Anyone got any ideas how SILVA perform as head lamps compared to Petzl ???
Checking out Silva site and the range is massive with some big headlamps !!!!
Ideas welcome
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Anyone got any ideas how SILVA perform as head lamps compared to Petzl ???
Checking out Silva site and the range is massive with some big headlamps !!!!
Ideas welcome
i use various headlamps during the colder months as i find my petzl 5 led and main beam headlamp drains fairly quickly..
Eventually you'll see the light...I Hope;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Penguin
Let's HOPE our forum friends see the VISION eh Wharfee..;)Quote:
Originally Posted by wharfeego
Did you ever find it Stick?
No...:(...so had to get another.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ady In Accy
The sort of mistake you only make once...:o
...at least, that's what Mrs Stick said to me when I told 'er...:eek:
Mind, I do have 2 chargers now so if anyone leaves their charger on top of the car...:D
BB The big Silva 480/478 quartzhalogen orienteering head torches are good, but even with the 9Ah NiMH battery option on th 10w bulb, you only have 7 or 8 hours of useable light and only half of that if you are on the 20w bulb. Half those figures again if you are on the lightweight/compact 4.5Ah battery. Okay for a typical night orienteering event or evening run, but no good if you are likely to be out all night on 'winter B.G.' support duties! Admittedly at double the price (mainly due to the cutting edge Li-Ion batteries), the new Petzl Ultra will outshine the Silvas and give double or more the useable charge duration. As for the Silva 3 & 5 W hyper-bright LED lamps, one of the Bowland Bats had loads of trouble with his, which I reported on here 12 months ago. 'Joe' reckoned that I was being alarmist, went ahead and bought one. He had exactly the same problem!:eek:Quote:
Originally Posted by BLUEBIKE
Main problem with the Hope headtorches, that the Wharfedale Owls get excited about, is that the beam is too 'tight' despite there being plenty of range; and there is no wide beam option - similar for the Petzl XP's, using the 'diffuser' merely dissipates the light to an almost unuseable level. Once again, with the Hope, the charge duration on the battery prevents it from being an 'all night' light.
I've just bought a Black Diamond 'Icon' - 3w focussed hyper-bright LED 'spotlamp' plus 4x standard super bright LED's. Full whack on either option (each has 3 power settings) allows for 2 full winter nights on 3xAA batts.
R.R.P. is £49.99, Ultimate Outdoors have them at £39.99, and I got 10% off against my 2008 YHA card - £35.99;) They would have given me 10% against this year's FRA card, but my 'current' FRA card is dated 2007.
The Princeton Tec 'Apex' is a similar format to the 'Icon'.:rolleyes:
Cheers for that top resume of all things head torch! The Black Diamond looks likely to me - any probs' with the head mounted battery pack??? head wobble and all??!!
Price not too bad either..
BB - No more wobble than any of the Petzl 'back of the head' battery packs as on the Myo range. Used it on Leg 5 of Baggins' BG to good effect, 2 weeks ago.
:eek: The vision 4 certainly hasn't got a 'tight' beam!! The Ambleside Owls are still testing 3 Hope torches and all three are on various Xmas wish lists already! (I'm in trouble for making folk want to spend money¬:rolleyes:)Code:
Main problem with the Hope headtorches, that the Wharfedale Owls get excited about, is that the beam is too 'tight' despite there being plenty of range
Britta, fair comment, I was making reference to the one's that were around last winter - just 2 leds. How long does the battery last now that they are running 4 hyperbright leds? And what is the cost?:eek::eek:
It's all still being tested - we're thorough like that :D (to be revealed soon)Quote:
How long does the battery last now that they are running 4 hyperbright leds?
Must say i even like the vision 1 torch a lot - very simple, very bright, easy to carry replacement batteries...
Only complaint so far is that even the brightest torches wont show you the 'right' way - we still get lost :rolleyes:
Hi - Any comment on the suitability of the Vision 1 for belting down unlit lanes on a road bike? I'd guess pretty good. Do you think it would be up to a bit of offroad? (Can't be worse than my old halogens, with their artistic smudge of brown light...)Quote:
Originally Posted by Britta
Really like the look of the Hope 4, apart from the price tag of course ;-)
I'm probably the wrong person to ask as i wouldn't belt down any hill on a bike even in bright day light as i'm a bit scared BUT would think the vision 1 would give pretty good light!Quote:
Any comment on the suitability of the Vision 1 for belting down unlit lanes on a road bike? I'd guess pretty good. Do you think it would be up to a bit of offroad?
One big plus is that they all come with bike & helmet mounts in the box!!!
The Vision 4 has already been tested for off road mountain biking and the reports back are pretty inspiring! (Torch has gone on holiday under the pretext of testing battery life ;))
Woaaah! Let's not forget that we are just doing a spot of night fellrunning here. In the words of Monkeynut - "How much light do you need??"
The biggest difficulty with winter night fellrunning is thick clag, and the headtorch that can dissipate that has not yet been invented! :rolleyes:
The Grand Bat of The Bowlands
Sensible words Trundler. What is your recommendation for lighting up a spot of night fellrunning? Or is this something you're not to be drawn into for fear of knowing that it is actually unanswerable. "A torch" maybe?Quote:
Originally Posted by Trundler
Seems to me purchases such as these are always a compromise (doesn't it feel the same with all gear?). How about a 5Bs review of Brightness, Battery, Build, Bulk, Budget. 4 points for each category, best out of twenty wins the Forum's Fellrunning Light of the Year (FLOY) award given out in early October each year, so that we can all either buy a new light (again) or add it to our christmas lists.
I'll offer some fell running specific criteria for grading (which will no doubt be contentious in themselves), but I'm happy for some subjectivity to come into this.
Brightness - 4 Wiiiide and looong.....1 I can just about see my shoes
(we could "Lumens" this criterion 4 >100, 3 >75, 2 >50, 1 <50
Battery (full power only) - 4 > 4 hours, 3 >3 hours, 2 >2 hours 1 fading at 1 hour or so.
Build - 5 Will take chucking against rocks, plenty of mounting options....1 out of a cheap cracker
Bulk (including batteries) - 4 Under 200g 3 under 250g 2 under 350 1 >350
Budget - 4 Under 50 quid, 3 <100, 2 <200 1 how much?
Nice idea for the scores but for the brightness if you actualy wanted lumens then your lumens scale needs some tweaking because of the way you actualy percive light. I would go with somthing like 1 < 125, 2 125-250, 3 250-500, 4 500+.
I would also add a buttons (features but I cant think of a better B) section 1 on/off, 2 multi level, 3 multi level + wide or narrow etc. 4 all sorts of stuff like battery protection thermal protection etc.
So here are my scores for some lights I have.
IforCode:Name, Brightness, Battery, Build, Bulk, Budget, Buttons
PT Apex (upgraded) 2 3 4 2 3 3
BD Spot 1 3 2 4+ 4 2
BD Ion .5 3 3 4++ 4 2
Home Made 4led 4 2 1 2 3 4
Quote:
Originally Posted by ifor
Thanks Ifor. Your expert eye on this (and from the posts here and elsewhere I know you've spent some time exploring the details) is a welcome addition. With the lumens thing I understand the issue. I used those numbers based on the brightness of lights fellrunners are likely to use from what's available as opposed to the brightest we could have. Your homemade version is "out there" on lumens but I doubt many FLOY contenders would be getting a 4 on your scale. I am happy to be persuaded otherwise. "Buttons" is good. I'd thought of "Build" as encompassing a wide range of features (I was just forcing the "B" thing), but we can split it up. The total is now 24 and not 20 then. Let's see what others think.
As well as agreeing on the criteria do we want to propose some contenders? Maybe lights that are readily available in the UK and can be sensibly used for nighttime fellrunning? From yours maybe the PT Apex would make the list?
This could just turn out to be THE light thread of light threads. And as we've been told:
there are a few out there.Quote:
Originally Posted by nobbut a lad
I'm a fan of the 14LED Petzl Duo. I'm not a fan of scoring systems because they are always unfair in some way but I'll have a stab.....
Brightness (3) No idea of the lumens but it gives a good flood of light just where you need it for running.
Battery (3) I've never tested it exhaustively but four AA rechargeables seem to last quite a few hours (overnight wnen I've been trying to run them down for recharging!). A charger is dirt cheap and the batteries will recharge 1000 times, so thats 20 years if I charge them weekly!
Build (4) this is a bullet-proof lamp. Built for the rigours of caving.
Bulk (2) it's a bit bulkier and heavier than some but you don't really notice that once it's on the head.
Budget (3) It's between £80 and £90 depending where you get it.
Buttons (4) simple twist switch for the LEDs (twist once, twice or three times for the three settings) with a locking tab and a simple zoom control for the Halogen or Luxeon LED.
So, my 6Bs score for the Duo14 is 19 out of 24. I don't think anything is realistically going to get 24 because, as we know, everything is a compromise. ;)
Ifor,Quote:
Originally Posted by ifor
You quote the BD Ion(just a low powered back-up light), what about the BD Icon - a similar 3w hyperbright + 4x superbright LED format as the PT Apex.
It seems silly of BD to have 2 names in their range that can so easily be confused by omitting just one letter.:rolleyes:
I've looked on PT's website but cannot see the new upgraded Apex, which was forecast some 6 months ago.
Or is your upgrade a "Candle Power Forums' Special"?
Yes I was refering to a personal upgrade. You do not need much skill with a soldering ion to do it and it makes a very nice differance.
Yes I meant the Ion not the icon. The new one is quite respectable and is a very good backup light to keep in your first aid kit and a good MM light so long as you don't expect to be out in the dark. If I was expecting to be out in the dark for a MM then the Spot is very nice, I have mountain biked with it and on fresh batteries its remarkably good. I see there being quite a few different catagories you can split based on weight eg <50g <100g < 200g. Once my MCE's come I am going to try and make somthing < 200g with one. it should be possible so long as you dant expect full power when your standing still.
Ifor
I'm gonna go for the BD ICON.....I could go bonkers with the range and compromises! does anyone know if you can put the battery pack onto waist bag/backsac??
Maybe Ifor has ideas??
Cheers for advice etc
BB, I've not seen that option. But I don't find the 'back of the head' battery pack any trouble at all. My previous h/t was an original Lucido Coolight 7, where the 3xAA battery pack was on your forhead, with the lamp head attached to the battery pack. the Icon feels a lot more balanced.:D If you are a 'handy lad' then cutting and extending the lead should be well within scope. In 7 or 8 years time, when my Icon is very bruised and battered, I might well explore that option. Whilst it is brand spankers, I just intend enjoying it in its pristine original condition.
As Petzl realised a long time ago, if you put the battery pack on the back of the head and the light unit on the front (obvious really :D) then you end up with a good balance.
My Duo is probably at the heavier end of the scale with its robust build and 4x AA cells but once the thing is on your head you really don't notice the weight of the battery pack at all.
I think the long wires and batteries in a pocket or - even worse - on a belt are an unneccessary complication until you get to the seriously weighty battery pack of the Silva 480 or similar.