Black Diamond Spot--Eos Competition?

http://www.bdel.com/gear/spot.php

Due mid-October (like the semi-famous Apex) this looks like BD's response to the Eos, but with added 5mm LEDs. I can't tell from the scant information whether it's regulated. 3 oz with batteries is *very* light. Anybody have further technical tidbits?

Looks very "EOS".

Wonder if you can use the 3 small LEDs alone on a low setting? This might provide some close flood. The one thing the EOS lacks.

Going to have to be very good to bump the EOS from my head. Also until I can see and hold one, they remain vaporware.

The only other thing I think I can get from that description is that it's probably not regulated. They call it intelligent circuitry and reference the 3 brightness levels and strobe. I have a Moonlight that has those functions and is definitely not regulated. The regulated Zenix IQ makes mention of constant light and adds the IQ designation like it's smarter than the other lights. I'm not sure what to make of the 20 hour runtime on 3 AAA vs. the 4.5 hour runtime on 2AA for the Zenix IQ, but I'd also guess that it points to being non-regulated. Bummer...I've always had a soft spot for BD headlamps and always disliked non-regulated headlamps.

Anyone own this light? Seems like it's available now and I'd love to hear a mini-review.

It looks like Black Diamond is playing the copy cat game.
Such a shame.

I don't think it's too much of a copy. How many battery in front luexeon headlamps are on the market (More than I care to list). Plus with the addition of the close range 5mm leds it's its in a class all of its own.

I saw these today at EMS but they didn't have one on display to play with (and its not like the EOS which has a package you can open in the store with the batteries already installed).

It looks decent, but as I own both the EOS and the River Rock 2AAA, I'm not really in the market for another headlamp for the time being. Even though headlamps are the most practically useful, there's just too much of a geek factor to use them in public often .

Hi!,

I saw one a few days ago at a local EMS store. I was only able to check it out in a well lit store. It did have 3 settings for both the luxeon and the leds. I did think it was a bit brighter than the EOS. The hours on the package did seem to be excessive for each setting.

Can you in breif detail describe how you change from the luxeon to the 3x5mm's and what the process is for changing the brightness settings. I definetely want to make sure its not some tediously long cycle like: Luxeon 25%, L 50%, L100%, 3x5mm 25%, 50%, 100% .

How was the beam in comparison to the eos in spill and tint (this of course if these observations could be made in the well lit store.)

BTW: what is an EMS store. Thanks in advance!

mrme said:

It looks like Black Diamond is playing the copy cat game.
Such a shame.

Click to expand...

Yup, so much for me liking BD.:thumbsdow I still like their hybrids, though.

Anyway, I just got the REI catalog, and they have other headlamps looking very much like the competition:

• BD Spot: looks like PT EOS, but has 1 LuxI and 3 5mm LED's.
• BD Cosmo: looks like a hybrid between Petzl Tikka (for the overall shape and position of the switch) and the PT Aurora (for the LED arrangement).

Found a pretty comprehensive review here: http://www.backpackgeartest.org/reviews/Lighting/Headlamps - LED/Black Diamond Spot/

Bill Jeffrey writes the best review of the three. No real scientific brightness test, but gives you a good idea of how the light functions and it's build quality etc. I'm definetely sold. :wave: