I was thinking of picking up a new headlamp for hunting, looking at the Petzl TacTikka +. Anyone use this that can offer a review or suggest others to look at?
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Lots of people love Black Diamond, and they are definitely great lights.
I like Zebralight 18650 headlamps due to their capacity and max/min brightness. ZL H600d MkIV 18650 High-CRI is a really bright 1600 lumens on high and is high CRI, so colors appear more natural. Low is so low you preserve your night vision (even though not a red LED) and lasts from 17 days to 5 months, depending on how you configure it. High lasts up to 5 hours (stepping down to about 300 lumens after a few minutes; medium lasts 13 hours to 7 days.
It's programmable over three presets with 12 brightness levels available for each preset. Weight is 1.4 oz empty, 3 oz with battery, and 4.2 oz including the headstrap. Contrast this with the Black Diamond Icon 500, which has about the same amount of energy capacity. It's 10.6 oz, 2/3 of a pound on your head, and puts out 1/3 the lumens of the Zebralight. Petzl TacTikka+ is 3 ounces, but energy capacity is half for non-rechargeable batteries and less than 1/3 energy capacity using rechargeable batteries. Max brightness is about 20% of the Zebralight. You aren't likely to find a lighter, more efficient light in this battery configuration than the Zebralight.
18650 cells can pack over 3500 amp hours (10 watt hours or about equal to 4 rechargeable AAs) , don't leak, and are available all over the place (especially since the rise of vaping). I like the ZL because they are very robust, efficient, super compact/lightweight, and have awesomely low moonlight modes. Lots of choices on beam shape as well. No red led is a drawback, but the low setting is so low it helps maintain night vision. Pros outweigh cons for my needs.
I like Zebralight 18650 headlamps due to their capacity and max/min brightness. ZL H600d MkIV 18650 High-CRI is a really bright 1600 lumens on high and is high CRI, so colors appear more natural. Low is so low you preserve your night vision (even though not a red LED) and lasts from 17 days to 5 months, depending on how you configure it. High lasts up to 5 hours (stepping down to about 300 lumens after a few minutes; medium lasts 13 hours to 7 days.
It's programmable over three presets with 12 brightness levels available for each preset. Weight is 1.4 oz empty, 3 oz with battery, and 4.2 oz including the headstrap. Contrast this with the Black Diamond Icon 500, which has about the same amount of energy capacity. It's 10.6 oz, 2/3 of a pound on your head, and puts out 1/3 the lumens of the Zebralight. Petzl TacTikka+ is 3 ounces, but energy capacity is half for non-rechargeable batteries and less than 1/3 energy capacity using rechargeable batteries. Max brightness is about 20% of the Zebralight. You aren't likely to find a lighter, more efficient light in this battery configuration than the Zebralight.
18650 cells can pack over 3500 amp hours (10 watt hours or about equal to 4 rechargeable AAs) , don't leak, and are available all over the place (especially since the rise of vaping). I like the ZL because they are very robust, efficient, super compact/lightweight, and have awesomely low moonlight modes. Lots of choices on beam shape as well. No red led is a drawback, but the low setting is so low it helps maintain night vision. Pros outweigh cons for my needs.
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Just picked up a Zebralight for ice fishing after my Princeton Tec failed due to rain.
Not too many headlamps are actually water proof.
So far it’s been great, only had it for 2 weeks.
Seems like it’s built to last, aluminum construction and uses only 1 AA.
I went with the recommended eneloop rechargeables.
Unit is adjustable and the on off switch is really easy to turn on/off since it’s just a push button.
I was hoping I could find one that was built in the USA, but I couldn’t find one.
Not too many headlamps are actually water proof.
So far it’s been great, only had it for 2 weeks.
Seems like it’s built to last, aluminum construction and uses only 1 AA.
I went with the recommended eneloop rechargeables.
Unit is adjustable and the on off switch is really easy to turn on/off since it’s just a push button.
I was hoping I could find one that was built in the USA, but I couldn’t find one.
I have been fixing airliners for over 3 decades, I have been through a lot of headlights, the Zebra lights are very nice, and very bright, but cost too much IMHO, I still use a Zebra SC600 but I found a Wowtac headlight on Amazon for 23 bucks, I like how the battery charger is built into the battery, just plug in a droid charger.
Recently picked up a nebo headlight. Pretty bright and runs on aaa batteries...and it's not expensive
I have had about 10 different kinds. Black Diamond for sure. Does Red, Blue, Green. Controls are easy and intuitive, and the batteries last a long time.
inb4 some obese highspeed mall cop tries to justify why his blemished facebook PVS-14 rig is necessary for hunting.
Also, i wear a wowtac a2 headlamp when I go hunting/camping. It's $30 on amazon, waterproof, cold resistant, and the battery is USB rechargeable. Charge lasts almost 4 hours on the highest setting. downside is that a spare battery will be hard to come by.
Also, i wear a wowtac a2 headlamp when I go hunting/camping. It's $30 on amazon, waterproof, cold resistant, and the battery is USB rechargeable. Charge lasts almost 4 hours on the highest setting. downside is that a spare battery will be hard to come by.
I have a couple long used Petzl headlamps. Been using different ones of theirs and Black Diamond for 25+ yrs.
the Tikka series work great. Have used from hunting, camp, dawn patrol backcountry skiing, approaches to big climbs.
For big mountaineering (hours of technical work and dangerous route finding in the dark) I might go for a brighter light.
Havent needed otherwise.
the Tikka series work great. Have used from hunting, camp, dawn patrol backcountry skiing, approaches to big climbs.
For big mountaineering (hours of technical work and dangerous route finding in the dark) I might go for a brighter light.
Havent needed otherwise.
Black Diamond Storm: 4x AAA, R/G/B, flood, spot, with dimming, o-ring seal, and switch lockout. I've been using these for a few years. BD keeps eeking out new features so I keep buying the new ones. Current model is 400 lumens. Best lightweight headlamp ever IMO.
Streamlight is making headlamps that use USB-charged Lithium Polymer Cell battery, haven't tried one of those yet; I really like their ProTac 2LX USB handheld for EDC.
Not seeing a Modlite headlamp ... yet.
Streamlight is making headlamps that use USB-charged Lithium Polymer Cell battery, haven't tried one of those yet; I really like their ProTac 2LX USB handheld for EDC.
Not seeing a Modlite headlamp ... yet.
My teammate and I both run the Petzl NAO in the SAC (36 hour adventure race/sniper comp). Rechargable, and plenty bright for land nav. We carry a spare battery, but rarely use it. I'd say they run 8 hours on a charge the way we use them. Spendy for sure.
Thanks to everyone for the advice, I ended up going with the Tactikka +. I like the red light feature for night hunting.
