£50 ($75) for a robust trekking headtorch

[Garnett]

Spending a winter's night orienteering soon, and need a decent headtorch. I will be using it for about 10-12 hours pretty much constantly, switching between enough light to see to walk, and enough light to spot some landmarks for navigation.

Been reading on here and I think the Fenix HP10 LED Head Torch might fit the bill.

I haven't ever owned a Fenix but I hear good things about performance and build quality for the money.

I have a Zebralight and it's died on me - sometimes it fires up and sometimes not.

Anyone got any other good recommendations?

 

[Cataract]

I'm very satisfied with my HP10. If you like it, I say go for it.

I sometimes go as far as combining it with the Fenix headband and have 3 lights on my head, but that's more for fun than practical reasons.

 

[davidt1]

....

I have a Zebralight and it's died on me - sometimes it fires up and sometimes not......

Sounds like a cleaning job would help. You had two posts asking for headlamp recommendation before, but you didn't come back and tell people when/what you bought in those threads. When did you buy your ZL light? Zebralight is good at fixing/replacing bad lights, even if it's over a year old.

 

[Garnett]

Got my H30-Q5 Headlamp in July '08. It got very little use, but it was awesome. Then about 3 months ago I dug it out, stuck a new RCR123 in it, and nothing. Assumed it was borked but then stuck a different RCR123 in it and it worked OK for a couple of hours before dying. Not sure what's wrong with it tbh.

But I don't feel confident enough in it to use as my own and only light source.

Other candidates from research seem to be:

LED Lenser - H7R Focusing Rechargeable Head Torch -£55
Petzl Tikka XP2 Head Torch £40

And a cheap alternative:

Alpkit Gamma £13

 

[leaftye]

An HP10 is a fantastic light. The beam is nice for night hiking and the battery life is such that you can keep it burning all night with a mix of medium and high modes.

Using it to spot landmarks can be iffy. It really helps if there are reflective blazes. You won't be lighting up mountainsides. If that's your intent, then the Spark ST6-360 might be worth a look.

 

[Garnett]

The Spark ST6-360 might be worth a look.

Oooo. That looks interesting.

 

[leaftye]

Sure is. Compared to the HP10...

The HP10 does 50 lumens for 22 hours. The ST6-360 does 60 lumens for 20 hours. I do most of my hiking with 50 lumens, although I switch to the next higher setting when my ankles start getting tired. The ST6-360 only has one higher setting that only goes for 1.8 hours so that setting should be used sparingly. The ST6 would really benefit from an additional mode between the 60 & 360 lumen modes.