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Yeah, I know it’s a walking topic in the bike forum… bite me 🙂
I’m planning a 70 mile walk which will include 10-11 hours of darkness (admittedly parts of that will be streetlit), so I need a suitable head torch.
The Petzl Swift RL and Nao RL both look tempting, but at £100 and £150 respectively I’m curious as to which is the more suitable choice, and how much they offer over what I currently have. I’ve not used the Reactive Light feature so I’ve no idea how useful it is.
At the moment I have a Zipka, which is light and zero-cost and does the job—at least for close range—but I’d need to carry a fair few batteries, and I’m not convinced its cheesewire headband would be terribly comfortable for an entire night. It also isn’t exactly great for seeing distance (it wouldn’t pick out a gate across a field) and while I could pair it with my Joystick Mk7 on its neoprene head band, that’s just adding to concerns about comfort. (I’ll give them a trial run, though.)
So does anyone have any recommendations? Either the two mentioned above or something else. I’d consider a chest light (mainly to reduce the problem of reflection from clouds of damp breath) but I suspect that’ll be too fiddly with a rucksack.
Muchos gracias 🙂
Ey up, for years I used my trusty Petzl TacTikka, on the low setting it seemed to last forever. Of late I upgraded to the Actik CORE 450, it has a rechargeable pack but also runs off AAA. I bought a spare rechargeable and swap them out, charging the drained one in my bag, then have AAA's as a back-up. Gives me coverage from last to first light and then some.
+1 on a Tikka and be careful with full power. One set in headtorch and another 6 batteries should easily see you good.
I've been using a chest light for running. It works fine but you're right that it can be a faff with any sort of pack.
I have a LED Lenser H7. That's comfortable to wear, stable, very adjustable and runs off AAAs so could be made to last if you carried a few extra.
I have a petzl bindi - huge runtime on low which is Ok for walking with once your eyes become adapted and bright settings that shine a long way. It also charges from a mini USB so a small powerbank will give you loads of runtime even on high.
Light adaptation tho should mean you really don't need a light at all for much of it unless its a moonless night or you have rubbish night vision. Also the bindi has a red light so as not to lose your adaptation
Its my favourite of all my head torches and I have a few
+1 on a Tikka and be careful with full power. One set in headtorch and another 6 batteries should easily see you good.
Mine was the OG with the flip up red filter, lasted forever! Tried to find one but alas, no joy. Sad times when it died on me, many happy memories. 😂
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Cheaper Alpkit torch and decent rechargeables (Eneloop) should be loads cheaper and you can use the batteries elsewhere.
Don't overthink it. I frequently wear them for long periods (Ayup or Petzl Tika) and did an overnight 60 miler once. Just used whatever head torch I had and just carried more spare batteries than I needed.
Small Olight which has a double sided clip. Can use as a hand-held torch or can be clipped onto a cap.
If it has to be a head torch then the Perun Mini is quite a good option. But is the torch to see, or be seen?
I've got an Olight as well, older H1R. Does 20 hours on low apparently so something similar with a pair of batteries would see you through the run with some mixed use.
I'm using one of the cheaper rechargeable olights.
Not sure what the actual run time is but I've only charged it once since I bought it last summer. Officially I think it's something like 16 hours on low. Which has worked well for just about everything I've used it for.
Apparently it's an HS2.
Energizer Lithium batteries will give you twice the run time of a rechargeable so if weight is an issue. Black Diamond Icon will do it on a single set of batteries - I’ve got 24hr+ out of one set at -20C and below.
I've got a Led Lenser NE010R which has a long runtime and is very bright on the higher settings.
For your purposes though I reckon the suggestion of a Petzl Actic Core with a spare core is spot on.
Can you take the cheeswire headband of the zipka and fit a normal headband?
New Petzl headbands are about a tenner. Replaced one on a 15+ year old Tikka+ in the summer as it was too saggy to use.
Edit: the new Tikka has a boost mode that does let you see to the other side of a field but draims the battery faster. It's way brighter than my old tikka+. You can fit a rechargeable pack and then take normal batteries for backup.
Thanks all, a few to look at there.
I think the Actik and Tikka are too similar to the Zipka to be worthwhile—I’ll either go for a bigger step up or none at all.
The Black Diamond looks great for run time, but at three times the weight of the Petzl Swift (yeah, I know more runtime means more weight)…
I think Swift is still the one that’s tempting me most, as it looks like a good step up from the Zipka without much weight penalty… anyone used one?
I've got a Swift RL and it's a fabulous running light, the reactive feature works well but I wouldn't be happy using it as my only light for that length of time. I think I’d want a head torch that could take replacement batteries even at the cost of carrying more weight. You can get a spare battery for the Swift but that’s more speedy still.
True, but on paper it should be able to do the whole night (certainly on low, and probably on medium, which matches the Zipka’s high for brightness) and I have the Zipka as backup, so even without a spare battery it should be ok in theory.