Amazing new headlamp for cavers

[darklord]

Looks as ugly as sin, looks heavy, looks expensive.....and totally overblown for most cavers' needs. Caving nerds might buy them, I guess, but most will probably truck on with the cheap-and-cheerful. I've had a Duo for two years and find it just about robust enough for rough uk caving, but just as often use a £3.99 'chinese' 8 led lamp which runs for a century on 3xAAA and is well waterproofed with bathroom sealant. More money for beer...

:twothumbs

 

[gillestugan]

I've had a Duo for two years and find it just about robust enough for rough uk caving

I have had my duo for 6 years (i think) and it has been really nice. Upgraded it with a 8 led module first. Changed the leds in the module to better ones a few years later, and a year ago I replaced the halogen with a P60 dropin that has great throw compared to the halogen. The frood from the 5mm leds in the module could have been wider, I've tried to spread them, but its hard to get a uniform beam.

This lamp has bare emitters with wery wide and floody beam, which seems nice.
I think the reason it doesn't have full power to the P7 is poor cooling as it has a plastic housing adn only a plate at the back as heatsink. Would have been much nicer with a housing in anodized aluminum. (in pink)

 

[DaFABRICATA]

I personally think this sucker is cool!

Thats the fun of this hobby...different strokes for different folks!

I emailed them and this is what I got....

(Removed by request)

 

[karlthev]

+1 Beauty is only skin deep and, I have many (virtually all!) lights which are overkill both in performance and cost. I don't need them nor all of their capabilities but I have them. By contrast I drive a modest (most would call it "ratty"!) car that won't do 0 to 60 in five seconds nor corner at 150mph. As you said, different strokes for different folks.:thumbsup: IMHO, this one is a winner and yes, I got the same response when I asked to buy one. I am now on the waiting list. I can wait for a good thing.....



Karl

 

[darklord]

I personally think this sucker is cool!

Thats the fun of this hobby...different strokes for different folks!

Well, I have to concede to you there!!....I assume you are talking about flashlights as a hobby, that is

My hobby is caving :laughing: ..... lights are just a tool, a means to an end.

But €220 for one:huh:......gordon bennet, that is hilarious!

 

[DaFABRICATA]

darklord,
IMO....it is even more important if it is used as a tool.
I work on automobiles and motorcycles.
Sure, the crappy $2.00 wrench will work fine for most jobs, but I take comfort in the fact that my $20.00 Snap-On will outperform that other crap and NOT BREAK WHEN I NEED IT MOST!!
I can't tell you how many times I bought something on the cheap(in the past) and most the time they only last so long..if at all.
Since experiancing some bad times, and situations because of those purchases, I now have no problem saving up to buy something I CAN DEPEND ON.

If I were VERE to go caving and someone handed me a crappy cheap light, I'd tell them to F-OFF!!
When your personal safety and possibly your life is on the line, I would NOT skimp on the tools you depend on.

When you say..."lights are tools, a means to an end".....well you could be more right than you realize!
Cheap tools can lead to an END...in a bad way.

Hope this didn't sound like a rant, I just have a problem with people curbing thier safety to save a few bucks

BTW....I would LOVE to go caving one day. Maybe this summer I'll go to TN to try it out! It looks like some serious fun!

 

[darklord]

Hope this didn't sound like a rant, I just have a problem with people curbing thier safety to save a few bucks

BTW....I would LOVE to go caving one day. Maybe this summer I'll go to TN to try it out! It looks like some serious fun!

Sure, no problem DF! You're welcome to rant anyway, it's a free world! And I hope you enjoy your caving if you get round to it.

You're quite right in many ways; safety does matter, yours and other peoples, when you're caving. But it's a situational thing, and with 35 years experience I hope I've grasped the essence of caving situations. Indeed, I think some one else (caverdave?) mentioned it in another thread on here....in caves, with their 'total' 100% darkness, quite meagre light outputs are often more than sufficient. For most purposes you do NOT need massive amounts of light.

In fact, blinding lights can be quite detrimental; they can blind your companions. Believe me, you can be quite easily 'blinded' by a Duo if someone looks at you from a couple of metres away - not good when you're ***** footing round a greasy load of loose boulders over a void! No one ever blinded me with a carbide light (although they did set fire to me, another story! :laughing: )

OK, if you end up in La Verna or Sarawak Chamber or somewhere super-big like that, one of these superlights might be handy. The rest of the time they are simply over-elaborate and over-expensive. My view anyway.

I realise that this is a 'flashaholics' site, and as such torches are peoples' hobby here. That's ok, each to their own.

And I also have to eat my own words to a certain extent. Because I know there would be no ground breaking development and progress without people building lamps like these. They are not 'necessary' for caving, in my opinion, far from it. But no doubt they do contribute to lighting design and development.

 

[gillestugan]

Preach it darklord!
Big is not always better when you are in a cave. (but I still drool a little when I see the lamp)

 

[darklord]

Just to reiterate that point about blinding people, read Peter Burgess' comments a short way down this thread:

http://ukcaving.com/board/index.php?action=printpage;topic=7004.0

Q.E.D.

 

[uk_caver]

A lot of *that* kind of dazzle is down to people running lights inappropriately bright, rather than anything in the optical arrangement.
There may be a point in running a cutting-edge light at full blast to light up a chamber, but for most general caving, a lower setting is going to be as good for the user, and much better for everyone else.

Personally I come from a different angle - as LEDs got brighter, from the early ~20lm/W Luxeons through to the modern SSC P4s and Cree XR-Es, I actually dropped the drive currents on lights I built, figuring that if a 20-30lm light was good enough for practical caving, then I'd rather step up to an 80+ lumen one with 20% more runtime than a 100lm one with the same runtime, which would subjectively hardly seem any brighter then the 80lm one.

If it wasn't for the fact that their eyes seem to glaze over whenever I start talking about lights, I'd guess that most of my friends (and customers) would agree.

 

[darklord]

Yes, but if it's in the optical (or electronic) arrangement, people will tend to use it - human nature!

You say it yourself, really - that 20-30 lms is all that's required for practical caving.

Building something massively brighter...and then only using it on a low setting?...well, you get the runtime I suppose. But really it's like buying a Chelsea Tractor for the run to the shops, isn't it

 

[gillestugan]

But really it's like buying a Chelsea Tractor for the run to the shops, isn't it

Yes, but if the tractor has the size of a nissan micra, why not? You may sometime want to go up north in the winter or visit your aunt who lives at the end of a bumpy dirtroad.

People also tend to be more understanding when I put money into lamp that is brighter than the ones I already have as they can see the difference with their own eyes. Better efficiency is just not a good argument as I really just could bring a extra set of batteries instead.

If it wasn't for the fact that their eyes seem to glaze over whenever I start talking about lights

Haha, that's when you know for sure you've become a flashaholic!

 

[uk_caver]

On the efficiency side, it is nice to have a lamp that will do a decent-length trip without changing batteries, if only for those times when the spare batteries are forgotten.

I must say, outside of small passages, I do tend to run my light at near-maximum much of the time when actually moving, if I know I can last the trip doing that without changing the NiMH battery pack.
However, my maximum isn't incredibly bright, and pretty much everyone I cave with has lights of the same brightness, so it's not like being the one guy in the group running a Scurion flat out through the whole trip.

However, on expedition, when running on alkaline flatpacks, I do tend to be very frugal with light (helped by very pale rock and the typically slow movement involved in surveying, etc). It's nice to be able to eke out one pack for 5 or 6 12-hour days. Running at the lowest usable setting does help preserve night vision for making the most of full power when looking up avens, etc.
However, it is made fairly easy to run on minimum when everyone else is doing the same, for the same reasons.

 

[cue003]

any update on this?

 

[karlthev]

Alas, nothing yet....



Karl

 

[JohnnyM]

Hi,
re. amazing new headlamp etc... er, how much does it weigh? Looks great for filming major Hollywood movies underground, but also very heavy and clunky. And I guess the P7 version would need some serious battery power.
Anybody actually seen one?
Cheers,
JM

 

[PeLu]

Anybody actually seen one?

Yes, I have used one last month. For me it is not worth to look any further at it.

 

[DaFABRICATA]

Yes, I have used one last month. For me it is not worth to look any further at it.

Can you please give us your impressions of it?

WE NEED DETAILS!!!

You seem to be the ONLY one here that has handled one.

DETAILS PLEASE...

 

[yellow]

That price, multi led light (even when not fully powered), and then a plastic housing w. cheap looking back metal heat plate?

Total no-no, Sorry

 

[arcel1t]

You guys might know this already but the production of the
Serv-Light is discontinued. Sad but true I really wanted this light.:mecry:

This is a copy of the Email I got.

A new development came in the way...
I stopped the production of the current Serv-light, this because the light takes
too much hours to manufacture and to assemble the light.
The light is too expensive to manufacture and therefore too expensive to set an affordable selling price.
(this is propably the reason why big ledlight manufacturers dont even start to develop such a light)
Although demand is much higher than i could offer, i do not have enough profit from it to keep my head above water.
Very sad development but thats the way it is.
Therefore i am working on a new design in aluminium which should be easyier
to manufacture and to offer at a lower price and hopefully be profitable to keep my small company running...
I will start to offer a light soon which will be very basic but also of good quality and highly waterproof and robust.
After a while i will develop other more advanced models...
Batterypacks will be available for belt version. (pictures will soon be shown on the website)

I am very sorry that i can't offer you a light at this moment.
I do this as a side job, and work full days in a factory for a living, so my time is limited ;-(
I hope to let my very small company grow in the future and have more time to keep developing futurous innovating lights....