Around $50 depending on options!
this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2023
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As someone in the excited camp, I have to ask what small headlamp is your favorite?
There aren't a huge number of AA/14500 headlamps on the market, and until pretty recently, all AA/14500 lights were pretty bad at actually being dual-fuel, usually lacking LVP and having terrible mode spacing on 14500. The Skilhunt M150 was the first one I saw that really nailed it, and the H150 is its headlamp equivalent.
I love my Zebralight H50 but its led is inefficient by today's standards, so I think there are gaps to be filled. Parametrek's review of the Nitecore HA11 was very positive. I don't have one myself though. I'm not crazy about the 14500 concept in general. Some people are more into it than I am so maybe that's where the excitement is. What I really want is a 1aaa version of the H50 or HA11.
Lumenitis is a disease affecting a certain segment of flashlight designer. It makes them build the light to overheat and deplete its battery as fast as possible, instead of optimizing the actual likely usage. Example: Manker E02 II, which is longer and heavier than the H50 despite being a 1aaa light instead of 1aa. I'll post more soon about this.
Added: another example, various people have commented that the otherwise wonderful Skihunt E3A. should be dialed back for more runtime, say to 20 lm/5 hrs. But no, they keep it at 100/1.
After having gone through a few natural disasters that the AA-worshippers think utterly vindicate their fanaticism to he utter and total superiority of AA-compatibility, I have to say that I am unimpressed by anything that combines the downsides of alkaleaks (low lumens and low wH) with the biggest weakness of Li-ion (needs to be charged instead of replaced).
I appreciate that some, like Acebeam and Skilhunt, go for sustained lumens over startup peak lumens, and am a fan of boost drivers in general, but I think that the backlash to hotrod lights is a bit extreme. I've used TS10's to keep my home nicely lit during prolonged power outages. Yeah, it has a reputation as a hot rod since its a 14500 light that can do 1400 lumens, but at lower levels that do not involve the FET, it can hold enough lumens to do what it needs to do for many hours despite being a 14500 light with a driver that isn't a boost/buck driver and cannot take the first battery to sell out when TSHTF.
One nice thing about Anduril is that it can do the no-FET-needed levels that prolong battery life when you just need a little light, and despite the fear-mongering, it doesn't actually operate any differently from many other lights that copy it's Simple UI mode and merely omit 10H and the (easily ignored) options it unlocks. How do you think I get my TS10's to hold "don't walk into wall or trip over the cat" light levels for 8+ hours despite the low mAh of 14500 cells? I have options between M1 and M2 that Skilhunt's and Zebra's UI lack.
IMO, all lights need a ramping mode that allows for achieving a a nice balancing point between output and runtime. And I have yet to see a stepped-mode-only UI hit that balance with their mode spacing.
People really underestimate this. It's very hard to buy AAs when there's a hurricane warning.