Need help with a headlamp choice for use in bad places

I know everyone hates the "what light should I buy " threads , I have searched and read things until my eyes started to cross ....LOL
My job takes me to some of the worst places on earth , I have been looking for a headlamp that has good throw but also has a low red LED .
I would prefer to have the red be another LED rather than a pull down lens /filter , it would be great if it had an IR setting as well but I think that is a pipe dream . battery wise it needs to run on standard batteries like AA,AAA,or 123's (I can normally get all of those )
my last requirement is that it must be dependable , getting replacements can sometimes take weeks or longer and equipment failures can be ,well lets just say bad .The Energized hardcase sounds like it might be an option but what is the build quality like ? I (like most people ) currently have a Petzl , they have a good track record for reliability from what I have seen.
Sorry for the long post and thank you for any input .

PT EOS Tactical, newer more powerful models are coming out soon and I believe they have some Hazardous Location Classification for safety in environments with solvents and such. I believe Gerber has a light similar to what you are looking for but I am not sure if there is a IR capability on the Gerber and I know that the PY Eos doesan't have IR filters but it does come with Red, Blue, and Green flip up/down filters.

Many Princeton Tec lights are capable of using NIMH, Lithium, and standard Alkaline batteries so thaey are my personal choices for flexibility in battery chemistry.

Although not a headlamp the Photon (LRI) Proton PRO is fairly small and has both white and (lower-power) red LED - perhaps you could figure out how to head-mount it.

wolfe said:

My job takes me to some of the worst places on earth ,

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You mean, like, Washington DC? Murder capital of the world, isn't it?

This sounds like an interesting project.

What is the situation you want to use it in?

It sounds like you want:

1 - long throwing beam, white
2 - low power red LED
3 - IR LED

But do you also want things like:

4 - low power flood, white?
5 - high power flood, white?

Can you give any more details on the power / output levels you are thinking about?

What is your price range?

Would you consider a custom built one? Custom headlights are a hobby of mine and I'd love to take on this project.

TorchBoy said:

You mean, like, Washington DC? Murder capital of the world, isn't it?

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Funny you should say that , I worked in that area for several years ..
The light will be helmet mounted but cant be mounted in the front due to my NVG mount , using it with a strap allows me to move it if needed .
I pretty much want my cake and eat it too , priority's would be best throw possible ,a low white , low red or blue , and IR .( blue works better with some maps )
the low settings would be fine in flood . I would use low for everything from reading maps to working on someone that is wounded .
Yes I would consider a custom as long as it was reliable .
Cost is kind of a relative thing , I would like to keep it under a million $...LOL . I have looked at the SF helmet light and it does some things well but not all , also I am left handed so having it totally on the left side could be a problem .

What about the R.G.B. that 4sevens has (4 color LED) mounted on a 4sevens headband.

It may have better throw than a red filter diffused headlamp ?

And maybe his Prism attachment with colored lenses would help ?
.

Im really looking for a headlamp to keep things hands free.
I want to avoid colored filters so multicolored LEDs like that would be my first choice , I have helmet rails but they are being used for other things .
I was going to post another question in the LED section but I will just throw it out here and see what happens . Has anyone tried any of the IR drop in's ? if so which ones and how did it work ? the more throw the better .
thanks again

SIMPLE!!! Princeton Tec Remix :

It comes with a white high-output LED which is 70 lumens (very recently updated, try to get the newer one instead of the 42 lumen one) and three 5mm LEDs which can be red, green or white I think. Obviously buy the one with the red 5mm's and you should have a powerful far-reaching white beam, a dimmer white beam, a floody red beam and a dimmer red beam.

http://www.princetontec.com/?q=node/161

woodentsick said:

SIMPLE!!! Princeton Tec Remix :

It comes with a white high-output LED which is 70 lumens (very recently updated, try to get the newer one instead of the 42 lumen one) and three 5mm LEDs which can be red, green or white I think. Obviously buy the one with the red 5mm's and you should have a powerful far-reaching white beam, a dimmer white beam, a floody red beam and a dimmer red beam.

http://www.princetontec.com/?q=node/161

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I had looked at that but I couldnt see where you had any color choices of the LEDs , I thought they were all white , did I miss something ?

The Remix comes in different varieties. They basically have models with different colored 5mm l.e.d.s. You get to choose when you buy them. They have white, green, or red for the 5mm l.e.d.s. The high powered l.e.d. is white on all models.

I run a nitecore D10 in the nitecore headband accompanied by a zebralight h501w. This gives you all the throw you could possibly want out of a headlight and then when you are working up close you have the awesome flood of the h501w.

CampLite said:

I run a nitecore D10 in the nitecore headband accompanied by a zebralight h501w. This gives you all the throw you could possibly want out of a headlight and then when you are working up close you have the awesome flood of the h501w.

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The Zebra light would be to big , you need to remember that the very front center of my helmet has my NVG mount , I could put any 1" flashlight on one of the rails but Im trying to avoid that . I will try and put up a pic of my helmet in a few days .
Remix sounds like a possibility .

wolfe said:

you need to remember that the very front center of my helmet has my NVG mount ,

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You've mentioned that a couple of times, but I can't get beyond "Not Very Good" mount. What does it actually stand for?

wolfe said:

I had looked at that but I couldnt see where you had any color choices of the LEDs , I thought they were all white , did I miss something ?

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I saw this video where Princeton Tec in the SHOT show was displaying some of their headlamps, including the Remix, and they said that the 5mm's are available in different colors

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICf8TApVQA0

TorchBoy said:

You've mentioned that a couple of times, but I can't get beyond "Not Very Good" mount. What does it actually stand for?

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LOL...I apologize for being a bit vague about things .
NVG mount refers to the mounting plate and arm for night vision devices , my plate is about 41/2" tall and about 4" wide .
that is why IR would be a nice option .

Woodenstick : thanks for the info I will be looking into the remix further , I wish I could check out the video but from my current location I cant access youtube

http://www.botachtactical.com/entaheli.html

http://www.streamlight.com/product/product.aspx?pid=166

I found these , I have not had great luck with Streamlight's products in the past but it has been a while since I have used any of them so maybe things have changed ?

I have not used any of Energizer's more expensive lights , does anyone have any experience with them ?

ended up with a double post .

this is what I got my nephew for his trip to the sandbox.
http://www.botachtactical.com/stsic4mifl.html

make sure you get the military version with IR, otherwise the civilian model replaces the IR with a green LED.