nighthiking flashlight choices

[Ben Egan]

Hey, this is a recycled topic, and I've read the past threads, often coming to different conclusions. I know there are different factors (moonlight being the primary one) but I want a nighthiking light I can use in pitch black. On trail and off trail. I've found these to be my favorites:

Fenix PD30
http://www.fenixlight.com/viewproduct.asp?id=107

Zebralight H31w
http://www.zebralight.com/H31w-Headlamp-Neutral-White_p_29.html

Rinceton Tec EOS
http://www.rei.com/product/775558

I would remove that strap and jerry-rig my own hipbelt attachment no matter what. So no headlamp preference or vice versa. Thoughts? Past experience?

edited for spelling, whoops

[Michael B]

My only question is why go with funky batteries and not AAs? I have a fenix and only looked at that choice on your list. It looks like a great light, but it seems to me that there are significant advantages to using common batteries, and particularly batteries that could be cross device. I could pull the batteries out my gps to run my light for example.

[W I S N E R !]

I trail run in the dark a lot, especially in the fall/winter. I first heard of mounting a Petzl Tikka on a waist strap from Andrew Skurka. Or use a Zipka girth-hitched around your belt.

I'm now convinced this is the way to go for nighttime. Much better depth perception keeping your light low to the ground, less blinded by having it too close to your head, and hands free. By keeping it close to the ground I find I also use less battery life- I rarely ever have it on anything higher than the lowest setting. The Tikka has pretty exceptional battery life.
I especially like the Tikka +2 as it has a red LED that will stay on forever.

Their site boasts 55-140 hours, depending on light level. While I've never measured, I can't remember the last time I changed batteries.
I've yet to have a running/hiking situation in which I've needed more light than this.

[Jonathan Ryan]

I trail run all through the winter and hav been using a headlamp/flashlight combo for a few years with success. Currently I am using a PT EOS R headlamp along with a Fenix L1D. Both are regulated so I get several weeks use out of the batteries.

[Bob Gross]

Belt-mounted lights are popular among the ultra-running crowd. Head-mounted lights are popular among those using ski poles or trekking poles. If I have nothing else in my hands, I prefer to carry my Tikka in one hand down low, but if the situation changes, it can go on my head.

I would love to see some LED that will stay on forever, but I think that is wishful thinking on Craig's part.

The guys who do search and rescue tend to use a headlamp with a low power setting for normal hiking, and a very high power setting for searching purposes. They also tend to use headlamps with serious/expensive battery packs, whereas normal hikers tend to use something that burns either AA, AAA, or CR123, or something common like that.

–B.G.–

[Ike Mouser]

i think its best to get devices that all use the same battery. My eos, toothbrush, etc, all use the same battery.

[Robert Coleman]

I love to night hike. I use the $4.88 headlamp from the evil Wal-mart. They work fine for me and my son and don't weigh much. I'll have to weigh one and see. No gram weenie, me, but now I'm curious.

They don't put out a ton of light, but plenty for me on the trail.

Jbo

[Eric Lundquist]

Depending on the trip and the likelihood of having to find the trail in the dark such as spotting cairns and the like is what makes having a decent headlamp a necessity. I used to carry a Black Diamond Gizmo (2xAAA) which provides ample amount of camp light. It was my go to lamp until I needed it for some serious trail finding in the dark. I then upgraded to the Black Diamond Spot (3xAAA) which has a 'high beam' mode for spotting distant cairns and under defined trails. I also have a Petzl e+light which I carry on lighter non-solo trips where I know I will not need to find the trail at night and am in lesser risk of losing or choosing the wrong trail.

[Nick Gatel]

Unlike many, I do not like to hike at night, unless it is in the desert under a full moon where a light is often not even needed. The reason I do not like night hiking, is that I miss too much of my surrounds and need to pay too much attention to the trail itself.

But when I do plan on night hiking, the Tikka is perfect for me. I have done okay with a Photon II when night hiking was not in the plan.

[Ike Mouser]

I did night hiking with the photon as well, and it was not fun. I was in the heavy super dense forest of big south fork area. I also prefer not to hike at night. Like he said, you miss too much. More time is spent making sure your going the right way than enjoying.

[Rick M]

del

[Matthew Perry]

I have been using the BD Spot for years and it has done very well for me. Never had any reliability issues and i was even able to use the highest setting to signal a fishing boat, at night, along the Oregon coast using Morse code. They said hi right back and that the fishing was good :) I will be getting the new upgraded Spot hopefully soon:

Old Spot:
http://www.rei.com/product/813050

New Spot:
http://www.rei.com/product/807913

BF

[Mark Verber]

My favoriate headlamp is the zebralight H51. Light, good set of brightnesses, good quality regulation, and thebeam has a hot spot with enough throw for way finding and enough spill to be useful for around the camp.

I am also found of good quality hand held flashlights made by Fenix and iTP.

I haven't play around with a light of my waist. I typically attach to my wrist or hold in my hand.

Additional thoughts on my recommended lights page.

–Mark

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

I ordered a Zebralight H51. It looks pretty neat. Right now I just have an e+Lite (1oz) and a heavy Princeton Tex Apex (10oz?) so the H51 will fill a nice gap in my lineup. Hopefully it's not backordered too long.

What I like about the H51 is:
– regulated
– bright if need be (up to 200 lumens)
– uses one AA
– can be used as a flashlight too

I've never understood why so many headlamps use 3 AAA batteries when one AA battery has a similar total capacity and weighs less.

[Bob Gross]

"I've never understood why so many headlamps use 2-3 AAA batteries when one AA battery holds the same as 3 AAA's and weighs less. It's a simpler, lighter way to do the same thing."

Let me explain. Each AA or AAA cell has a terminal voltage of about 1.5 volt. Many LED devices require about 2.4 to 3.5 volts to operate. Therefore, in the old days, you needed two or three AA or AAA cells in series to generate the voltage to operate one LED. Then, a few years later, a charge pump device was developed. This allows the conversion of a lower voltage like 1.5 from one cell into a higher voltage like 2.4 to 3.5, although it requires some current to drive that, and there is a slight loss of efficiency. The charge pump costs a bit, but it allows you to drive one LED with one cell. Some charge pumps also allow the fancy features, like different light levels and blinking. High light levels tend to make less efficiency and shorter cell life.

So, in a flashlight design you select AA cells over AAA cells when you need more ampere-hours. You select multiple cells for direct drive, and you select a charge pump for a regulated drive. Obviously, one AAA cell weighs less than one AA cell, but it holds much less power. You can make the design problem more complicated by using a CR123 lithium cell.

–B.G.–

[Chris Peichel]

I just received my H51. This light is awesome. I got it because I am tired of having too many different batteries, my gps uses AA's also. I almost got the H31 that uses a cr123 battery, same as my adventure opti steripen but decided to just go with the AA. I want to go to recharageables for those two batteries.
This thing is BRIGHT! setting are great and easy to change.

If I have one quibble…it is the bands that hold the light are a little loose and the light seems to move maybe a little too easily. I will see, would be an easy fix though.

Great lamp. I am looking forward to trying the clip instead of the headband.

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

Thanks Bob. That was very informative. I sure do like regulated output.

[Bob Gross]

The other thing that the charge pump does is to regulate voltage from the cell. When the cell is new, the voltage available might be 1.50 or 1.55 volts. When the cell is getting worn out, it might be down to 1.25 or 1.30 volts. If you have a flashlight with a charge pump chip, it kind of regulates that voltage to be more constant, and that way the light output will be more constant despite the condition of the cell.

The only bad things about a flashlight with a charge pump are 1. It is one more thing that can fail, 2. It uses up a tiny bit of power to run at all, and 3. The chip costs a bit more than direct drive.

So, you tend to see a charge pump used more on a high-end flashlight, not so much on a WalMart special.

–B.G.–

[Jeremy Platt]

+1 for the Zebralight H51 with lithium AA batteries, super bright, can clip to your belt or use as a headlamp and lasts ages. Also love being able to unscrew the end a little to completely negate the risk of it turning itself on in my pack (a big problem with all of my previous lights).

[Bob Gross]

I agree. Lithium metal AA primary cells are great. They are expensive, but very light in weight. Their energy density is 3-4 times that of a normal alkaline AA.

There are some electronic devices that do not tolerate the slightly high voltage on a lithium primary cell (typically 1.6-1.7 v). However, the vast majority of electronics will handle that nicely. You need to check the fine print specifications for each device to see if it is OK. I would hate to see anybody burn their new camera out from ignorance.

–B.G.–

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

Am I correct in thinking Lithium AA & NiMH AA are similar in capacity so the main differences are that Lithium is lighter but not rechargeable?

[Bob Gross]

A lithium primary cell is non-rechargable. Lithium is lighter in weight that any other normal cell that I am familiar with. The terminal voltage starts at 1.6 or 1.7 volts and stays very constant over its use until it gets almost dead, and then the voltage drops off very rapidly. Normally it has a very high rated amperage while it is going, and it also has a very long shelf life with almost zero self-discharge. They tend to be expensive.

A Nickel Metal Hydride cell is rechargable. The terminal voltage starts around 1.3 volts and drifts down to 1.2 or 1.1 during use. It has higher internal resistance, which means that as it produces amperage, it may be doing some self-warming, which is lost energy. Depending on your charger and how you charge them, they may give you hundreds of charge cycles before they get funky, so this tends to be a good economic solution, assuming that you can recharge whenever you like. The cold weather performance is so-so. Photographers love to use these in flash units, and normally the cells are charged over and over from day to day.

Two compare two cells, you generally start with the ampere-hours of rated capacity, so 3000mAH is high, and 1000mAH is low. With some, it is hard to dig out those specifications. With some, the specifications are the absolute best case specifications by the manufacturer, and the user may struggle to get that much performance.

Without even looking at the specifications, I tend to use NiMH or Alkaline for normal applications since they are economical, and I use Lithium primaries for super important or safety-related applications. For a recent trip with photo flash units, I took 8 NiMH cells to use first, then 4 Alkalines to use second, and then I had 8 Lithiums to use as a last resort or if everything else failed.

–B.G.–

[Barry P]

I love night backpacking. I did it a lot in the MO Ozarks. I appreciate 2 types of lights in these situations.
1. Bright spotlight
2. Bright flood beam

Other requirements:
1. Take one battery. This made taking spares much lighter/easier.
2. Super easy battery change. Just unscrew a cap, plop out battery; plop in battery. This is easily done in the dark since I keep the spare battery in my zipper pocket.
3. AA lithium. That way it matches with my gps. I used to use CR123 flashlights. But after several hours of testing, they run neck and neck in runtime (with brightness being equal). This made AA lithiums cheaper per watt hour. Plus they’re easier and cheaper to buy in dinky stores. However, the cheapest highest quality AA lithiums I’ve found were only at Sam’s club. The generic lithiums don’t have near the life span. I will admit, there’s a good deal on eBay every once in a while for high quality lithiums (buying 50 at a time).
4. I want to use it on my bike also which means it needs a flashing mode for daylight biking.

Once I tried one-battery flashlights, I could never go back to a dual-battery flashlight again. And 3-battery flashlights became a pain in changing batteries and carrying spares AND what store sells tri-packs? None.
Another problem I didn’t like with 3-battery lights is after 15 minutes, they started dimming. I like the constant brightness of regulated lights.

Here’s the flashlights I take for night backpacking:
1) For regular backpacking, the floodlight of zebralight is hard to beat in brightness.
I use one similar to this http://www.zebralight.com/H501w-Neutral-White-w-new-UI_p_13.html
It really lights up the camp; and lights up the trail around you.

2) for spot light, I love the fenix LD10. I like spotting animals in a dark tree at 50 yards. Also, you could see the features of the trail way ahead.

And BTW, I love the strobe flash in both of these lights. That’s what I use on my bike during the day. People tell me, “I can see your bike from a mile away!” Good! Also, the Fenix, on Medium, is plenty for me to bike at night at 12mph.

Another thing I do is use Lithium’s backpacking since they’re light, and use 2400mAh Nimh on my bike since I use the light every day.

Have fun w/ LED lights.
-Barry

[Barry P]

“Am I correct in thinking Lithium AA & NiMH AA are similar in capacity so the main differences are that Lithium is lighter but not rechargeable?”

Interesting question. The AA Lithium does have higher capacity. And it is lighter. But you would think “just barely” in a Fenix LD10. For example compare these runtimes on high:
AA Lithium: 2 hours
AA 2400mAH Rayovac: 1.75 hours
AA Alkaline: 0.5 hours

I have not used an alkaline in a long time. I use Lithium’s backpacking and NiMH biking.

-Barry

[Michael B]

In addition to longer life and lighter weight, the other advantage of lithium is cold weather performance. At temps below zero F, lithium will perform far better than a standard alkaline.

[Author]

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