The Fighting Battle On Head Lamps

[Middleofnowhere]

I use a headlamp at work, mounted to my hard hard hat (road construction at night). I’ve also been a scuba diver, Marine and mountaineer. I’ve really come to appreciate Princeton Tec lights. They are made in USA and incredibly bomb proof. Right now my go to light is the Apex Extreme. I probably have a thousand hours on one, it is brighter than any headlamp I’ve ever seen and lasts multiple shifts.

I have various hedlamps in my different vehicles and packs. I’ve never been let down by this brand. I have bought a ton of Princeton flashlights and headlamps over the years to give as gifts to family, friends and co-workers.

One time I had an issue with a dive light, corrosion inside from bad batteries. I sent it to Princeton Tec for repair and they sent me a new light with no questions. I was only hoping for a replacement part, but appreciate their standing behind the product.

Apex Industrial | Princeton Tec

These lights are competitive in price with any other brands and being made in America gives me a warm fuzzy feeling as opposed to supporting Chicom slave labor manufacturing. They started primarily as a dive light manufacturer, their waterproofing philosophy is evident in all their products.

 

[N2TRKYS]

I like the Zebralight h600. I only run the cool light. I wish they had a green led light in a spot pattern. I bought the Zebralight with the red bulb and thought it was crap. It's a flood type light and doesn't do anything for me walking in and out of the woods. I prefer a green bulb over a red bulb by a long shot.

If Zebralight would make one, I'd try it out.

 

[Backpack Hunter]

I like the Zebralight h600. I only run the cool light. I wish they had a green led light in a spot pattern. I bought the Zebralight with the red bulb and thought it was crap. It's a flood type light and doesn't do anything for me walking in and out of the woods. I prefer a green bulb over a red bulb by a long shot.

If Zebralight would make one, I'd try it out.

I have read on some of the flashlight forums that people are putting colored lens caps on their Zebralights. Seems like a good idea, but I haven't ever taken the time to find what caps they are using or where to find them.

Esse quam videri

 

[Ac338]

Went from a cheap Energizer to a Blackdiamond Storm this season and am mostly happy with it. The settings are the only thing that took getting used to.

 

[Husky10]

black diamond spot and storm.

 

[1arrowshort]

I run a couple black diamond now and no complaints, the only other brand I thought I'd consider is petzl but might have to look into zebralights

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[Jsunkler]

I have a BD Storm and Spot, Petzl Tikka Plus 2, and a handful of Prince Tecs. I use them for all sorts of stuff from waterfowl hunting, surf fishing, big game hunting, and a million other things.

The cheaper Prince Tecs (picked up a few for under $10 a piece) live in the tool box and tackle box so I always have one ready to go, they aren't the nicest but they work.

The Petzl lives in the truck, it was my main headlamp for years and is a great lamp. A few years back I lost one while kayaking out shark bait off the beach and we watched it float away into the distance with the white light still on for as long as we could see it, that was something to see. My current Tikka has a battery leak in it and required a little clean up but is still chugging along.

My wife bought me a Storm back in October for my birthday and I began using it, and wow does it kick out some light! I was very impressed by it, until I was big game hunting and stopped to read my map and could hear the buzzing which then I always noticed and drove me crazy. So I contacted BD and they supplied be with a Spot, which I now use for all big game and leave the Storm for waterfowl hunting / setting the decoy rig in the morning where I am making a bunch of noise and don't notice the buzz.

 

[Jacack]

Never used a zebra, looks nice but a lot of models to choose from

 

[sneaky]

I've never heard a buzz from my BD Storm. Ever. We used to use those cheap $12 Rayovacs on the gun line in the Marine Corps. Im sure if we could shoot 155s with the red lens on them you could hike in and out of the woods as well.

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[Wrench]

Pelican 2690 is the most bomb proof light that is bright and easy on battery life. I worked nights in Alaska so I used everything for months on end in crap weather and these survived. They have one option, on. They don't have a sissy switch to fail, the lens twists in.

I've got a dozen Princetons that I'll trade anyone for these. The tikka eats batteries almost as bad as the Princeton. The only other contender is the streamlight....but 3 aa batteries is a bit heavy.

 

[BluMtn]

I have been using the Armytek Wizard for about 4 years now. It uses the 18650 batteries. I use it as a head lamp, but it can also have a clip on it to be attached to your pack which I use the most. It has several different lumen settings depending on how much light you require. From .5 lumen all the way to 1200 lumen. I carry extra 18650 batteries with me and on a 7 day hunt maybe will get into my second battery even in the colder temps. You can get them in soft white or bright light.

 

[TnCo]

I use the Petzek Actik Core with a spare rechargeable battery. Charge one when the other dies.. Couldn't ask for a better system. the light is extremely bring 300 lumens I believe and has the red light function also.

 

[stevie]

I have been using Zebralights, happy with them.

 

[huntercole]

Fenix HL55. 5 modes 10-900 lumens. Fairly floody even beam pattern. Neutral colored light. Runs on 18650s or 2 cr123s. I usually use olight or eagletac 18650s, they use quality panasonic cells. I use nitecore dual bay charger for at home and have an xstar usb charger for in the field. I usually just bring an extra battery and have never had to charge an 18650 in the field.

 

[fwafwow]

Zebralight for me. I have a AA version and a 18650 version. After 30 years of regularly updating headlamps and accumulating a box full I am done.

I bought my first Zebralight about 4 years ago, treated myself to a 2nd one 2 years ago. Perfectly happy with both of them.

Which do you have - and ideally, why? I started looking and there are so many choices.

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[fwafwow]

I've got a H52w (that takes AAs) and a H600w Mk III. The 'w' suffix on Zebralights indicates a neutral white LED.

As far as chargers I have an Xtar VC2 that plugs in to USB, and a XTAR VP2 that plugs into 120V with a wall wart.

For batteries, I do have a single high-capacity 18650 Panasonic that I use when I'm only taking one battery and I want it to be a good one. Otherwise I use 18650s that are salvaged from laptop power packs. Most laptop batteries these days use 18650 cells. When a laptop battery goes bad it's usually just one or two cells that fail - you can cut the pack open (carefully!) and remove all the cells. I like to discharge them 'fully' (to 3.2V) in my headlamp and then charge them back up - the VC2 charger will tell you how many mAh the battery took which will tell you if it is still any good. If a cell won't hold 2000 mAh or so I usually just put it in the electronics recycling bin.

Sorry - replied to an earlier post before seeing this one.

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[Piscatory_4]

I have a couple BD storms and they are good but last Christmas I bought a package of 2 headlamps for $20 from Home Depot, with batteries, 435 lumens, 3 light intensities, focusable(flod to spot), with red and green leds. And they came with hardhat clips. Coast is the name on the strap.

 

[tommy8553]

Black diamond storm. bright and pretty good on batteries.

 

[Ndstevens]

I use the BD spot. it's works great for me. I personally dont need a headlamp to light up a whole hill or shine a mile. The spot has respectable light and functionality and I have learned that for ex- from buying the spot this time instead of the storm that I got a couple years ago and stepping down a bit in lumens (50) it noticeably saves in battery life and for me the difference in light is not something I've ever regret doing. They're both great lights though.

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