It’s June 2022 and we’ve been contacted yet again by some headlamp companies who would like to have us review their lighting gear.
We’re looking forward to bringing new headlamp gear here to cover for you. Though it might seem like we’re wedded to the Petzl brand, we’re open to the idea that there are some up and coming headlamps that are better than Petzl headlamps in some areas. Our preference is for Petzl just because we love the reliability of them, we’ve used them for almost a decade. We’re not likely to stop using them or reviewing them.
New brands from China are really upping their game. We’ve seen it constantly. The other week someone in the comments asked about NightCore headlamps. Did we review them? We haven’t. We thought they were just like the FENIX Chinese-brand headlamps that fell apart after a few years. See pic below.
We did enjoy our Fenix headlamps while they lasted! Don’t get me wrong. However, there’s something to be said for paying more money for a Petzl or other top brand and having them last a couple of years longer. We have Petzl’s we’ve been using often, and they’re still in very good shape. That’s what a headlamp should be, right? In the case of that Fenix, it could have just been the design. The wires stretched around the head and that’s probably not ideal for many reasons. The all-in-one unit that sits at the front of the head is probably far better for most uses.
We’ve been promised three new headlamps with great specs from two different companies. One was received today, and I’m anxious to get home from school (I teach) and see what we’ve got! The other headlamps should arrive soon – maybe a couple of days. It seems that the companies may be connected because once I said “yes” to the first company, the second one emailed me immediately to see if I would review their headlamp as well. Interesting how it works in China.
I’ll tease this first new headlamp from ACEBEAM by telling you that it seems to offer impossible specs. There is a 4,000 lumen setting on it that is brief, but just sounds insane. It also has lower brightness settings that last for so long that I can’t believe it’s true. Hours over 1,000 lumens? I don’t know. Maybe I am misremembering what I read? I’ll have to see tonight when I get back. I’m excited though, to say the least. The box is beautifully done. The headlamp looks very solid, very lightweight, and I know from the specs it was HIGHLY waterproof. These are all good things for my main use – snake hunting, but also for my secondary use-case, trail running through the rainforest in Southeast Asia.
NITECORE is also sending us a couple of headlamps. We should receive them in about 3 days. Exciting times. I am excited to see if maybe one of these headlamps will be a new FAVORITE.
A Plea for Your Help!
Lately, Google has given priority to the major outdoors websites like REI and others for top results on the search engine pages when someone does a query for headlamps. It’s ridiculous because these companies don’t specialize in headlamps, their reviews are nothing like ours, and yet they get top results in Google because they are a big company that spends a billion dollars with Google for ads.
If you would, please consider using our website for all your research about headlamps and please use our website links to purchase headlamps at Amazon when you do decide on the right one for you. It will help us a lot, we are not a big store, but we’re trying to support a family of 5. Our sales were cut by more than half (73%) this recent year (2021). Some is due to COVID changes in what people do at night, we know, but there is a huge effort by big outdoors companies to crush smaller websites like ours. 🙁 Please if you would???? Thank you for any help you can give…