versalite headlamp mini-review

Hi folks,

After spending the week of thanksgiving in a hotel and trying to read after my wife had gone to sleep I realized I did have a use for a headlamp. Today I picked up a "Versalite 4 LED Headlamp" from SAMS for $20.

It runs on 3AA so it's a little heavy, but the strap and foam on the back of it is comfortable and feels secure on my head. I had some trouble opening it to put the batteries in, which dismayed me a little as I normally can figure those things out. You really can't open this up without a screw driver. Once opened it has good construction for a plastic light. The switch is actually mounted to the PC board internally, no flaps of metal to bend or break.

The LED's are a bit of a disappointment. The beam is quite usably bright for a 4led lamp and is very concentrated. it has a very bright hot spot and not much spill at all. It may be too bright for reading at close distance, but I'll experiment with some scotch tape to diffuse the beam. The problem is that the LED's are VERY blue. The beam has a bright blue hotspot with a corona of white around it. I don't know how annoying that will be during use, but if they had used better white LED's this would be a nice little light. Though the LED's are angled down somewhat, if I had my way they would be pointed a little further down. I find myself lowering my head and looking up to get light on what I want to see at close quarters. It may be better for looking at a distance.

Right now I'm running it on regular alkaline AA's, but I did try it with NiMH's with no discernible difference in light output. There is a resister on the board so they are not just directly connected to the batts.

One other plus is that the headband is connected to the front of the case and goes through holes in the back of the case. So even if you drop it and the case pops apart the pieces will remain connected together. You may have to chase batteries all over, but you wont loose the back of the case. Unless you drop it hard enough to crack the plastic.

It does not appear (nor does the packaging claim) that it tries to be at all water proof or resistant, but there isn't much to it inside nor anything that could be damaged by having water in it. Just dry it out and I would expect it to be fine.

Thanks,
James

Quick update, after applying a piece of the invisible scotch tape the beam is much improved. The most important things being that it's wider and the color has evened out a bit. Instead of being intensely blue in the middle, it's now just mostly blue all over. But will be much better for reading at night and close up work.

-James

I've had a xenon Versalite for a long time now. I originally bought it to use as a headlamp for going in my attic, but the beam was too narrow with too little spill. However, it works perfectly velcroed to the inside of my windscreen on my motorcycle to light up the little portable radio on the handlebars when I need to at night. It also came with a red lens, which works even better. It works good as an "inside the tank bag" light too.