mcjamison
Newly Enlightened
"Hello, I'm Jamie, and I'm a flashlightoholic."
Seriously, I'm delighted to have found these forums (fora?), and I've learned a lot from them and the pages that have been referenced here. Particular thanks go to Brock for his great pages and research.
I thought I'd "give back" a bit by sharing some comments of my own on a couple purchases I made recently.
"Illuminator" headlamp:
This 4-LED headlamp is on sale for $36.60 at http://www.theledlight.com/illuminator.html . When I'm camping, I much prefer a headlamp to a handheld light, but my conventional headlamps just always seemed to be going dim just when I wanted to so something important. Thus, I was attracted by the quoted 40-hour lifespan of the Illuminator. The light distribution is a reasonable one for a headlamp: a reasonably bright center (with a definite blue overtone), and a very smooth gradation toward the darker periphery, free of any rings or other distortions. I understand that this light is functionally equivalent to the Lightwave 2000.
I just compared it to the 2-AA REI headlamp that my wife uses, and with fresh batteries, the narrow central spot of the REI headlamp is certainly brighter, and better for illuminating things at a distance. But for close-up tasks (cooking, fussing with tents & sleeping bags, etc.), the center-weighted but more even light of the Illuminator ought to be more practical. I'm not sure how appetizing food will look in the cold blue of the LEDs, but I can always spark up the candle lantern
.
Weighing the two on my crude kitchen scale, the REI comes in an ounce lighter at 4oz, which I'm sure is due to the fact that it only takes 2 AA's.
The Illuminator, like the REI (made by Petzl, perhaps?), is turned on by slightly unscrewing the head unit from the base. Note that if it's turned off with only a slight twist, the light can still turn on with a small amount of pressure, and might still consume batteries if packed tightly. I'm going to try to build the habit of turning it off by at least a quarter turn.
My dream for an LED headlamp: give it 7 LEDs,
and a rotating switch that lets me turn on from 1 to 7 LEDs. I don't mind trading away some of the 40 hours of battery life for more light output, especially if I don't have to use it at full power all the time.
PAL Gold:
This seemed like a nifty little light, and I sprung a little extra for the PAL Gold (sometimes called the PAL Plus) for the promise of somewhat brighter output. I was disappointed to find that the light's very small central hot-spot was surrounded by a doughnut of utter darkness, before giving way to the somewhat lighted outer area. Following a tip on a web page I found through this forum, I dug out the light's lens with a blade and turned it around -- this, for me, improved the light's utility significantly, by broadening the central spot to about 2x its previous size, and moderating the dread doughnut of darkness. It's still an uneven overall beam, with some rings and other patterns.
For tasks like reading, I'm finding the central spot is still a bit too small. I've
been experimenting with diffusing the light, trying different thicknesses of white plastic bag material. This works reasonably well, and I might keep some with the light.
The "always on" feature seems useful. I found the "low" light setting a bit dim when using thin plastic as a diffuser, but maybe I didn't give my eyes enough time to adjust. The "high" setting is plenty bright for reading, even through the plastic.
I also bought the nylon holster for the PAL light. It holds the light in a simple pocket, reaching up only partway across the metal band in the middle of the light. It is difficult to pull the light out with one hand, as its rubber-like surface tends to grip the nylon and hold on, but if another hand is used to barely touch the holster while the first hand pulls, it comes out easily. I'm not sure how much confidence to have in this holster; I'd feel better if it had a looser fit but a velcro strap.
Comparing the beam of the two new LED lights, the Illuminator certainly seems to put out more overall light, and with a more useful spread for accomplishing any sort of task. The PALLight, though, even with its reversed lens, is brighter in the center, and more effective at illuminating distant objects.
www.TheLEDLight.com
This was my first transaction with this on-line merchant. I placed the order on-line late on a Sunday night, I received an e-mail confirmation that it had shipped on Monday, and the complete arrived at my office on Wednesday. Can't complain about that!
Photon Microlight
While I'm at it, I might as well share comments on a couple lights I've had for a while. Once a friend gave me one, I went out and bought about 6 of them to give to my wife, parents, and brothers, got a couple more friends to buy them (who also ended up equipping everyone else in their families), and have started convincing people at work to buy them, too. Suffice it to say, I recommend them highly, and think everyone should, at least, have a white Photon II on their keychain.
Krill Light
The Krill light, on the other hand, may not be for everyone. I really want to like this light, as it's well-engineered and uses a very novel technology. I bought the green Extreme model (the full 360 degree one, not the 180), and hoped it would be useful as a task light/area light as well as a marker. It really isn't quite bright enough for these jobs, though. You could read with it under your chin if you were highly motivated, but it doesn't add much brightness to my fairly large car-camping tent.
As a marker, though, it's terrific. I've hung it outside my tent so it's easy to find again in the dark, I've worn it around my neck and spun it from a string to help my party stick together in dark among the 20,000 people at Burning Man last year, and hung it from the neck of a dog we brought along on one camping trip (watching the krill bounce around as the invisible dog ran through the darkness was highly entertaining, and being able to see the dog's location helped us all to relax). While the 180 version may be brighter as a task light, it would be less useful for these sorts of applications, so I'm not sure I recommend going that route.
I have no complaints about the Krill's reliabity or toughness. It seems very well made, and is simple to operate.
As to whether I recommend it to other people: as with most things, it all depends on what you want to do with it. If you're thinking about it for ultralight backpacking as a long-battery-life task light, I'd recommend looking at an LED flashlight instead; while the Krill might do a reasonable job of lighting up a small tent, it won't be as much help when you're outside looking for a lost tent stake. For less weight-constrained settings like car camping, it can certainly come in handy. If it cost more like $15 rather than $30, it would be more of a no-brainer.
Cheers,
-- Jamie
Seriously, I'm delighted to have found these forums (fora?), and I've learned a lot from them and the pages that have been referenced here. Particular thanks go to Brock for his great pages and research.
I thought I'd "give back" a bit by sharing some comments of my own on a couple purchases I made recently.
"Illuminator" headlamp:
This 4-LED headlamp is on sale for $36.60 at http://www.theledlight.com/illuminator.html . When I'm camping, I much prefer a headlamp to a handheld light, but my conventional headlamps just always seemed to be going dim just when I wanted to so something important. Thus, I was attracted by the quoted 40-hour lifespan of the Illuminator. The light distribution is a reasonable one for a headlamp: a reasonably bright center (with a definite blue overtone), and a very smooth gradation toward the darker periphery, free of any rings or other distortions. I understand that this light is functionally equivalent to the Lightwave 2000.
I just compared it to the 2-AA REI headlamp that my wife uses, and with fresh batteries, the narrow central spot of the REI headlamp is certainly brighter, and better for illuminating things at a distance. But for close-up tasks (cooking, fussing with tents & sleeping bags, etc.), the center-weighted but more even light of the Illuminator ought to be more practical. I'm not sure how appetizing food will look in the cold blue of the LEDs, but I can always spark up the candle lantern
Weighing the two on my crude kitchen scale, the REI comes in an ounce lighter at 4oz, which I'm sure is due to the fact that it only takes 2 AA's.
The Illuminator, like the REI (made by Petzl, perhaps?), is turned on by slightly unscrewing the head unit from the base. Note that if it's turned off with only a slight twist, the light can still turn on with a small amount of pressure, and might still consume batteries if packed tightly. I'm going to try to build the habit of turning it off by at least a quarter turn.
My dream for an LED headlamp: give it 7 LEDs,
and a rotating switch that lets me turn on from 1 to 7 LEDs. I don't mind trading away some of the 40 hours of battery life for more light output, especially if I don't have to use it at full power all the time.
PAL Gold:
This seemed like a nifty little light, and I sprung a little extra for the PAL Gold (sometimes called the PAL Plus) for the promise of somewhat brighter output. I was disappointed to find that the light's very small central hot-spot was surrounded by a doughnut of utter darkness, before giving way to the somewhat lighted outer area. Following a tip on a web page I found through this forum, I dug out the light's lens with a blade and turned it around -- this, for me, improved the light's utility significantly, by broadening the central spot to about 2x its previous size, and moderating the dread doughnut of darkness. It's still an uneven overall beam, with some rings and other patterns.
For tasks like reading, I'm finding the central spot is still a bit too small. I've
been experimenting with diffusing the light, trying different thicknesses of white plastic bag material. This works reasonably well, and I might keep some with the light.
The "always on" feature seems useful. I found the "low" light setting a bit dim when using thin plastic as a diffuser, but maybe I didn't give my eyes enough time to adjust. The "high" setting is plenty bright for reading, even through the plastic.
I also bought the nylon holster for the PAL light. It holds the light in a simple pocket, reaching up only partway across the metal band in the middle of the light. It is difficult to pull the light out with one hand, as its rubber-like surface tends to grip the nylon and hold on, but if another hand is used to barely touch the holster while the first hand pulls, it comes out easily. I'm not sure how much confidence to have in this holster; I'd feel better if it had a looser fit but a velcro strap.
Comparing the beam of the two new LED lights, the Illuminator certainly seems to put out more overall light, and with a more useful spread for accomplishing any sort of task. The PALLight, though, even with its reversed lens, is brighter in the center, and more effective at illuminating distant objects.
www.TheLEDLight.com
This was my first transaction with this on-line merchant. I placed the order on-line late on a Sunday night, I received an e-mail confirmation that it had shipped on Monday, and the complete arrived at my office on Wednesday. Can't complain about that!
Photon Microlight
While I'm at it, I might as well share comments on a couple lights I've had for a while. Once a friend gave me one, I went out and bought about 6 of them to give to my wife, parents, and brothers, got a couple more friends to buy them (who also ended up equipping everyone else in their families), and have started convincing people at work to buy them, too. Suffice it to say, I recommend them highly, and think everyone should, at least, have a white Photon II on their keychain.
Krill Light
The Krill light, on the other hand, may not be for everyone. I really want to like this light, as it's well-engineered and uses a very novel technology. I bought the green Extreme model (the full 360 degree one, not the 180), and hoped it would be useful as a task light/area light as well as a marker. It really isn't quite bright enough for these jobs, though. You could read with it under your chin if you were highly motivated, but it doesn't add much brightness to my fairly large car-camping tent.
As a marker, though, it's terrific. I've hung it outside my tent so it's easy to find again in the dark, I've worn it around my neck and spun it from a string to help my party stick together in dark among the 20,000 people at Burning Man last year, and hung it from the neck of a dog we brought along on one camping trip (watching the krill bounce around as the invisible dog ran through the darkness was highly entertaining, and being able to see the dog's location helped us all to relax). While the 180 version may be brighter as a task light, it would be less useful for these sorts of applications, so I'm not sure I recommend going that route.
I have no complaints about the Krill's reliabity or toughness. It seems very well made, and is simple to operate.
As to whether I recommend it to other people: as with most things, it all depends on what you want to do with it. If you're thinking about it for ultralight backpacking as a long-battery-life task light, I'd recommend looking at an LED flashlight instead; while the Krill might do a reasonable job of lighting up a small tent, it won't be as much help when you're outside looking for a lost tent stake. For less weight-constrained settings like car camping, it can certainly come in handy. If it cost more like $15 rather than $30, it would be more of a no-brainer.
Cheers,
-- Jamie
