Fenix HM60R - bye bye Minimus

[Bambuino]

Maybe 12-15 yrs ago bought a SF Minimus. Had the fluted barrel, large cyclops lens, click/rheo actuation. Just a battery hog, and went back to SF on warranty as the click detent quickly wore out and would not turn off. Received a new gen version with hatched barrel, black bezel insert and small reflector, clicky button with rotary encoder actuation. That one tended to just turn itself on and slowly ramp up to full bright over the course of an hour or so. Made a brown blister in my ruck. That went back for replace and received same thing. However, this third one has been pretty stable last 8 years, and am now comfortable with leaving a battery in it. The encoder is dirty so there is no longer the smooth ramping as new, just skips up a "level". Never ever really trusted that thing, and always had a 3-AAA headlamp as back up. The last of my little plastic headlamps finally cra%%ed out this Fall.

Enter the HM60R. This is the headlamp wish I got back then (hahaha). Its about 25g heavier (156g with 18650) with battery than the Minimus, has a red LED instead of a slip-on filter, decent step levels that address a variety of tasks I encounter, and a separate floody LED from the spot LED. What is really interesting with the HM60R is the bit of fresnel there that creates a "keyhole" spot. Think spot, with a sufficient bit of light in foreground. That is really handy, and having gotten use to it tend to miss that feature when say using my kids HM23. The HM60R also has a feature that increases illumination with an increase in pace in running. Trust me, I won't be checking to see if that feature works.

Just wanted to share this experience out to you headlamp folks.
All the best.

edit: Added couple carriage returns. Remember carriage returns?

 

[Bambuino]

To add, headlamps have come a long way since the Petzl Zoom with 3LR12 I carried back in the 90s.

 

[Buck91]

Hows the UI with three different LEDs?

 

[Bambuino]

To be honest, in the first 5 seconds thought I broke the thing. Then re-read the mode switching diagram and then was good to go. Now seems just plainly straightforward. From OFF is a single click into spot mode. There is memory hold on the spot, no cycling through levels. That's convenient. Merely a double click from OFF to get into flood/red mode. From ON is a long click to switch between spot and flood, and flood always defaults to red, and that's acceptable.

Have read the previous reviews and comments in re the HM60R here on CPF. There were comments specific to the long duration of needing to depress the power button to get into LOCK mode in early models. That is no longer an issue, and mine locks in 3 secs as is printed on the light.

Strangely, there is one thing I like apart from the light, and its the headband. It's comfy and all, but there is a generous amount of reflective paint on it. It's the same headband as on my kids' HM23s and I can pick out those reflections up to 100 yds away if I throw some light downrange. I changed my headband over to all black Fenix band, 'cause I'm Dad.

ATB, M.

 

[Labrador72]

Thanks for the feedback. My first headlamp was a Petzl too, then switched to a Fenix Hl21, Fenix HL30, and finally to the Fenix HL55 for a 5 years. before eventually upgrading to the HM65R SuperRaptor 2.

The HM60R looks like a nice headlamp. Does the HM60R have a shortcut to the lowest brightness level or does only switch on to the last brightness level used?

 

[Bambuino]

... Does the HM60R have a shortcut to the lowest brightness level or does only switch on to the last brightness level used?

There's no shortcut to LOWEST white light, but from OFF or ON is easy to get straight to RED at 5lum.
That might be nifty feature to have, but am wholly unfamiliar with what other modern headlamps come featured with to offer any suggestions.

 

[Labrador72]

Thanks, that's good to know!

Happy New Year!