Black Diamond Spot, Revolt, Zebralight H52W or other Zebralight?

[Ethan A.]

Please see next post below

[Ethan A.]

Time to replace my old Princeton Tec EOS after a large multi-directional crack in the housing and appreciate your thoughts. A shame as I’d modded it, replacing the stock cold blue LED with a brighter neutral one, replaced the reflector with a much better one and adding an external plug that allowed the use of an external battery pack for winter stored inside my jacket. So basically I made an EOS that was several years ahead of the model sold which worked great in winter. I’ll repair the housing but keep it for home use now that water resistance is compromised. I’ll post a photo of it.

I prefer neutral white to cold blue-ish white beams and I use Eneloop rechargeable batteries or Energizer Lithium for 3-season and Energizer Lithium in winter. I’ve read the Zebralights are designed to work very well with the Eneloops. I typically use the light in camp at night on low settings and occasionally on higher settings for night route finding.

I’m looking at the Black Diamond Spot, Revolt, Zebralight H52W and ThruNite TH20 and currently leaning toward the Spot for a combination of brightness, battery life, usability, value, weight and good customer service.

1) What color temperature is the beam on the Spot and Revolt? Would you describe the beam as neutral white?

2) The Revolt charging feature is nice, but it appears to be less bright than the Spot. Any reason besides the charging feature to consider it over the Spot?

3) Outdoorgearlab reports that the H52W suffered from low battery life, but they didn’t test it with an Eneloop. Does the H52W suffer from low battery life, and is there another neutral white Zebralight that you’d recommend over it?

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

Regarding the H52w (now the H53w), Zebralight gives users the option to really crank up the lumens, whereas most manufacturers don’t. So they allow you to really burn through the battery, but you certainly don’t have to do this.

On max, the current H53w burns through an AA in just under an hour. Fast, but that’s a wild 280 lumens (H52w) or 330 lumens (H53w) from a single AA. Simply set it to a more responsible but still bright setting, like 120 lumens, and you’ve got 4 hours. Or go to 65 lumens for 8.5 hrs, which is still plenty for night hiking.

I see the option to really cook through the battery as advantage, because if you need a super light for a nighttime bike ride, you can bring a bunch of AA’s and crank it up, or for regular trips you can bring one AA and use it on a responsible setting – with the super bright option still there if you really need to look at that far away tree for a minute.

I don’t know anything about the other lights you mention, but the Zebralights are top notch products. Quality metal cases, quality electronics including voltage regulation, and fair prices.

Regarding OutdoorGearLab, I’m not sure which version of the ReVolt they tested, but it seems to be the 110 lumen version. So it appears that the ReVolt runs to 9 hrs merely because it’s putting out a lot less light over that time than the Zebralight. If you look at their sample photos, it’s obvious that the Zebralight is far brighter.

Thinking about this another way, the Revolt uses 3 x AAA batteries (800-1000 mAh each for NiMH), which holds about the same amount of energy as a single AA (~2500 mAh) found in the Zebralight. Since all LEDs are about the same efficiency, there really is no free lunch here. If both lights hold the same energy but one lasts much longer, it pretty much has to be putting out less light – which the sample photos confirm.

[Bob Moulder]

I have the older H51 model of Zebralight. Not the W because I actually like the cooler color temp… “Warm” LEDs have an icky cast for me.

And I also have a 2016 vintage Spot, which is the better version after BD changed to the square case and updated electronics and better switch.

My preference is the Spot because it has very good battery life at something reasonable like 50-75 lumens, which as Dan points out is plenty for night hiking once your eyes adjust. I’ve only night hiked with it once for about 3 hours because I normally don’t do that, but it was fine. What is really nice, however, is to be able to give it a quick tap on the side and immediately bump it up to full power — which for mine is 200 lumens, but is now 300 for the one sold by REI — and then tap the side again and instantly go back to the previous setting. Adjusting to intermediate settings between high and low is easy. It also has a small, separate, LED for a low-power, broad beam when doing stuff inside your shelter at close range, and it has the red LED as well. I use all these features and, although I haven’t used it on this light, it also has a strobe setting (as does the H51) but in the past I’ve used a strobe feature a couple of times for late-arriving folks for winter hikes. I also like the safety off switch that assures it won’t get turned on in your pack… or at least it is extremely unlikely. I’ve gotten it wet a few times but have not submerged it in water. Replace the elastic head band with a 2.5mm shock cord and it weighs 2.1 oz including lithium batteries.

[Brad S]

I have had the Zebralight H52W for many years.  I also use it with Eneloops and Amazon branded rechargeable batteries.  Battery life hasn’t ever been an issue.  I generally keep the light on low and I try to minimize my light use while around camp.  Low light is plenty to see the immediate area and general tasks (including reading).  High will light-up the forest if you need to.  I’ll pack an extra battery just in case it looses charge, but I have never needed to use it on extended spring/fall weekend or even a recent week-long JMT trip (summer light hours).

My only complaint about the Zebralight is the headband comfort.  The light holder tends to dig a bit into your forehead.

I prefer a single AA battery over AAA or button batteries due to the availability of rechargeable batteries.  It’s also comfortable to know I can purchase batteries locally on longer trips.

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