The definitive headtorch post

[wheezing donkey]

Edam, to obtain the necessary light output and obtain both a spotlamp pencil beam and a floodlamp wide beam simultaneously these top end head torches use a multiple array of hyperbright L.E.D.s - some will be lensed as spotlamps and the remainder as floodlamps. In the case of the Petzl Ultra it is 6x 3W, the Hope Vision 4 uses 4x 3 or 5W. Thus you are looking at a power consumption of 12 - 20 W. Standard dry cell batteries to supply this demand would be prohibitively heavy and very short lived, hence both of these manufacturers resort to using Lithium Ion (Li-Ion) batteries which are still in their infancy ( relatively speaking) and require very careful recharging - hence a fairly sophisticated charger which is included in the price of the headtorch. As you will read in any article regarding the development of electric cars, it is the modern, lightweight re-chargeable battery systems and their development that are the big cost factor. On top of this, the manufacturers and retailers are in business to make a profit. So you could easily be paying double what it actually costs to manufacture the article. In the case of Hope, with its machined aluminium case, they probably have to re-coup a multi million pound investment in machine tools, to produce an item that has a relatively limited market.

[Britta]

We've had the 3 Hope torches out on Ambleside club runs for a while now. We don't have the Petzl to compare, as unfortunately i had to hand that one back!

We're not only getting more and more runners out on evening fell runs, we're also generating quite a bit of trade for Hope

All concerns about price and weight are soon forgotten once folk have had a blast on the fells with one of these torches. They make night running sooo nuch fun (especially on a clear crisp night as last evening!)

Britta

[dominion]

If it's a crisp clear night doesnt a muti-mega-watt torch somewhat ruin it all?

[Facewest-Stu]

Facewest, is now offering the Hope Lights at 10% off to match the FRA deal that you were getting direct from Hope. Hope are trying to distance themselves from direct sales. Not only that but you also get 10% of the order value as a credit to use on their website as a discount on subsequent orders.

I am an employee of Facewest, their buyer and main gear tester, so I have a vested interest, but it is a better deal than you were getting from Hope.

The lights are here
http://www.facewest.co.uk/Hope.html

I have been doing loads of comparisons recently especially with these super lights and also the 3 watt models. Check out the New Petzl Myo RXP here http://www.facewest.co.uk/Petzl-Myo-RXP.html which has a link to a 3 watt lamp review.

[hopey]

Facewest, is now offering the Hope Lights at 10% off to match the FRA deal that you were getting direct from Hope. Hope are trying to distance themselves from direct sales. Not only that but you also get 10% of the order value as a credit to use on their website as a discount on subsequent orders.

I am an employee of Facewest, their buyer and main gear tester, so I have a vested interest, but it is a better deal than you were getting from Hope.

The lights are here
http://www.facewest.co.uk/Hope.html

I have been doing loads of comparisons recently especially with these super lights and also the 3 watt models. Check out the New Petzl Myo RXP here http://www.facewest.co.uk/Petzl-Myo-RXP.html which has a link to a 3 watt lamp review.

Is that 10% off the price that's already shown on the website?

[Facewest-Stu]

Is that 10% off the price that's already shown on the website?

No the website price is the price you pay, it's already 10% off Hope's SRP, plus you get the 10% in reward points off the basket total.

I think the prices are comparable to wiggle etc.

[nobbut a lad]

If it's a crisp clear night doesnt a muti-mega-watt torch somewhat ruin it all?

Just what I was thinking.

[Facewest-Stu]

You can always turn it off for the ambient moonlight run and then turn it on when the clouds cover the moon and you fall over.

[Fellhound]

If it's a crisp clear night doesnt a muti-mega-watt torch somewhat ruin it all?

Here is what I posted last winter on this very subject....

As you may have noticed, there is a revolution in night fellrunning going on at the moment, largely due to advances in LED technology. Remember the days of Petzl Zooms with that stupid special battery that could barely last a Bob Graham night section? I don’t think the programme of 37 night runs that the Bowland Bats are doing this winter would have been affordable with that technology!

Nowadays (nowanights?) we have a brilliant (‘scuse pun) selection of headtorches and technology is improving all the time. It won’t be long before we can carry our own pool of broad daylight on our heads. But do we want that? “Of course” some of you cry, but wait a minute….

There is something about night runs (‘bat runs’ as we call them) that gives them their own special appeal. They are not the same as daylight runs and we wouldn’t want them to be. Obviously, you don’t want to be groping along in the dark but a minimalist level of light makes the runs more adventurous, gives them ‘atmosphere’ and yet still allows you to do any route you would do in daylight – albeit at a slower pace.

The time will come when we will be able to command car headlight levels of brightness and when that happens, this murky golden age of slightly batty running will be over and every Tom, Dick, Harry and Sally will be bat running. By then, I’ll be even more of an old codger than I am now and I’ll be saying “I remember t’days when it were a proper adventure goin bat runnin’”

So just think on when you are buying the latest hyperbright megaplus wattage LED wunderlight…..

[Baggins]

I am an employee of Facewest, their buyer and main gear tester, so I have a vested interest, but it is a better deal than you were getting from Hope.


I have been doing loads of comparisons recently especially with these super lights and also the 3 watt models. Check out the New Petzl Myo RXP here http://www.facewest.co.uk/Petzl-Myo-RXP.html which has a link to a 3 watt lamp review.

You might want to update parts of that review as the rechargeable battery pack for the Myo xp belt has been withdrawn.

When the Myo xp was fitted with one it would still output a 54m beam after 15h alas no more unless you know otherwise

The ultras off my list as well now as they are not going to produce the larger batteries, its starting to look like Petzl have problems with rechargeable batteries