Cavechat.org

Hi I ran across this headlamp yesterday and was wondering if anyone has tried it out in a cave environment yet. It seems like it might be good for small caves. I'm just worried how it handles grit. It's waterproof, so that's great for florida caves. but if the dirt and mud scratch it up and make it un-useable.. that wont be so good.
Has anyone used this light yet?
http://www.uwkinetics.com/product/109

Hi Durkion,

I purchased two Underwater Kinetics Vizion headlamps in November 2007 and am quite pleased with the lights. I use one of them for camping/hiking/yard work at night and the other is mounted on my helmet above my Sten light as a back-up light. I really like the fact that they are waterproof and that it is so easy to switch from beam to diffuse lighting by just rotating the knob. I almost never use the red lens, but my wife uses it for astronomy and observing wildlife at night. I use lithium AAA's in the headlamp that is used as a backup and Nickel Metal Hydride rechargeable batteries in the light we use around the house and for camping.

I haven't had a problem with them becoming too scratched by either dirt or mud despite lots of caving use on the light mounted as a backup on my headlamp. It is easy to wash the light off after caving trips. You have to be careful when opening the light to change batteries as it is easy to send the batteries flying everywhere due to the force required to overcome the waterproof seal. This is easily solved by changing batteries in a confined area. I wish the light was regulated and had three light levels rather than two. But I think this is an excellent caving light especially considering the price of about $30. The Princeton Tec Apex and Petzl XP are both much more expensive than this light and neither of them are truly waterproof. I find that the light output of the UK Vizion on high appears to be similar to my Stenlight on medium which is the setting I normally use for moving through caves.

Stan

I'm not wild about 3xAAA battery configuration, but the waterproof construction is appealing.

I'm holding off on buying any new headlamps for a while since there are a few on the horizon that might just be incredible.