I need help choosing a good headlamp for work.

[Ace12]

I need a headlamp that has a good balance of throw and flood. I work in attics alot. i need to be able to see across the attic, but also need to be able to see stuff up close while i'm working on equipment. I had used an Argo HP for a few years and was somewhat happy with it, but it could use more flood. I lost it somewhere on the job. I have a Zebralight H30 wich is all flood and is perfect amont of light when on high, but it has no throw for looking across an attic and the runtime on high is too short. I have been checking out the specs on a few other lights, but its hard to tell by just reading the specs if it will meet my needs. I wish there was a website that had beamshot comparisons of all types of headlamps. Here is my list of possibilities so far.

Fenix HP10 (seems to have a nice smooth spill beam)
Zebralight H31 (if the flood is descent)

Should I consider any others?


I will say this, I have a Fenix P3D hand held light and it seems to have enough spill to use as a work light on medium power and has great throw on high also. So if the HP10 or the ZL H31 has a similar beam, it may work for me.

 

[Ace12]

I found a good comparison between my old Argo HP and the fenix HP10. HP10 is much brighter and has much more useable spill.

http://dominik.magma-net.pl/mod/

 

[Ajax517]

Princeton Tec EOS and the Petzl Tikka.

 

[cistallus]

Surefire Saint or Saint Minimus.
Fenix HL20.
4Sevens Quark with Prism kit.

 

[woodentsick]

Princeton Tec EOS is the simplest and (in my opinion) best solution fror your headlamp needs.

It's an excellent lamp with super high runtime, it has excellent flood/throw combinations, and it is compact, light and cheap.

Hope this helps,

woodentsick

 

[larcal]

Ace, Can you be more specific on how long your Fenix lasts?

I also am starting to look for good work headlamp, with good flood for close range work. Must work well on AA Nimh, and think I prefer regulated output. AAA's suck.Currently testing Photon Freedom Fusion.Feels pretty light to me, can have on head for several hours and forget it's there. Like that the 3 cells are on forehead so no cord to get tangled and can work on your back. Question I have at moment is whether battery life is as good as other options. Currently testing on tabletop as I'm holed up by rain. High mode(which lights up a 10x16 totally black room pretty good), stayed on and at that brightness for 13 hours before started to flicker, necessitating adjusting it to next lower level. This test with AA alkaline starting new at 1.61 volts. Testing with alkalines expensive but gives a relable comparison standard. Read the manual. 2 hours later flickered again, so don't know how it will go yet or how this compares. I find that in my use, (which is developing a new homestead in the evenings), I am moving around a lot from dark areas to partially dark so I want to turn it off and on a lot and so I like that a single button click turns it on and off in high mode. Having the button on top is nice cause can use finger instead of thumb, unless you need heavy rain resistance. Might soon buy and try other models, see if can get even better battery life. Better seems possible if they use more efficient LEDS I guess. Any experienced input from others would be great. Princeton Apex possible, but don't like that a green light flashes for 24 hours after turning off. Any better method for disabling this then electrical tape? Blackstone icon bad reports on durability. Brunton L3 all spot. Maybe a petzl Myo 5 but wish all these lights would just ignore the spot function like my Photon does. Photon seems like good quality but they don't publish much info like battery life specifics, LED type, lpx rating like others do so that is suspicious and annoying. Anyone know how the Led's compare for efficiency or what type they are?, how old?
Really, they are not making or reviewing/advertising headlamps for work but for sports.

 

[Yucca Patrol]

For close range flood using AA cells, you want a zebralight. Something like the apex is just too big and bulky if your goal is close range flood.

Check out the zebralight H501. Long run time on medium and very bright on high when needed. If you need longer runtimes, just carry a spare battery.

 

[Batou00159]

+1 for h501

 

[LitFuse]

OP is looking for a headlamp that has flood and throw, he mentions that he already has a ZL H30.

I think the Energizer Hardcase headlamp would be a good candidate. Great throw with the diffuser down, nice bright flood with it up. Inexpensive, uses AAs, good runtime, built like a tank, etc. What's not to like?

Peter

 

[Ace12]

I think i'm going to wait a bit and see how the beam looks on the H31 with the XP-G. Maybe more XP-G Headlamps will come out soon. I would love to see the Apex Pro and Fenix H10 get upgraded with the XP-G with better spill.