headlamp

[Brian Lindahl]

I'm also a big fan of the Olight AA EOS flashlight. I attach it to the brim of my hat as well. For less than an ounce with battery, it carries a TON of lumens.

If I'm doing more mountaineering-style adventures where I'm in rugged terrain at ungodly hours of the night, I bring a Zebralight H51.

[Ethan A.]

I've tried H51 headlamps belonging to others – they are excellent for the weight. Mark and other ZebraLight H51 users – do you recommend the H51w Neutral Light model which offers up to 172 lumens: http://www.zebralight.com/H51w-Headlamp-AA-Neutral-White_p_46.html

or the H51 Bluish White LED, which offers up to 200 lumens: http://www.zebralight.com/H51-Headlamp-AA-200Lm_p_37.html

In the Princeton Tec EOS headlamps I modded to work with a removable remote winter battery pack a while back, I replaced the bluish LEDs with natural white, and added a reflector that offered a better flood along with the spot (PT made the same improvement to the reflector a year or two later). The natural light is more pleasant for reading and lets you see things closer to their true colors.

It would be nice if they made the H51 with a slide in and out red lens.

[spelt with a t]

I went with the 51w, as I really do not care for the color tint of the cool white LEDs. I've been pleased with the 51w; colors do not look too washed out, and I usually don't have cause to use the highest brightness setting anyway so I don't miss the extra lumens.

[Bob Gross]

The color of the light is a very individual preference. I prefer the floody light pattern over the spot light pattern, so I have the Zebralight H501, which is a forerunner of the current H502.

I've done night photography using the headlamp, but its primary purpose is for night hiking. The medium intensity is fine for normal trails. I've kicked it up to high intensity for some mystery trail junction. If I use a lithium battery, it gets extremely good duration.

It seems like you could use a piece of red cellophone to get a red light out of it.

–B.G.–

[Ethan A.]

Glad to hear you don't miss the extra lumens. I'm not a fan of blue tint. My modded EOS with the neutral CREE is sooo much nicer to use than the original blue tinted bulb.

I've made duct tape + red cellophane filters – it would just be nice if they came integrated. Slide out, slide in.

[M B]

I like my zebralight H51.
Put the holder on the back of a baseball cap, and wear it backwards. works great.

But I recently purchased an olite i3s eos.
Olite lists the specs with AAA alkaline batery, 750mah.

1hr at 80lumens, 10h at 20 lumens, 120 at 0.5 lumens.

But with an energizer AAA lithium, its 1200mah, the performance should be more like
1.6 hrs at 80, 16 at 20, and 192 at 0.5.

20 is enough for most night hiking. At 0.7 oz for battery and light its pretty hard to beat. With one extra 0.3 oz battery, for atotal wt of 1 oz, you get 32 hrs of hiking light.

The Fenix LD01 doesnt come close to the middle level burn time (3.5 hrs @28 lumens with an eneloop ~1000 mah would be ~4.2 hrs or so with 1200mah energizer.)

[Ethan A.]

It's an excellent light for the weight, having tried an older version. M B, does the manufacturer say it's safe to run with lithium batteries?

[BlackHatGuy]

My light is anything but SUL, but I really favor the Fenix PD32. Lots of light when I need it, lots of battery life when I don't. I've put it in a Zebralight headband and wear it on the side of my head. Works great.

[M B]

I have read the mfg lists the voltage range as 0.9-3V. Energizer lithium L92 is only a 1.5V battery, but is 1200 mah. should be significantly better than the alkaline they list the figures for.

My zebralight list the burn times for eneloop 2000 batteries, but the AA energizer lithium are closer to 3000mah as well. Its medium level is 30 lumens, but with a AA energizer L91 will only give about 12 hrs at that level .

I think the little olite will give more useable hiking light, for less weight, than even my zebralite.

of course the 8 lumen setting on the zebralight is extremely long life. And some think its enough as well, and likely is.

What I want to see, is a UL AAA headlamp made by zebralight that lets you customize the lumen settings with many more choices.

[mik matra]

I got this (you can buy it off ebay very cheaply);

It's a solar charged 3 led light. Now I stress I do not aim to nor do I want to walk in darkness/at night so this light does it's job for in-camp purposes.

It weighs under 15grams and I siliconed a piece of Velcro to the back side of it. The other side of the Velcro I stitched to my hat's brim. That way I can use the light where ever I want to look…..like a head lamp. Here it is;

I think that this way it will be counted as an SUL 'headlamp'.

And yeah, it throws plenty of light for in-camp duties including gathering more firewood and it recharges through the day. Win win :)

[Piney]

Thanks for the tip on new Olite. I'll have to try one vs. my LD01.

[spelt with a t]

Likewise, thanks for bringing it to my attention. That looks like a nice xmas present for a few people.

[M B]

My wts on the Olite I3S EOS are 0.41 oz for the light (no keychain), and with an energizer ultimate lithium its 0.68 total oz.

Did a practice walk in the woods a few nights back to verify the 20 lumen setting was good enough, and it is. Mostly looking at the ground at night a few feet in front anyway.

Going to do a burn test on medium setting to verify what time I get.

So far Im pretty happy with this little light. It has a very secure clip which clips on a hat bill. No chance of this thing coming off.

[Ethan A.]

Any suggestions on where to find a good adjustable headband for it, which I can secure the light to with zipties?

[Piney]

You can make one pretty easily. I dug into my spare cordage/odds & ends bag and made one in a half hour:

Cut a length of 3/8-3/16" heat shrink tube (unshrunk) to the length of the flashlight clip. Slide it onto a section of 1/2" grosgrain webbing. Close the loop by sewing in 3" of elastic webbing. The circumference should be about 3/4-1" smaller than your head measurement. Melt the ends of the grosgrain and elastic first so the stitches will hold. Done!

It works great, very secure. You just slide the light back and forth to center the beam horizontally, and the band up or down on your forehead to position it vertically. It weighs 3 grams, so add an Olight eos and a lithium battery and you get an extremely functional headlamp for .79 ounces. I think I will start carrying it as it's more secure and adjustable than clipping the light to a hat brim.

You could skip the grosgrain and just use elastic webbing – it would be a bit heavier and probably more comfortable. I didn't have a long enough piece of elastic though.

[M B]

Ill have to look into that myself.

I ran the little eos test last night/today, 15 hrs on the 20lumen level with energizer ultimate lithium.

At 15hrs and 10 min I noticed the light looked dim, when I turned it off, it would not turn back on.

Looking at the factory curve, the output decreases on high with time, from 80-60 lumens or so, using alkaline, probably why they used to call it 70 (and now call it 80).

With the lithium battery, it will maintain 80 due to higher discharge ability I bet, but that could shorten its time relative to what might expect from the alkaline performance, or it might not. Hard to say. Im going to do a high test tonight.

Higher current draw really strongly reduces the capacity of alkaline batteries(I suppose the batteries internal resistance dissipates it as heat), and the Li wont suffer this.

[M B]

The high (80 Lumen) for the i3S eos with li battery lasted 1 hr 43 min.

Gets fairly warm after a while. Possibly, the ability of Lithium batteries to maintain the output that alkaline cannot makes it get hotter than the mfg desired, or maybe not.

I wanted it for the mid level though, and 15hrs on 20L makes it pretty decent to me.

[Piney]

Those test results are stunning! 15 hours at 20 lumens means I would pretty much never worry about carrying a spare battery. And I would never have to use the low mode to conserve the battery like I do with my LD01

I will throw out a warning though – Olight has updated the specs on the i3s EOS. The old claim was only 8 hours @20 lumens with an alkaline battery, and a lot of the tests I've read confirm that. Current claim is 10 hours @20 lumens and M B's test confirms that as well. So there seems to have been a recent change in the light. I have submitted a question on the Candlepower forums to see if they have any insight. In the meantime it looks like I ordered the older version…

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