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Help me pick a headlamp

ca Offline Justin Barylski

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Help me pick a headlamp
on: March 18, 2018, 03:39:12 AM
Hello all, I’m in the market for a headlamp/ 90 degree head flashlight. I have it narrowed down to two choices, namely the Olight H2R NW and the Zebralight H600W Mk. III. I like that the olight has magnetic charging, however I love the Zebralight UI. The olight has a higher initial output, but the Zebralight has more output levels and programmable modes. Does anyone have both and can give me a recommendation on which is better?
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us Offline clown

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Re: Help me pick a headlamp
Reply #1 on: March 18, 2018, 04:09:52 AM
That's a tough call!  I don't have either of these exact lights buy I do have a Zebralight AA pocket light and a rechargeable Olight I'm the same size range as my ZL.  I think you have already identified the two most noticeable differences.  I feel the same as you about the magnetic charging vs UI.  Maybe it depends on your usage.

My ZL just 'feels' like a quality light.  Feels solid, durable, nothing extra.  And I do love the programmable modes. 

The Olight I have is really nice too and magnetic charging is convenient if your light will be seeing a lot of use. 

One thing to consider is that it appears the Olight comes with or at least will accept a pocket clip.  The Zebralight doesn't appear to have one.

Let us know which you decide on.  I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on whichever it is. I dont teally think you can go wrong with either.


ca Offline Justin Barylski

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Re: Help me pick a headlamp
Reply #2 on: March 18, 2018, 04:48:14 AM
That's a tough call!  I don't have either of these exact lights buy I do have a Zebralight AA pocket light and a rechargeable Olight I'm the same size range as my ZL.  I think you have already identified the two most noticeable differences.  I feel the same as you about the magnetic charging vs UI.  Maybe it depends on your usage.

My ZL just 'feels' like a quality light.  Feels solid, durable, nothing extra.  And I do love the programmable modes. 

The Olight I have is really nice too and magnetic charging is convenient if your light will be seeing a lot of use. 

One thing to consider is that it appears the Olight comes with or at least will accept a pocket clip.  The Zebralight doesn't appear to have one.

Let us know which you decide on.  I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on whichever it is. I dont teally think you can go wrong with either.

Yeah, I have a Zebralight SC64W and I absolutely love it. I agree that although you pay a little bit of a premium for them, zebralights are really some of the best premium flashlights you can buy. I have no experience with olight, but they seem like decent lights. Zebralight does offer a pocket clip for the H600 lights (only about $2).

I am hoping to use the headlamp when I go for basic military qualification in a few months, so having magnetic charging would be nice, but I do have the universal olight charger that will work for any standard rechargeable batteries.

Maybe leaning toward the ZL, but we’ll see
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us Offline Nix

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Re: Help me pick a headlamp
Reply #3 on: March 18, 2018, 04:58:40 AM
I've used Princeton Tech or Petzl headlamps. Easy to use. And reliable.

I don't know what your lamp needs are, but many military environments will require a colored (typically red) lens filter.

Most bases, FOBs and COPs carry batteries. I never worried about recharging. Many rechargeable batteries do not perform as well in cold conditions.

I also carried a small flashlight on a chain around my neck.


us Offline ezdog

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Re: Help me pick a headlamp
Reply #4 on: March 18, 2018, 04:02:07 PM
I use  Olight & ZL & Fenix Headlamps pretty much every day but have never wanted an 18650 mounted anywhere near my head in general so mine are all AA or 123 battery units.

Overall I will always choose a Zebra in the end but I am also satisfied with the others after extensive time with them all.

The ZL just offers the better UI to me by a long margin and a larger selection of tint options and AA battery powered lights too so this is what I prefer.

I would love my Fenix if it had an actual Moonlight mode but they so far have no lights that do?
I would be happy if I had to use the Nova H1 but the interface seems odd to me and I do prefer an AA light.

I know these do not even meet your battery criteria really but the UI alone always brings me back to the Zebra.

I also have several cheap Black Diamond HL that use AAA batteries and what is interesting about them to me is that they offer a full Dimming UI!
For $20 including 2 Energizer Lithium Primary batteries they are small,rugged and dim! A great combination to always have in a jacket pocket just in case!
And they have Red output too!


ie Offline Don Pablo

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Re: Help me pick a headlamp
Reply #5 on: March 18, 2018, 04:22:03 PM
Is the red so important? I read that it doesn’t actually preserve your night vision, it’s just a side effect from being so dim, and most good flashlights have a firefly mode anyway.

My personal experience so far is that firefly modes don’t ruin my night vision.

I’d be happy if someone proved me wrong though. If you prove me wrong, then I had incorrect information, and that’s a good thing to know about, IMHO.  :ahhh
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us Offline Nix

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Re: Help me pick a headlamp
Reply #6 on: March 18, 2018, 05:08:41 PM
Is the red so important? I read that it doesn’t actually preserve your night vision, it’s just a side effect from being so dim, and most good flashlights have a firefly mode anyway.

My personal experience so far is that firefly modes don’t ruin my night vision.

I’d be happy if someone proved me wrong though. If you prove me wrong, then I had incorrect information, and that’s a good thing to know about, IMHO.  :ahhh

I think it's more a question of not being spotted as easily.

Although, the less bright your own light is, the less your own night vision is compromised. I'm not sure color makes a huge difference. Having a filter cuts down the amount of light shining into your own eyes.

But the places I went, where white lights were banned, required filtered lights (red or green) because white lights are easier to see from a distance.....and somebody might shoot at you and hit the guy standing next to you.  :dwts:

That was the theory anyway.... :shrug:

Regardless, for military ops, it'd be a good idea to have a filtered light, just because your white light might be banned for whatever reasons.   :tu:


ie Offline Don Pablo

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Re: Help me pick a headlamp
Reply #7 on: March 18, 2018, 05:49:04 PM
Is the red so important? I read that it doesn’t actually preserve your night vision, it’s just a side effect from being so dim, and most good flashlights have a firefly mode anyway.

My personal experience so far is that firefly modes don’t ruin my night vision.

I’d be happy if someone proved me wrong though. If you prove me wrong, then I had incorrect information, and that’s a good thing to know about, IMHO.  :ahhh

I think it's more a question of not being spotted as easily.

Although, the less bright your own light is, the less your own night vision is compromised. I'm not sure color makes a huge difference. Having a filter cuts down the amount of light shining into your own eyes.

But the places I went, where white lights were banned, required filtered lights (red or green) because white lights are easier to see from a distance.....and somebody might shoot at you and hit the guy standing next to you.  :dwts:

That was the theory anyway.... :shrug:

Regardless, for military ops, it'd be a good idea to have a filtered light, just because your white light might be banned for whatever reasons.   :tu:
First of awl, let me say that if there’s a possibility that they might have a ban on non white light, definitely get a flashlight with a red option ( red LED, red diffuser, etc). You can’t argue with bureaucracy!  :rofl:
That said...

What you said Nix, doesn’t make sense to me, 0.01 lumens of Light is 0.01 lumens of light, no matter the mix of colours (in the form of wavelengths) and will awlways be visible from the same distance.

Unless... maybe the shorter wavelengths (like red) are more easily absorbed by the atmosphere?!  :think:
Or maybe the green plants will absorb more red light... (plants are green because they absorb blue and red light, letting the green light reflect, or so I heard).
I’d be interested to see any scientific evidence. :tu:

Now, I was going to argue more against the idea that red light preserves night vision, but it appears that I was wrong.
See the first answer here: https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/2075/does-red-light-preserve-your-night-vision
And here: http://stlplaces.com/night_vision_red_myth/
The conclusion I came to is that overall, typical red light is not really worth it over a nice, dim, high CRI white firefly mode.

Hopefully soon I will receive a Nichia LED Manker E03H. That comes with Green, red and white diffusers, in addition to 21 possible firefly and moonlight modes, accessible through a special “engineering mode”.  :ahhh :like:
Remind me to tell you about my subjective impressions after I get it and have been playing and experimenting with the different diffusers.  :pok:
« Last Edit: March 18, 2018, 05:50:57 PM by Pablo O'Brien »
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us Offline Nix

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Re: Help me pick a headlamp
Reply #8 on: March 18, 2018, 05:58:24 PM
Pabs,

I think you are right on most accounts. And I've heard the rods & cones argument, too. Not sure about that, but it does make sense.

But, consider, if a light emits 10 lumens of white light, and you put a red filter over it, it will functionally emit less than 10 lumens, a lot less. And I do think that white (multlispectrum light) does not become attenuated as quickly as single-wavelength light. (But I could be wrong 'bout that.) Even a small white light is easily noticeable from a far distance, it is quite surprising.

In general, red or green lights make it much harder to read color maps as some features don't show up well when using filtered light, so that's a huge disadvantage. But not getting shot is pretty good, so there's that.



ie Offline Don Pablo

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Re: Help me pick a headlamp
Reply #9 on: March 18, 2018, 06:14:25 PM
Pabs,

I think you are right on most accounts. And I've heard the rods & cones argument, too. Not sure about that, but it does make sense.

But, consider, if a light emits 10 lumens of white light, and you put a red filter over it, it will functionally emit less than 10 lumens, a lot less. And I do think that white (multlispectrum light) does not become attenuated as quickly as single-wavelength light. (But I could be wrong 'bout that.) Even a small white light is easily noticeable from a far distance, it is quite surprising.

In general, red or green lights make it much harder to read color maps as some features don't show up well when using filtered light, so that's a huge disadvantage. But not getting shot is pretty good, so there's that.
Good point, but that’s not just because it’s red, but because you stuck a light absorbing filter on it!  ::)
Apples to oranges... and with how little red light the two common LEDs I looked up emit(XP-G2 and Nichia 219CT), relative to blue and green and yellow(but especially blue), a 10 lumen white light with a red filter stuck on might be reduced to only 1 lumen of red light...
To be scientific, we should compare red and white light of the same intensity.

Maybe the reason you thought that white light travelled farther than red light is because you were comparing lots of white lumens to a small amount of red lumens?

Don’t forget the other factor... beam spread.  Out of two otherwise identical lights, one might go twice as far because the beam is more concentrated.
Lasers are an extreme example... a good 5 milliwatt laser will travel a heck of a lot farther than a good 3000 milliwatt flashlight. That’s why I said intensity, not output, above.
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us Offline Nix

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Re: Help me pick a headlamp
Reply #10 on: March 18, 2018, 06:22:59 PM
I think we are in agreement, my friend.  :tu:

It would be interesting to know if, say on a humid night in darkest Remotastan, lights equal in intensity, focus, beam shape, and lumens, but of different colors deliver the same lux at a point 500m away.   :think:


ie Offline Don Pablo

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Re: Help me pick a headlamp
Reply #11 on: March 18, 2018, 06:35:53 PM
Be right back, I have to rescue my RC plane from a tree.  :facepalm:
Going to make a long pokey stick.
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gb Offline Fuzzbucket

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Re: Help me pick a headlamp
Reply #12 on: March 18, 2018, 06:43:26 PM
Be right back, I have to rescue my RC plane from a tree.  :facepalm:
Going to make a long pokey stick.

AHHHHHHH Ha Ha Ha Ha....!  :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:


ie Offline Don Pablo

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Re: Help me pick a headlamp
Reply #13 on: March 18, 2018, 07:38:50 PM
Be right back, I have to rescue my RC plane from a tree.  :facepalm:
Going to make a long pokey stick.

AHHHHHHH Ha Ha Ha Ha....!  :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
:facepalm:
So in the end I managed to knock it out of the tree after climbing it.
Only a few types of RC plane could stand the abuse I inflict on them.  :facepalm:
Luckily mine is one of them.  :D

Anyway,  :b2t: (hopefully). Sorry about that derail!
Hooked, like everyone else. ;)

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us Offline MastyrOfPuppitz

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Re: Help me pick a headlamp
Reply #14 on: March 20, 2018, 05:23:43 PM
I carry a Olight H1 Nova to work. It’s small and fits easily in my pocket. I don’t have the need for a thrower because when a headlamp is useful to me it is in a confined area. And when I need a thrower, I carry one of those too. I don’t feel there is really a best of both worlds, but that there is a right and a wrong tool for every application.
A day without learning is a day without living.


us Offline Blackbeard

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Re: Help me pick a headlamp
Reply #15 on: March 21, 2018, 08:14:26 AM
I'm a big olight fan, zebralights are great from what I've read. As an alternative you can get a skilhunt right angle model for about 1/3 the cost of the H2r, you could probably get 2 batteries and a charger and still be under that cost, I got this about 3 months ago and its a great light with 1200 lumens, 1000 otf,  and programmable modes, headstrap, clip, lanyard spare magnet for tailcap...it's pretty floody, but I think most angled lights are.






us Offline Choozoo

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Re: Help me pick a headlamp
Reply #16 on: April 01, 2018, 08:14:29 AM
For those interested in the Skilhunt, be aware there are 3 versions.

H03 - Has the TIR lens/diffuser in Blackbeard's pic
H03R - Has a standard reflector instead of the lens. Slightly more throwy/less flood.
H03F - Same reflector as the H03R with a (fragile looking) flip up diffuser giving more flood when desired.


us Offline Blackbeard

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Re: Help me pick a headlamp
Reply #17 on: April 01, 2018, 08:56:57 AM
For those interested in the Skilhunt, be aware there are 3 versions.

H03 - Has the TIR lens/diffuser in Blackbeard's pic
H03R - Has a standard reflector instead of the lens. Slightly more throwy/less flood.
H03F - Same reflector as the H03R with a (fragile looking) flip up diffuser giving more flood when desired.

I like that flipping one lol. Olight had a flash sale last week for H2R I wonder if OP got one?


 

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