Expedition Borneo Headlamps

The Discovery Channel has been airing a 2 hour show about Borneo. Scientists and explorers joined forces to catalog animal species. Well I don't know if Petzl donated lights to this cause or if they are all just personal choice, but every person that I saw was wearing a Petzl product.

Myo XP, Tikka XP, and the Duo are the 3 that I can remember. That is pretty good for those "water resistant" products. I mean the Borneo rain forest air has to be like a full water dunk with equipment. I still like my Petzl products.

When in the jungle it is probably better to have DD long moon mode lights instead of flat regulation and , darkness.

Was it a European expedition? Over here Petzl are pretty ubiquitous.

Yes it was mostly European. Still, Petzl may be the Euro winner, but in that kind of environment I doubt the "town favorite" would win over the most dependable.

I'm sure Petzl would do sponsorship for big expeditions. I've certainly seen a few expedition films where the Petzl logo happened to be curiously well-positioned in various shots.

Actually, I'm not sure that *most* dependable would be a factor, just dependable enough. If someone had a choice of a light with a free light that was pretty reliable (especially one like a Duo with some inherent redundancy) or one they had to buy that was supposedly slightly more reliable, they'd quite possibly go for the free one. I know I would.

If people are likely to be moving around in groups and carrying backup lights, they're probably not concerned about reliability at the extreme end of the range.
If they're working biologists, they may well not even be much interested in lights as such, they'll just take whatever they're given and complain if it screws up.

Just guessing, but if we do some sort of group research then there is usually somebody responsible for equipement (in our case usually the lab-coordinator). Especially, if you have to ship things around. In these case usually the equipement guy buys what he likes and trusts. Lights usually are not on a scientists main concern list and do not get too much personal attention (compared with all the other million things you want to have along). They do not need the best, as uk_caver said they just need to be good enough.

I would think that since the overall situation is not a life or death situation (it rarely is), they'll use whatever they get their hands on. Even climbing everest, it's not always a life or death situation, if you have no light, all you have to do is wait till morning in some cases.
Unlike caving, where I would not only want the most reliable light, but I'd want a backup for that too.

slvoid said:

Unlike caving, where I would not only want the most reliable light, but I'd want a backup for that too.

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It's a bit tricky to quantify 'most reliable' for something likely to be used in a physically demanding environment. Something could be electrically bomb-proof, yet fail due to a cable being ripped out after getting caught on something.
It's possible to get to the point where trade-offs are made in design, but each trade-off is a process of swapping one slim chance of failure for another, without knowing which is the larger chance.

By reliable I mean both electrically and physically robust enough to minimize the chances of failure under the conditions it was designed for with the least amount of compromises.

I'm not saying have 5 redundant computers controlling onboard processes and multiple independant power supplies with multiple independant power delivery, but a little redundancy would be nice too.

I think this was the only reason I'd watched this show, just to see what sort of gear they were using. The way I figure it; if that gear will survive them, surely it would survive me!

chiphead



What have you got against being prepared? (Burt Gummer from the movie Temours)

think they made a point of shooting the headlamps in such a way to show
the petzl names. could have been an agreement to get the lamps and batteries
for free. Like have the explorers talk about stuff while wearing the headlamps.
\Cool with me if true. Business is...

Note: the 'Everest beyond the limit' show rarely shows headlamp interviews
which is a big mistake. I want to see the headlamp brand as the climber
clings to the cliff and coughs up blood at 3:00am at 28,000feet. !!!

Gaffle said:

T Well I don't know if Petzl donated lights to this cause or if they are all just personal choice, but every person that I saw was wearing a Petzl product.

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Even on expeditions not sponsored by Petzl, these lamps are very common.

I spend at least 5 weeks a year on expeditions in Asia and other parts of the world.
And I used to be the equipment person. And I'm not always happy with the Petzl lights. Most scientists just buy what the others buy.

Anyone got the links for the show.

See if i know any of the places.

Ya, you can still get some of the Petzl model at Borneo !

Ya that's true, Petzl is pretty popular in Malaysia (even more than Princeton Tec). Heck, the e+lite is even made here (very close to the place where I work in fact).

hopkins said:

Note: the 'Everest beyond the limit' show rarely shows headlamp interviews
which is a big mistake. I want to see the headlamp brand as the climber
clings to the cliff and coughs up blood at 3:00am at 28,000feet. !!!

Click to expand...

I have noticed all kinds of lights on those guys. I mean off of the top of my head, I remember seeing a Black Diamond light of some sort. Now that is one kick arse show!


Yeah I guess the Borneo thing sounds like either a sponsored Petzl en devour, or the equipment guy liked Petzl.

I do enjoy their products. The fact that they did still work in a very moist environment makes me enjoy them even more.

Petzl do seem to have cornered the "Professional" market, whenever I see a headlamp worn by a professional climber, explorer, caver or whatever, on TV, it is usually a Petzl.

I think Petzl gets the climber market because they are primarily a climbing gear company and they advertise heavily in climbing magazines/media (or at least they use to when I used to climb more). Same goes for Black Diamond.

A very long ago experience left me with a bad impression of Petzl lights. Maybe it's not deserved now. Hiking into the backcountry of Yosemite to look for a place to camp on a very dark night, two climbing buddies and I had to use headlamps to see where we were going and look for a flattish area to throw our sleeping bags down. They both had Petzl Micros, bought at different times. One of the Micros flickered out and died on the hike in. The other flickered out and died shortly afterwards while we were cooking. The batteries were fine in both (we tried swapping in new ones), and the light bulbs were fine in both because they would occassional flash back on as they were manipulating the bezel-switches in and out. Just bad electrical continuity in the switches or contacts. We couldn't believe both died in the same way within minutes of each other. It wasn't raining or anything... we were just sleeping under the stars.

That metal strip piece that touches the contact point of the light bulb
gets bent down so it makes poor contact in the petzl micros.
I fixed a friends by removing the bezel and with a stick bending the metal
contact strip up.
Also used a small rock to scratch it and the bulb contact point free of
any corrosion. seemed to bring it back to life.

Oh yea. The hunt for spot to sleep away from the hubbub in yosemite.
We'd eat first at a picnic area then ride the bike paths in the twilight.

Bulb pusher plates were often a pain in Zooms/Micros/Lasers, though a drop of oil generally worked wonders as preventive maintenance.

xcandrew said:

I think Petzl gets the climber market because they are primarily a climbing gear company and they advertise heavily in climbing magazines/media (or at least they use to when I used to climb more).

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Good point - I have several bits of Petzl climbing gear, and none made by Princeton Tec!