My new mining buddy

[RockRacer]

I decided it was time to upgrade from the previous headlamp I had been using. (Plus now the wife has one right?) There are a lot more expensive ones, but at least it's better than what I had. Anyone have any experience or comments with these?

Cabella's headlamp

[Derek]

Everyone is moving to full LED lights these days which are far superior to the old xenon bulbs and give you more runtime. I bought an eGear HL-120 which has a 3 Watt main LED and red, blue, and green lower power LEDs also. It can be found here. It is more than the Cabella's model, but much better in my opinion.

[offroadcmpr]

Just make sure you get one that has one of the newer generating Cree LEDs. They are twice as bright with the same battery life. Usually if it is advertized as a luxeon LED, then it is the older generation, but if it says Cree than it is a newer generation.

The cabellas headlamp you posted had a incandescent bulb, which put out 32 lumens of light for 5 hours. A headlamp like the PT Apex will put out 130 lumens on high, and you can dim it down to last way longer than the cabellas light and be brighter at the same time.

I would advise against it.

[tunnel rat]

I bought my new headlamp at Lowes it is a Coast led lenser it is a led that has a 175 lumens, and you can focus the beam and adjust the brightness. It cost about $60 and is compact. The only thing I dont like about it is it runs on 3 AAA's , I would rather it be AA's . They say it will run 80 hours but I'm sure thats on its lowest setting. Its my best headlamp.

[one_bad_rover]

Coast stuff rocks... you will get those hours and then some. Whats the model, there is one of the headlamps that has a barrel type reflector, thats the really bright one, sounds like the one you got... make sure that the button gaurd doesnt accidently hold the power partailly on and kill the batts. Coast will also warranty ANYTHING that you do to these light. Thier tactical lights are also awesome.. Nothing like seeing someone with a $400 surefire light get jealous of your $80 Coast... (and yeah, they are GRE Sponsors, but we used them far before that...)

[tunnel rat]

I agree I have 3 or 4 other coast flashlights and they have been great, the headlamp I have is the H-7

[ryan162]

here is a cheap one with a nice Cree Q5(second most brightest/effcient cree single led). id take this apart and make sure its ok before fielding it but the price is right

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.20763

[RockRacer]

Yeah, it seems pretty bright, especially compared to my other one. But I obviously didn't research this product and I am real bummed to see that the LEDs are only 6 lumens. Could that be a typo? I thought Xenon was good? I bought it on a whim.

[John]

I still like my xenon bulb for spotlighting. The led's are great for lighting the immediate area, but the spotlight still lets you see things that are farther out.

I really like having both.

[offroadcmpr]

Xenon is just not as efficient as an LED. The xenon will give you 15 to 30 lumens per watt, while the newer LED's can give you over 100 lumens per watt. So you might just end up replacing the batteries more often. Many people actually prefer the beam color temperature of an incandescent to an LED. To some the LED is too "blue", so they like the warmer color of the Xenon bulb.

The LED's might actually by around 6 lumens. There are two main different LED's. There are the small ones that do not require a reflector like the one found on your light, and larger ones that need a reflector to focus the light. The small ones can not put out too much light as they have no heatsinking. Because LED's are electronics, heat kills them. The larger ones when built properly have heatsinking like to remove the excess heat, this allows it use more power to make it brighter. This can also makes some LED's hot when under use, sometimes too hot to hold!

The 6 lumens may actually be fine in a mine. You will be surprised how easily you can get around with 6 lumens. Especially when you are in a group with others as you can use their light also to get around.

If you really feel bad about it, you can return it and try a different one.

[Mikezauner]

I'm one of those who prefers xenons, but I keep my LED main on for general use since it goes through batteries far less, then my Maglights for anything distance since I can select the focus of the beam.

[RockRacer]

Thanks for the comments and info! I do like having the "spotlight" and the wide LED pattern.

Has anyone here tried the one ryan linked up? The reviews don't sound too bad. I wonder if it would fit over a hardhat? (There were some concerns about people who have a big head)

If you really feel bad about it, you can return it and try a different one.

I don't know Cabella's policy on returning items. I wonder if that would be an option. I don't have the packaging any longer.

[ryan162]

found this one the other day. rating of 90 lumins seems low but it could be a good host for some modifications with its 18650 battery compartment.

http://kaidomain.com/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductId=4879

its a cheapo so as always check it out thoroughly before its dark

[Therrin]

I also have some of the Coast lights, two of the 7736TS's I think.
Run on (3) AAA's. They were a great improvement over my dual-petzl's I was running before. I ended up using one Coast side-slung with the petzl's, and one hand-held. They give really good throw.

However, they're usually not regulated. The longer you run the batteries down, the more the brightness dims down. Also, their rated output level is more like emitter lumens, not true Out The Front lumens. There's a bit of loss involved before you actually get the light out of it.

Now I use all those as backup lights, or pass them out on trips for others to use.

I was using a Fenix HP10, but recently upgraded to the HP20 headlamp, and use a SolarForce L2p handheld, with a Solarforce LC-1 Cree R2 3Mode .8-4.2V dropin. It runs on one 18650 battery for several hours on high mode, and puts out about 200lm on high.

I like the SolarForce platform, as you can use different battery or LED dropin combinations to achieve different types of output, even including IR and UV.
I know there's a big debate over SolarForce, TrustFire, SolarFire, SunFire, and what ever the heck else kinda names they use on the SureFire lookalike platforms; but I've found the SolarForce models to be very good quality, no complaints.
And I much prefer the 18650 platforms now over the AA and AAA ones.