Best Helmet Light with AA recommendation?

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Best Helmet Light with AA recommendation?

Postby ktm125 » Jun 3, 2014 1:49 pm

looked thru the other threads on here about lights

what is the best helmet mounted light with AA batteries regardless of price?

don't like the rechargable units as I may not use for 1 year at a time
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Re: Best Helmet Light with AA recommendation?

Postby rlboyce » Jun 3, 2014 4:32 pm

Depends on what you want. What do you look for in a light?
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Re: Best Helmet Light with AA recommendation?

Postby ktm125 » Jun 3, 2014 5:00 pm

4 AAs mounted on back of helmet
works on non-rechargable batteries
high beam for large rooms and pits
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Re: Best Helmet Light with AA recommendation?

Postby Extremeophile » Jun 3, 2014 5:25 pm

ktm125 wrote:what is the best helmet mounted light with AA batteries regardless of price?

Zebralight H52F
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Re: Best Helmet Light with AA recommendation?

Postby rlboyce » Jun 3, 2014 5:42 pm

The Stenlight may be a good pick for you then, but it runs off of 6 AAs, not 4.
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Re: Best Helmet Light with AA recommendation?

Postby rlboyce » Jun 3, 2014 5:47 pm

The Fenix HP15 is a really good one too.
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Re: Best Helmet Light with AA recommendation?

Postby PatB » Jun 3, 2014 10:01 pm

If you'll settle for 3 AA, check out Petzl MYO. Brightguy.com has them or you're favorite caver supply. It's LED has this lense that flips down to change from spot to flood. Also, it has different brightness settings. if you read all the directions you can program these brightness settings too. It has this one button on top to go into boost mode, which will light up several hundred feet of pit nicely.
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Re: Best Helmet Light with AA recommendation?

Postby firemedic1015 » Jun 4, 2014 9:24 am

Extremeophile wrote:
ktm125 wrote:what is the best helmet mounted light with AA batteries regardless of price?

Zebralight H52F


I agree, the zebra light cant be beat if your looking for an AA powered light.
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Re: Best Helmet Light with AA recommendation?

Postby ktm125 » Jun 4, 2014 9:54 am

rlboyce wrote:The Stenlight may be a good pick for you then, but it runs off of 6 AAs, not 4.


why is Stenlight high output only 140?

the other lights recommended are 200-500 lumens
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Re: Best Helmet Light with AA recommendation?

Postby trogman » Jun 4, 2014 10:31 am

Extremeophile wrote:
ktm125 wrote:what is the best helmet mounted light with AA batteries regardless of price?

Zebralight H52F


ktm125 wrote:4 AAs mounted on back of helmet
works on non-rechargable batteries
high beam for large rooms and pits


The Zebralights only use one AA, and batteries are on the front. Besides that, the best output I could find for the AA lights is 300 lm. For a few more $ and an investment in some rechargeable 18650 batteries, you can get over 1000 lm of light output, and a very lightweight light.
I understand the idea of wanting the batteries on the back, since it helps to balance the weight on your head. But with a Zebra with one 18650 battery, the weight is so little you hardly notice it.
Even if you don't use the rechargeable batteries that often, they are still a good investment. As far as I know, they keep perfectly well even if you don't use them that often.
In my opinion, the Zebra H600 MK II is the best headlight for the money. It's a matter of personal preference whether you get the spot or flood version. Same thing with the neutral vs. the cool white.

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Re: Best Helmet Light with AA recommendation?

Postby ktm125 » Jun 4, 2014 10:57 am

Trogman wrote:
The Zebralights only use one AA, and batteries are on the front. Besides that, the best output I could find for the AA lights is 300 lm. For a few more $ and an investment in some rechargeable 18650 batteries, you can get over 1000 lm of light output, and a very lightweight light.
I understand the idea of wanting the batteries on the back, since it helps to balance the weight on your head. But with a Zebra with one 18650 battery, the weight is so little you hardly notice it.
Even if you don't use the rechargeable batteries that often, they are still a good investment. As far as I know, they keep perfectly well even if you don't use them that often.
In my opinion, the Zebra H600 MK II is the best headlight for the money. It's a matter of personal preference whether you get the spot or flood version. Same thing with the neutral vs. the cool white.




can the light be easily rotated up and down?
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Re: Best Helmet Light with AA recommendation?

Postby Extremeophile » Jun 4, 2014 12:21 pm

trogman wrote:The Zebralights only use one AA, and batteries are on the front.

I was answering the original question regarding the best AA powered headlamp, which is of course the Zebralight.
The criteria were later changed to multiple rear-mounted batteries, which increases the weight, reduces the reliability and ruggedness, reduces the waterproofing .... i.e. no longer making it the best AA headlamp.
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Re: Best Helmet Light with AA recommendation?

Postby trogman » Jun 4, 2014 12:28 pm

ktm125 wrote:
Trogman wrote:
The Zebralights only use one AA, and batteries are on the front. Besides that, the best output I could find for the AA lights is 300 lm. For a few more $ and an investment in some rechargeable 18650 batteries, you can get over 1000 lm of light output, and a very lightweight light.
I understand the idea of wanting the batteries on the back, since it helps to balance the weight on your head. But with a Zebra with one 18650 battery, the weight is so little you hardly notice it.
Even if you don't use the rechargeable batteries that often, they are still a good investment. As far as I know, they keep perfectly well even if you don't use them that often.
In my opinion, the Zebra H600 MK II is the best headlight for the money. It's a matter of personal preference whether you get the spot or flood version. Same thing with the neutral vs. the cool white.




can the light be easily rotated up and down?


Yes. The elastic headband is attached to a rubber mount with two rings. The light is easy to rotate up and down in the rings.


Image

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Re: Best Helmet Light with AA recommendation?

Postby rlboyce » Jun 4, 2014 5:29 pm

ktm125 wrote:
rlboyce wrote:The Stenlight may be a good pick for you then, but it runs off of 6 AAs, not 4.


why is Stenlight high output only 140?

the other lights recommended are 200-500 lumens


Ktm, this also confused me a couple of years ago. The Short answer is that the Stenlight website hasn't been updated in a loooong time and the actual lumens now exceed 500 lumens (See this thread: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=14378#p123236), but I have no clue what its output is nowadays.

The long answer is that the Stenlight continually gets updated with the latest LED emitters. One of my fairly-trustworthy caving friends told me a couple months ago that he is testing out a 1000 lumen prototype, so I would expect to see a 1000 lumen version become available in the near future. I suspect the creator of the Stenlight puts more effort into keeping the design up to date than "wasting" time on keeping the website up to date. Normally I would take this as a bad sign, but given the Stenlight's enviable reputation among most cavers, I am inclined to write this off as poor marketing skills. : )

One last thing to note, I can't tell for sure, but it looks as if the optional AA battery pack is not waterproof. Perhaps a Stenlight owner can comment on this?
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Re: Best Helmet Light with AA recommendation?

Postby rlboyce » Jun 4, 2014 5:34 pm

Depending on what kind of caving you plan to do, I conditionally recommend the AA Zebralights as well. Zebralights are generally known for their reliability, efficiency and output, but occasionally someone will get a bad apple. If you are looking for longer runtimes (very few cavers need more runtime than what a single AA Zebralight can provide), then you definitely want something with a battery pack.
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