Spark ST6-500CW vs SD6-500CW for Night Hiking?

Hello,
I've been loving my ST5-220CW, and am thinking about getting its bigger brother. This summer I will be climbing Mt. St. Helens, and chances are we will be starting in the dark to summit by sunrise. So basically the use will be hiking through the forest, boulder fields, and ash in the dark. I may also use it for some caving in the future.

Any thoughts on whether I should go with the Spark ST6-500CW or SD6-500CW? I think I'm leaning towards the latter since it's a floody, and that should provide a nice huge amount of light in the foreground where I need it. To be honest though, I really don't have much experience hiking in the dark, so I'd like to hear from someone in the know. I wonder if I may want to be able to see a bit further head to search for the best path, though I could always supplement with a flash light for that purpose.

Thanks,
Nathan

i'd take the ST.

light intensity from a bare emitter, like on the SD, drops very rapidly from the source and can be kind of frustrating to hike with even in the best of conditions. it'll give you a nice and soft hemisphere of light in all directions and is great for a lot of things. but it won't put a satisfying amount of light intensity on the ground, which is where you really need it. so out of the two, i recommend the ST.

also, i don't know how much ash there is on St. Helens, but if there's a moderate amount or more, i'd really consider taking the warmest light available. if you take a bright, cool white lamp and there's a lot of ash, the cool white is going to light up the ash like it's snowflakes. warmer tints won''t light up the as ash much.

My personal preference for night hiking is a spot beam rather than flood, although sometimes I'll use both. Even the ST6 is a little too wide for my taste, I prefer slightly narrower, but everybody is different. When hiking you tend to focus on what's in front of you, rather than what's around you in your peripheral vision, so it doesn't make much sense to waste most of your light illuminating areas that you're not looking at. For caving, the requirements might be different that hiking in a forest, which would be different than hiking in wide open desert, so it's hard to say which is best. One advantage of the ST6 is you can always use the diffuser for more flood, or remove the reflector completely to get more flood, but you can't do anything to the SD6 to give it more throw.

I don't have a Spark, but I do prefer a bit of throw over pure flood when hiking, and do enjoy neutral or warmer tints for the great outdoors.
YMMV, but for me a floody headlamp would only be useful in close quarters (like hands-free work; or indoors; or camping rather than hiking.)
I find P60-sized XM-L's a great compromise if I don't need serious throw.
ST6-460NW would be my choice. In fact, now, I may need to pick one up.
Good luck - and have a great hike!

Thanks everyone - it sounds like the non-floody ST6 is probably the best way to go. I'm also hearing a number of votes for the warmer tints. I have to say, I hate the idea of less light output for the same price. The color has never bothered me much with my current cool white LED lights, but I admit I have never seen a neutral/warmer tint in person. Is it purely an aesthetic thing, or are also practical benefits? Or is it just that once you see the netural/warmer, you never go back?

(And to answer Robo's question, the ash should be at the end near the top, so I suspect the sky glow from sunrise will be enough by then that it is not an issue.)

I like inthedark's post!! As of now the SD series is really not convertible. Up coming bezels for the SD series are going to make these lights convertible, but this option is not available yet. Neutral tint is the way to go outside!

it's mostly preference. i've hiked with tints that ranged from 3000 to 10,000 K (that's right, 10K K) and anything in between 3000 and 7000 K is fine. 7000 K washes out browns a little and makes them look greyish, 3000 K makes browns look a little orange, 5000 K strikes a happy medium but colors can still look a little desaturated with most 75 CRI emitters. none of the differences are critical and it comes down to what you like.

btw, a 10% difference in output (from 460 to 500 for example) is miniscule and hardly enough to notice. don't let that be the deciding factor in your decision.

NathanF said:

I'm also hearing a number of votes for the warmer tints. I have to say, I hate the idea of less light output for the same price. The color has never bothered me much with my current cool white LED lights, but I admit I have never seen a neutral/warmer tint in person. Is it purely an aesthetic thing, or are also practical benefits? Or is it just that once you see the netural/warmer, you never go back?

Click to expand...

Tint preference is very individual. I like white, and don't like blue (or purple, green, etc) tints in my light. I prefer neutral.

One thing to keep in mind, your eyes will adapt to tints. If I'm using my cool tinted HDS and suddenly switch to my neutral tinted Zebralight, then the Zebralight will seem quite yellow. Contrariwise, if I've been using the Zebralight and then pick up the HDS, then the HDS seems very blue.

Most LEDs on the market are going to be cool. I've been night-jogging and night-hiking with friends whose headlamps were cool, and it was a bit annoying having cool beams juxtaposed against my neutral beam. However, in all honesty, I even adapted to that in a matter of minutes. Further, my friends, none of whom are "into" flashlights, never mentioned the varying shades.

If you like the coolness of most LEDs, then I'd argue to just stick with that. If you've ever thought that LEDs look blue, then I'd guess you'd be a fan of neutral tints. From my perspective, cool tints look sort of unnatural, whilst neutral tints look natural.

Thanks for the further comments. To answer the recent questions, the main issue for me is the brightness. I have indeed thought most LED lights are too blue, and have noticed how they seem to suck the color out of everything. As such, if I could get the neutral light with the same output I'd absolutely go for it without question.

However, I suspect the 460NW is less than 460 as it claims. In principal, 500 to 460 doesn't seem like much as robo pointed out, but it sure is noticeable in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Z4D1-W94Qm0#t=384s

I wish there were some direct comparison beamshots. I've been trying to pull some screenshots from that video, but I can't quite get them lined up properly. This was as close a I could get:

I can't comment on the 460NW, but the 500CW that I have is actually very neutral, maybe almost too neutral. In fact it's probably one of the most yellowish LED lights that I own. At first I was a little disappointed because I was expecting a "whiter" tint, but in real world use I haven't had a problem with it. In fact, I'm starting to like it, when compared to some cool white tints, foilage just looks more real.

Regarding the brightness, I really, really doubt you will see much of a difference between 460 and 500 lumens. Even with the ST6, the difference between 320 (high) and 500 (turbo) isn't immediately noticeable unless you actively compare them side by side by toggling back and forth, and even then it's very slight. That's supposedly a 50% increase in brightness between the two modes and I still have trouble telling the two apart, it's much less than what your picture shows, at least to my eyes. So for all practical purposes, I would consider 460 and 500 equal brightness, the difference is mostly theoretical.

NathanF said:

However, I suspect the 460NW is less than 460 as it claims. In principal, 500 to 460 doesn't seem like much as robo pointed out, but it sure is noticeable in this video:

Click to expand...

that could be. i think it's also the fact that tan doesn't look as bright as white even if they are the same intensity, and a warm emitter is basically a slightly tanner version of a cool white emitter. using a cool white light is sort of like white washing your field of view. the white wash makes it look brighter than it would if everything was their natural color. granted the example is a pretty extreme one since cool white lights don't change color to that extent. i'm just trying to explain how the difference in color can look like a difference in brightness even if the brightness is about the same.

anyway, whether you get the CW or the NW version, i don't think you'll notice a big difference once you're actually using it. i think you'd be happy with either of them.

Go with the neutral already. The only thing I see in that picture is the beam angles on each light are different. Look at the shadows.

You can get different reflectors for the SD.

I wouldn't spend too much time overthinking this, no matter what light you buy it'll work just fine because you'll adapt to it. Just remember, people are climbing Everest with much less capable lights than either one one of these choices. The simple truth is no matter which light you get, sometimes you're still gonna want more throw, sometimes more flood, and you'll always want more light and a longer runtime.

I was wondering if the SD6-500CW would be good for trail running as well. However, I noticed that the weight on the SD6 is 75g vs. 50g for the ST6. I'm not sure what the difference would be with a reflector on the SD6.

Alright, alright, I'm convinced. Just placed my order for the ST6-460NW - will report back in this thread how I like it!

Thanks everyone for the comments.

I have been hiking for years in the dark, I prefer a flood, not a spot. I want to see the trail directly in front of me, where are feet going to step on, rocks, branches, etc. I don't know mainy trails that are nice and flat, without obstacles. A spot will show you the trail 20 feet ahead of you.

i didn't know anything about the trail to the summit of St Helens so i looked it up. i guess the last two miles is kind of a scramble? i think you made the right choice with the ST6 and i think you'll get the best results if you use the frosted lens that comes with it. that should give you a beam that has just enough throw to clearly illuminate your path and is also smooth and seamless which should make it easier to see variations in the terrain. i'd also pack a small thrower.

robostudent5000 said:

i didn't know anything about the trail to the summit of St Helens so i looked it up. i guess the last two miles is kind of a scramble? i think you made the right choice with the ST6 and i think you'll get the best results if you use the frosted lens that comes with it. that should give you a beam that has just enough throw to clearly illuminate your path and is also smooth and seamless which should make it easier to see variations in the terrain. i'd also pack a small thrower.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the extra research! Yes, the last part is fairly steep and largely composed of ash. Everything I've read says it's a "two steps forward, one step back" kind of a scramble. The diffuser may be very useful there, or maybe even all of it. I'm definitely going to do some night hiking beforehand to test everything out.

I received my ST6-460NW yesterday in the mail! I have some Redilast 3100's that I got a few days before, and have been testing it out.

My thoughts:

1) All my lights from now on are going to be neutral. At first it looked a bit weird on my white walls indoors, but after using it for more than a few minutes, all my other lights seem terribly blue/cool and "off" by comparison. Indoors and out it just looks better, and it seems like you can perceive more detail. So good call on that, everyone.

2) The brightness on this thing is incredible. It's so bright that even with the diffuser on it still gives you a giant 30-40ft illuminated space outdoors. I think I prefer it with the diffuser on infact, though I am very glad I did not get the SD6: removing the reflector results in an all too-floody light, where as the diffuser seems to give a perfect in between.

3) My only gripe is that the light flops a bit up and down (the whole thing on my head, not the light in the rubber mount - that is secure) so it would definitely not be joggable. However, that is true of any large light like this. For hiking and everything else it should be perfect.