Cabela's Headlamp worth getting?

[krautracer]

Do you think this would be a good light for the price. I just need one for the odd occasions, that i would need my hands free.
http://www.cabelas.com/spodw-1/0015819.shtml

Thanks for your help
Brett

 

[paulr]

Looks like a good deal but maybe not the best choice for occasional use. Since it's rechargeable it needs a certain amount of attention to keep charged up; it's incandescent which increases its battery consumption compared with led lights of the same output, etc. The two basic uses for a headlamp are for lighting nearby stuff (i.e. cooking, fixing equipment, etc.) or lighting faraway stuff (walking down a trail). If you primarily want nearby use, a small led headlamp is your best bet. The Zebralight H50 (www.zebralight.com) is new and very popular though it's about 2x as expensive as that Cabela light. It's very lightweight and runs on a single AA cell and has a beautful highlight-free flood beam that's just about the best headlamp yet for close-up use. It is no good at all for distant use (beyond 10-15 feet), so if you're going hiking with it, bring a secondary handheld light for when you need to see something further down the trail. Other than that there's lots of 10-20 dollar 3aaa multi-led lamps now, and this new Ray-o-vac 1aa light in the $20 range has gotten some mixed but mostly good reports.

 

[Any Cal.]

No, it is not worth getting. I bought one new in package for I think 5 bucks at a garage sale. Both beams stink. They are full of artifacts that make using it not much fun. The low beam is much worse than the high one. The light does work, but I hugely prefer the ray o vac 1 AA light mentioned. Not only that, you don't have to pay for shipping.

 

[Gaffle]

I do not trust the Cabelas branded lights. While reading about one of their lights Cabelas had this statement, "Utilizes and overdriven Luxeon LED". That does not sound good IMO. Plus, what is that battery pack? It says it you can use AA, but is it a NiMH or NiCad pack? I would not be buying anything NiCad these days, unless it is a Maxabeam:devil:.

You want something easy, for closeup work? Here are a few. Yeah they aren't super cheap, but they will get the job done better than this "Candle Power" monster.

Princeton Tec Quad.

Princeton Tec Eos. Waterproof, spot.

Petzl Tikka Xp. <---Throw plus flood:thumbsup:.

Petzl Zipka. This does not have a headband. Has a retractable cord that you pull out. You can put this on your head/wrist/bike etc.