UKC

Anyone going to be rushing out to buy one next month?
A little bit out of my price range anyway but it seems to have had surprisingly good reviews for what I initially dismissed as a gimick.

Ben

In reply to Sharp: It looks very interesting and probably quite useful, however I don't think i could ever imagine spending that amount on a head torch!! Although i guess if you spent a lot of time on expeds. it'd be worth the money

I spent less than £20 on my alpkit one, quite happy with that.

GB

In reply to GingerBread22: Yeah it's an awful lot of cash, although compared to some similar headtorches it's not badly priced. I've heard one review compare it to the Ultra in terms of performance, which is about twice the price. It's probably in the mountain biking head torch category as well and MB's seem to have a different idea of what constitutes a well priced torch!
So probably quite reasonably priced all things considered, just not quite reasonable enough for the likes of you and me!

In reply to Sharp: Agreed, although I'm notoriously tight.

If you're going to rely on it and use it very regularly in the extreme end of it's use, MBing regularly or expedition use, then like you say it probably isn't such a bad price.

For me it'd mostly get used to romp up to the bottom of a winter route of an early start or early starts in the Alps.

Might have a little look if i see it in the shops though just out of interest!

In reply to Sharp:

I can appreciate that there is value in having near/far variation in lighting level to prevent night blindness, but I'm afraid that my Magicshine 1400 Lumen (900L spot + 2 x 250L wide angle) at £148 inc two fully weather proof batteries a 1m extension cable and a headband w/ top strap just wipes the floor with the Nao. It also has a fully variable brightness that at full burn gives 3 hours of 1400L and at 5% brightness gives 256 hours and that is per battery! And the batteries report their charge level by touch switch that can be operated with gloves on.

I used to have a Myo RXP regulated version and it was great and I felt worth the money at £85 but when it got lost by a friend I never felt the need to replace it. Surely my Magicshine is too much for running in my opinion though the 900L single spot version is used very widely by orienteers (including the current British Champion) and fell runners. The headlight and band weigh in at the Myo RXP's overall weight without batteries).

So in my mind with my experience of Petzl's torches, that I feel are well built and very worth owning even though I'm about to rule it out of the picture... they just don't supply the goods for the money in this age of lighting. They are the Lupine of the running world and in my opinion overpriced.

All that said, I do like their torches and obviously I entered the 'competition' on UKC to try and win one.

Seriously though... look up the Magicshine range. World beaters at world beating prices.

Thinking about it, if the Myo RXP is now £50 inc shipping on eBay, that means that automatic variable lighting (that makes admittedly twice the lumens of the RXP) costs £85. Now that does seem a bit of a gimmick!

In reply to EZ: I'm not quite sure I understand your second post re prices.

With reference to comparing the magicshine to the rxp and nao though, I agree with you that they're completely different machines. Like you say, the MS is probably a bit heavy for the likes of running.

It sounds like an awsome beast though, but it's definetly into the geeky/high powered mounted mountain bike category where as the Petzl's are in the all round use bracket. You could use the Nao for winter mountaineering, night running and mountain biking where as I think the MS would be overkill for the first two. The lumen geek in me would like to see one in action though, I wonder if you can get one of those battery pack harnesses you used to be able to get for the big silva halogen lights.

I'm not sure about Petzl's pricing, some of their prices make no sense. Part of me thinks Petzl aren't really sure where they fit in in terms of value torches, mid range and top end. Their lower end and high end torches are a bit of rip off, £45 for a tikka XP and £300+ for the ultra! They've even got a tikka xp package including the core rechargable battery which unbelievably clocks in at £85, which is totally insane.

The RXP is a great machine though as you say and if you can get it for £50 (making sure you get the newer version with the improved cable attachment) then I think that's reasonable value. Going by RRP though it's almost twice as much as the Silva trail runner and I'm not sure there enough difference in performance to justify that.

In terms of value for the Nao though I think they've got it spot on. Like you say, Petzl are good on the construction/quality side of things and if the variable lighting works well then £140 for a 355 lumen head torch is pretty good value, in the "all rounder" bracket anyway.

Ben

In reply to all: What is thought then of the new BD Icon 200 L, rather less that the Petzl but still eye searingly bright I would have thought. Currently I have a nextorch 140 L which was about £30 It's pretty good on max power however the build quality and the low power setting is not quite right so am looking to upgrade.

In reply to Sharp:

Not to bang on as all tools have their application, but I have used my Magicshine for night bouldreing, night climbing and benightment escapes from Welsh mountains. I don't feel it is overkill, though I do affectionately call it the "Light of Power".

In reply to EZ: It is amazingly bright. I remember it illuminating Vlad in the Bus Stop quarries. The battery is pretty hefty though. Horses for courses, I wouldn't go running with it but it'd be ideal for a night assault.

In reply to EZ: Is this thing a headtorch or a helmet lamp?

In reply to obi-wan nick b:

It is actually a bike light that has a simple mounting system that adapts very well to a head mount (available from the retailer that I used and presumably from other Magicshine retailers also). There is also a helmet mount but I find that my head mount fits very well over my Petzl Ecrin so didn't need the helmet mount.

This link has good pictures and some details about the light. There are a few sellers in the UK and I didn't actually buy from this one, so I can't endorse them as a vendor and have only included the link for an overview of the product.
http://www.magicshineonline.co.uk/#/magicshine-mj-816/4557047933

I should add (as it is probably up for question because of the power at the price ratio) the build quality of the light is phenomenal.

In reply to Double Knee Bar:

I was looking for that photo of Solstice to illustrate my point, but I can't find it

In reply to EZ: Cheers for that - it seems a tad mahoosive as headwear. A planned event maybe and a nice bikelight but not something to keep permanently in the rucksack for an emergency. However I want my cake and eat it 'cos I want a useful amount of light for any emergencies w/o taking up too much space and weight. Hence my interest in the new BD icon and nao...

In reply to obi-wan nick b:

It is a little on the large side and makes me look like something out of Star Wars, but it is held firmly and doesn't waggle about.

I'm actually probably going to get a Nao in a year or so when the initial brand new concept price tag has fallen slightly.