It's been a while since I've posted, but I picked up a new headlamp today at REI...a Black Diamond Cosmo, and I wanted to give my impressions of it and get the impressions of others who may have some experience with it.
I'm currently in Las Vegas visiting with my kids and grand-kids, and since there are no REI's where I live (NW Florida), I jumped on the opportunity to go to the REI here. I'd always heard that they have a pretty good selection of headlamps, and I've been wanting a new one for indoor use. For outdoor use I'm currently using a PT EOS modded with a SSC P4 and a reflector, which I'm extremely pleased with. For indoor use I wanted something that had 5mm LEDs as well as decent spot LED. The Cosmo seemed to fit the bill because it's got 2 5mm LEDs as well as a .5W spot LED with pretty good spill light as well. The 5mm LEDs are suprisingly bright in high mode considering there's just two of them. Tint is definitely on the blue side, but I've seen far worse in that regard. The .5W LED has a nice neutral to warm tint, and because of the textured reflector, has a very smooth beam. I'd considered getting the BD Spot with the 1W Cree, but since this headlamp is primarily for indoor use and is going to see a LOT of use, the .5W seemed plenty bright, and should be considerably better on run-time than the 1W Spot.
So far, for $29.95 plus tax, I'm extremely pleased with the BD Cosmo. It's very light and comfortable, and is EASILY bright enough for anything I need an indoor headlamp for. IMHO, worth every cent I paid for it...
Out of curiosity, anybody else have any experience with the Cosmo, and if so, how do you like it?
PJD
I'm currently in Las Vegas visiting with my kids and grand-kids, and since there are no REI's where I live (NW Florida), I jumped on the opportunity to go to the REI here. I'd always heard that they have a pretty good selection of headlamps, and I've been wanting a new one for indoor use. For outdoor use I'm currently using a PT EOS modded with a SSC P4 and a reflector, which I'm extremely pleased with. For indoor use I wanted something that had 5mm LEDs as well as decent spot LED. The Cosmo seemed to fit the bill because it's got 2 5mm LEDs as well as a .5W spot LED with pretty good spill light as well. The 5mm LEDs are suprisingly bright in high mode considering there's just two of them. Tint is definitely on the blue side, but I've seen far worse in that regard. The .5W LED has a nice neutral to warm tint, and because of the textured reflector, has a very smooth beam. I'd considered getting the BD Spot with the 1W Cree, but since this headlamp is primarily for indoor use and is going to see a LOT of use, the .5W seemed plenty bright, and should be considerably better on run-time than the 1W Spot.
So far, for $29.95 plus tax, I'm extremely pleased with the BD Cosmo. It's very light and comfortable, and is EASILY bright enough for anything I need an indoor headlamp for. IMHO, worth every cent I paid for it...
Out of curiosity, anybody else have any experience with the Cosmo, and if so, how do you like it?
PJD
