SilverFox
Flashaholic
What a headlamp…
I prefer simple small compact headlamps, but the specifications on this light caught my eye. I finally decided that I had to try it out.
Physical Description
This headlamp is big, but not too bulky. The lamp part weighs about 100 grams. It only has the headband and does not have the "over the top of your head" strap. The lens of the lamp sticks out from your head about 5 cm. It is enough to enter into your field of vision, but I did not find it bothersome. It is less obtrusive than wearing a ball cap. The head rotates on the bottom bolt for vertical adjustment, and the tension on that bolt can be adjusted with a screwdriver. With the headlamp on your head, the wire comes off the right side and is held to the headband by two plastic moveable clips.
It has about 130 cm of wire connecting the battery pack to the headband and the light. The bulk of the light is in the 8 AA battery holder. It appears that it is two, 4 cell holders, that have been screwed together. The batteries fit snugly, but I was able to put them in and take them out with minor difficulty. I should point out that I have strong hands and am one of the few that can change brightness levels on my U2 one handed. My son had more difficulty removing the batteries, but inserting them was no problem. No springs are used in the battery holder, so you have to pay attention to the + and – symbols that have been laser etched completely through the holder by each batteries location. The lack of connections to springs reduces the connection resistance of the pack. If you insert the batteries in backwards, the holder connections are designed in a way that they won't make contact. There is no potential across the exposed two bottom contacts, so you can set the holder down on its end on a conductive surface without concern.
The battery holder is contained within a clear plastic tube with two end caps. One cap is glued on, and the other slides off so you can pull the holder out to change the batteries. The wire penetrates the removable end cap. A tight fit between the wire and the end cap keeps the water out. I have been advised that this set up renders the unit splash resistant, but it is not suitable for swimming. If you are wondering why there is a rattle in the battery holder, it is because there is a catalyst pellet to absorb H2 that is off gassed during NiMh use.
The question now arises how are we going to carry this 8 cell pack around? PT has provided a fabric case that uses two Velcro fastening tabs to keep the pack secured. You drop the pack in it like using a holster and the first tab goes over the top to keep it in. The second tab is a wrap around to make sure the first tab does not come loose. The case is fitted with a 5 cm deep belt clip, a swivel snap clip, and a sewn in fabric loop at the bottom. This allows for a variety of carry options.
PT also offers the Yukon Extreme with a bike or helmet mount and a case that can fasten to your bicycle to hold the battery pack.
Performance
I was impressed with the performance of the SureFire A2. About an hour of regulated incandescent light, or about 15 hours of LED light seemed pretty good. Move over A2, the Yukon Extreme has arrived…
This light is designed to run with 4 or 8 AA batteries. You can use Alkaline (which are included with the light upon purchase), NiCd, NiMh, or Lithium. PT is a little generous with their specifications, but not by too much on run time. The owners manual states something about if you are going to use 4 cells, you need to put two on one side of the holder, and the other two diagonally opposite the first two. This is wrong. The light won't work with that set up. To run on 4 cells, you have to correctly put the 4 cells on the side that has the wire coming out of it. PT told me that you don't have to worry about the battery holder bending, and they are not sure how that information got into the operators manual.
The color temperature of this light is very close to that of the A2. The Yukon Extreme, like the A2, also incorporates a soft start feature when using its dual filament Xenon lamp. Soft start minimizes the surge upon start up and gives you longer lamp life.
I charged up 8 AA 2500 mAh NiMh cells and checked out the run time and regulation. On the high incandescent level, I got 5.5 hours of run time at a very constant brightness. After 5.5 hours, the light dimmed down considerably and the color temperature warmed up. I checked the cells in the battery pack and they were at about 1.0 volt each.
I switched to the low incandescent level after the high level dropped out of regulation, and once again had a nice white regulated light beam. I also had both low and high LED levels. The light is supposed to switch from high incandescent to low incandescent and finally end up at low LED until the batteries are entirely exhausted. My battery was already at 1.0 volt per cell and I did not want to risk them, so I did not test this feature.
The circuit in the Yukon Extreme is set up to drain every last bit of power from its battery pack. PT recommends using Alkaline or Lithium cells because of this. There is no low voltage cut off. When using rechargeable cells, you have the responsibility of shutting the light off before damaging the cells.
I later tried this again and the circuit did drop from high incandescent, to low incandescent, to low LED. I quickly removed the batteries and threw them on the charger. They were around 0.9 volts. I should point out that the time spent at low incandescent was very short. Not more than 3-5 minutes. With Alkaline or Lithium cells, it should be much longer, but with NiMh or NiCd cells, there is not much left when they get down to that voltage.
I must say that with 4 levels of regulated light, then the low LED level continuing on when it drops out of regulation gradually dimming until the batteries are gone, I am very impressed. I am picking on the A2 simply because it is one of my favorites and the Yukon Extreme holds its ground very well against it, performance wise.
PT advertises that the Yukon Extreme should run 5 hours on high incandescent, 15 hours on low incandescent, 100 hours on high LED, and 200 hours on low LED. This information is from their web page. The insert that came with the light offers a little different runtimes. On Lithium batteries it is claiming 6.5 hours on high incandescent, and 21 hours on low incandescent. The insert goes on to claim on Alkaline batteries it should run 2.5 hours on high incandescent, 12 – 15 hours on low incandescent, 24 hours on high LED, and 72 hours on low LED. Those numbers are for the light running in regulation. So, on Alkaline batteries and selecting the low LED brightness, you should expect 72 hours of regulated light, followed by about 88 hours of gradually dimming light. I believe PT is a bit generous with their consideration of "usable" light. I have not tested this, but suspect that the last 8 or so hours may be best used when your eyes are totally night adapted and you are not doing detail work.
The reflector is finely textured. The high incandescent beam is reasonably smooth and well focused. Since the lamp has two filaments, switching to low incandescent throws the beam a bit out of focus. You can focus or un-focus the beam by twisting the bezel, however due to the tightness of the O ring, it will require two hands to adjust the focus. I was able to get the low beam hot spot to kind of an oblong shape reminiscent of the A2's beam. Switching back to high incandescent revealed that the beam was still in good focus without having to readjust anything. You can un-focus the light to produce dark spots in the beam similar to the Mag Lite beam, but if you use very slight adjustments, you do have some control over the size of the hot spot.
The lamp is a tri pin, and is indexed to the socket. I am not sure how long a lamp will last, but a replacement lamp runs around $9. With the soft start feature, I am hoping it will last a long time.
There are three holes in the outer edge of the reflector to accommodate the LED's.
The lens is plastic and I am not sure just what material it is made from.
PT rates the throw of their lights down to 0.25 lux, which they state is about what you can expect on a moonlit night. Doug (Quickbeam) rates his throw numbers down to 1 lux, which I think is more realistic. I will follow Doug's example.
High incandescent = around 3463 lux at 1 meter, = 58.85 m throw
Low incandescent = around 831 lux at 1 meter, = 28.83 m throw
High LED = around 53 lux at 1 meter, = 7.28 m throw
Low LED = around 25 lux at 1 meter, = 5.00 m throw
By the way, PT advertises on their web site that the throw down to 0.25 lux should be 116 m. Checking the math, my readings show 117 m, so that is pretty close.
If I may once again pick on the A2, please note that the throw for the A2 is in the 48 - 50 m range. The Yukon Extreme out throws the A2 by a small margin. However, I must admit that the flawless A2 beam is much more even than the Yukon Extreme, and the A2 puts out about double the amount of light.
I dusted off my milk carton integration box and came up with the following overall output numbers. I get reasonably close to Doug's numbers and my device is very similar to his, so these numbers should be reasonably accurate.
High incandescent = 27.30
Low incandescent = 6.24
High LED = 4.63
Low LED = 2.05
The similarity to the A2 beam ends here. With the A2 having an overall output of 57.50, the Yukon Extreme has to take the back seat on this one.
The Yukon Extreme is activated by one button on the top of the light behind the bezel. To turn the light on, press until it clicks. This is called a hard click. The light comes on at high LED brightness. Once the light is on, you can cycle through the other levels by a partial press. This is called a soft toggle. To shut the light off, a full press (until it clicks) is required. There is no lock out on the switch, but the hard click required to activate the light should be adequate to prevent accidental turn on.
The sequence starts with high LED, goes to high incandescent, then low incandescent, and ends up at low LED. As you continue to partially press the button, it continues to cycle through these brightness levels.
Each circuit is separate. If one filament in the lamp dies, the other will still work. If you take the lamp out, the LED's still work. I like this redundancy.
Observations and Conclusions
5.5 hours of regulated white incandescent light is a real kick in the pants. I had a lot of fun running around keeping the light on high, knowing that I had ample run time. The beam shape is very useful for medium to moderate distances. I was going to run my light meter out to 116 m, but there seems to be too much light pollution in my neighborhood to accurately measure 0.25 lux.
High incandescent is a little too bright for most conditions, unless you are showing off… I was surprised at how useful the low incandescent is. "White wall hunting" reveals an oval shaped hot spot with some artifacts, but in actual use these are not noticeable. Walking down a path you have good side-to-side illumination and can see quite far down the path. Once again, with around 15 hours of regulated white light, you can afford to light things up to a higher level and check out the details of your surroundings.
The LED's project a smooth beam with a blue tint to it. I do not care for the blue tint, but it is not a big deal in actual use. I was able to work my way down a deer trail in the woods at night using the high LED setting. I only fell down a few times, but it was not due to a lack of illumination. Stepping on wet moss covered logs that are at an angle is not the brightest thing to do. I must admit that I prefer the color of the low incandescent beam, but the run time of the high LED beam is awesome.
The low LED level is about the same as my 3 LED Peak AAA light which is the high power version. If your eyes are truly night adapted, it is bright enough to ruin your night vision, but is a very nice level for working around camp. I sat down and read a few chapters in my book with the Yukon Extreme at this level. I was put off a little bit by the blue spots in the very even beam pattern, but the book was very interesting and I quickly got to the point where I was ignoring them. I know that some will say that this level is too bright. When I got up to take a break, I could not see anything, so it is bright enough to destroy your night vision, but you can always put something over the lens to cut the light down a bit more.
I am a big fan of multilevel lights. This light offers a wide range of illumination levels. The long run times are great, and the fact that it is regulated is like the icing on the cake. The Yukon Extreme does not have a battery level indicator, but achieves the same results through stepping the light levels down as the battery voltage drops to a point where it falls out of regulation. If you can no longer access the high incandescent level, you know your batteries are getting low.
The fact that it is capable of running on 4 cells, means that you have extra emergency cells in the event your GPS batteries die on you.
There are a few down sides to this light…
The 8 AA battery pack is a bit bulky. When I am working under my truck, this will not be the first headlamp I grab. Rolling over on the battery pack is not my idea of a good time. However, if I am helping someone else out, or don't find myself having to "roll in the dirt," this would be a good light because of its regulated output and extended run time.
I am not fond of the blue tint to the LED beam, however it is not as bad as the original ARC AAA lights. In actual use, it is not noticeable, unless you are examining white walls or reading a book. I have found that while reading you can adjust things so the blue spots are less intrusive. If the book is good, you won't notice them at all.
The light and battery pack are only splash rated. I asked PT what would happen if I fell into a stream while crossing it. They told me that it would survive a quick dunk, but if I stayed in the water for any length of time, it would probably flood out and quit working. If that happens, the first thing to try is to open it up and dry everything out. They have had good success with them coming back to life after fresh water submersion, but salt water may do it in. If you fall into salt water and the light stops working, open it up, rinse it in fresh water, then let things dry out. I submerged the light and battery pack in 6" of water for 30 minutes. While underwater, I activated the switch, wiggled the wires at the lamp and at the battery pack, and squeezed the battery pack a slight amount. No problems were observed with water migration.
I am not used to having a separate battery pack and the connection wire seemed to get snagged on things until I got it properly routed. I eventually got used to it, but have not enough experience with it to comment if it would be a problem or not.
The beam from the incandescent is not perfect. It tends to be a bit oblong (more so on the low incandescent setting) and there are a few artifacts noticeable around the hot spot. This is most evident when "hunting white walls."
The bezel hangs down in your field of vision a small amount. This is not a big deal for me, but I thought I should mention it. If you are looking for a clear field of view, this is not the light for you.
The batteries are a bit snug in the battery holder. I had no problems, but my son did have some difficulty removing the batteries.
It is a bit expensive.
There you have it. That is pretty much the whole story. I am very impressed with this headlamp. It reminds me a lot of the A2, in a different form factor. 5.5 hours of regulated white incandescent light on high gives me the time to stop, look at, and smell the roses instead of just passing through. 200 hours of low LED light means that it is not that big of a deal if I happen to fall asleep while reading.
Afterwards, I had a revelation
I was doing some research on carbide lamps. The thought crossed my mind that if I had a lamp that was powerful enough, I could run it bare and have a nice even beam of floodlight. With that in mind, I popped the reflector out of the Yukon Extreme and Wow!!!
Talk about even illumination. This is great. Well, not very bright, but very even. On low incandescent, I have no problem moving around with night adapted eyes, and can also read my book. Now I have the option of reading with a bit of a blue tint and a brighter beam, or toning things down a bit by switching to reflector-less incandescent. The beam is warmer, but still regulated. I end up cutting my regulated run time (compared to low LED) down to 15 hours, but that's OK because after that I still have the low LED run time after it drops out of regulation.
At 30" from the wall, the incandescent beam without the reflector is 72" in diameter.
On high incandescent, without the reflector, I have a very useful amount of light. It is still dimmer than low LED, but is enough to navigate by when your eyes become night adjusted.
Here are some numbers:
High Incandescent without the reflector = around 6.7 lux = around 2.6 m throw
Low Incandescent without the reflector = around 1.7 lux = around 1.3 m throw
Both High and Low LED values remained about the same with the reflector removed. They were actually around 3 lux less than with the reflector in place. Overall output also remained the same for the LED lighting levels.
Overall output for the incandescent without the reflector and bezel was 21.07 on high and 5.81 on low. When I put the bezel back on it changed to 8.30 on high and 2.10 on low. I guess the bezel blocks a lot of the light, but I don't care for running a bare lamp without some protection for it.
As you can see, there is not a lot of throw, but the wide even illumination is very nice. This is very similar to what you get when you drop a BB400 sandwich into a Mini Mag and take the head off to run it in candle mode. This adds another couple of levels of light to this headlamp. While not a smooth progression, we end up with options at 3 basic levels of light.
You will notice that starting with the high incandescent, we drop about 2 stops to low incandescent, then there is around a 4 stop drop to high LED, and 1 stop down to low LED. Removing the reflector gives us about 2 stops under the low LED with the high reflector-less incandescent, and the low reflector-less incandescent is about 2 stops below that. We end up with a dynamic range of about 11 stops. That will fill quite a range of lighting needs.
All in all, I am very impressed with this headlamp. Regulated LED's are more the norm these days, but adding regulated incandescent makes this a very interesting light to use. Add to that the long run time and the descent throw on high incandescent, and this headlamp ends up looking very attractive.
Tom
I prefer simple small compact headlamps, but the specifications on this light caught my eye. I finally decided that I had to try it out.
Physical Description
This headlamp is big, but not too bulky. The lamp part weighs about 100 grams. It only has the headband and does not have the "over the top of your head" strap. The lens of the lamp sticks out from your head about 5 cm. It is enough to enter into your field of vision, but I did not find it bothersome. It is less obtrusive than wearing a ball cap. The head rotates on the bottom bolt for vertical adjustment, and the tension on that bolt can be adjusted with a screwdriver. With the headlamp on your head, the wire comes off the right side and is held to the headband by two plastic moveable clips.
It has about 130 cm of wire connecting the battery pack to the headband and the light. The bulk of the light is in the 8 AA battery holder. It appears that it is two, 4 cell holders, that have been screwed together. The batteries fit snugly, but I was able to put them in and take them out with minor difficulty. I should point out that I have strong hands and am one of the few that can change brightness levels on my U2 one handed. My son had more difficulty removing the batteries, but inserting them was no problem. No springs are used in the battery holder, so you have to pay attention to the + and – symbols that have been laser etched completely through the holder by each batteries location. The lack of connections to springs reduces the connection resistance of the pack. If you insert the batteries in backwards, the holder connections are designed in a way that they won't make contact. There is no potential across the exposed two bottom contacts, so you can set the holder down on its end on a conductive surface without concern.
The battery holder is contained within a clear plastic tube with two end caps. One cap is glued on, and the other slides off so you can pull the holder out to change the batteries. The wire penetrates the removable end cap. A tight fit between the wire and the end cap keeps the water out. I have been advised that this set up renders the unit splash resistant, but it is not suitable for swimming. If you are wondering why there is a rattle in the battery holder, it is because there is a catalyst pellet to absorb H2 that is off gassed during NiMh use.
The question now arises how are we going to carry this 8 cell pack around? PT has provided a fabric case that uses two Velcro fastening tabs to keep the pack secured. You drop the pack in it like using a holster and the first tab goes over the top to keep it in. The second tab is a wrap around to make sure the first tab does not come loose. The case is fitted with a 5 cm deep belt clip, a swivel snap clip, and a sewn in fabric loop at the bottom. This allows for a variety of carry options.
PT also offers the Yukon Extreme with a bike or helmet mount and a case that can fasten to your bicycle to hold the battery pack.
Performance
I was impressed with the performance of the SureFire A2. About an hour of regulated incandescent light, or about 15 hours of LED light seemed pretty good. Move over A2, the Yukon Extreme has arrived…
This light is designed to run with 4 or 8 AA batteries. You can use Alkaline (which are included with the light upon purchase), NiCd, NiMh, or Lithium. PT is a little generous with their specifications, but not by too much on run time. The owners manual states something about if you are going to use 4 cells, you need to put two on one side of the holder, and the other two diagonally opposite the first two. This is wrong. The light won't work with that set up. To run on 4 cells, you have to correctly put the 4 cells on the side that has the wire coming out of it. PT told me that you don't have to worry about the battery holder bending, and they are not sure how that information got into the operators manual.
The color temperature of this light is very close to that of the A2. The Yukon Extreme, like the A2, also incorporates a soft start feature when using its dual filament Xenon lamp. Soft start minimizes the surge upon start up and gives you longer lamp life.
I charged up 8 AA 2500 mAh NiMh cells and checked out the run time and regulation. On the high incandescent level, I got 5.5 hours of run time at a very constant brightness. After 5.5 hours, the light dimmed down considerably and the color temperature warmed up. I checked the cells in the battery pack and they were at about 1.0 volt each.
I switched to the low incandescent level after the high level dropped out of regulation, and once again had a nice white regulated light beam. I also had both low and high LED levels. The light is supposed to switch from high incandescent to low incandescent and finally end up at low LED until the batteries are entirely exhausted. My battery was already at 1.0 volt per cell and I did not want to risk them, so I did not test this feature.
The circuit in the Yukon Extreme is set up to drain every last bit of power from its battery pack. PT recommends using Alkaline or Lithium cells because of this. There is no low voltage cut off. When using rechargeable cells, you have the responsibility of shutting the light off before damaging the cells.
I later tried this again and the circuit did drop from high incandescent, to low incandescent, to low LED. I quickly removed the batteries and threw them on the charger. They were around 0.9 volts. I should point out that the time spent at low incandescent was very short. Not more than 3-5 minutes. With Alkaline or Lithium cells, it should be much longer, but with NiMh or NiCd cells, there is not much left when they get down to that voltage.
I must say that with 4 levels of regulated light, then the low LED level continuing on when it drops out of regulation gradually dimming until the batteries are gone, I am very impressed. I am picking on the A2 simply because it is one of my favorites and the Yukon Extreme holds its ground very well against it, performance wise.
PT advertises that the Yukon Extreme should run 5 hours on high incandescent, 15 hours on low incandescent, 100 hours on high LED, and 200 hours on low LED. This information is from their web page. The insert that came with the light offers a little different runtimes. On Lithium batteries it is claiming 6.5 hours on high incandescent, and 21 hours on low incandescent. The insert goes on to claim on Alkaline batteries it should run 2.5 hours on high incandescent, 12 – 15 hours on low incandescent, 24 hours on high LED, and 72 hours on low LED. Those numbers are for the light running in regulation. So, on Alkaline batteries and selecting the low LED brightness, you should expect 72 hours of regulated light, followed by about 88 hours of gradually dimming light. I believe PT is a bit generous with their consideration of "usable" light. I have not tested this, but suspect that the last 8 or so hours may be best used when your eyes are totally night adapted and you are not doing detail work.
The reflector is finely textured. The high incandescent beam is reasonably smooth and well focused. Since the lamp has two filaments, switching to low incandescent throws the beam a bit out of focus. You can focus or un-focus the beam by twisting the bezel, however due to the tightness of the O ring, it will require two hands to adjust the focus. I was able to get the low beam hot spot to kind of an oblong shape reminiscent of the A2's beam. Switching back to high incandescent revealed that the beam was still in good focus without having to readjust anything. You can un-focus the light to produce dark spots in the beam similar to the Mag Lite beam, but if you use very slight adjustments, you do have some control over the size of the hot spot.
The lamp is a tri pin, and is indexed to the socket. I am not sure how long a lamp will last, but a replacement lamp runs around $9. With the soft start feature, I am hoping it will last a long time.
There are three holes in the outer edge of the reflector to accommodate the LED's.
The lens is plastic and I am not sure just what material it is made from.
PT rates the throw of their lights down to 0.25 lux, which they state is about what you can expect on a moonlit night. Doug (Quickbeam) rates his throw numbers down to 1 lux, which I think is more realistic. I will follow Doug's example.
High incandescent = around 3463 lux at 1 meter, = 58.85 m throw
Low incandescent = around 831 lux at 1 meter, = 28.83 m throw
High LED = around 53 lux at 1 meter, = 7.28 m throw
Low LED = around 25 lux at 1 meter, = 5.00 m throw
By the way, PT advertises on their web site that the throw down to 0.25 lux should be 116 m. Checking the math, my readings show 117 m, so that is pretty close.
If I may once again pick on the A2, please note that the throw for the A2 is in the 48 - 50 m range. The Yukon Extreme out throws the A2 by a small margin. However, I must admit that the flawless A2 beam is much more even than the Yukon Extreme, and the A2 puts out about double the amount of light.
I dusted off my milk carton integration box and came up with the following overall output numbers. I get reasonably close to Doug's numbers and my device is very similar to his, so these numbers should be reasonably accurate.
High incandescent = 27.30
Low incandescent = 6.24
High LED = 4.63
Low LED = 2.05
The similarity to the A2 beam ends here. With the A2 having an overall output of 57.50, the Yukon Extreme has to take the back seat on this one.
The Yukon Extreme is activated by one button on the top of the light behind the bezel. To turn the light on, press until it clicks. This is called a hard click. The light comes on at high LED brightness. Once the light is on, you can cycle through the other levels by a partial press. This is called a soft toggle. To shut the light off, a full press (until it clicks) is required. There is no lock out on the switch, but the hard click required to activate the light should be adequate to prevent accidental turn on.
The sequence starts with high LED, goes to high incandescent, then low incandescent, and ends up at low LED. As you continue to partially press the button, it continues to cycle through these brightness levels.
Each circuit is separate. If one filament in the lamp dies, the other will still work. If you take the lamp out, the LED's still work. I like this redundancy.
Observations and Conclusions
5.5 hours of regulated white incandescent light is a real kick in the pants. I had a lot of fun running around keeping the light on high, knowing that I had ample run time. The beam shape is very useful for medium to moderate distances. I was going to run my light meter out to 116 m, but there seems to be too much light pollution in my neighborhood to accurately measure 0.25 lux.
High incandescent is a little too bright for most conditions, unless you are showing off… I was surprised at how useful the low incandescent is. "White wall hunting" reveals an oval shaped hot spot with some artifacts, but in actual use these are not noticeable. Walking down a path you have good side-to-side illumination and can see quite far down the path. Once again, with around 15 hours of regulated white light, you can afford to light things up to a higher level and check out the details of your surroundings.
The LED's project a smooth beam with a blue tint to it. I do not care for the blue tint, but it is not a big deal in actual use. I was able to work my way down a deer trail in the woods at night using the high LED setting. I only fell down a few times, but it was not due to a lack of illumination. Stepping on wet moss covered logs that are at an angle is not the brightest thing to do. I must admit that I prefer the color of the low incandescent beam, but the run time of the high LED beam is awesome.
The low LED level is about the same as my 3 LED Peak AAA light which is the high power version. If your eyes are truly night adapted, it is bright enough to ruin your night vision, but is a very nice level for working around camp. I sat down and read a few chapters in my book with the Yukon Extreme at this level. I was put off a little bit by the blue spots in the very even beam pattern, but the book was very interesting and I quickly got to the point where I was ignoring them. I know that some will say that this level is too bright. When I got up to take a break, I could not see anything, so it is bright enough to destroy your night vision, but you can always put something over the lens to cut the light down a bit more.
I am a big fan of multilevel lights. This light offers a wide range of illumination levels. The long run times are great, and the fact that it is regulated is like the icing on the cake. The Yukon Extreme does not have a battery level indicator, but achieves the same results through stepping the light levels down as the battery voltage drops to a point where it falls out of regulation. If you can no longer access the high incandescent level, you know your batteries are getting low.
The fact that it is capable of running on 4 cells, means that you have extra emergency cells in the event your GPS batteries die on you.
There are a few down sides to this light…
The 8 AA battery pack is a bit bulky. When I am working under my truck, this will not be the first headlamp I grab. Rolling over on the battery pack is not my idea of a good time. However, if I am helping someone else out, or don't find myself having to "roll in the dirt," this would be a good light because of its regulated output and extended run time.
I am not fond of the blue tint to the LED beam, however it is not as bad as the original ARC AAA lights. In actual use, it is not noticeable, unless you are examining white walls or reading a book. I have found that while reading you can adjust things so the blue spots are less intrusive. If the book is good, you won't notice them at all.
The light and battery pack are only splash rated. I asked PT what would happen if I fell into a stream while crossing it. They told me that it would survive a quick dunk, but if I stayed in the water for any length of time, it would probably flood out and quit working. If that happens, the first thing to try is to open it up and dry everything out. They have had good success with them coming back to life after fresh water submersion, but salt water may do it in. If you fall into salt water and the light stops working, open it up, rinse it in fresh water, then let things dry out. I submerged the light and battery pack in 6" of water for 30 minutes. While underwater, I activated the switch, wiggled the wires at the lamp and at the battery pack, and squeezed the battery pack a slight amount. No problems were observed with water migration.
I am not used to having a separate battery pack and the connection wire seemed to get snagged on things until I got it properly routed. I eventually got used to it, but have not enough experience with it to comment if it would be a problem or not.
The beam from the incandescent is not perfect. It tends to be a bit oblong (more so on the low incandescent setting) and there are a few artifacts noticeable around the hot spot. This is most evident when "hunting white walls."
The bezel hangs down in your field of vision a small amount. This is not a big deal for me, but I thought I should mention it. If you are looking for a clear field of view, this is not the light for you.
The batteries are a bit snug in the battery holder. I had no problems, but my son did have some difficulty removing the batteries.
It is a bit expensive.
There you have it. That is pretty much the whole story. I am very impressed with this headlamp. It reminds me a lot of the A2, in a different form factor. 5.5 hours of regulated white incandescent light on high gives me the time to stop, look at, and smell the roses instead of just passing through. 200 hours of low LED light means that it is not that big of a deal if I happen to fall asleep while reading.
Afterwards, I had a revelation
I was doing some research on carbide lamps. The thought crossed my mind that if I had a lamp that was powerful enough, I could run it bare and have a nice even beam of floodlight. With that in mind, I popped the reflector out of the Yukon Extreme and Wow!!!
Talk about even illumination. This is great. Well, not very bright, but very even. On low incandescent, I have no problem moving around with night adapted eyes, and can also read my book. Now I have the option of reading with a bit of a blue tint and a brighter beam, or toning things down a bit by switching to reflector-less incandescent. The beam is warmer, but still regulated. I end up cutting my regulated run time (compared to low LED) down to 15 hours, but that's OK because after that I still have the low LED run time after it drops out of regulation.
At 30" from the wall, the incandescent beam without the reflector is 72" in diameter.
On high incandescent, without the reflector, I have a very useful amount of light. It is still dimmer than low LED, but is enough to navigate by when your eyes become night adjusted.
Here are some numbers:
High Incandescent without the reflector = around 6.7 lux = around 2.6 m throw
Low Incandescent without the reflector = around 1.7 lux = around 1.3 m throw
Both High and Low LED values remained about the same with the reflector removed. They were actually around 3 lux less than with the reflector in place. Overall output also remained the same for the LED lighting levels.
Overall output for the incandescent without the reflector and bezel was 21.07 on high and 5.81 on low. When I put the bezel back on it changed to 8.30 on high and 2.10 on low. I guess the bezel blocks a lot of the light, but I don't care for running a bare lamp without some protection for it.
As you can see, there is not a lot of throw, but the wide even illumination is very nice. This is very similar to what you get when you drop a BB400 sandwich into a Mini Mag and take the head off to run it in candle mode. This adds another couple of levels of light to this headlamp. While not a smooth progression, we end up with options at 3 basic levels of light.
You will notice that starting with the high incandescent, we drop about 2 stops to low incandescent, then there is around a 4 stop drop to high LED, and 1 stop down to low LED. Removing the reflector gives us about 2 stops under the low LED with the high reflector-less incandescent, and the low reflector-less incandescent is about 2 stops below that. We end up with a dynamic range of about 11 stops. That will fill quite a range of lighting needs.
All in all, I am very impressed with this headlamp. Regulated LED's are more the norm these days, but adding regulated incandescent makes this a very interesting light to use. Add to that the long run time and the descent throw on high incandescent, and this headlamp ends up looking very attractive.
Tom
