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headlamps

January 31, 2014 By Chas Bruce

Petzl Nao Rechargeable Headlamp with Reactive Lighting

Petzl Nao Rechargeable Headlamp
Petzl Nao Rechargeable Headlamp

It was a foray into the new age of automation. The Petzl NAO headlamp confidently extinguished the darkness on a midnight hike up the rock-strewn Hidden Valley Trail.

Rather than a sweat inducing wide elastic band, I secured the NAO to my cranium with two svelte elastic bands. Light and comfortable. When I checked the map at the trailhead, the NAO automatically widened the beam while decreasing the light output to what was needed. As I began to pick my way up the trail, the headlamp narrowed the beam slightly and shot out a medium beam. When occasionally I raised my head to check the trail in the distance, the beam increased and narrowed even more.

Petzl Nao Rechargeable Headlamp
Petzl Nao Headlamp

I didn’t think the NAO out-of-the-box would have my number this closely, but it did, and I had no complaints. If the robot handling the NAO behaves out of your comfort level, you simply download the Petzl software the next time you use the USB cord to recharge. The software allows you to select already configured activity profiles or to custom make your own. If this tech-ness proves to be too much, simply hit the hold the on/off button down for 2 seconds and the light switches to a Constant mode, providing  just a high and low beam.

With a twist, button also allows you to switch between high and low Reactive modes. At it’s highest setting, the dual LEDs provide up to 355 Lumens, which will burn up a trail more than hundred yards out for as much as 4 and half hours, far longer than this hike.

At the low setting you can get up to 8 hrs. In the Constant mode you get about an hour and a half in High and up to 8 hours in low. The USB-rechargeable battery is quite small and can be replaced with 2 AAA with a lot less output.

Back at the computer, the Petzl OS loaded easily and offered a number of easy to access menus. I had to remind myself: this is just a headlamp. I also had to admire the way the variable programming provided more than four times the runtime of the constant on mode. And the NAO was truly handsfree. The little robot kept my hands on the trekking poles and my face off the rocks.

Weather proof, but not waterproof.  Plugged into the computer it took 5 hours to charge. Using the wall unit, it only took 3.5 hours.

$175

Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: headlamps, Petzl

May 18, 2013 By Chas Bruce

Zebra Light H51 AA Headlamp

Zebra Light Headlamp
Zebra Light H51 AA Headlamp

This is an amazing volcano of a light. Strapped to my head a single AA battery fired up the Cree XP LED in a blaze of 200 lumens. Now that’s bright–and it can last up to an hour.

For longer runtimes it was necessary to dial it back a bit. Along with the high setting you have a medium and a low setting, and all outputs can be configured to custom settings via the soft rubber button.

It took some time and reading of the manual to get into the settings, but we tried the high beam at 100 lumens and got almost 3 hours of runtime. And the low setting can be set to something like 2.4 lumens for a 3 day runtime or as low as .2 lumens for a 16 day runtime.

The light itself is .9 inches (23 mm) in diameter and 3.2 inches (81 mm) long. With batteries and head-strap it weighs 3 oz. (85 grams). An electronic soft-touch switch drives the smart user interface–or should we just call it an enhanced on-off switch.

Machined in aluminum and hard anodized. The light unit can be hand held, yet conveniently slides into the headlight bracket that allows up and down rotation of the focused 80-degree beam and fast access to the on/off button. Simple, light and bright!

$64

Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: headlamps, Zebra Light

May 8, 2013 By Chas Bruce

Snow Peak SnowMiner Headlamp

Snow Peak Snowminer Headlamp
Snow Peak SnowMiner Headlamp

More than just a headlamp, the SnowMiner allows you to pop out it’s silicon globe to provide extreme diffuse lighting. And it also allows you to slap a large glowing snowball on your forehead. We found it to be just the thing to fill our tent with warm ambient light and it provides an excellent page-filling reading light.

This powerful LED headlamp will stream out 80 lumens of light at full power for 55 hours. We used the low setting in the tent, which was more than enough for close-in work and reading and from the literature found that this produces 8 lumens that will last for 140 hours. We couldn’t run it out or dim it. And as a blinking beacon it will run 250 hours.

The snowball setting is also great when we tried it on a dark trail. With a broad beam, it lit up a large area instead of a focused beam with shadows. Which made it easy to pick out the trail and miss obstacles.

Runs on 3 AAA batteries, which you can always use with rechargeables. Dimensions 2.2 x 2 inches (5.6x 5.1cm). Weighs 3.5 oz (100grams) with batteries.

A small red led lets you know when your battery power is low. The strap adjustment included a hook for hanging it as a lamp at the campsite.

$56

Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: headlamps, Snow Peak

July 11, 2012 By Chas Bruce

Princeton Tec Byte Headlamp

PrincetonTec Byte Headlamp
PrincetonTec Byte Headlamp

A convenient headlamp that’s super bright and super light. Comes with a 35 Lumen LED and a separate red LED for night vision.

Burn time 146 hours. AAA Alkaline. Weighs 64 grams.

$20

Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: headlamps, Princeton Tec

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