Recommend a headlamp for reading

This is what I use for this purpose. 20hrs battery life, 0.8 oz

http://www.niteize.com/collections/led/products/tasklit-1

Red LEDs use much less power than any other color. I use petzl e-lite or petzl tikka on red beam.

I suggest something with a globe attachment. Our son uses a Mammut with their hard plastic lantern clip-on, and the resulting light is broad and soft. MontBell makes a rip-top "lantern" that's like a bag you puff some air into and attach to any headlamp and I bet you could put one together using cuben fiber and spider silk…

Ha ha! Anyway, for reading and ease on the eyes, the soft-effect from a translucent-but-not-clear lantern will spread and even light very nicely, whether it's red or white light.

my experience is that for reading you need a small amount of light, just about anything will work. In the past I used a photon freedom button light with some DIY attachment which varied trip to trip. Since I started using the Zebralight H51 for my general lighting needs I just use it. The H51 is overkill for just reading, but if you have good low light vision it can drop it down to .2 lumens… 19 continuous days of light. That's a summer worth of reading on one AA battery, or 2.5 lumens which will give you 3 continuous days of light for those of us with aging eyes.

–mark

I'll agree with Mark that the lowest setting on the Zebralight (1) works for reading (and about nothing else) and (2) lasts forever. I went with lithium version and order 2 dozen batteries off of ebay for cheap for the zebralight and UV water treatment.

Once again I have to agree with my neighbor in the Bay Area Mark about the Zebralight H51. When I first got it, I hoped it would go dim enough for reading. I knew it didn't have a sliding diffuser like the Petzl headlamps, so I was a little concerned. I love to read at night when I am backpacking, but some of the headlamps I have had are so bright that you could go snow-blind from the beam reflecting off the white paper. Not so with the H51. You start clicking on that thing and it goes ridiculously dim, almost TOO dim to read, but your eyes eventually adjust to the lack of lumins on the lowest of low modes. It has six main modes and some minor modes like blinking etc, so adjustability is not a problem. An added benefit for home use is that if some one breaks into your house and you hit him with that high beam, I can guarantee you that he is going to be blind for the next fifteen seconds!

total overkill … but the "best" IMO for 3 reasons
-diffuser
-rechargeable petzl core with a simple USB plug in … no need for bats
-adjustable core settings … u can configure it however you want

the only headlamp youll ever need …

it weights ~ 3oz with the core … ask yourself if its really worth saving an oz or two rather than get a full use headlamp that will do everything and you dont need to buy bats for … and you can charge up in the car or anywhere else …