Bright Medic Firefly

[Cody Hallenbeck]

I purchased this light before hiking the Sierra High Route this past summer after it was the first google result for "ultralight head lamp" and saw it had good reviews on Amazon. I've been really impressed for its very light weight, general usability, and smart design since. And at $35, it's one of the more reasonably priced ultralight gear replacements you could make, and way more practical than, say, using a keychain light. The light weighs 31g with batteries on my scale. I find it easy to adjust and comfortable to wear. The 40 lumen claim seems close enough. I find it more than bright enough for common camp tasks and for most trail night hiking, but I would have to move slower and more cautiously on technical terrain, and thus would not bring this light if I expected to be hiking off trail at night. I also like that the red light is actually useful–many lights neglect the red light, and they end up having really weird beam patterns or useless output. With this light, I can perform most camp tasks with the red light if my eyes are adjusted to low light conditions. The switch logic is elegant: it requires a long press to turn on to prevent accidental discharge, the first mode is red, and then 100% white, then a reduced brightness white, and then a strobe. If the light has been on for a while, clicking the switch will turn it off without cycling through the additional modes. This is great particularly if using the red light, since you never have to deal with having your night vision ruined. CR2032 batteries are very light, surprisingly cheap purchased in bulk online, and are more easily found in common stores than you would think if you didn't look. I tested it for a few weeks as a basecamp light while working at a summer camp. While not a particularly bright light, I found it was bright enough to follow paths at night and to read labels in dark areas during the day. The battery life was impressive. I then took this on a 20 day thru hike of the Sierra High Route (minus the first section, due to the Rough Fire), and didn't need to change the battery once in that time. Admittedly, I didn't use it that much, since we did no night hiking and I used my kindle's built in illumination. I also used it on a 5 day solo hike in the Trinities–again, finding it very useful for common camp tasks. I also ended up hiking for several hours to the trailhead on the last day in the dark. The battery was failing a bit at the end, but it was still entirely sufficient to hike/run down a well maintained trail. I really like this light, and will be using it for pretty much any backpacking I foresee going on unless I am planning on night hiking. It's also a great emergency light for dayhikes.

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