Freeing Up Your Hands

[justang1997]

The petzl elite has a nice small box and is a very minimal size. http://www.petzl.com/en/outdoor/signal-and-elite/elite

I also seem to remember a petzl headlamp with a retractable headband but I may be dreaming.

 

[justang1997]

Oh yeah here it is:
http://www.petzl.com/en/outdoor/tikka-zipka-series/zipka-plus

I know you said you are going non headlamp now but its hard to beat the size of these headlamps. I know it is very frustraiting to drop your light or gag with it in your mouth or get a crick in your neck.

 

[reppans]

I know you said you are going non headlamp now but its hard to beat the size of these headlamps. I know it is very frustraiting to drop your light or gag with it in your mouth or get a crick in your neck.

Oh man, don't get me started on Petzl & Black Diamond illumination stuff.... here's my "junk" pile. All made obsolete by my QuarkAA and Zebralight H51w.

 

[justang1997]

Wow, my only experience was daily carrying a tikka plus for 2 8 month deployments in a cargo pocket. It held up with 0 problems.

 

[reppans]

Well, some of them have cracked plastic casings, but they all work.... I did say "obsolete." Their highs are too low, lows are too high, burn batts like crazy, and all in multiple battery configs, and they have terrible UIs that only know how to start out on high. Something like the Zebralight just leaves these things in dust - in any category.

Maybe it's just personal preference though..... if you like them, stick with it.

 

[kramer5150]

I'm all for hands-free lighting in its various forms. I like headlamps except that they attract bugs to my face, and depending on the design of the light can glare off my eye glasses. Headlamps also blind people when you try to make eye contact. So, they have their drawbacks.

A Surefire neck lanyard and a small AA or AAA light hanging around the neck. Drop under my t-shirt for softer diffuse lighting for immediate area flood. I'll also clip a Zebralight or Fenix MC10 on my waist-belt or pack shoulder straps. The latter is my preference for night hikes. I point them at the ground infront of me to light my path.

I have heard GREAT things about the nite-ize LHS-03 (although I have never tried it myself). It pivots around to any angle. Holster your fave 18650 or AA light, clip it onto your hip and point it to the ground or farther ahead. It will also solve the bug swarm in the face problem.

 

[Websniper]

- If it's a long term job, I go grab a headlamp but I don't really like them. They're either too floody or too spotty.

Try one of the zebralight HxxF models.... The diffused but directional beam is a perfect middle ground. You will likely have a new affection for headlamps. Especially if you get one of the high CRI models....

 

[parnass]

My Princeton Tec EOS head lamp is very comfortable when worn loosely around the neck instead of the head. It is hinged so you can aim it when reading or walking.

 

[Gregozedobe]

Seeing Reppans photos of a "collar clip" carry for a light made me think of a variation: Two magnets, one glued securely to the midpoint (center of gravity) of the light, the other goes inside the fabric of the search and clamps the light to the shirt because of its strong attraction to the other (glued-on) magnet. When not in use it just sticks to the other magnet (the glued-on one) for general carry. The magnets would need to be strong enough for the weight of the light, and would add a little bulk and weight.

Edit: If you didn't want to glue a magnet to your light it could be attached with some large heatshrink tubing (or even just adhesive tape to temporarily try it out).

 

[Gregozedobe]

My Princeton Tec EOS head lamp is very comfortable when worn loosely around the neck instead of the head. It is hinged so you can aim it when reading or walking.

Excellent idea. I sometimes find I don't want to wear a headlamp on my head when I have a mild headache (seems to aggravate the headache), but this method will avoid that problem. Should work fine with my ZL and Ultrafire headlamps, as I can rotate them to get the light where I want it.

 

[reppans]

Seeing Reppans photos of a "collar clip" carry for a light made me think of a variation: Two magnets, one glued securely to the midpoint (center of gravity) of the light, the other goes inside the fabric of the search and clamps the light to the shirt because of its strong attraction to the other (glued-on) magnet. When not in use it just sticks to the other magnet (the glued-on one) for general carry. The magnets would need to be strong enough for the weight of the light, and would add a little bulk and weight.

This is actually a great idea. I today's digital world, just be careful which pockets you keep the light/magnets.

 

[AnAppleSnail]

This is actually a great idea. I today's digital world, just be careful which pockets you keep the light/magnets.

I hear this frequently, but I had no problems carrying hard drive magnets in college. Occasionally it would activate the "I'm in a holster" function on my phone, but that's because of how BlackBerries detect holstering. My cards, student ID, and even cheapie paper magnetic-strip cards took no ill effects. And you can, if you feel lucky, stick hard drive magnets on a laptop or on the hard drive case. It usually won't cause problems, but YMMV.

 

[AlPal]

OK folks, I guess the ideas are pretty much exhausted. In addition to what I mentioned above, this is what I think I'll be using for hands-free when I'm not carrying a headband for my light:

Collar Clip:

As AlPal mentioned above, I've also been clipping to my shirt collar, under the ear, weight supported by your shoulder. However, this originally only worked well with collared shirts for me, which I rarely wear in warm weather.

Last night I finally came up with a way to use it securely on T-shirts. First clip (bezel down clip) your light to your collar pointing 3 o'clock down your shoulder, then roll the light slightly and tuck the tail under your collar. The weight of your shirt holds it in place quite well.

String Sling:

This I'll use for when I'm running my light for hours straight, like camping - sometimes I just don't like wearing a headlamp on my head. You can also wear it around your neck if your using your hands a lot and want to eliminate the arm shadowing - light under your ear again and you need a collared shirt as a snug cord doesn't feel too nice against bare skin. If anyone is interested in a great slip/grip knot, let me know.

Finally, there's the business card lantern attachment, which I quite like too (full thread linked to above):

Glad that you liked the collar /shirt idea. It may not be working well with your T shirt because I used a smaller light than you have in your picture. I used the Sunwayman V1OR, using a single RCR123 cell. It has a two way clip and is more of an EDC light. I also have the clip so it is pointing towards the tailcap, and then clip it under the collar. But I like your tuck the tail under idea. I will try that myself.

 

[2000mc]

working as a mechanic in a darker shop i'm always tring to use a flashlight and my hands at the same time. i've been using the niteize headband for years, right now im running a sc51f, side click protrudes just enough to not be blocked at all by the loop in the band. when its not on it drops into your pocket nice with a little bit of the headband poking out easy to grab. and the niteize is only a few bucks anyway.