NZcaver wrote:I bought the EOS when it first came out, and it has survived well. My one wish is that light manufacturers would start producing similar size/design headlamps that work on 1 (or maybe 2) AA's, rather than 3 AAA's. There are a bunch of nice 1 AA flashlights out there, so why not headlamps? Please?
I think the reason why there are lots of nice small AA flashlights and not so many small AA headlamps is that if you put AA cells in the same unit as the lamp (rather than in a separate battery pack), the lamp unit becomes thicker.
I really prefer to have AA battery standardization, especially on expeditions or other remote trips (however I can understand using one of the "nice" headlamps with an efficient Li-Ion pack, if there is an AA pack option as well).
I'd prefer that as well--though we don't do many expeditions and remote trips. The advantages wrought by these small headlamps outweigh the benefit for standardization for me. My Petzl Fixo Duo LED 14 and Petzl Myobelt XP use AA's and my Black Diamond Spot and Petzl Tikka Plus use AAA's. Of course, since my grotto is not standardized, the benefit that I would reap from being standardized is less than if we were.
It seems many grottos with loaner headlamps (including my grotto) prefer AA battery headlamps. It's interesting you guys went for AAA's - are those headlamps intended just for backup, or are they the main grotto stock? I guess they should do OK as primaries on easy beginner trips.
We have a lot of different stuff.
SUOC is the Syracuse University Outing Club, and as an outing club we get funding from the University. We used to get it from the Student Association; now we get it from Recreation Services. Our gear is University property and subject to all relevant regulations (e.g. we might have to fill out a lot of paperwork if we wanted to buy a microshaving kit), but we get significant budget money to buy new gear every year. In reality, it doesn't work out quite so well, because there is a long line of people who are involved in purchasing, and if even one of them drops the ball then nothing happens and our money is lost at the end of the year. But we are working on that problem.
We have 11 Princeton Tec Apexes (one of which has suffered from the water issue so far--this was when it was used in the Lost Passage in Gage Cave *after* the power cord's outer insulation somehow came out of the waterproof grommet) and a whole bunch of Princeton Tec Yukons as our primary lights. The Yukons are older--at one time our primary lights were the old Petzl Zooms augmented by newer Yukons. We still have the Zooms but several of them don't work anymore and nobody really wants to use the ones that do. (That was the first headlamp I ever used, though...in Schoharie Cave, my first caving trip.) We also have 3 Princeton Tec Coronas (one of which is somehow missing one of its battery contacts and is thus unusable); a Petzl Myolite 3; a couple Princeton Tec Quests (at least one of which works); a Speleotechnics NOVA something; a StenLight S2; several of those weird lights that rotate in 3-dimensions to point in any direction and are reasonably bright but break a lot (anybody know what I'm talking about?); and a whole bunch of carbide cap lamps, most of which don't work but could be made to work again without too much trouble. Currently only one SUOCer in Syracuse caves with carbide all the time.
We also have several of the Petzl Vertex Duo LED 14 Helmets, which is the Vertex with the Duo Fixo LED 14 on it. The DUO's work great and the helmets are nice except for their weight and lack of ventilation (which doesn't really bother most of us); their large size (preventing them from fitting smaller-headed cavers) and adjustment system that is hard to use in the first place and seems to get clogged up with mud and become permanently even harder to use; and how it is that if you accidentally apply too much upward stress on the headlamp clips (when attaching or detaching a headlamp), they pop off and take the suspension system with them, making the helmets unusable. Petzl has told us that they will fix the headlamp clip issue for free--we just have to send the helmets in.
(Most of our other helmets are Petzl Ecrin Roc and do not have headlamps permanently attached, though for large events we ziptie some headlamps to helmets to discourage them from getting lost.)
For secondary lights we have 20 Princeton Tec Quads; 15 Princeton Tec Eos; several Petzl Tikka Plus and Tikka XP; 2 original Tikkas (one of which works reliably but has a really stiff switch, the other of which turns on and off easily but doesn't work reliably and which we use only around camp); 3 Princeton Tec Auroras (two of which have detached permanently from their headbands); and a Princeton Tec Scout that we can't find the spare batteries for.
So we have a lot of stuff--but it is not uncommon during a large trip to the Schoharie Cabin or our big Spring Break trip to West Virginia for us to have 20 people caving simultaneously--visiting different caves--and using all SUOC gear. Also, club members may sign out gear for use on official club trips, and they have a week to return it, so when gear is being readied for a trip one week, the gear from the previous week's trips might not yet be available. (And then there are always people who don't return their gear on time...) When caving lights are not being used for caving, they may be used in trips for other activities (e.g. climbing).