Fenix HL30

[SSSdave]

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Yes I have a new toy and am quite enthusiastic about it. Like some kid that is not a common reaction from this senior person that has a fair collection of contraptions over decades. My career was electronic hardware too. I've done extensive night hiking both as a landscape photographer with a heavy load of camera/tripod gear and as a backpacker carrying ridiculous weights.

On my Upper Kern Basin Backpack, the night hike hike in over the Symmes Creek Notch:
https://www.davidsenesac.com/2019_Trip_ ... 019-7.html

So a FENIX HL30 headlamp $44.95, that takes either 2 AA's or 2 NiMH that are voltage regulated for constant light output. This is my fourth Fenix main headlamp, so was using them when they were an emergent tech LED headlamp manufacturer and that first low performance headlamp is in my car. Absolutely impressive how much better designed this model is than my HL10 or HL11 headlamps, that will now be retired for house and car duty. Shows what making the big time in that LED product line did bringing in top mechanical engineering designers in this era when material science is doing amazing things. The HL11 had about the same power and functionality, however it weighed twice as much requiring 4 AA's. With AA/NiMH, there is no functional advantage of a headlamp with a 4 battery compartment as 2 batteries fill the voltage regulation need with less carrying weight while in use. For a backpack trip I'll just carry 2 NiMH spares thus have the same capacity. It has a lockout function so no chance of accidently bumping a switch in a pack and draining down the batteries.

A weak design issue with the earlier Fenix models was the 3 strap headbands became unruly and adjustment was awkward. Without the over the top band this head circling band make that simple. The main LED casing given the 300 lumen max output is nicely aluminum so can deal with the heat though I don't tend to use highest levels much except when trying to figure out where I am. And it is tiltable as in the above image with the Red LED on. For just walking down trails, the 130 L and 30 L levels will work well. The ECO mode is 4 L and the Red LED 1 lumen. Note the battery compartment grommet as the unit is IP67 rated, 1 meter for half and hour and note they include a spare grommet. Besides the fancy plastic packaging, given the pandemic, they added a gift bottle of alcohol hand sanitizer.

I might be a senior, but hey still mostly light brown hair gals.

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[CAMERONM]

I will be posting a review of headlamps soon, and the Fenix models stood out for voltage regulation and just general attention to details that matter.