Headlamp vs. Micro LED

Night hiking IMO is out of the question with a micro led, so if you night hike, consider something at least as bright as a headlamp. I tried it once with a micro led, hated it, got lost and nearly fell a few times. I keep one attached to my hammock ridgeline at night for night tasks so i don't have to waste my headlamp because its so bright. There are headlamps that weigh less than 2oz with batteries anyway, you can take both.

I actually started with micro lights and over time changed over to using headlights or small flashlights.

Biggest issue for me was the button batteries, which can be hard to find or change in the field. Also the small size means they can be easily lost.

You might also consider something in between, like a AAA run Fenix or Arc X flashlight. These are much brighter than micro LED's, take a standard AAA battery, and are very light, under 1 oz. They also often have a clip that allows them to be attached to a hat brim to use as a headlight.

I switched from headlamp to a Photon Freedom last year. It workes well for me. You can use it at a dim setting and let your eyes adjust around the campsite.

I did some limited nite hiking but it was on a trail I already hiked. I likely would go with a headlamp if I was an avid nite hiker.

Also, I only go out for 2-3 days at a time so the button cells are fine for me.

I did loose it once, took me over an hour to find it. This season I have attached a bit of reflective cord to it. I carry the Photon Freedom and an Inova Micra as a backup. They use the same batteries so if one breaks I can interchange batteries.

I think the Petzl Elite is a good in-between. bright enough, yet tiny

Night hiking with a Freedom micro is out of the question — but for camp use — it's more than sufficient. Coin cell batteries weigh next to nothing — so just put an extra one in your "misc" stuff sack. Heck, you can pack 2 Freedom Micros and 2 extra coin cell batteries and still come out ahead in terms of pack weight and space as compared to headlights.

Jeff — if you are planning to buy a Petzl Elite, I would highly recommend against it. Sure it's small, light, and cute as heck; but if there is sand in the area at all, it spells trouble.

Had a friend who bought one and loved it. Then on a hike, he accidentally dropped the light on a sandy patch — picked it up within 2 seconds — and already, the switch was jammed and inoperable! The friend exchanged the light for another one. Then, at Death Valley, when the winds were blowing the sands about — the switch got jammed again — simply from airborne dust particles!! Love quickly turned to disdain and the POS was promptly returned after the trip.

Three of us hiked a little after dark with a Photon and the eLite. It wasn't perfect, but we could see the trail well enough. Rough trail would have not been so cool.

I had the eLite in back, my buddy in the middle w/ no light, and my wife in front with the Photon.

I shined my light on my buddys feet. it let him see and me too. the light in front gave us some perspective as well

Ben- interesting. luckily not too much sand here. I'll keep that in mind though when I take mine out- thanks

I have been using the Photon Freedom Micro LED with the multi-purpose Photon Clipped to my glasses like a head lamp around camp and it has been working fine. I would only hike at night with the thing if was an emergency though. I also have a Black Crater Gear Cord Lock Light on my sleeping bag that works great for groping around in my tent in the middle of the night. So I figure I have a spare flashlight in case the Photon goes out. the two combined are about .5 oz.

I think the micro-cell LED button lights are a good back-up to the primary light and something like the Photon micro freedom is versatile in various mounting applications therefore worth is minute weight.

I don’t think it should be a replacement for a more powerful light, either a headlamp or a handheld. Even if you don’t plan on hiking at night, you may end up doing that unexpectedly and have to depend on the light to hike in safety to avoid cliffs and rough trails. Easy to sprain an ankle night hiking or worse.

Case in point: I was hiking the Tetons trail last summer and a fast moving storm moved in around 9:30 pm after our camp was all set up. The weather was good before then and we were camped above tree line with no real natural wind/rain breaks…we were seriously exposed. We got caught in a torrential down poor with lighting and a quickly dropping temperature with the possibility of snow. We decided to pack up camp and try to get to a lowered elevations with more trees for shelter and possibility of warmer temps. We hiked 2 miles in the dark, in Grizzly country (we had a bear encounter the night before) with rain slick trails and swollen stream crossings all in pitch black. I was thankful that I had my Black Diamond head lamp as it was very powerful. I led the way because my partner had a less powerful head lamp (16 lumens) and it was not very reassuring to be hiking next to shear drop offs or crossing streams at night with such a diminutive light source. We eventually made camp lower with plenty of trees for cover, but it made me realize that “You know you never know you know"..be prepared.

Today, I’m using the ITP A3 handheld flashlight and I have the photon as my back-up for tent/cooking duty. The ITP is really fantastically powerful for its size and weight, more so then my Black Diamond. I prefer headlamps though for hands free walking.

Gabriel,

I tend to be more conservative/cautious and I actually recently went heavier and bought the Petzl Tikka XP2 after getting stuck at 10,000 ft at Trail Camp on the way to Mt. Whitney last year.

We had to relocate our shelters in a wind/rain storm in the middle of the night due to pitching our shelters in what turned out to be a run off ditch. (yeah, that smart).

The headlight that I had really did not have the brightness for us to easily repitch our shelters…thankfully, someone in our group had a powerful hand held flash light.

So for me, I would look for other areas to cut weight….I now consider having a bright head lamp as a key safety feature…especially if I needed to hike out of a situation at night.

That said, "Hike your own hike."

If you go the micro LED route, I agree with others that having two of them would be a good idea.

I know someone who has even put tabs of velcro on his visor so that he could stick two of them on his visor for hiking at night.

Plus, having two means that if you needed to do a battery swap at night, you could do it…having the other one to give you light to work on the other one.

That said, get one that is bright as possible…don't think anyone is going to complain about having too much light. :)

-Tony

I have multiple headlamps. 99% of the time I carry a Photon Freedom. 2 of them actually. One in my pocket… one in my first aid kit. It's more than enough light for me around camp. I could also use them in a pinch to hike known trails. I wouldn't use them for the intended purpose of night hiking. I switch to my ZebraLight H60. The difference is night and day, but so is the weight. :D

+1 on having two micro LEDs…

I have a tiny LED Lenser "Joggled" headlamp (single LED at the front plus double blue "marker" at the back). This is my main head lamp, uses a single AAA battery, and with new batteries is OK for normal night time usage. I wear this around my neck most of the time and pull it up to my forehead as needed.

My second LED is a Princeton Tec Impulse with the keyring clip replaced with their belt clip. I wear this one clipped on my pack strap. This is a brighter lamp than the Joggled, but seems to have a shorter battery life… hence, I keep it as a backup and only use it when I need to see more than "average" use.

The nice thing about this setup is that the little Princeton Tec clip can be directed while attached to your pack strap, so in combo with the Joggled headlamp, I can get good lighting for minute weight, plus battery life is optimized.

I do have a heavier headlamp with 9 LEDs, but have not (yet) felt the need to switch out the 2 micro-LED system for one bigger one.

HYOH, is dead right, I guess… :-)

Cheers, James.

I also carry the iTP A3 EOS as my primary light, with a Photon Freedom as emergency back up. The iTP can be held in my mouth for hands free use, and also has a clip to attach it to the brim of a hat or glasses.

As others have indicated, the answer is that it depends on what you want to use it for.

Take a look at this thread about light headlamps: http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=275058

Those who have them really like their Zebralight H31 (new end of April). Evidently the H51 (1xAA) equivalent is due out soon, as are other members of the H31 and H51 families. Lots of folks love their ZL H501’s, too, but that may soon be superseded by an H51F model.

–MV