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Thread: Winter light

  1. #1
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    Default Winter light

    What do you all prefer for the winter season at night for your headlamp/flashlight. I haven't been 100% pleased with any of my Amazon or black diamond lights.


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    Zebralight H52W, hands down, the best light I've ever had.
    Plaid is fast! Ticks suck, literally... It’s ok, bologna hoses off…
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    I prefer no light most of the time with the lighter surroundings of snow . . . at least when there is snow. If I have to turn on a light, I've use earlier Petzl lights and more recent Black Diamond lights. I've found all of them perfectly adequate.

    What are you not getting that you want or getting that you don't want?

    Actually, I also used a Princeton Tec headlight, not long ago, and wasn't too impressed with it's quality or reliability.
    I'm not lost. I'm exploring.

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    +1 on the Zebralight H52W. Uses a single AA battery, easy to use, very bright when needed but six levels of brightness down to really dim. Easy to lock out with a quarter turn on the battery cover so it won't come on in the pack. Great smooth beam spread.

    I've had a lot of headlamps, and this is the only one that I still use.
    Ken B
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    Registered User Storm's Avatar
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    Many lights fail in winter with standard batteries. Always use Lithium, hold up much better in the cold.
    "The difficult can be done immediately, the impossible takes a little longer"

  6. #6

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    I made my own headlamp with an ultra bright GREEN LED and a 4 AAA battery pack with four intensity settings. Green works really well in the snow as it doesn't reflect and blind you as much as white light does. Also, the eye is most sensitive to green and it also preserves night vision.

    But if your just hanging out at night, an old fashion candle lantern is really nice and gives the illusion of warmth.
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    BD Storm with lithium batteries.

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    Last time we were out this summer we had a long day out and we're hiking down to camp and my bd storm didn't seem bright at all. Fresh batteries and the light is fairly new. Maybe it will be fine with lithiums though since it does have a green light option


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    Well I must admit I've never run mine for more than about 15 minutes at a time (no night hiking with it), so maybe there's an issue. However, I have a BD Spot that I've used for night hiking and have run it for about 3 hours straight at times and it is working very well... very good battery life even with Duracell alkalines.

  10. #10
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    I use a Petzl Reatik headlamp. Not the lightest at 115 grams but add a spare battery to the Zebralight and they are about the same. It has a rechargeable lithium battery which if you are taking a battery pack, for recharging phones etc. makes sense, no spare batteries to carry. The model I have you can adjust the light settings with your computer and a downloadable program so the performance matches your activity. https://www.petzl.com/GB/en/Sport/PE...K#.WELRM7J96Uk
    "He was a wise man who invented beer." Plato

  11. #11

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    Haven't ultra anal-yzed it but I like the Petzyl Tikka + and XP.

    *Lithium battery compatible which is all I use and especially better for winter
    *Multi beam settings
    *Red light LED although green is also nice for hiking at night in winter snow
    *Boost modes for battery life conservation and adjusting for close, longer distance, and wider angle lighting
    *Good water resistance
    *Not overly heavy for the features offered and not ultra minimalist which can be problematic for night hiking especially in winter snow conditions
    *Easier to operate while wearing gloves with a decent sized push button panel compared to BD's Tap Touch system

    Battery life is acceptable but I'm not going to gram weenie Li battery wt in winter so I'll bring an extra 3 set and especially since I thoroughly engage in and enjoy winter night hiking as being a magical experience that IMO more folks should experience especially with snow on the trees and underfoot.

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    Quote Originally Posted by jjozgrunt View Post
    I use a Petzl Reatik headlamp. Not the lightest at 115 grams but add a spare battery to the Zebralight and they are about the same. It has a rechargeable lithium battery which if you are taking a battery pack, for recharging phones etc. makes sense, no spare batteries to carry. The model I have you can adjust the light settings with your computer and a downloadable program so the performance matches your activity. https://www.petzl.com/GB/en/Sport/PE...K#.WELRM7J96Uk
    I almost bought the reactik+ last night. It has 300 lumens and the recharging factor were a plus as I carry an anker battery sometimes. Would you say this line seems solid?


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    Just to throw in an opposite consideration:

    I have a Petzl Myo which works on 3x AA batteries, and found out that it can use the half-empty batteries thrown out of the Gameboys and many other electronic toys by the kids, so the batteries for the Petzl come kind of free.

  14. #14
    Registered User egilbe's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Leo L. View Post
    Just to throw in an opposite consideration:

    I have a Petzl Myo which works on 3x AA batteries, and found out that it can use the half-empty batteries thrown out of the Gameboys and many other electronic toys by the kids, so the batteries for the Petzl come kind of free.
    Alkaline batteries freeze up here in the cold and wont last. How are you getting them to work half used in low temps?

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    Honestly, until now I never had the situation of deep freezing cold and the need of constant headlamp light. While the headlamp is in my pack the whole winter, the most I've used it was for short glimpses or a downhill skiing or a very early start with 1-2hrs of headlamp usage, and so far the Alkalines (any brand) never failed.
    Only once a battery pack failed when night-skiing, but this was a NiCd rechargeable already at the end of its life. The light I carried as spare (a pretty old Alkaline in a very old Petzl) worked as expected under the same conditions.
    Remember the same very old Petzl with Alkalines working on Mont Blanc in the extremely cold morning before dusk (maybe -25°C).

    In severe cold I would wear the headlamp under the hood of the jacket thus the batteries not having the full freezing temps, as well as they will keep some reasonable temps inside the pack.

    Interestingly, I'll do a full night hike next thursday in freezing cold (forecast is -5°C) and we'll see how the Alkalines will hold.

  16. #16
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    I still haven't heard what the original poster's problem was with the headlamps he tried.

    I use a BD Spot with lithium batteries. In my experience, the choice of headlamp isn't that critical. I used a hardware-store one for several years. The choice of batteries is. Alkaline batteries are not reliable in the cold. The Spot is much brighter than the hardware store lamp, at some cost of battery life. I can dim it, of course.

    I kind of like Slo-Go'en's idea of a DIY one, although I disagree about green light and night vision. (It is indeed good for mist and snow.) I might try that one of these months, despite not being the electronic genius that he is. (I'm a EE - he's a wizard.) Slo, what did you do for an enclosure, a reflector and a lens?

    At some point, I also want to kludge up some better way to mount a headlamp at chest or waist level, so that it doesn't flatten features or blind me in dense fog. Anyone have suggestions about worry-free approaches to that?
    I always know where I am. I'm right here.

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    Could probably rig up something similar to this easily enough using some elastic bands and a standard headlamp.



  18. #18

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    Quote Originally Posted by Leo L. View Post
    Just to throw in an opposite consideration:

    I have a Petzl Myo which works on 3x AA batteries, and found out that it can use the half-empty batteries thrown out of the Gameboys and many other electronic toys by the kids, so the batteries for the Petzl come kind of free.
    The Constant Lighting technology of headlamps like the Petal Myo are nice in that they can, as you say, not gradually fall off in lighting intensity as many headlamps do during a long drain on battery life.


    • CONSTANT LIGHTING technology for Economic and Optimum modes:
      - brightness does not decrease gradually as the batteries drain
      - automatically switches to reserve mode when batteries are nearly spent

  19. #19

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    Cmoulder you must be a runner... or have a very slippery dome?

  20. #20
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    Just saw this one in the new edition of Trail Grooves http://www.trailgroove.com/issue31.html?autoflip=113 Half the weight of my Petzl but half the max lumens as well so only 150, which is heaps bright enough for walking. Rechargeable, adjustable light setting on the move, biggy about 1/3 of the price of a petzl rechargeable. Biggest con for me is no red light.
    "He was a wise man who invented beer." Plato

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