Myo 5 or Yukon HL

These are the two lights I'm looking at for my first headlamp. I'm not a lightweight back packer so I'd rather have the extra light over say the weight savings of a tekka but while looking for the brightest one I'm now stuck between these two.

The Yukon is cheaper and will have longer battery life, but is its bright LED as bright as the Myo's big light?

Anyone had a chance to compare these two yet?

I don't have either, although I have the regular Yukon. I seriously doubt the HL has anywhere near the throw of the incandescent in the regular one. I not sure what you mean by bright, though. Whether you mean total light output or throw.

Throw

thanks

Wonder if I could eventually mod one of them to use the LS's in place of the other LED's /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/evilgrin07.gif

In any even't I probably want one of them before there's going to be any feedback on the HL so I will probably just go with the Myo as I've seen plently of very possitive reviews on it.

Now to complete the lighting package I'd just need my night light as discussed in my other thread along with a small high output light and then something like the Blaze thing for a tent light/cooking light.

I have the MYO 3, same light, less LEDs but the incandescent in the same.

Its a pretty wimpy incandescent light. I find that my BD Gemini has a better incandescent but I do like the MYO's focus adjustment better. The LEDs are also better than the BD Gemini I have (one led version, newer ones have two).

If you need throw, the MYO really isn't all that compelling. I don't think it would be much better than my Arc LSH, truth be told. Based on that, the Yukon HL (that's the all LED one, right) probably puts out more useful light.

If you want throw, you should look for something else. I would bet, but haven't checked, that a Black Diamond light with the high bright bulb would be much better.


J

Hi,

I've visited this forum a few times which led to my ARC AAA purchases and was also looking for a headlamp for a backpacking trip at Big Bend National Park.

I was also was interested in the MYO but, liked the all LED design of the Yukon HL and purchased it at REI before the day before our trip. Let me just say that it I am very pleased with it. The areas where we camped were no fire zones so there was no campfire for lighting. Two of the nights we found ourselves in a zone camping area at night trying to find a campsite with only our headlamps to guide us.

My three friends all commented on how cool, powerful, and useful the PT Yukon HL was. One guy said it looked like the sun was out! The "dim" setting was really all that was necessary for just about everything around the campsite. The "bright" settingn was quite powerful and nice in that you could see far off and adjust the beam. The beam may be a bit on the purple side but that's ok with me. Nightime was in the 10's and the button wasn't the easiest to operate with gloves but it was manageble.

As a side note, during our trip, one of my fellow backpacker's headlamp broke the first night so I let him use my AAA-P clipped to his hat to substitute.

Also, after some research, I bought the Coleman Exponent Mini-Lantern for the trip. It was also another purchase I was very pleased with. It provided a nice ambient light around our camp area for us to do our cooking, eating, card playing, etc.

Thanks for the HL review

My main concnern is that if I were to get into trail running at night or possibly even biking I would be outriding the throw of the LED in the yukon. As for actually having something with high throw none of these are going to really de designed with that in mind as it would be over kill and waist batteries, so for that I will probably find myself a supped up minimag style light eventually.

Someone with experiance in both these headlamps would be great. If they are both recomended then I supose the yukon wins as it has a longer battery life and is chaper to boot.

One thing about it is that the LED's are all clustered in that lends while the myo has the LED's in the seperate array facing down. This sounds like it would put the light more where you need to me, but I haven't had a change to see a yukon up close yet so.

Yukon HL is by far the best headlamp I have under $100 for backpacking and camping. I have a few Petzl but not MYO. The only thing I would complain about HL is its way to switch mode. If its switching mode works like SwitchBack, I definitely get a few more HL.

However, I don't think either light is suitable for night biking.

Alan

I had the Myo 5 briefly. I don't recommend it. The LED's are great, nice beam and regulated. The Mainlamp however.....well flat out just sucked. For the price I expected a bit brighter light with less ugly rings.

I took it back after about a week. Got me a Petzl Tikka Plus and use a flashlight for an incandescent lamp. What we need is a beam like the SF P61 for about an hour runtime. That on the Myo 5 would be worth $100.

Well you're is the first negative review, but I suppose your coming from a flashlight collector's type view, all the others were from backpackers.


With most things (the printer/scanner comes to mind) if you make the product a combo it ends up being poor at any one given task and I suppose that could happen here as well.

Hi. I'm a park ranger in New Hampshire and use lots of headlights for SAR. DON'T BUY THE MYO. I returned it- the whole thing is hard to figure out in terms of which brightness you are on in the LED part, especially when you are as you often are somewhat hypothermic.

the PT Yukon is a far better light. Actually for most purposes their lighter and much simpler Matrix 2 is fine, the Yukon being somewhat brighter. If you are into trail running or Search and Rescue, one of the Niterider products or the far more expensive Lupine Edison headlight are needed, although I have to say I can move pretty fast with dark adapted eyes, as I did the night before last, with just the Matrix 2, when the snow is on the ground and conditions are just right. I would have to say that the ultimate combo, if you don't want to spend the money on a Niterider, which I don't recommend, or a Lupine, which is really meant for nite-bikers and SAR, is the following:

a. a Matrix 2- very easy to use, 2 batts, bright spot
b. a Petzl Tikka Plus (so our Petzl rep won't kill me over what I said about the Myo, just kidding) more of a flood and long battery life.

You can put them both on very easily- no over the head strap to untangle, just around the head. One, the Matrix, on top for views ahead of you on the trail, and two, the Tikka, pointing down, to light up your trail right ahead of your feet. That's unbeatable and has the advantage that both are LEDs, both have long lives, and the Tikka even after the night is over can carry on with slightly less light if you are going into your second night without replacement batteries for some reason.

I used an older Tikka on a climb to 20,000 feet in the Andes a few years ago. It was just fine. Turned it on when leaving the tent at 11pm, and lit up the glacier ahead of me just fine until twilight at 6am. Funny thing was, I FORGOT TO TURN OFF THE LIGHT. The next night I went out for a second attempt, and noticed that it was still turned on, strapped across my helmet. It looked bright enough and the nearest AAA batteries were who knows where, so I just said to heck with it and climbed again and no problems, it lit up the crevasses, climbing route, etc. I turned it off when I realized it was still on after coming back at 10am. Still used it until I got to a town that had AAAs for a few more days but didn't climb on it. POINT: Great backup all purpose light, the Tikka, and I assume the Tikka Plus as well.

First, just to make sure, when you say Yukon are you refering to the incandecant model or the HL?

The two headlamps sounds a bit overkill but it sounds like if you could rig the HL to run both settings at once you could get the same effect, Don't know if the batteries can power both at once like that though.

HL allows you to light up either Luxeon or 5mm LED at a time, not both together.

Alan

I was referring to the HL.

I just recommend the 2 headlights if I'm uncertain about footing, on icy conditions, etc. It turns out given the very light weight of both units you really don't notice wearing both, and it gives you far more control than the Myo, in which you have to choose LED vs Halogen, and you can't pick two different angles- one farther away for the spot and one lighting your path right in front of you. Both angle up and down very well. If your conditions allow you can use the Tikka only; if you need extra light you can add or switch to the Matrix 2. I would say unless you were running really fast over treacherous terrain that this combo would work in 99% of either hiking or climbing situations. With the Tikka it works in the cold because the AAAs are sitting on your forehead being heated by it. WIth the Matrix if it gets really cold, you can use it with easy to get Lithium AAs, but it also sits on top of your head and therefore works well even with alkalines in the cold.

The whole 2 headlight thing is used a lot on rescues where you need to be able to light up a trail ahead of you but close by with a litter crew you want low light so that people can preserve their night vision and look at the footing or the patient in the litter. With the combo described above it's only 2 straps and is very easy to use- less adjustment in fact than most other headlight systems.

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Jerimoth said:...With the Tikka it works in the cold because the AAAs are sitting on your forehead being heated by it. WIth the Matrix if it gets really cold, you can use it with easy to get Lithium AAs, but it also sits on top of your head and therefore works well even with alkalines in the cold...

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Hmmm. Never thought about that. Last time I used a headlamp when it was real cold was with my Moonlight in the high peaks area of the Adirondacks. It was 15 below, but I didn't notice any problems. Maybe it helped to have the batteries in back, tucked under a hat and neck gaiter. Interesting.

I was under the impression lithium does not have cold issues. Tapking a glove warmer on the pack would probably work too if you have trouble with this.

OK gues here's what we need.
We take some carbon fiber and mold a trianlge shape that bends back with the curve of the forehead and has room inside for all the parts.

6 nice bight LED's at the bottom where its widest point down are your feet. in the middle, 2 LS's pointing further ahead with their own indemenant switch. Then at the peack an adjustable orange peel cone witha big honkin xeon bulk again with its own switch.

Add lawn mower battery to the back to help with ballance and you're go.

Moding the HL to work both lights at once sounds like it would be nice for night hiking but I think as is for general camping I can mangae with the one set of lights. Still think I will back it up with a nice incandecent at some point anyway.

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GQGeek81 said:
I was under the impression lithium does not have cold issues. Tapking a glove warmer on the pack would probably work too if you have trouble with this.


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You are correct lithium's do perform well in the cold. Jerimoth was mentioning cold is a problem with AAA's, which currently are not available as lithium. Rumor has it that Energizer is going to start to produce AAA Lithium's later this year.

I see

It seams to me that if your going to use this stuff ALOT then it might prove usefull to (if not going rechargable) rig up something to allow your device to take the surefire lithiums (which seam pretty cheap) and regulate it to the desired voltage your device would normally use.

My negative review of the Myo 5 is because of how much it cost. It's a great light for $39.99 or so. But for $70 I expected a better mainlamp.

I have used the Petzl Duo for a year or so and absolutely love it. It's approximately the same size as the MYO. The original came with 3LED's, and I've since upgraded to EIGHT LED's. Excellent light. You have the option of three seperate LED light levels (great feature). The best feature, is that when you first turn on the LED's, it defaults to the MID LED setting, and not the brightest LED setting.

Although it is a little big, and difficult to wear with a hat, the flexibility and brightness make this my favorite headlamp.

I have used the Petzl Duo for a year or so and absolutely love it. It's approximately the same size as the MYO. The original came with 3LED's, and I've since upgraded to EIGHT LED's. Excellent light. You have the option of three seperate LED light levels (great feature). The best feature, is that when you first turn on the LED's, it defaults to the MID LED setting, and not the brightest LED setting.

Although it is a little big, and difficult to wear with a hat, the flexibility and brightness make this my favorite headlamp.