Excellent headlamp review and deceptive advertising

"That's very convenient for REI to say. It's also called looking the other way."

What would you expect REI to do? The only thing REI could do it test every lamp outthere and only sell one ones that meet the spec. I am guessing that would be very frew and those would likely be more expeensive and only be of interest to a few people. Testing all the lamps would cost REI money and and it would limit the sellection in there stores and reduce sales. With the profit margin being what it is they cannot afford to do that.

The only people that can enforce a standard is the government. If the issue is not safety related the government will have very little interest in making a law mandating the standard.

When complying with a standard becomes a positive marketing feature then standards can be enforced without the government. Otherwise…

…I'd go to CandlePowerForums. These guys and gals maul new lights, run their own tests, and come to rather independent conclusions. You also get long-term reviews there, with people posting (in furious anger) when a light fails, and cat-calling the manufacturer when it does. If you want to read merciless flashlight/headlamp reviews, check out CPF.

+1 on Candlepowerforums. As rabid as any pack of Gram Weenies and encyclopedic knowledge dispensed freely :)

Hmmmm, I'd recommend you not get too excited about that forum, after all they whole-heartedly recommended the PrincetonTech Byte when it first came out (and that was a miserable POC).

Candlepower is just another forum, with average participants, filled with a mixture of solid knowledge and noob doo-doo.

Regarding Outdoor Gear Labs – I noticed that they show the PT Vizz as only splash-rated when in fact it is rated 1 meter/ 30 minutes. Just shows that they weren't all that thorough.

"The only thing REI could do it test every lamp outthere and only sell one ones that meet the spec."

Steven, REI could choose to test no headlamp and to advertise no claims about performance. Instead, when REI simply takes the manufacturer's word and then advertises those numbers, then REI is part of the problem.

–B.G.–

+1 on CandlePower Forums.

WAGs are quickly "torched".

Hard data is highly revered.

But you have to put in the time to find it, and to look past the first search result, as these folks don't give it up after the "initial impressions".

Rex,
Thank you for the capacity specs on the AA and AAA versions of the above, with the links to boot.
Still love my Garmin 301 with 2 AAAs, but am getting to like the Fenix HL 21 because it 'remembers' your preferred setting thus requiring only one push of the button, has a good diffuser, steps down to low beam when the batteries are low thus not suddenly leaving you in the dark in mid-stride, and the single AA cell can be replaced easily in the dark. Someone complained that the beam angle or height adjustment was too loose, but haven't had that problem. It is kind of retro-looking, compared to the sleeker models, but I'll take function over form any day when there's a distinct improvement in the former. Bringing some spare AAAs for the Garmin, as well as AAs for the Fenix, is no biggee, and may not even be necessary because I rarely use the GPS and it is not essential. I bring it to record coordinates for other folks' future reference. Was raised on map and compass, and to take them away you'd have to claw them from my cold dead hands.

>> steps down to low beam when the batteries are low thus not suddenly leaving you in the dark in mid-stride <<

@ Samuel

Can you confirm this? I have the Fenix HL 21 and while I think it's a great light, I stopped carrying it in the backcountry because mine just dies when the battery hits a certain (low) voltage. No step down.

I've had mine for quite a while now so maybe Fenix has improved this but I really didn't like the fact that it was fully regulated until it died. Typically, mine runs at full brightness, may dim a little just before it quits. The worst thing is that sometimes it seems to be fine until you turn it off and then it won't power back on because the battery is too low.

This update today to The Wirecutter’s headlamp review:
http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-headlamp/
relies heavily on the Outdoor Gear Lab reviews, and does some real world testing of their own. Not as thorough as the OGL review, but it does add some other perspectives.

— Rex

" I'd recommend you not get too excited about that forum, after all they whole-heartedly recommended…"

LOL. CPF doesn't whole-heartedly recommend ANYTHING. A high proportion of that audience is engineers. That community carps about the best, the worst, and especially the mediocre. Each high quality manufacturer has articulate, professional-level haters on that forum. Light failures of top brands are a frequent subject of multiple-page threads. If there's a complaint to be made, it's that the CPF community is so critical of everything, it's hard to find the good stuff; you will find negative reviews on virtually everything. The trick is to look for the gear with the least negative reviews, and the gear that the knowledgable people actually own. Just like here at BPL!

Regards the comment that CPF is the usual internet forum mix "of solid knowledge and noob doo-doo," well…they're not a gated community. I don't think we should hold forums to a higher standard than our body politic, and in the USA we let just about everyone vote: the few people with solid knowledge, AND the vast majority who vote doo-doo. That's democracy. It's up to us to sort the wheat from the chaff.

As Greg says: Hard data is highly revered at CPF.

This update today to The Wirecutter's headlamp review:
http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-headlamp/
relies heavily on the Outdoor Gear Lab reviews, and does some real world testing of their own. Not as thorough as the OGL review, but it does add some other perspectives.

they give a "secondary" recommendation for the byte …

"A cheaper option that's less powerful and versatile than our main pick, a good option if you don't plan on using it much."

of course BPLers and others have had issues with that particular model …

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=86928

which is a problem with ALL these reviews … they review one or two example at most of a particular lamp

you have no idea of the true reliability ….

your best bet is going through the online aggregate reviews at popular sites and looking for peoples bad experiences with failures … and even that is still biased

one full "test" review does not tell you anything about the failure rate for that particular piece of electronics … and ALL electronics fail

i used to drive around a dodge 95 caravan that had no problems at all for over 17 years … if i wrote a "full" review, i would call it a totally "reliable" car … and we all know that model is anything but reliable generally

;)

My point is that it is just a forum. I pointed out the Byte because it was such an obvious screw-up of a product. Somebody posted a really posh review of the Byte claiming it was the most wonderful thing going. Everybody chimed in praising the reviewer. If you went by that thread you would have run out and bought one. But the Byte was a POS from the get-go. Parasitic drain, bad switch, strange behavior on low battery – all things that the elegant review missed.

I'm not dissing CPF, but I am telling folks that it isn't an engineering site (I are one). So I think it is just one data point folks should use when researching a headlamp.

I think the Byte is okay now.

There's parasitic drain but if you're okay rotating one battery between trips, this isn't an issue.

There was an initial version that was totally unacceptable. It was a problem with voltage regulator I believe – after a few hours the battery voltage falls, then the regulator doesn't produce power to the processor which doesn't operate so it doesn't see when switch is pressed,… But they fixed that.

It's such an obvious bug that I wonder about Princetontec. Why would they put out a product like that?

For the new version of Byte, I think their review is okay. The small size and weight is nice.

I'm just leaving mine on the shelf and using a 3AAA headlamp because I don't want to rotate battery between uses.

I have posted for a long time at CPF and like any open community you need to sort through the good and the bad – but mostly the opinions are backed with real experience and often hard data.

The Byte's parasitic drain was noted in the one review I read – not to turn this into a debate on CPF or the Byte.

The only issue folks here might have with CPF is that while there are headlamp users and some outdoors enthusiasts – they may or may not always have the same priorities folks here might have with respect to a headlamp. After all, most there (myself included) are flashlight enthusiasts and headlamps are a secondary albeit for me increasingly important interest.

People go down rabbit holes early and often – but wade through the detail and there is usually some good information.

"There's parasitic drain but if you're okay rotating one battery between trips, this isn't an issue."

The parasitic drain issue is resolved in the new version. (Available as of December, 2013.)
There is a switch on the battery door that opens the circuit, precluding the need to invert a battery.