Is there a headlamp with switches how I want them?

August 2, 2007 12:15 PM

I'm looking for a headlamp with more than one button for power and brightness, but such a thing does not seem to exist.

I've owned a pretty wide variety of headlamps, and all of them that have adjustable brightness do it the same way: you click one button to cycle through the settings.

This drives me nuts. Most of my headlamp usage is fairly intermittent, and I would MUCH prefer a two switch solution: one for power, one for brightness.

I look for one of these every single time I see a display of headlamps, but never seen one. Is any part of the great hive mind aware of any such beast?

Ideally it would also be LED or combination LED/Xenon and powered by AA or AAA batteries, but I'm really looking for one with a user interface I don't find infuriating and am probably willing to compromise.

posted by flaterik to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (3 answers total)

Not quite what you're looking for, but my headlamp uses one button to toggle between LED and incandescent mode, but when you press the button lightly it adjusts the brightness.

So, press hard (clicky clicky) cycles like so: OFF -> LED -> OFF -> Incandescent -> OFF -> etc.

Press soft (no click) cycles between the 3 brightness levels and blink mode.

It's a Black Diamond Spot headlamp.
posted by darkshade at 12:45 PM on August 2, 2007

Best answer: Pelican has some nice headlamps (as written up recently on Toolmonger), some of which have the switch style you desire. Specifically, the 2640 lets you flip the switch up for LEDs, or down for halogen.
posted by Myself at 12:46 PM on August 2, 2007

Response by poster: Stupidly enough, this was prompted by that very same toolmonger post, and I swear I looked through all the pelicans, but without seeing that one.

*hangs head in shame*

Thanks!
posted by flaterik at 1:05 PM on August 2, 2007