Headlamp search - knobs, flood, and AA or CR123

Hi, I am looking for a headlamp:

Uses
- camping, general use
- very good color rendering for around the house uses
- no caving or rock climbing
- Nice if it is reasonably water resistant to a fall into puddles or a pool

Beam
- flood beam mostly, beam perfection is nice, but not over riding concern
- 2- 3 settings lo / med / high
- 100 lumens or so is enough on high, more is fine.
- Color rendering is more important than brightness

Knobs and settings
- ideally change settings with a knob like a petzl for the simple use
- really prefer that it comes on in "low" rather than "high"
- nor really into programming settings unless it is super easy

Battery
- Really do not want AAA
- Prefer AA or CR123, kind of like CR123
- Still debating about need for R type or not, it isn't a priority

Users
- It would be nice to be able to buy several for my own use and for family members

Price
- Definitely under $100
- It would be nice to be closer to the $50-60 range or less.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Princeton Tech
- appear to mostly be clicky based
- Is it correct that it turns on in the "high" setting first?

Petzl Pixa
- Available in CR123 version
- A little large, ok for me, possibly too large for my daughter
- Lumens numbers appear pretty low, even for 1, 2, and 3 version.

Zebra light H32Fw CR123 Floody Headlamp Neutral White

- More or less meets beam and battery use
- Has a clicky, which is harder for some family members to use
- The instructions indicate that it turns on in "high" mode, which is exactly what I don't want
- Otherwise, nice looking headlamp

The recently discontinued Surefire Minimus Vision meets all your criteria if you can find someone willing to sell you a used one. The new ones were more than $100 and it is almost impossible to find a new one now at any price. The replacement Minimus 300 Vision from Surefire (exact name unknown) is now 2 months overdue. I don't know how much it will cost or when it will be available. The rechargeable Vision that is available now is way expensive, 450 lumens and $275 list.

I really like my zl h502w L2, perfect headlamp.

Tre_Asay said:

I really like my zl h502w L2, perfect headlamp.

Click to expand...

Assuming that a clicky switch is ok, will it always turn on in "low" mode and progress brighter as you click?

HarryN said:

Assuming that a clicky switch is ok, will it always turn on in "low" mode and progress brighter as you click?

Click to expand...

Zebralight's UI mitigates concerns over which mode comes on first...
-- Long click turns it on in Low
-- Double-click turns it on in Med
-- Quick click turns it on in High

... and Low, Med, and High modes can be easily adjusted between two, alternate brightness settings by double-clicking when on in that mode.

Once the headlamp is on, the modes can be cycled by holding down the button, and they cycle Low = > Med => High => back to Low again, etc.

Obviously there is a slight learning curve for the uninitiated to get the hang of the UI. I really like it, and find it's intuitive once you know how it works... but if you just hand it to someone without explanation, they are likely to turn it on in high with a single click right off the bat. Since you wrote that you wanted to give them to family members, that might be a concern.

Also, while many here think the premium is well worth it, Zebralights are not the least expensive choice when compared to Petzl and Princeton Tech.

Thats true, I used to think it was crazy to spend over $70 on a flashlight and now I am not likely to buy many that are less than $100
(tiny flashlights aside)

One thing I would reccomend is a very hi cri LED, as it makes a huge difference outdoors.

ronniepudding said:

Zebralight's UI mitigates concerns over which mode comes on first...
-- Long click turns it on in Low
-- Double-click turns it on in Med
-- Quick click turns it on in High

... and Low, Med, and High modes can be easily adjusted between two, alternate brightness settings by double-clicking when on in that mode.

Once the headlamp is on, the modes can be cycled by holding down the button, and they cycle Low = > Med => High => back to Low again, etc.

Obviously there is a slight learning curve for the uninitiated to get the hang of the UI. I really like it, and find it's intuitive once you know how it works... but if you just hand it to someone without explanation, they are likely to turn it on in high with a single click right off the bat. Since you wrote that you wanted to give them to family members, that might be a concern.

Also, while many here think the premium is well worth it, Zebralights are not the least expensive choice when compared to Petzl and Princeton Tech.

Click to expand...

Thank you for that answer. Unfortunately that is exactly what I am trying to avoid - fancy clicking required to operate. For me it would be ok, but for some of the users it is a no - go.

IMHO, that is the primary benefit of the Petzl knob approach - very simple operation.

Price is a factor, but it is secondary in the decision, unless it is over $100, for this many users, it is too much.

I used to think that high end flashlights were too expensive, so I started to design and build my own. For what I spent, I could have a really nice collection of high end lights.

^ Zebralights do many things well, but simplicity is not really their defining characteristic.

Since you build your own lights, I presume your requirements are well considered. Unfortunately I don't know of anything that meets them all. But focusing on simplicity, the Foursevens Atom AL is a dead-simple, 2-mode progressive twisty that runs on 1 X CR123, and fits into a comfortable headband with a magnet. Was just thinking of it because the reflector version is on sale for $20 (+$15 for the headband). The main weakness for your purposes is that it doesn't come in high CRI.

Thanks for the leads. I agree with you that I need to open up about some aspect of the light. I was also thinking about the idea of using a small conventional CR123 cell light and putting it into head band. Some of those have the LED mounted on stars, so a swap out is pretty straight forward.

There are Petzl 1s on the market for under $30. The LED mount is not ideal, but maybe I can strip it out and play? Maybe I will hand a few out to family members and see how creative they are about LED replacement.