Have you tried a headlamp recently???

I have not been posting so much here on GJ as normal, because I’ve taken a detour into understanding LEDs...particularly headlamps. I recently picked up a quality headlamp...then another, then another... and they are now some of my very favorite tools, they makes everything else go better and easier in the shop and at the jobsite.

People object to headlamps because they look nerdy. OK, fine. However LED headlamps are getting small and relatively unnoticeable...not much larger than a single AA battery, for some...very comfortable, very bright, and good color tint. (Not exactly cheap however). And nothing beats having a flood of bright light on the work; one which instantly moves to whatever you need to focus on. Wide even flood is important if you’re working up close with tools, and you need your peripheral vision to see/find your tools, check your work, etc. If you haven’t used a floody headlamp, and you must sometimes work in badly-lit conditions, you’ve got to try one.

I won’t bore you with reams and reams of information; there are forums you can visit if you want to get into this in depth as I did. But I want to alert GJ to a couple of outstanding headlamps that are now available. LED technology is rapidly moving, so you’re not going to find a top-quality LED at HD or Lowe’s or Sears. They tend to sell low-end blue or purple tint, relatively dim (by today’s standards) headlamps with narrow 20 and 30 degree beams (or worse yet, spots), some of which are full of artifacts. I’m talking quality, cutting-edge technology here.

Many people think it’s all about brightness; ie, lumen. And you can find decent 30 and 40 lumen headlamps at the big box stores that will give you bright enough light. But for the kind of work we do, you want a broad, floody, even beam, somewhere between 60-120 degrees. You also want a neutral tint. You want long runtime, easy-to-find batteries, and comfort. You want adjustable brightness, and a good amount of high when you need it.

So check out these options. First are the Zebralights. Yes, they are Chinese made, although Texas designed and sold. Very small, high waterproof ratings, tough, bright, and some have neutral tints. They’re available in CR123 batteries (for long runtime in small package) and also a single AA battery. I now own 5...yes, 5 of their model H501w, because I love the even, floody beam (80 degrees!) and neutral-to-warm tint and small size. But they have other models that are brighter...up to 200 lumen. That’s too much for up-close work if you ask me.



Second, check out the SureFire Saint. Currently the Saint Minimus is the “small” option, runs on a single CR123 battery. In the near future they are coming out with a neutral tint version, and an AA version. High quality, as you can imagine. There’s a version of the Saint that has a battery pack on the back of the head for long runtimes. USA made. Beam’s a little narrow at <60 but not bad.



Third, check out the new Spark. It’s a thrower, not a flood, but you can make it a bright flood by just removing the reflector. Then you get 100 degrees of very bright floody light. China made also. A blistering 500 lumen! Wow, way too bright. But that means the mid-levels are very long-running.



OK, those lights will cost you $60-$120. Want a cheap option to get started? Check out the Irix Icon II, goes around $23 on Amazon, has a narrow 30 degree beam which limits its appeal for shop work and for reading, but is plenty bright at 50 lumen, has an infinte adjustment dial, and fires on a single AA battery. (Any light that runs on a single AA has to have extra electronics...boost circuits, to get the voltage up high enough to fire the LED). Far better than no headlamp at all, and inexpensive.



Try one, you won’t regret it! Want to know more, here’s one thread authored by yours truly, and here's another. Get lit!

I have the Pizel Ticca XP. What's wrong with that? It seems great to me.

Not a thing wrong with it! It's a nice light.

I should have added that the lights mentioned above are the ones that are getting good buzz by ******** enthusiasts. You know, people who own dozens of headlamps, spend time researching them, etc.

In general, the enthusiasts shy away from 3xAAA lights. You can get significantly better performance from 1xAA lights, but you need more expensive circuitry. The reason you see so many 3xAAA lights out there, is that it takes about 4v to fire an LED. With 3x1.5 volts, you've got your 4v without any additional hardware. So thats why there are tons of 3xAAA lights out there...they're cheap to manufacture. Some are quite good. Petzl and Princeton Tec both have loyal followings. I avoid 3xAAA lights myself.

Again, nothing "wrong" with them. But if you want to ride the performance edge, check out some of the amazing hardware that's now available.

So, what is the bottom line here. You are the perfect person to get the straight scoop from, having done this research. Ticca XP or the Zebralight?

Why do you have so many?

Heh, I'm a modest dabbler if you measure me to the big boys who follow this stuff (and make their own). Why do I have so many? I'm hooked on them. I'm into different tints, beams, runtimes, etc. I have Zebralights stashed in different toolboxes and around the shop and house. They're like pocketknives, you can never have enough of them.

Don't change your light if you're in love with the one you have. Nobody can pick THE perfect light for you, it's a personal decision. There are dozens of other great lights I didn't mention. If you want more info check out the threads I referenced at the end of my first post.

They work really well! I use them on the ambulance during night shifts or in really dark houses!

What about a good all around flashlight. Not mounted to my head, but something to have around the shop/house/garage/etc? I'd like to buy a handful of good quality LED lights to keep all over the place.

Handhelds are good, especially for spotting things, but you lose a hand. It's great to be able to use both hands and get stuff lit really well. Also it makes a guy cheerful to have nice light on the subject, I've found.

I reach for a headlamp probably 10 times for every time I reach for a handheld, but that would be totally different if I were, say, a cop, or walking the dogs at night, or on a search-and-rescue team, etc. The right light totally depends on your use for it. I mention headlamps here because so many of us work at arm's length, using tools...perfect for a floody headlamp.

That Irix Icon II I mentioned will pop out of its holder and you can use it as a handheld, or you can lay it on its back (under a car, under a sink) and work with it lying on the ground, shining up. But it has a narrow beam with a purplish tint, so it's not the Ferrari that the others are.

Ive been using mine for a few years now. One of the best $10 tools I have every purchased. Been through several sets of batteries. Keeps both hands open, is plenty bright, and can be pointed where I want it. The other light I use, is a small metal light with a bendable set of legs with magnets on the end.

Whenever I get a new headlamp for my pack, the older ones get retired to the grill and the toolbox. I have a couple Tikka XPs...they are common, simple, and light years better than what we had ten or fifteen years ago. I've still got a caving rig with a hip belt full of big cells...hilarious how heavy, bulky, and ineffective it is compared to a Tikka. You could carry five battery changes for a Tikka in your shirt pocket.

i can't recall a make on my but it is one of those LED's and it is a sweet little unit. a couple of guys that i worked with had these for the night shift. i was so impressed by the overall brightness and compactness that i got one too. i don't use it a great deal anymore but i know it there if i need it.

Ive got 2 little cheapies I bought for like $5 IIRC. I loved the idea, but like you mentioned the peripheral sucked. I found myself kicking and tripping over stuff but it was still better than only 1 hand and good light.

Im going to give the zebra 501 a try.

The great new evolution in LEDs currently is they're now able to make neutral and warm tints, and they're just starting to come out with high-CRI models that give a much more natural look to things...more like incans...just a lot brighter and sturdier and more efficient. But you'll be paying a premium for high CRI lights for now. Both Zebra and SureFire have them on the drawing board. In the meantime, try a neutral emitter. I sure love mine, I can't go back to regular LEDs now.

i use my headlamp all the time. think of all the jobs you have done that require two hands but you need a flashlight or better lighting to see just whats going on. the headlamp is the perfect solution. Mine is just some cheep remington model i got at lowes for 30 bux but for the money its pretty nice till it burns out. has alot of "hunting" features that i dont need but still nice and looks cool too. got made fun of at school buy other students but the instructors said it was a good buy and amazingly. the raffel prize at the meeting was a HEADLAMP! lol very valuable tool and a must have. no matter how dorky.

Thanks
Sean Scott

Interesting stuff........

Thanks for the post!

Ed

I have two petzls. I love them and use them for hours every night. Well worth the $70 I paid for them.

I love my cheapo tweeker lamps.

I have 4 headlamps. 3 of them are the same. They are Gander Mountain Guide Series brand. They have a 1 watt LED which is pretty bright but then you can switch to an halogen bulb which is really bight. I got my first one a long time ago when LEDs were just coming out. Then last year I saw my local Gander had them on close out for about 8 bucks so I bought two more. Its always worked good, sure the Halogen eats batteries but I like the brightness and I always take spare batterys with me. I use it most for hunting, but I always have it with in the car/truck, going snowmobiling or atving, and in the garage.

I'd like to try some of these high end LEDs but I'm not sure if its wroth the 80-100 bucks when compared to a good old halogen.

Let us know when a nice one drops below $20.

Mine is crappy and cheap, but sometimes you need both hands and holding a flashlight in your mouth, yuck.

I have a Black Diamond Spot Headlamp that I absolutely love and use all the time, mainly when working under cars in the garage. It costs about $40.

But I also have a bunch of cheap Harbor Freight lamps that are adequate. The HF ones with lamps kind of ****, but the HF led headlamps are pretty decent and are only about $5 on sale.

Streamlight makes a few different headlamps. They now offer one with the C4 bulb. It's the same bulb that's in their LED flashlights & it's bright. It can be bought in 2 versions, CR123 or AAA.

I used one of mine the other night to finish up a roofing project after dark. I like head lamps. I own Princeton Tech lights, but my wife has a couple of Petzel lights. They seem a little bulky. I wouldn't mind trying out some other brands though.

Surefire fanboy here. I use my Saint mostly for hunting and I also have a 'Backup' I use for just about everything. Afterall it slips onto your hat in a bind so I figure that makes it half a headlamp.

Adrien

I use my headlamp for 8 hours daily, for professional use those single head strap lights won't cut it, you need a over the head strap to keep it in place, too tight of a strap will give you a headache over time.

I 'borrowed' this image from a flashlight enthusiast forum, it illustrates what the weak spot of LED lighting has been, and where the technology is going. On the left you have a high-CRI LED illuminating a tree, on the right a high-priced (but traditional) LED.

Years ago, I gave a typical blue-tint low-CRI but very bright headlamp to an electrician. He was thrilled...at first. A couple weeks later he said he'd stopped using it because he couldn't see with it. He went back to his dim incandescent. His exact words were: "It's plenty bright, but I can't see with it." He was talking about how traditional old-style LEDs put out lots of blue light, almost no blue-green, then lots of green light, a little yellow, not much orange, and very little red. It looks white to us, but it's nothing like sunlight or an incan that outputs all visible wavelengths. That's what's so exciting about the new "neutral" and "warm" and especially "high CRI" lights. They're starting to do a decent job of outputting across the spectrum, and things don't look so flat anymore. We'll soon have the advantages of incan (natural rendering) with the efficiency, durability, runtime, brightness, and size of LEDs.

Obviously if you're using your headlamp to read a book, it's of no matter. But if you're trying to sort colors in a wiring harness...it's important.

This is what I'm trying to tell you guys: IMO, the newer premium lights are well worth the money. I see all these recommendations for cheap, old-style, tunnel-beam lights. From guys who would never be caught dead with cheap tools. If you think high-priced tools are worth the difference, get out of the $20 zone for your headlamps and spend $60-$120. Huge difference.

So I strongly encourage you to try one of the newer neutral, warm, or high-CRI lights. They have really started making progress getting the new emitters to the consumer only recently. In fact, SureFire and Spark still has their neutral-tint headlamp on the drawing board. Zebralight is selling neutral tints, and has a high-CRI on the drawing board. I have several neutral-warms and I just don't use my older headlamps anymore, because I can see so much better with the neutrals.

I just bought a led lenser H7. What a great lamp!
Gave approx 70 EUR for it

What's in the battery pack of your lenser, and what runtime does it have? I'll bet it's impressive. IIRC you have a variable beam on that, yes?

I have a few I use and are handy for certian jobs. My garage isn't as well lit as I would like and if I'm working on something that I need more light for I will wear one. One cheap one I bought a while back to try out, and a LED one my wife bought me. The LED one is a Energizer brand one IIRC. Works out well, I find my self using it more often when I'm working under a car so I don't need a clumsy drop light in my way.

I have a streamlight that is about ten years old. I haven't used it in many years but just dug it out. I used to use it a lot but for some reason lost track of it. I'm sure it's not as nice as the newer ones but it still gets the job done.

Thanks for this thread for getting me to go find mine!

Marry a Zebralight with a Donagon Optivisor:

Bolster said:

What's in the battery pack of your lenser, and what runtime does it have? I'll bet it's impressive. IIRC you have a variable beam on that, yes?

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in the battery pack it is 3xAAA,¨
And the manufacter says it should hold up to 54 hours.
I would say approx. 20 hours. Depending on which batteries you are using.
It is very well built and it has a variable beam, like you said.
Another thing it has is a focus system that comes handy often.
I´m incredible satisfied with it and i think it will hold for many years.

http://www.zweibrueder.com/ENG/produkte/html_highperformance/html_Hserie/h7.php?id=h7

Chech out the website. Cheers!

Both my wife and I (we work on cars together) are currently using Petzl Tikka XPs. The amount of light, with fresh batteries, is pretty much spot on for us and we actually really do like them. However, a long time photographer and former professional color printer, the poor CRI and the high color temperature kind of drives me nuts.

What would you recommend with that light output but with high-CRI LEDs?

Also, what forums are you following for this stuff?

I recently bought some of these:

$3.00 at Big Lots. I wear a hard hat for twelve hours a shift at night and these work fine so far. if they do stop working I can salvage the battteries for my glucose meter. Regards Barry

So whats a decent cheap headlamp?

This $20 Petzel, or are there cheaper decent ones, ala cree and AAA battery.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0027GVIOW/?tag=atomicindus08-20

Snooped on my own and bought this one for $6 shipped.
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/1-1-1w-white-led-red-3-mode-led-headlamp-3-aaa-12924

Honestly, Danglerb, you won't find a quality (in my opinion) headlamp in the low range. You have to pay for quality like anything else. Spend $60 on (for example) a Zebralight H501w with a warm tint and compare it to a $20 light from HD and you'll see what I mean.

The cheaper lights have narrow beams that are frustrating for hand work, narrow beams (around 30 degrees) need constant adjustment on your head, and are inevitably shining in the wrong place. Or worse yet, a spot beam of 5-10 degrees which is pretty much worthless for working with your hands, unless all you're trying to do is see into a screw-hole. Even then with its concentrated beam it will blast your vision and you'll be half-blind for a few minutes afterwards. (A good working beam is around 60-120 degrees and not so bright that it screws up your adapted vision.) Also the cheapies have flat tints, blue tints, rings, artifacts, and other issues that make it hard to "see." They're made of cheap plastic that breaks easily, isn't waterproofed, and should be considered a disposable light.

I am hoping my thread encourages people to take the plunge into the upper range of quality headlamps and see the remarkable difference from what's commonly sold in the $5-$30 range. It's just like buying Snap-on...if you want the quality, you gotta shell out more dough...but for lots of professionals, the difference in quality is worth it.

I've made do for years with various 3xAAA Petzls sold at REI, thought they were good enough. Then splurged on a good headlamp and it blew my doors off.

I'm not ready to drink the Koolade.

For LOTS of professionals the difference in quality is not worth it.

Week or so and $6, and I will know how I like this one. I already like the idea of the red light for not disturbing others or losing night vision.

williaty said:

What would you recommend with that light output but with high-CRI LEDs? Also, what forums are you following for this stuff?

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Hi Williaty. The high-CRI LEDS are available now in handhelds, and are just coming online for headlamps. AFAIK, there are no high-CRI headlamps in the <$100 range just now, but they will likely be out by year's end. In the meantime try a neutral tint, they're a big improvement as they shift the light to the warm end of the spectrum. Watch Zebralight and SureFire for announcements. Regarding forums to follow, check out the two links at the bottom of my O.P. and you'll find "the source." I will continue to update those links as the CRI lights come out.

Danglerb said:

For LOTS of professionals the difference in quality is not worth it.

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Oops, I had forgotten your perspective on tools, sorry. (We've been round on that topic before and I don't care to do it again.) No offense intended. OK, in the inexpensive realm, you have the Irix Icon II that I mentioned, and also the widely available Energizer lights you see at HD and Lowe's, which are about as good as you're going to get for $10-$15. Get one with a flood beam, not spot, but what they consider "flood" is incredibly narrow. Bead-blast the lens when you get it home to spread the beam a little more.

And you are correct, any type of headlamp is better than none!

I have a Streamlight Septor and really like it. It's great for around the yard, camping, trailering, etc.