Headlight for night rockhounding/exploring

Rocky · Jan 22, 2014

Hi All,

I've spent the last three nights reading these forums and have come away super impressed with all the knowledge here and your passion for lights. I've always have been a proponent of having a good, durable light and I thought it would be great to get your advice on a type of headlight to buy for night time rock hounding and exploring. My wife and I like to wonder throughout the West day and night!

I have a Black Diamond Storm for around camp, and a Ryobi hand held Chinese conversion LED light (1000 Lms, cool white) which we like the output. I bought that before I discovered this wonderful community!

I am impressed with the Zebra lights. We do need to see the ground clearly as we walk, and there are places where we also dig at night, where a smaller output would be more beneficial.

Questions: Should I look for the highest Lm's with different levels? Cool vs warm light? Or is it preference? I look forward to any advice and insights you might have!

Thanks!

cjmorris · Jan 22, 2014

Nuetral or warm lights are not as bright as cool lights but the tint of warmer lights is way better, the extra lumens aren't worth it in most cases.
Spark is making some very nice headlamps. Maybe the sx5 would work better for you than a Zebralight.

Rocky · Jan 22, 2014

Hi CJ,

Thanks for your reply. I'm a little concerned about the wires on the headband as I had an old Petzl that caused me some problems, but I do like the versatility of the battery pack on the sx5. I read somewhere of people being concerned about having 4x18650's on their head??

cjmorris · Jan 23, 2014

My newest headlamp is the 4sevens 360 atom headband with a mini 123. It's not as bright as zebralight or spark. The band is so comfortable and adjustable and it will work with the atom or mini series lights. The band is only $15 and the lights sell for around $40 making it a real bargain.
Even though it's not as bright as zebralight or spark it's plenty bright and the hi cri tint is nice. The only thing I don't like is you have to use twisty lights not clicky lights.

flashas · Jan 23, 2014

I was pretty happy with LedLenser H7R, but no since I realized that Cree XR-E could be driven with much higher current, it now seems to me a bit underpowered...

RI Chevy · Jan 23, 2014

I have a Spark SD52N headlamp. It is extremely well made and powerful enough for what I use it for. It comes with a flood bezel, but you can also get a spot type bezel that screws in and gives you options. I have both bezels. The headlamp fits very secure to your head and the headband is very comfortable. Check out www dot spark-light.com. The SD52 runs on 2-AA's. They also make headlamps that run on 3-AAA's and 18650 sized batteries. The user interface is very simple and functional. The batteries fit inside the headlamp so there is no external wires to wrap around your head. The SD52N is a very small compact package. There are a few different vendors on here that sell them. Goinggear dot com sells them and is a very good dealer.

If you want a very powerful headlamp, then go with an 18650 sized battery headlamp. You will get longer run times and more power. If you don't need all that power, then go with the 2-AA sized headlamp. I run mine with rechargeable Eneloops. I really like it.

The Spark headlamps come with an XM-L2 LED which is a very versatile LED. I prefer the Neutral tint for good color, but they also make a cool white tint as well.

Good luck with your search.