Jungle proof led front battery headlight

[Ppinny]

Hi there,
I am looking for my dream headlight. At least I think this would be it, but I'm very willing to take advice....I'm no expert! But I do need to get it right so if anyone can help I'd be much obliged. I live in the on a jungle coast, so, tropical, salty, humid, rainy, with onshore breeze mostly.
We look after wild animals, some of which are nocturnal, and I use a headlight about 2-3 hours every day. I've bought dozens in the last few years.


This is what I think I am looking for......in order of importance, kinda!
LED, white.
Reliable. (Not Chinese!? Is there anything?)
Waterproof.
Not more weight than three AAA, or two, AA equivalent, and on the front, not the headband.
Preferably variable intensity light, or low and high output. Max 100 lumens?? Not sure about this. Don't need a huge distance.
Comes on, low.
Flood and spot.
Li Ion protected rechargeable power. (18650? I have already these so it might be good to use the same? And I know it's not battery friendly but short charge times would be a godsend. Until we have more infrastructure we rely on a small generator. Needless to say the animals aren't keen!)
How can I work out the impact of using the charger though a cheap 300w (600w max) invertor on one deep cycle 12v battery? What about the invertor and charger overhead? The invertor has no info on it and I can't find it online.
Minimal, reliable, one hand switching, with tactile feedback if necessary to the design.Colored lense cover(s) Red and green if possible!
Tell me what I missed ;-)
I'll take whatever I can get it terms of lit time. Constant voltage dropping to a base level when low seems like a good idea to me?


The light will be used in the jungle and mangroves and around the camp, for general stuff and to observe wild animals....and find things!!
Getting stuff here by post is a mission and costs a lot, and, as it's a bit urgent, I need to get it right first time.Money wise I was thinking of a ceiling of 150 dollars. Not written in stone. I do need a good light but it's so easy to lose things here, however careful you are.

Thanks for any help.
Ppinny.


Ps. Please be patient with my replying. We have an intermittent, weak cell phone signal based Internet connection on an Android phone.
I'll do my best!

 

[DTF]

In my opinion, it ain't happening for $150. For an environment as you describe, the typical aluminum flashlight isn't going to hold up over time. You need a titanium flashlight. The leading supplier in this category is McGizmo which will cost about twice your budget. You haven't really spelled out exactly what you are doing but a Haiku Hi-CRI 3V would probably be a good choice. Get the 1/4"-20 clip and from there you can fashion whatever attachment you need. I like the McGizmo coiled tether and it might work as a headband but not for sure. With the tether, I wear my McGizmo flashlight on my arm and find that it does the job very well.

In terms of reliablity, the step down from McGizmo is the American made Surefire.

 

[asval]

I live near the beach and never had any problem with aluminum lights rusting, nor a bike for that matter. Neither of them have been dunked in salty water though, so alunimum should be fine as long as you don't dunk it in the ocean and it's a high enough grade.

I use a Spark SX5 headlight which can take multiple batterie configurations (AAA,AA,26650), it can also use 18650 batteries if you get a sleeve for it.

 

[lightdelight]

I would say ditch the "flood and spot". You would need to spend more to get those features. My recommendation is the Zebralight H600fw. For the price it's tough to beat. In its class it's the smallest, lightest, brightest, and accepts protected cells (apparently some of the Sparks won't fit them). It is produced in China though, but there are rumors of them moving production to TX. I just checked their site, and the floody,warm version is on backorder, but the warm version is in stock. You can easily make it more floody if need be.

I have 2 zebralights among many other flashlights, and they get the most use by far because of the low modes. I take them in extreme cold weather, so kind of the opposite of your conditions. Will they last 10 years? Maybe maybe not. They sure seem durable to me.. Who makes a titanium headlamp anyway?

 

[BenChiew]

For your budget, try Surefire Minimus. It can be had in CR123 and AA. One hand operation dial from 1-100 lumens. Quality and comfortable headband. Uses fresnel lens which throws out a beam pattern covering the width of human viewing angle. Smooth beam than will light up anything up to 25-30 yards. If you get the tactical version, it comes with a blue, green and red filter for the different colors.
Lifetime, no questions asked Surefire warranty.

For personal handheld flashlight, go with a McGizmo Haiku as suggested by DTF. or check out the bomb proof Malkoff MD2.

 

[Ezeriel]

Zebralight has a rather iffy reputation with waterproofing....
...but I don't see much of a problem meeting the Ppinny's needs. Most other brands are fairly bombproof.


If you just want a light to go dunking in saltwater.. just about anything will do.

What brands have been letting you down?



I'd just say get a Fenix LD12, and strap it to your head with that headband they sell

 

[Jash]

For $150 you can get a Fenix HL21, HL30 and enough L91 lithium AA's to power each for a year, or a bunch of eneloops and a smart charger. Two is one and one is none.

The HL30 has a single red led too, which makes it rather useful for low light, do not disturb anyone applications.

I've had an HL21 for quite a while, used it heaps and it's great. Only got the HL30 a few months ago and I love it, but it hasn't had any hard use yet, and it's not as watertight as the HL21, IPX6 rated as opposed to IPX8.

 

[BenChiew]

Zebralight has a rather iffy reputation with waterproofing....
...

From personal experiences, I fully agree.

 

[Ppinny]

Hi all,Thanks for the feed back. I will check out all the lights you have mentioned, make a decision and get back to you with my choice and reasons for choosing. Thanks again,Ppinny. Ps, great resource! I don't have anything to offer back in terms of expert forums, but I do what I can to contribute, where I am able. Cheers.

 

[Ppinny]

Hi again!Can I go back on what I just said?I've had a look at what you all suggested and I'm now thinking, given what other electrics we have and use, *perhaps I should prioritise battery type. We are going to be using protected 18650 Li Ion rechargeables. So it looks like some of the lights*suggested here won't take these batteries. And, to be honest, with all the talk of raised and flush positive terminals, slightly longer cells if "protected", will and won't fits, and the incompleteness of data from *manufacturers I'm not at all sure what will take what. I would*feel much more confident hearing what your knowledge base has to say, from direct personal experience.*So, for the patient amongst you!, is anyone up for addressing this starting from the perspective of necesarily using 18650, with the rest of the brief following on?Thanks again. We'll get there, (with your help!!)Ppinny.

 

[BenChiew]

Read post #50

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=356149

 

[lightdelight]

The only commercial lights that I know of that meet your criteria are the sparks and zebras. Exactly what cells and charger are you using? Yes, there have been a few reports of leakage with the zebras (even a "diving" light could leak). No, they are not hand crafted out of precious metal, but it's not like they're cast iron :crackup:. Hopefully soon there will be more options to choose from in this market because there is a lot of potential. If you really are going to be using it that much I would recommend having at least a backup or another light you can rig as a headlamp/hands free.

 

[Aperture]

As you seem to live in a remote location one of your requirements should be that you can always fallback on primary cells in case of an emergency like a dead generator. It also pays to have two lights incase one dies, gets lost or is needed by somebody else.

I usually go for a headlamp and flashlight combination that share batteries and compliment each other beam wise with the former providing a floody beam for handsfree camp work, navigation, etc while the latter is a thrower to spot things or animals in a distance.

My former setup was from Surefire with a Saint (in Minimus configuration) headlamp and Fury flashlight, both can run on CR123A's or rechargeable RCR123A's. My current setup is a Nitecore EC25 lamp and a Spark SD6 headlamp (extreme floody) which can both run on 18650's, CR123A's and RCR123A's.

To my knowledge the Zebra headlamps and flashlights only run on 18650 batteries and are not compatible with the primary CR123A cells, if so this makes them unsuitable for serious rural use.

 

[lightdelight]

Say you have 2 charged cells and your generator goes out. With an h600 @ 2.8 lumens, you could use the light for 2 hrs a night for 280 days.. that is my most used setting. It is plenty of light provided it is not a full moon (which will decrease contrast).

 

[Wolfen]

Check out blackdiamond storm

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Ppinny]

Hi everyone and thanks again.
The Blackdiamond Storm has a battery pack on the back which I was trying to avoid. And four AAAs when I was thinking of going with the 18650 s, as we are already using them, have a decent charger etc.
The SX 5 can take the 18650s but in a pack on the back. Does anyone make a decent headlight with a front 18650 battery.
And so on.......?.To be honest this could go round and round while I figure out what I want and you people try to help me. I don't want to drive you nuts!
So, what's happened is that my enthusiasm for the whole getting-the-right-headlamp project has been massively encouraged by your collective enthusiasm for headlights etc and I reckon I know enough now to know where to look and what to look out for, without wasting your time. I've had a look at all the suggestions and nothing seems ideal but then i'm still deciding which way to go, which batteries, how waterproof, factory color filters?
I'll work through it and come back later when I get a decision, just to let you know. Thanks for all the advice. It's made a big difference even if we didn't arrive at the right light yet!
Cheers, Ppinny.

PS. My wife, Sarah, "Hoppity", just got the Creland that she ordered based on input from this forum. She's very happy!

 

[Wolfen]

Hello I looked at a few different pictures of the bd storm and the batteries are up front in the light housing.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Aperture]

The Spark SD6 and ST6 both have a 18650 (or two CR123A) compartment in the light unit itself, they are both made from metal and waterproof. SD6 is a bit finicky with long protected 18650 cells but my Eagletac 3400mAh's do fit them nicely (they are one of the shortest protected cells out there), the ST6 (which I don't own) seems to be compatible with longer cells.

 

[Aperture]

Hmmm, the SD6 didn't do well in my waterproof testing last night :eek:

The light was still running when I took it out of the water filled pitcher (7"/18cm deep) but there was water in both the head and the battery compartment, with an IPX8 rating this shouldn't have happened... So I guess it's back to my faithful Surefire Saint until I find an 18650 headlamp that is actually as waterproof as advertised (which seems to be impossible).

This also means that you can scratch my endorsement for the Spark lights, of course your waterproof requirements might be different from mine.

 

[dparr]

.

I use a Spark SX5 headlight which can take multiple batterie configurations (AAA,AA,26650), it can also use 18650 batteries if you get a sleeve for it.

+ 1 for the Spark SX5. Mine seems to run forever using a 26650 battery.

I love this headlamp.