Which Zebralight should I get?

For a PCT thru hike, I'd get H502w L2 AA Flood Headlamp Neutral White, especially if you wear it at waist level for hiking (try it if you haven't, because bumps and dips show much more relief with the light on your waist than on your head – when your eyes and light go the same direction, dips and holes are washed out). There's not a lot of route-finding to be done (and you have the high level for that).

If you insist on wearing it on your head, then I'm torn between the flood and the spot (SC52w L2 AA Flashlight Neutral White).

Either of those take a single AA battery. You'll get longer life and lighter weight from lithium AAs, but it works fine with alkaline batteries which you could find in any service station or grocery store. If you constantly seek the lowest output that works for you, the batteries will last a long time. Unscrewing the bottom cap one half turn will prevent it from being turned on accidentally, but still keep everything securely together.

I always leave the headband at home (unless I'm caving) and clip the Zebralight directly onto my hat or waistband.

Could you please explain the utility of the stock Zlight headband? It seems like a clinky bit of garbage to me. I sewed a buckle on a bit of elastic andattached the light. Seems to work just fine and I saved at least 0.002 oz!

Other than the headband, a superb tool….

Hey Eli, let me save you some trouble and just tell you to get the H52w. This model is a spot beam with adequate spill. It is more important to have a good spot beam than flood because while flood will be better in setting up camp in the dark, I'd rather have the ability to route find at night at an adept level. This will become even more important if you are in the Sierras while snow is covering the trail. Even though this is a spot headlamp though, as stated before, the spill is more than enough for close up work such as finding a nice tent site and setting up camp. The beam is even conducive to reading a book a night.

The H52w is also a neutral white as opposed to cool white. Neutral white is so much better than cool white because it is far easier on the eyes to look at as opposed to the blue of the cool white. The warmer tint also reproduces more accurate color rendering than cool white.

The headlamp uses 1 AA. I use 2500 mAh eneloops and usually hike on the 25-50 lumen settings. The battery life is stellar for this usage and when needing to really illuminate your route you can click on the high setting of 280 lumen and really see all that is front of you.

The stock headlamp strap is excellent for hiking/backpacking. It is very comfortable and lightweight. However, for more active pursuits such as trail running, I have to use a different headlamp strap that is more rigid to prevent bouncing.

Get the H52w and then laugh at your fellow PCT hikers and their Black Diamond Spots or Petzl Tikkas, behold the power of the lumen of the H52w.

Quick question if I may without hijacking the thread….

The runtimes on the Zebralight site are for an Eneloop battery. I've never heard of these! Do they last longer than an Energizer lithium?

Enloops are NiMH rechargeable batteries and I haven't purchased any yet. Yet.

The Enloop Pros are advertised at 2550 mAh (500 charges) while the regular ones are 2000 mAh (2100 charges). Enloop Pro will work down to -4F; not sure on the regular ones.

Energizer Ultimate lithium batteries are rated at 2900 mAh, weigh 1/3ish less, and are rated down to -40*.

I use Sanyo Eneloops exclusively (or the rebranded Duracell version which is exactly the same battery). The huge advance over previous NiMH rechargeables is that Eneloops keep their charge in storage. That is far more useful that a slightly higher maximum mA rating. For example, I don't have to constantly top-off the charge in my flashlights or my extra batteries with the Eneloops.

This also makes it practical to use rechargables in things like TV remote controls where the old NiMH batteries would run down just sitting on the coffee table.

I hike with a headlamp (now a Zebra 1AA) and a flashlight (4 Seasons Quark 2AA). So the same set of spare batteries could be used in either. IMO, the Zebra is a massive upgrade over the old Tikka Petzl. The Tikka style headlamps are pretty marginal for lighting a trail — their highest settings are perhaps comparable to the medium setting on the Zebra. It's nice to have the full torch mode on a headlamp if you really need to see something for a minute.

the stock Zebra headband seems to work fine for me. Very easy to adjust the aim of the flashlight up or down as needed. And, it's free with the flashlight, if I recall.

Being somewhat impulsive I just about pulled the trigger on a ZL based on this thread but was able to catch myself. I'm going to stick with my trusty BD Storm which has 3k or so hiking miles on it without a hiccup.. I like the ability to dim the light from the brightest to lowest setting, I like being able to "lock" it so that it doesn't turn on after I pack it, and it's fairly much water proof.

What I do like about some of the ZLs is the single AA battery. The big plus for that is that my GPS also uses AAs.

I have a H31w which I love. I use rechargeables in it and most of my flashlights are RCR123 based as well so I have some flexibility.

I do wish at times I'd gotten the flood model as the hotspot/spill for most of my uses is not ideal (I don't do much night hiking so around camp the flood is better for me it seems). If I were hiking with it my opinion would be different.

I do like the warm tints.

As for features – the ZL can be turned on in either the lowest or highest setting, and then it cycles through from whatever starting point. And a small twist of the tailcap will lock it out so it won't turn on inadvertently. Overall the UI isn't my absolute favorite but it is pretty flexible and you have a LOT of brightness options – 6 levels in all including a true low low and a more than adequate high.