Petzl Ultra Rush Accu 4

[C. R. Bieker Photo]

Anyone have experience with this lamp? Seems pretty new and also very pricey but I am willing to pay for great quality.

http://www.rei.com/product/849186/petzl-ultra-rush-accu-4-belt-headlamp

I do a lot of night photography and light painting so I am wondering if I can kill two birds with one stone and carry a "killer" headlamp instead of a mediocre headlamp and a serious handheld light. My reservations are the throw of a headlamp given they usually have a wider beam and also the quality of light, I hate it when they look like euro blue street racers.

With the Petzl ultra rush accu 4, the run time seems good and you can buy extra batteries for it as well (also pricey). Just curious if anyone has had hands on yet? I was originally excited about the Surefire Maximus but as long as I am out in the wilderness, the runtime wouldn't even be close to sufficient. I do love the white light quality of the surefires though!

Bring on the wisdom!!

 

[rojos]

It looks like they redid the colors and maybe updated the emitters, but it's quite an old design. Try doing a search for Lupine Piko for a more up-to-date, and less expensive, headlamp with higher output. Try a search for Spark SX5 if you're okay with lower output. The SX5 is available in ~5000K tint and is quite affordable. The upfront cost is about $100 with the optional battery holder. And it can use regular, inexpensive 18650 batteries instead of expensive proprietary packs.

Edit: Found a review of the older Ultra. I think the Ultra Rush is essentially the same but with higher bin LED.
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...lpha-vs-Petzl-Ultra-the-ultimate-challenge%85

 

[uk_caver]

The REI site describes the Ultra beamshape as 'flood', but with a 140m beam. Presumably there must be some meaningful focus to it to get that kind of distance.

What kind of beamshape do you want for photography?

I've only done a bit of artificial-light photography, mainly underground, but there I've found that both flood and medium spot can be useful.
Personally if I was spending $500 or more on a headlamp, I look to see what there was with twin beams and decent control. at least with a twin-beam light you can have a reasonab;e ides that the flood beam will be pretty floody, and the spot beam relatively tight.
A light with one fixed beamshape could be something you'd really need to try out to see if it was good for what you wanted.

 

[Knight_Light]

Although I have never utilized this particular Petzl headlamp it seems to be overpriced for what it is offering. If you have that kind of budget I would suggest looking at the following 2 companies in the links below. Or you can simply get someone to build you a custom unit here in the forms for that kind of money. Also if you decide to go with REI (which by the way is an awesome company) you may want to become a member as that will save you 10%. They also run periodically specials for members that will give you 20% off.


http://www.spikelights.com.au/index.html

http://www.lupine2013.de/products/headlights

 

[Phry]

Seems pretty new and also very pricey but I am willing to pay for great quality.

It is pretty new, and yes, I cannot see any way this thing is not at least $350 over priced! Crazy money and it is just not worth that.

I do love the white light quality of the surefires though!

You get that white light quality with lots of modern LED based lights, that has nothing to do with Surefire, who do NOT manufacture any of the LEDs they use in their lights.