LED Headwear

Hello all, first timer here. I currently use headlighting in my parking lot striping business for night work. As a newbie to the lampwear I bought a cheapo unit and experience the rings & holes that are troublesome for my use. Will the all LED lighting eliminate my rings and holes woes? Or is it the type of reflector? To sum it up, I am looking for a headlight with the absolute minimum "ring & hole".

Welcome to CPF!

A headlamp with multiple LEDs will give you a nice close range flood light without holes in the beam. Something like a Princeton Tec Corona or a Streamlight Septor

Thanks Hoghead. The Septor is at the top of my list so far. Batteries up front w/out the wires to the back. My current headwear has a tendancy to come unplugged, then your fumbling around in the dark...

I like the Energizer 2white/1 red led 3xAAA at WalMart for about $12. The white LEDs have a sort of lens that give a good clear spot with a little spill. The red provides plenty of light for night walk, reading, etc. I've tried several more expensive headlamps and find these the best suited for what I do (my vision is failing and I need directed light for almost everything). I've got 5 of them stashed around in different places.

I just bought a LedLenser 3 white LED (also at WalMart, the ultimate source) for $24. This seems like it will be a great headlight for the workbench. Has a really bright, white spot with some usable flood. It does have the batt pack on the rear of the headband but it seems very well put together.

I don't know if it's as bright as you want, but a light like the Black Diamond Moonlight will give you a "no holes" beam and last nearly forever on a set of batteries. They're a good "starter headlamp" too since they're not expensive (<$20). I really like mine.

Walmart has a 3LED headlamp that runs on 3AAA batteries for less than $8 that puts out a fairly smooth light. Multiple Leds have a tendency to have smooth beams.

I'm fairly happy with my 7-LED Streamlight headlamp. It's switchable between 1, 3 and 7 LEDs. I wind up working in a lot of dark equipment closets and this really makes a big difference.

The only issue is that it seems to suffer from a little bit of battery fatigue when I turn on all 7 LEDs. I think it cost me around $35 from Brightguy.

I've seen a 1-watt Luxeon headlamp at Galyan's for somewhere around $30.00. I've been toying with picking one up, but it's hard to justify since my Streamlight works fine.

I just received a 4 LED Petzl Zipka from CountyComm, and I'm so pissed at myself for fumbling around with regular flashlights for so long when working on computers.

When not in use, the Zipka is little bigger than a single D battery, perfect for toolkits. 3AAA + 3 power levels too. Top power level compares to an Inova X5, the lowest to the Ultra-G which I got in the same order. My only knock is the fairly heavy blue cast to the LED's.

Currently on special at CC for about $30.

tikka plus- very nice

This thread has a great discussion about the "best" headlamp out there. Maybe it'll help.

Thanks for adding the other thread Greeenled! Good stuff. I have about twenty hrs on the Streamlight Septor, LED is much better lighting than my conventionals. No rings, I like it alot. I do need something that is a combination I believe. I still need to have the option of seeing farther out there and switching from one headlight to another is just not that practical. Thanks to all here, this site is such a trip! Love it...

Tryere the PT Yukon HL. It has (3) 5mm LED's for wide beam and (1) 1 watt Luxeon for throw. This takes 3 AA batteries that goes behind the head. It is neither the lightest nor the heaviest out there. It falls somewhere in the middle, but should run a little longer than lights with only two batteries. I've used five different headlamps including ones already mentioned, and my favorites are the Yukon HL and the Petzl Zipka Plus which is very light. Hope this helps.

The Black Diamond Gemini has two kinds of incandescent bulbs and two 5mm white LEDs (28,300mcd on the LEDs), which might be appropriate here.
I have a web page about it right here if you're interested.

I am still trying to get used to the almost blue light of the LED's! I am positive now that I will have to get dual bulb types to be satisfied. LED is very trick, but does not have the "throw", if I am using that term correctly! Hehe. The black diamond has a unique reflector, does that help reduce rings? Thanks, to all for the great info here.
My hats off to you, Ross