What’s the next big thing in headlamps?

Presumably a battery that can be recharged by moon or starlight. That would get me off the fence.

I like flashlights that use a single AA size battery because I have a lot of AA rechargeable around the house and a single AA typically holds the right amount of power for my needs. Obviously I also like high quality (efficient and bright) LEDs.

I would get off the fence for either:

(1) Light weight headlampwith a comfortable strap (the Tikka XP2 would be fine), good regulation (EOS is so/so… Fenix quality or better), good flood and throw (careful designed lens or flip down difuser), a useful battery indicator (at least quarters, be nice if it showed % of battery left and estimated run time like my laptop… yeah I don't know how to put that in a small, light package, but it would be nice), and either continuous brightness adjust or a 1 (most in camp task), 10 (trail hiking), 40 (off trail hiking), and 100 (wayfinding) lumens settings.

(2) a Zebralight that had better throw (not the ultra floody beam pattern)… love the size and form factor. Regulation is good enough. I would give up a battery indicator for the form factor.

Meanwhile, I will continue to use a iTP A3 EOS Upgrade flashlight

–mark

Mark said a lot of good things.

I'd simply like a lamp that can throw like the EOS (in lumens and distance), in a lighter package. I personally like to see more than a few feet in front of me when it gets dark. The EOS is one of the brightest and has one of the longest battery run times for its size and weight. Now, make it lighter!

I couldn't find what I wanted a couple of years ago, so I was forced to make my own. I don't think much has changed since.
1 Watt regulated LED, single AA Lithium or NiMH, light weight (75g inc. lithium AA), good beam (solid optic collimator).

Im still waiting for the intergrated Tanning lamp…

I can still work on my olive tan at night!

Or maybe a sunglasses, Headlamp combo…. oh yeah!

I find that a 1-watt headlamp is as bright as I need for trail walking. Generally, once my eyes get their night vision going after 15 minutes or so, I can do fine on the low-power setting, and high-power gets used only rarely.

–B.G.–

LED's were a huge shift. I think it is going to be more gradual for a while, with progressive development of brightness and battery life. I would expect to see the prices continue to come down as production increases.

Features like a battery indicator shouldn't be too difficult– a small 4-LED array could do the trick and show power in 1/4 increments. Even a single "low battery" indicator would work for me and that has been done on other devices for years.

I'd like to see more water resistance and brightness controls. More battery life is always a wish.

I really liked my Tikka XP but recently went on a quest for something lighter and settled on the Black Diamond Gizmo. So far I have been happy with it, but I would love to have the functionality of the XP (1 watt LED, Diffuser, etc) in a more lightweight package. I also like the red LEDs on the new Tikka2. If they could only do that for 2oz and $20!

I’ve moved away from the cheaper plastic bodied and multi-AAA headlamps (Petzl, Princeton Tec etc) to single battery aluminum bodied lights with LEDs from Zebralight, Fenix and Liteflux.

Fenix have an interesting new headlamp, the HL20 (Mark V has written about this somewhere). Zebralight make what is probably the lightest AA headlamp (the H501), though as Mark points out though it’s too floody for hiking (great as a camp light though). However they have just come out with a series of flashlights which come with a headband – these look really promising for a do-everything hiking handheld plus headlamp. Liteflux makes AA/AAA flashlights which are programmable, letting you pre-set the levels to whatever you want. Lots of these lights can have diffusers attached to them, all are regulated, waterproof, use the newest LED technology, are ultralight and use extremely tough aircraft grade aluminum bodies.

All the innovation seems to be coming from these companies – they upgrade to the brightest LEDs very quickly, and the last few years have seen some great new products (eg Zebralight) and new mounting options. Contrast that with Princeton Tec and Petzl: both took an age (*years*) to upgrade the LEDs on their main models, and very little else changed. The latter’s lights still aren’t regulated or even waterproof, and plastic bodies crack (my ‘shockproof’ EOS body cracked when I over-tightened the battery case) and don’t dissipate heat from the super bright LEDs. Petzl don’t seem to publish the LED types they use, but LED technology is moving quickly: inevitably Petzl and Princeton Tec lights are going to be dimmer and more battery hungry than lights sporting the newest Cree LEDs.

Adrian, thanks for posting! That new Zebralight looks like EXACTLY what I have been looking for. I have a few of the older style side-light-output Zebralights which you turn on by twisting the battery cap and they are great. I'm ordering a couple of the new ones ASAP.

The regulation, variable levels, waterproofness, and light weight are fantastic.

Yeah they do look interesting, have just been reading the review at http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=257321. Looks like its more a flashlight than a headlamp, since you can’t really adjust the vertical angle, but as long I could comfortably read with it that’s ok with me. Would be nice if it was a bit quicker to mount on the headstrap too, eg when hiking and you need to do a bit of scrambling or hunt in your pack.

Stuart you should check out some of the latest LED emitters if you think things haven’t changed much. In the past few years Lumens per watt has doubled! Cree just announced 208 Lumens per watt so things are progressing rapidly. Head lamps seem to lag behind a bit compared to flashlights. Perhaps there wont be any next big thing but the technology is fun to watch.

Anybody used the Surefire Saint Minnimus?

http://www.surefire.com/SaintMinimusHS2-A-BK

Kinda heavy and definitely expensive. Fully adjustable from 1 to 100 lumens (and everywhere between) I have messed with Surefire flashlights and they are TOUGH. I'm wondering about their headlight.

For $140- we may never know

Jeff honestly that looks overpriced, heavy and does not have great runtime for its output. Its not a head lamp but my $14 flashlight has better runtime and output. Roomer has it that 4sevens is coming out with a head lamp soon. That should be something to watch out for! They have a reputation for making very nice lights at reasonable prices. Candlepowerforums has a dedicated forum for headlamps.

Jesus really? Last thing I need is another forum of fanatics to get wrapped up in.

Some of those guys own like 50+ different headlamps.

Someone just boil it down for me, please!

New Headlamp from Enegizer.

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/orsm09_energizer_microLED.html

Great…. all this has come up just after I finally bought a new petzl e-lite and a pile of cr2032 batteries for it. Argh! Those Zebralights that take one AA look like they'd be real handy on a thru-hike, where getting spare batteries can sometimes be a trick.

Oh well. Maybe next time. I'm glad to see there's innovation in the field anyway. I always assumed headlamps were not moving forward very much, so I guess I was wrong.

I'd second Mark Verber's comment on wanting a headlamp with a single AA battery.

Energizer's Micro has a single AAA battery but that's too small of a power supply AND it's rear mounted, creating uneeded weight.

1. FRONT mount the battery in the lamp case

2. A single AA headlamp with a Cree bulb instead of the less bright, more blueish Luxeon bulbs PT is now using.

3. A Delrin engineering grade polymer ("plastic") housing would be cheap to make and virtually indestructable if it also had a sealed Lexan lens.

4. Of course it needs to be waterproof to about 10 ft. as well.

All this is possible IF the headlamp manufadcturers are reading this thread.

i.e. Light, Bright, Tight(WP) – Is that asking too much?

…double post sorry!

Eric the Energizer Trail Finder uses 1AA and has a CREE emitter. Weight is 58g, runtime is 2 hours and light output is claimed at 60 lulmens. For the $25 price these are some good numbers. One guy on CPF replaced the emitter with an XP-G for over 100 lumens. The beauty with the emitter swap is there is less heat generated and runtime stays the same. The reviews on Amazon are a mixed bag. It seems the battery case/cable causes problems for some.

For some reason I cant get my link working so here it is.