power outage help

[tbone1993]

Every so often there is a power outage in the summer and I have always wanted a nice headlamp to usee in such an occasion. I was looking at zebra lights but I simply cannot decide. This will most likely be a multi function light going from outdoor to indoor use maybe some small walks or night fishing. I hhave a flashlight with throw but not a headlamp. So would purchasing my first floody light be a good idea for this purpose?

Battery format AA standard or rechargable nihm

[Szemhazai]

One of the most universal and versatile headlamp on the market is Petzl MYO XP / RXP - you have spot and flood at the same time + common power source.

[Enzo]

I would suggest any of the Zebra Lights. I have the SC 51, 1 AA, 200 lumens, I also use it as my edc flashlight. I think it's more versatile than a dedicated headlamp and comes with a very comfortable headband.

[robostudent5000]

i'd wait for the H502w or get a H501w if i couldn't wait. pure flood is great for indoors because of how even and wide the beam is. it's not so good for outdoors because the light fades away into nothing at around 20 feet. but for indoors and working with your hands, you can't beat pure flood.

[tedh]

I love my zebralights, but I think Szemhazai made a great point - you may want to consider a more versatile light, like the Petzl Myo he recommended. An all-flood light isn't that great for general outdoor use, in my experience. If you want a smaller package, maybe a Tikka XP 2, which has a built-in diffuser. However, you may go through batteries fairly quickly if the power outage lasts a while.

Ted

[gcbryan]

I just got my Zebralight H51f and I plan to use it outdoors and it certainly works well indoors. It's floody but not a pure flood since it has a frosty lens over a reflector. It sounds fine (to me) for what you want.

[Bolster]

A market opportunity is awaiting Zebralight...making a light with a beam that can be modified. Spark's doing it with their frosted lenses. SF is doing it for the Saint, with colored snap-on filters.

People say, well, that would cut into their profit...as is, they can sell separate lights for separate needs. I think that's the case ONLY for enthusiasts. I think there are lots of people out there who want to buy ONE headlamp and be done with it. Imagine a Zebralight with a screw-on filter thread around the lens. Then you could buy a small condensing lens, or a diffusion lens, or a colored filter. Hikers wouldn't have to choose between throw or flood; they could just carry a few (very small) filters to modify the beam to their liking.

[gcbryan]

A market opportunity is awaiting Zebralight...making a light with a beam that can be modified. Spark's doing it with their frosted lenses. SF is doing it for the Saint, with colored snap-on filters.

People say, well, that would cut into their profit...as is, they can sell separate lights for separate needs. I think that's the case ONLY for enthusiasts. I think there are lots of people out there who want to buy ONE headlamp and be done with it. Imagine a Zebralight with a screw-on filter thread around the lens. Then you could buy a small condensing lens, or a diffusion lens, or a colored filter. Hikers wouldn't have to choose between throw or flood; they could just carry a few (very small) filters to modify the beam to their liking.

I hope someone does this because I know that you really want this

For my uses I want a clear, slightly diffused and frosted set of 3 interchangeable lenses. I wouldn't want or use the other options since I wouldn't carry and want to mess with changing filters or like the effect of add on lenses but if there is a market for this I hope such a product does arrive.

Definitely Zebralight should make it so users can change the lens. It would be smart if they provided the lens but just making it so the bezel unscrewed would allow users to get one light with a clear lens and drop diffusion material behind the lens if they liked that effect better and it would allow them to decide how much or little diffusion they wanted. I think for hikers there should be a specific Zebralight model. It would be the H51 with a very lightly diffused lens so there was still directed (throw) but not so harsh (better for hiking) and then have an add-on flip-up diffuser that can stay on the light and flip up when not needed.

Most hikers (I believe) don't want to have to stop and screw on and off filters and diffusers and keep up with all that when other more traditional headlamp manufacturers already have models with all that integrated into the headlamp. It works better in photography (IMO) than it would for hiking at least. Maybe other segments of the headlamp market would embrace this.

[tedh]

Just to thoroughly hijack tbone's thread (sorry about that), but there DEFINITELY is a market opportunity there. Petzl had switchable filters (color AND diffusion were available) for the Tikka XP. It must have been some sort of selling point, because they kept the sliding diffuser with the Tikka XP 2. I think the screw-in style would be too cumbersome, but a sliding or flipping style would be quite welcome. I hope they seriously consider this.

Ted

[Groundhog]

I'd go with the H51. 200 lumens of cool white. Since you want it for emergency and multi-use I would go for the most lumens. If you have a tint preference, go for it. I'm not so hung up on tints until you get to some ugly extremes.

I'd also recommend a H502 when they come out. These lights are so handy they have a thousand uses and you won't mind having both at all.

I like Petzl's headlamps, but they have little use other than being a headlamp. Heavy users of headlamps should certainly consider them. Most others should consider the additional functionality of a Zebralight or similar item.