I'm lost. help me find a headlamp for camping

Hi. I go backcountry canoeing and I need a good headlamp. I have been using an old rayovac and liked it but now I want to upgrade. I'm looking for about 20 to 40 lumens on high and about 5 to 10 lumens on low. I want medium spill but mostly flood. 2xAA (alkaline or eneloops) format would be the best but I am open to others.


Thanks, Andrew

Hello fellow Canuck. The Zebralight H50 headlamp is pure flood. Excellent to light up a large area. It can be removed from the glow in the dark bracket to use in hand or sat on a flat surface. Uses one AA battery and has 3 light levels. I think there is a newer version with a clicky switch coming out.

The surefire Saint takes 2AA.:devil:

I'm unaware of any other decent 2AA light.

Very decent headlamps:
PT EOS (the latest 50lm version)
Zebralight H50 or H501 (pure flood)
Petzl Myo XP or RXP

andrew123 said:

Hi. I go backcountry canoeing and I need a good headlamp. I have been using an old rayovac and liked it but now I want to upgrade. I'm looking for about 20 to 40 lumens on high and about 5 to 10 lumens on low. I want medium spill but mostly flood. 2xAA (alkaline or eneloops) format would be the best but I am open to others.


Thanks, Andrew

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Andrew the Zebralights in 1XAA are about the only headlamp I know of that will give you mostly flood. Come to think of it they are all flood and prefect for camp use. Sometimes I do night Kayak trips and need the throw of my Apex 4XAA. But for camp work you can't do better than the ZL. For 3xAAA the Rebel EOS is hard to beat. A good mix of flood and throw.

Get a Rebel EOS and don't turn back. Great GREAT headlight. Plenty bright. 3 AAA's. Can use lithiums. Perfect mix between flood and throw. Small package. Just $34 at brightguy.com. You simply can't go wrong.

+1 for Zebralight H50.:twothumbs:twothumbs

+1 for the H501 - much flood and more throw than the H50. Perfect mixture for camping. Perhaps you should try to get a warm version of this light.

I second, or third the ZebraLight H50. I have one it is great for walking in the woods before daylight, and of course it is great for upclose tasks with all the flood. I do like the looks of the H501 though.. it should have a little more "throw" so it might be better for walking in the dark. I think I would like a push button on the H501 better than the twist action on the H50, but it's hard to tell until you try it.

kenk said:

Get a Rebel EOS and don't turn back. Great GREAT headlight. Plenty bright. 3 AAA's. Can use lithiums. Perfect mix between flood and throw. Small package. Just $34 at brightguy.com. You simply can't go wrong.

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Well, the PT EOS Rebel looks about perfect for what I need. I just ordered one from BrightGuy last night after reading this thread and should have the light by Friday. I've been wanting a good adjustable brightness 3aaa headlamp for working around the house. I'll be using it for a bunch of work I need to do in my crawl space and all kinds of other things when I need both hands free. I'll be feeding it Eneloops. Can't wait to get it and use it this weekend. Thanks for mentioning this light everyone.

All I can say is WOW! I love the PT EOS Rebel. I spent over 6 hours working in my crawl space using this light on medium and it was fantastic (decided to put lithiums in it). It has the most perfect beam pattern of any headlamp I've ever used. And the beam color of the one got is a nice warm tint.

@ kenk "Perfect mix between flood and throw" you couldn't have said it better. Really glad I got one of these, it was money well spent.

Glad you like it. One of the best 3xAAA headlamps.

Edit.

The EOS works great with NiMH too.