all of the ones posted so far, Plus , free to new homes..Their tossed in the bottom of the roll cab,heavy battery at the rear,not comfortable for 2 hrs @ time.

Must be bright , quick to swap and I can't feel the extra weight. Plus i have broken a few, dropped, runover , sank before i had a chance to retrieve it.

under 20 bucks to my door. I purchased another 10 units last NOV.

VT
 
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