Many may not be willing to admit it yet, but the days are officially getting shorter and the odds of needing a headlamp earlier in the evening or later into the morning is getting closer. This summer, three new ultralight headlamps—all under 100 grams and with unique features—have been announced by both young and established brands. Here’s a look.
Most Versatile: Princeton Tec Snap
The 40-year old lighting manufacturer out of New Jersey will offer a very clever modular lighting headlamp based system starting the first of August. Opening the box and seeing all of the modular components, my first thought was annoyance at all of the parts. But once I started to play with them and I discovered how easy it was to move the lighting unit from one component to the next, the convenience of it all clicked, or snapped, rather.
The beauty of this system is you can leave the bike mount housing attached to your bike, the headlamp portion on the headlamp strap, and the lantern component attached to a backpack or even at the apex inside of your tent even when it’s stuffed away—if that’s where you use it the most. The other convenient mounting method is the built in magnet on the light unit itself to adhere to anything metal, like above the wheel well when changing a flat, under the hood when checking the oil or on an L bracket or any bit of metal in a hut or yurt.
The Snap is operated with a single large button which is easy to find even with gloves on. It always starts at its brightest setting of 200 lumens—beware in those very dark moments when your eyes have tried to adjust before you blind yourself. A long hold of the button, either when it’s turned on or after it has been on starts to dim the fixed spot beam to 20 lumens. Finally, a double click of the single button puts it in strobe mode.
Specs
Buttons — 1
Lockout Mode — No
Brightest — 200 Lumens
Burn Time, Bright — 40 hours
Dimmest — 20 Lumens
Burn Time, Dim — 130 hours
Red Mode — No
Strobe Mode — Yes
Power Source — 3 AAA Alkaline
Weight — 99g / 3.5oz (w. batteries; headlamp mode)
Water Resistance — IPX4
Price — $40
Available — 1 August 2018
Made in the USA
Lightest Weight: Black Diamond Spot Lite
Black Diamond has been in the activity after dark game for some time and headlamps have always been a strong part of their business. Icons in the illumination field like the Spot and Storm are mainstays in many backpacks but this summer they’re condensing that technical know-how into a smaller lighter package called the Spot Lite slated to be available in the spring of 2019. At just 54 grams (1.9oz) it’s easy to operate (even with gloves) with a large textured on-off button. A long hold of the main button starts to dim the light from 160 lumens down to just six and a double click will activate the strobe in either red or white mode.
Black Diamond has moved to a two button design to simplify the multi-function operation. The other button is a small mode change button to cycle from the fixed focus main beam to the red light mode and is not particularly easy to hit with gloves on, which is fine. The Spot Lite will remember the last used setting when it’s turned back on (strobe excepted)—a nice feature if a dim light or red mode is particularly important in the situation of use. Holding the two buttons locks the buttons.
The Spot Lite is rather slim, just 1.8 inches deep, so there’s not much fulcrum weight to be worried about when bouncing along the trail and the relatively thin headband is plenty for its weight and size. And at $27, it’s the best deal going.
Specs
Buttons — 2
Lockout Mode — Yes
Brightest — 160 Lumens
Burn Time, Bright — 28 hours
Dimmest — 6 Lumens
Burn Time, Dim — 60 hours
Red Mode — Yes
Strobe Mode — Yes
Power Source — 2 AAA Alkaline
Weight — 54g / 1.9oz (w. batteries)
Water Resistance — IPX8
Price — $27
Available — Spring 2019
Made in China
Thinnest: BioLite Headlamp
Founded in 2008, BioLite started with low-smoke wood burning stoves and moved into lighting in 2015 and this is their first headlamp—a good start. The front facing lighting element integrated into the strap is just under half an inch (7/16-inch; 9mm) thick at its thinnest and makes it easy to forget it’s being worn. The battery pack on the back of the wide and comfortable of the strap is just under an inch thick (24mm) and offers a nice counterbalance to the front element. A pigtail cord near the battery pack allows for sizing differences and the front part of the power cord is sandwiched between the strap to keep it out of the way. The battery is rechargeable with a standard USB to micro-USB cable and has a four-level battery charge indicator.
The single button is tiny and would be hard to find with gloves on. The button allows the user to scroll through the various modes including white spot, white flood, white spot & flood combo (brightest), red flood and white spot strobe. Holding the button in white spot, white flood or when both lights are on dims the lights. Red does not have a dim or strobe function. The headlamp remembers the last mode used and includes a reflective strip on the back as well as a reflective logo element on the side.
Specs
Buttons — 1
Lockout Mode — Yes
Brightest — 320 Lumens
Burn Time, Bright — 2 hours
Dimmest — 5 Lumens
Burn Time, Dim — 20 hours
Red Mode — Yes
Strobe Mode — Yes
Power Source — USB Rechargeable 900mAh, 3.4Wh Lithium Ion
Weight — 69g / 2.42oz
Water Resistance — IPX4
Price — $49
Available — Spring 2019
Made in China
