Two day/one night hike in a nearby National Park.
Start around 7AM, walk until 11AM.
Stop at a natural swimming pool and eat/swim until 2PM.
Walk from 2PM until 5PM.
Stop and have a snack + sunset till 6PM.
(In the jungle it's dark at 630PM here.)
Walk from 630PM to 830PM into camp.
--
After we pitched tents I went out alone on a 5km night hike, there and back took 2 hours incl. stops and exploring. Since I was new to the area I picked a route with only one way in and out, no forks or splits to get disoriented with. Jungles in the dark are srs bsns, especially with the snakes and eight-legged critters spinning their traps over the trails in the dark.
I weighed my pack down with a few illumination tools for testing.
ZL H501
Surefire 6P (NB XRE-R2 & P60)
Surefire 6PX Pro
HDS Rotary
--
Here is their jungle performance:
(Note, without lighting, in this jungle I could not see 1 inch in front of my nose. Zero usable light under the thick canopy after 10 minutes standing in the dark waiting for dark vision to get better).
H501: Useful on high, was running lithiums. Still a sense of claustrophobia when you can't see out past 20 yards (15m). The national park was up in the clouds on a plateau so along with the dense jungle came REALLY thick misty fog ... clouds. Makes visibility really low and claustrophobia index really high, especially with the H501. However, this light is great for watching the trail around you out to 10-15m. Terrible light to have for hearing noises and growls in the vegetation around you. Just enough to illuminate glowing eyes, but not enough to ID the subject.
6PX Pro: Used this primarily. On low it's okay for navigation on open paths, but on jungle trails where its easy to miss the path and follow some dried seasonal stream for 1km before knowing you're lost ... It's necessary to use the high beam. With the nice hotspot, there comes a sense of tunnel vision. The spill isn't really enough for bush/forest/jungle navigation if you want to keep your eyes on the path/surrounding vegetation.
In my area I have to watch out for all manner of slithering and poisonous critters as well as the 8-legged ones, both shiny and hairy variety. I have to keep an eye on my footing as well as the edges of the trail, so navigation becomes slow with the 6PX Pro. If I shine it on the edges of the trail, the hotspot ruins my dark vision.
6P (NB): Great for open areas, however on tight jungle trails the claustrophobia is huge. I don't get claustrophobia in a medical sense, however when the only light you have is a 8-degree tube in front of you, this light isn't great for night nav in dense vegetation and one has to slow their pace considerably to stay safe.
6P (P60): Mixed views. For about 45 minutes the beam is strong enough, and the spill is good enough to make night nav okay. The hotspot isn't as bright as the 6PX Pro, so my dark vision is better, meaning I don't need as much illumination in the spill. Good spill for watching path edges and footing. All in all, its adequate for about 45 minutes, at which time it dims to an unusable level for that activity. The X factor is how cool it is to navigate in foggy jungle with the incan 6P beam. TBH it felt like a scene out of Apocalypse Now. Really grainy, dark, with just enough light to see where you need to go. Definitely an experience.
HDS Rotary: Wow! When used on the level just below max, the spill is bright enough to almost negate the tunnel vision, and the hotspot is strong enough to illuminate an adequate distance up the trail. With a bright spill, I don't have to point the hotspot at the ground to see where I'm going, the effect of that is I can retain my dark vision and not blind myself. After using this light for 5 minutes, it didn't get much more use. Almost too useful, and wanted to test out the other lights that have obvious weak spots for that activity.
Prognosis: The Rotary alone is enough, but not as good as pairing a thrower with a flood. However, pair the ZL H501 with a good thrower (6P NB/6PX Pro) and that combo is hard to beat. Keep the hotspot of the handheld on the path and use the 501 to look at your feet and trail edges. The benefits of this is retaining night vision. When you sweep side to side with a handheld, shining it at a nearby tree can cause enough refraction to mess your night-adapted vision up.
--
That's what I did with my lights yesterday/the day before.
Poor camera, however it illustrates the sense of claustrophobia.
