what headlamps do they use on Alaska Experiment?

[LED-holic]

I watched the show tonight where the volunteers started hiking out of their base camps. The group of five started out quite early, in the dark. Their headlamps seemed very bright in the footage.

Anyone know what headlamps were used?

 

[jbviau]

I saw a few minutes of the show this past weekend. Someone had a PT Quad, and someone else had a Black Diamond headlamp (not sure which model) IIRC. Fun!

 

[LED-holic]

Thanks for the reply. I don't know if it was the camera settings or what, but the headlamps seemed to really light up the darkness in the last episode.

Even my H50 Q5 didn't seem as bright as those headlamps. Although I'm sure my H50 Q5 would be much better in person.

 

[Daniel_sk]

Thanks for the reply. I don't know if it was the camera settings or what, but the headlamps seemed to really light up the darkness in the last episode.

Even my H50 Q5 didn't seem as bright as those headlamps. Although I'm sure my H50 Q5 would be much better in person.

The H50 is all flood and much of the light is wasted in outdoors. My luxeon (3xAAA) Petzl Tikka XP is considerably brighter and longer throwing than the H50. This is because the light is concentrated into a beam. H50 is good for camping, working around the house and anything where you need to illuminate something that is close. Not good for hiking on a unknown terrain.

 

[Yucca Patrol]

The last time I was caving, I used my H50 as my main headlamp in small to medium sized passages which could certainly be comsidered "hiking on unknown terrain". It worked great and there is never a hot spot to decrease night vision if you do need to look at something up close. Of course, your eyes have to adjust to the darkness, but that is easy when you are in a cave.

 

[Daniel_sk]

A cave is a bit different terrain than the wide outdoors. You usually need to light up only small spaces. The light inside the cave can be reflected back and isn't lost, the walls are also a bit more "reflective". In the woods, a lot of light is lost in the sky - or is absorbed by mostly dark materials. I have sold my H50 (I did test it on a night hiking trip) and bought a H30 - I like the more concetrated beam more.

 

[Mark620]

The light inside the cave can be reflected back and isn't lost, the walls are also a bit more "reflective".

That is not true. Most cave "walls" are dark, damp, nearly black and "suck the light up". The exception would be tourist caves.

NSS# 56638

 

[Hooked on Fenix]

I think it was a PT Quad and a Black Diamond Spot headlight.

 

[ltiu]

A cave is a bit different terrain than the wide outdoors. You usually need to light up only small spaces. The light inside the cave can be reflected back and isn't lost, the walls are also a bit more "reflective".

I disagree. The caves in New Mexico are HUGE requiring the full turbo mode of my P3D to see the other side.

Also, the cave walls tend to be brown, dark grey to black which reflects very little light.

 

[Daniel_sk]

Ok, I was wrong - I am not a real caver . I have been only to maybe three or four caves here in Slovakia, these were limestone caves.

 

[Cavelightchris]

Yukka Patrol,

Were the cave walls bright or dark?



I have been in a cave where the walls were extremely close together and the limestone looked as if it was cleaned with scrub brushes, now in that cave even the crappiest of headlamps work amazingly.

I noticed that as long as your in a small tunnel, no matter how muddy it is, your headlamp will still look allot brighter, and so lately I have been doing all my filming in small tunnels.

I have been in a cave so big that my Energizer 6 LED couldn't even reach the ceiling, and the ground was so muddy and dark that the headlamp would be considered a dangerous light to use, I'm sure tons of light was also lost because of the large passage.

Does anybody know if the H30 performs well in a large muddy cave? If so I am thinking about buying one, but then again I think I'll wait for a AA version to come out since I own tons of AA and AAA rechargeables.

 

[TMorita]

...
Does anybody know if the H30 performs well in a large muddy cave? If so I am thinking about buying one, but then again I think I'll wait for a AA version to come out since I own tons of AA and AAA rechargeables.

The Zebralights sound like bad choices for caving, because it looks like the Cree XR-E led is exposed.

I've been in a few caves (Airman's Cave in Austin, Tx, Devil's Grotto near Santa Cruz?) where you're crawling around in tunnels on hands and knees the entire time, and banging your head on the ceiling frequently. In this case, it seems very likely the H30 would become damaged very quickly and become useless.

Toshi