FiddleCaver wrote:ON TOPIC... The sten is a great light and I highly recommend it. Jeff Bartlett (a friend and cavechat member) recently got one with luxeon rebels and reflectors instead of lenses. According to him it is quite a bit brighter than the normal version and the price difference was quite minimal. These are mods that the sten people can custom make for you.
this is true - i don't know how it compares to the SSC-modded versions like others on this forum have, but it's about one "setting" brighter than the stock sten (high on mine equals turbo on the original, etc) and has a lot more flood with the reflectors. the value is efficiency, though; turbo is absurdly bright and i pretty much cave with it on "medium", which is plenty bright and lasts something like 40 hours on the standard 2-cell battery.
however, i should mention it's a bit of an experimental model, i'm not sure if it's yet publicly available from Sten as a custom option or not. i know they were still testing a few things. the new LEDs don't drop right in like the SSCs did, so there's a daughterboard installed by Sten. they asked me to point that out if i reviewed the lamp.
the Sten is super light, waterproof, and bulletproof. a lot of people don't understand why you'd pay $300 for a headlamp when there are acceptable options costing much less (the Apex, for example), but i'm yet to find a single person with any version of the S7 who doesn't think it was worth the money or regrets the purchase. you can't go wrong the original either, although i do recommend the JS Burly's reflectors if you can track a set down.
fiddlecaver wrote:Man that is almost exactly like the ones I've been building.
wow, Allen, that DOES look a lot like what you're building. however, i'd definitely use one of yours before i'd use that. i didn't read through 7 pages of posts on candlepowerforums, but here are my concerns about that headlamp in the link:
(1) it costs a lot more than the Sten - we're talking Scurion territory here. i know you saw that $360 figure, Eric, but that figure is for the head unit only, and it doesn't include the battery (or "remote switch", whatever that is).
(2) look where the plug attaches to the head unit. good luck mounting that on a helmet, since you'll have to make your own bracket and somehow re-route the plug.
(3) it uses a 14.8 volt battery. holy crap! the Sten, Scurion, and other super high-powered LED headlamps use a 7.4v battery.
(4) to get a nice wide flood like us cavers typically enjoy, you'd need the "dimpled" front glass they offer, which would ruin your spot i'm sure. 25 degree on my Sten didn't look wide enough, especially when compared to the reflectors.
plus, when it comes down to it, if that's the style of lamp i want, i'd rather buy the product being offered by a US caver than the product being offered by an Australian bicycle racer. but that's just me =)