Advice please.

Hello,iam stuart from the uk,just thought i would say hello,and maybe get some advice,i am a worm collector and go out on the sands in the night quite alot,ive use a couple of headlamps in the past,the one iam useing at the moment is a samalight...http://www.samalite.com/hl100s.html,its quite heavy and can be a pain,the charge doesnt last very long,and it has to be charged after 2-3 hours of use.

So what i would like to know if you dont mind,could anyone reccomend a nice light headlamp that is bright on flood,as this is its main use,looking at sand,and spares are easy to aquire,pref sub £150.

Thanks for your time,

Stuart.

Is it principle to you that the lightsource should be incandescent?

Hello vaska,no is makes no difference,although it would be better for me if it was a flood beam as apose to a pencil beam,or in an ideal world both!

Thanks,

Stuart.

OK, if you talk of flood/throw combination, Silva-Alpha or X-trail would hopefully satisfy you.
But as far as you already own an excellent SAMALITE headgear, you can buy this bikelight and attach it instead of archaic SAMALITE lighthead.

if you're only looking at the ground 20-30 feet in front of you, i would think that a Spark ST6 NW with the diffuser would work okay. here's a link to Szemhazai's review with beamshots. he also has a beamshot of a Silve 478 20 watt halogen in that review for comparison.

but something you might want to consider is that, IMO, it's a lot easier identifying organic matter on the ground with an incan than an LED. color rendition with an incan is just much better. neutral LED's do a little better than cool white LED's in that department and higher the CRI the better of course, but even then you'll still have a harder time recognizing stuff on or in the ground than you did with an incan.

Thanks for the replys,this is what i am looking for...


So as you can (hopefully see if i have linked the pics) it isnt like i am looking for an object that is large,these worm casts(poo) are maybe an inch across.


I dont have to see any distance,maybe 2-3m realy,but it would be good if there was an option that i could,the battery must last 4 hours without a charge,and be fully waterproof.


Thanks again,

Stuart.

Link to pics,

Ive ordered the ST6,will report my impresion when it arrives,

thanks for your help guys,


Stuart.

Looking at the photos makes me wonder if holding a light very low down parallel with the ground might show up the casts better than a headlamp. This is assuming they are tall enough to be above the surrounding sand. Back when you couldn't get very bright bike lights I had one headlight mounted right down low and it showed up obstacles in my path with a big shadow - making them much easier to see (and avoid).

If it does work OK for you I'd mount the light on a stick (so you don't have to bend over to use it).

Grego,

iam harvesting the worms for fishing bait,i use a stainless hand pump,the first were actually invented in oz by a company called ALVEY!

We did mount a lamp on the buchet back in the old days,lol,although with the worms being more spread out thesedays its much quicker to find them with a headlight,as you need to use bouth hands to operate the pump.Most of the time the casts are under 20mm of water and dont protrude above it unless your on dry sand,hope that helps,and thanks for the advice,


stuart.

Well the light has arrived,had a walk down the field and iam well impressed,also bought a charger and 2 batteries from Amazon for £12.99,wont be trying it out on the beach till next week,so i will report back.

Thanks for the advice guys.

Stuart.

Have you tried a UV light? Many organic residues appear brighter in UV light.

Hello again guys,

Just after another bit of advice please,i bought 2 ultrabrite batteries for the spark,they havnt lasted long,and as ive found out,there just old laptop batteries re-packaged!!!!!!

What iam after is a good quality 18560 rechargable li-lion or better,

Could you suggest one please and where to aquire.

Thanks,


Stuart.

blackworm said:

What iam after is a good quality 18560 rechargable li-lion or better,

Click to expand...

Batteries with Sanyo or Panasonic cells inside are very good. All the top brands like AW, Redilast, Eagletac, and Xtar use Sanyo or Panasonic cells. Since they're built on near identical cells, performance across those brands are almost identical. Xtar is probably the least expensive of those and probably the easiest ones to find locally. You can probably find some on eBay UK.

Check out HKJ's battery reviews for more performance info. link.

When buying batteries make sure they will fit in your light. Some are too thick, others are too long (especially ones with a protection PCB). Good advice by rojos ^

Looking after li-ion batteries depends on having a good charger. I like cottonpickers USB charger:

http://www.cpfmarketplace.com/mp/sh...l-Worlds-smallest-Li-ion-charger-with-display