UKC

What's best for battery life, durability and beam distance?? the myo rxp seams to have poor battery life anybody agree??

In reply to mattc:

I have the tikka xp2 and after trying to use the red light to climb with last week would not rate it as all . White light's fine, but the red seems really under powered

In reply to mattc:

Look at LED Lenser, great torchs, great customer service.

In reply to BAdhoc:

Well the red light is surely for doing things like an astronomer checking a star chart without spoiling night vision hence needs to be dim. Not sure why you'd want to use the red light for climbing say

In reply to mattc:

Myo RXP isn't much better or worse that similar torches in terms of battery life I've found. At least comparing it to other torches my mates use. There used to be a problem where the wire entered the lamp casing that a lot of people experienced failure with (in earlier models) but I've never had that problem myself.

Fenix HP20 is another I use and it's beam is substantially brighter / longer range than the MYO RXP, but also much narrower and so I don't like it so much for walking along trails or looking at the next few moves / meters of a climb. Great for distance though! Battery life seems equivalent to the MYO on average, but shorter on high setting.

BD Icon is another I like (and the Polar Icon once I got over the difference of having the separate battery pack), good beam, good close range. Annoying that it doesn't remember brightness settings though. Also good that you can lock it so that it doesn't come on accidentally.

Red light is OK for tracks and trails if you want to preserve night vision and reduce battery consumption, but it's not powerful enough for climbing with imo. Used it last week for wandering down through caves on Picco Lagazuoi, and it was just enough for that. Red light is also pretty poor / useless for nav I find as the red light makes contour lines disappear / fadeout. Maybe not a problem if you're only following trails, rivers or other similar features, but a real pain if you're trying to read the terrain!

Of the three I prefer the Icon.

It's difficult to compare torch battery lives via the published data as they don't all use the same system of measurement. There was a good gear article on here that compared quite a few, and a follow up on how the reactive torches work as well that's well worth a read.

Cheers,

Stuart

In reply to mattc:

MYO Rxp is the best compromise of weight, battery and brightness out there at the moment IMO. The BD Icon is like having a brick tied to the back of your head, and the majority of the others are either too dim for me, cheaply made or way too expensive. My factory supplied batteries lasted ages though, was really surprised.

In reply to mattc: Completely ignore all Petzl recommendations. Black Diamond torches are more reliable etc etc.

In reply to mattc:

Having used various models from Black Diamond, Petzl, and Mammut, my clear favorite is the Mammut X-Shot. Battery life is excellent. It has very good lighting when on spot mode, and decent lighting and long battery life on flood mode. The lens rotates around so it can be covered when in your pack, so the lens doesn't get scratched. Not heavy.

Best alpine head torch I've ever used.

In reply to purplemonkeyelephant:

How long do you find your battery's last when your torch is on full wack??

Torches like the Mammut one mentioned (which sounds like a good one) cost about £80. In the 'old days', the Petzl Zoom served us all for all types of climbing - and cost about £20.

So: why are LED-based headtorches so expensive? It can't be due to the electronics required: that stuff gets cheaper by the day.

In reply to mattc:

Hard to say as I don't do a lot of long night hikes, however it lasted for several weekend trips away, lots of use around the house and about halfway into an expedition to Siberia, which surprised me considering how batteries should die quickly in extreme cold. It definately doesn't burn through batteries, and it's unlikely you'll need full lumens all the time. The other thing I like about it is the hinge for the light - it clicks through different angles as opposed to the screw type hinge most others have. I've noticed in shop displays the BD headtorches are usually quite loose, whereas the clicker should be quite hard to wear out. Yeah you can tighten the screw but I'd prefer not to have to think about that.