What is the brightest headlamp?

After some preliminary research on headlamps, I've come up short on finding one that is very bright. The most common ones seem pretty weak. I'm looking for something in the *seriously* bright department.

I have found a few good ones like the one at www.frontaled.com (with 10 LEDs), and of course there is the HDS Action light... complete with its $300 price tag (gulp!).

Can someone steer me in the direction of some headlamps that might offer a bit more in the way of brightness? It doesn't have to be LED, and I suppose I shouldn't be thinking of LEDs anyway... Maybe some halogens or something? Thanks!

What is your budget?
What is your primary use?
What is your max weight?
Interested in home brew?

I've been on the lookout for a good headlamp, too. I'm interested in the Lucido T61, which if my memory serves, is a light that has both a halogen bulb and several LEDs (please correct me if I'm wrong). Haven't been able to find the price, or locate anyone who sells this light. Any help is appreciated.

I recommend the Silva 471 or 478. It's used by our winter-olympics team and considered as one of the best headlamps available. The 10W/20W bulb throws a very bright light, and the full size reflector (100mm) throws a nice beam. However, it's pretty fragile, so don't drop it too often.

Thanks for the information about Silva headlamps! It looks like they have some great products; I'm not surprised that they are popular in Scandinavia (and maybe all of Europe?)

Does anyone know how I can get one of those? Any online shops carry them?

Like those Norwegian Olympians, I would use it to do some cross-country skiing in the evening. I just realized yesterday, as I was running, that I want some serious lighting when I'm out there. In the archives, there is a message from someone who bought a headlamp from Inner Mountain Outfitters called the Easter Seals Headlite 3, and then put a xenon Carley bulb in it to make the thing brighter. What do you think of that idea?

..That was I...and I haven't run it on high beam for more than a couple of minutes..if that..most of the time I click it down a level or two...maybe in the name of science I'll run it on high tonight till something begins to smell funny, hopefully before something melts..also, it has a very narrow beam, and gets 'ringy' when defocused..one more thing; I needed to put tape around the bezel to block light leakage from it's edge, which used to go right in my eyes, making it hard to see at night, corrected easily enough..I am told that running the Carley lamps, or any halogen-containing lamp on less than full power tends to reduce their life -- something about the self-cleaning process of the filament needing the higher heat of full output..

Originally posted by Steven:
Does anyone know how I can get one of those? Any online shops carry them?

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">You can get them HERE. I've ordered from the UK before (though not this particular vendor). It shoudn't be any problem.