I picked up a Black Diamond Supernova from REI outlet about 2 months ago. I had it shipped to REI store, so I didn't have to pay shipping charges, or any sales tax either.
General purpose? Get something with LEDs for longrun times. If I didn't need looooong throw at times on the job..I think the Princeton Tec Aurora or Petzl Tikka would be just fine and affordable as well!
I looked at a Black Diamond Zenix...but didn't like the beam on the Luxeon (a bit too much of that pea green corona for me) or the 2 5mm LEDs.
Oh...and that new Princeton Tec Corona is looking pretty good too (for general purpose).
Anyone have any reason for this closeout? For example, I'm interesting in the BD Super Nova headlamp, but does the fact that REI has them on closeout hit that BD is updating that model?
John N, the Supernova on clearance is an earlier version, it has 1 led instead of 2 that the current model has. I mostly wanted it for the incandescent function, so I can live without the 2nd led. I think that 2 leds are more useful if someone is going to use the light mostly in led mode.
I ordered the BD Supernova, but didnt know it was the older version... No where on the site did it say that. Hope I wont be disappointed with the single LED vs the dual LEDs...
This is the full price version Item # 7703602 and This is the discounted one. Item # 708562. Looking at the halflife brightness on the LEDs, they are the same... If one had 1 LED vs 2 LEDs, wouldnt one be brighter? Something's screwy with their info.
You can't take REI's lighting info too seriously, I think they try to be accurate, but the data doesn't seem to match. They mention testing led lights at 1 foot instead of 3 like the incandescent lights. Also they don't take beam angle into account in their ratings.