Best budget rail running headlamp for 2018?

It can’t compete with the Skillhunt H03 on value and it does have a custom battery, but for minimal weight up front have a look at the Olight HS2.

https://olightworld.com/olight-hs2

For your next drunk run.

Panasonic NCR18650F are good low-temperature cells. Except for truly extreme weather they should do better than CR123.

I have both Pro XHP50 and non-Pro XP-L version, and find the Pro much preferable - way more useful UI with separate circling through 3 firefly and three main modes, buck-boost fully regulated with constant output , more modes, lower firefly and higher turbo…… To me it is well worth the higher price. :slight_smile: Both with TIR, neither does appear more floody to me.

If you put both lights in 60min or even 4h mode (running takes too long for 20min mode of the pro), the XP-L version has more throw than the XHP-50 version because the LED is half the size and the lumens are similar. To me it makes a difference for running.

Do you have the current version of both lights? Why is the UI of the XP-L version different?

The XHP-50 has a boost driver, not buck boost (XHP-50 runs with 12V in the light).

The XP-L version has a buck-boost driver (see footnote here).

Wowtac A2S High(460 lumens/4.5 hrs) and only $30

Much, much obliged you guys, awesome data. It seems like the Skilhunt is leading for now with the Armytek in close follow but a bit pricey where I live and can’t seem to find it the Chinese Sources I know of. All it takes now is to snipe a banggood sale for the Skilhunt when it comes around, too bad I smashed all of my points on batteries by the end of the year.

Although I see that Olight locally at the same price as Skilhunt on BG. Has anyone done a teardown of that battery pack? I can always fabricobble together an alternate pack if need be but I’d rather just replace the battery itself.

Ah and thanks for the cold weather 18650 tip, it is priceless - my A6 almost died in 15C when I was escorting a lost soul back to a mountain hut in the middle of the night every damned headlamp on everyone crapped out (strong wind, alkalines and eneloops decided to hibernate) and that A6 was a lifesaver.

I run on the road with a club, and something I have noticed is that many of the runners, ladies in particular (I have no idea why) run with a headlamp on their waist. It gives great foot illumination. Not suggesting this is ideal for you (clearly not a good idea as sole illumination on a trail), but it gives an option for extra illumination, and you might get away with a heavier lamp here, depending how mounted.

Actually now that I think about it, maybe women look at each other more when they talk, and wear them low to avoid blinding each other.

If you are used to an A6, you are a bit spoilt, headlamps suffer a bit in comparison to that I think. The H03 is certainly the most recommended headlamp here at BLF, mine is still in the post. For really budget lamps the Boruit RJ02 at $7 or so is an eye opener, love mine, but the strap is heavy and based on smelly rubber, also on a trail run you will lose the USB cover unless you glue it on.

A waist mounted light gives you better depth perception because it will actually create shadows. The problem is the wobble. Your waist moves left to right when you’re running (also up and down a lot depending on how good your technique is). Also when you look to your sides you won’t see much.

Oh the Boirut, that name rang a bell and I wondered why.

Turns out I ordered it last Friday around 2:30 AM. It is so nice of me to think about me when I am blind drunk! (One might see a pattern here.)

Waist light does indeed sound alright for road running but two lamps and two power sources is a bit heavy even for me, but sometimes I do think about mounting a cheap Xanes bike light with a single 18650 onto my running vest for longer distances as a secondary light but it draws 1.1A and I find it hard to power it properly and provide proper heat dissipation to the module of choice. Anyhow, I never wear that vest below 15k of trail so it is on hold as most of my reasonable tinkering projects.

A6 is indeed an overkill for running 98% of time so I am fine with sacrifices. But dual wielding two of them on the sides of my backpack straps makes me feel like a Wyatt Earp of trollhunters in the mountains, that’s for sure. Necessary? No. Awesome? Ah yes, quite a bit.

Good day,
my personal choice of Imalent HR20W
Pavol

I usually run with a floody 18650 light in-hand, but had a similar need for a running headlamp (though my requirements are different), and after quite a bit of research I went with the Olight H1. I got it today and already tried it out so I’ll post the whole story together with some impressions.

What I wanted:

- something above 100 lumen for 2 hours. It may seem on the low side, but once the eyes have adjusted I find it enough for most situations even when going downhill fast

- a light with no top strap ( I hate them! ) that would not bounce around when running fast / jumping above creeks or other obstacles

- decent tint, I don’t think this needs any explanation :smiley:

- a floody beam so that there would not be an hotspot bouncing around or blinding me when I tighten my shoelaces

  • IPX7 or better so I don’t have to worry about the weather

The main problem was finding a light that didn’t bounce around. I already had a Thrunite TH20 and that was unusable, the main problem is it’s heavy and sits far from the head giving it too much leverage. So I looked for a light that was lightweight and had its center of mass close to the head. I narrowed it down to the Olight and the Nitecore NU20 CRI, but the Nitecore had limited runtime and lacked swappable batteries.


Here you can see how it sits in its holder basically as close to the head as it is possible.

So I got the Olight, here’s what I like and what I don’t:

LIKE:

- lightweight enough not to bounce around at all

- though it is 70cri, the tint is consistent throughout the beam, slightly rosy and overall pretty good

  • 16340 batteries are so small I can easily carry a spare in the mini-pocket most running pants have for car keys and not notice it

DISLIKE:

- the button is flat and only activates when pressed in the center, basically unusable when running fast

  • depth perception is definitely a problem, I really felt less capable of gauging step distances during fast downhill sections and overall I feel my performance was lower than usual

So overall I think this is almost as good as it gets for my needs, and allows me to keep my hands free if I want to do mixed training.
But I will keep bringing an 18650 handeld like my E2L on more serious runs.

That Olight does indeed look awesome. So far I went with Skilhunt and Boirut. Tested the Boirut twice already - well it is a damn spectacular light for it’s price and the light is almost enough - I had two ankle crashes with some branches I didn’t see on the trail, but otherwise it is nearly sufficient. I finally got some snow over here so next test is to see how it performs in sub zero and with nice reflections from the general snowiness. Skilhunt is still on it’s way to me.

And yeah, the top straps are annoying but I can live with them if I have to.
And you are correct with the depth perception, I recently ran along some tractor trails, and once they got frozen solid it was probably the toughest terrain I ever ran on, twisting my ankles randomly on every step. Seems like I will need to carry the A6 on my running belt as a backup after all.

Alright my dudes, since I have the Skilhunt H03 today I might as well post some very brief first impressions, more testing later on.

Skilhunt:
- light tint is quite warm in the NW version and I really like it
- got it at a significant discount at GB, -40%, well worth
- power – there is MUCH POWER, testing tomorrow, I shot my ankle a bit on a bumpy 9k yesterday
- presumably will be surprisingly good for navigation even though I got the TIR version
- forehead stability – hmm, we’ll see. The rubber front is much softer than on the Boirut, comfortable but seems a tad wobbly
- quality – it is very, very well made.

Boirut:
- blueish tint but nothing as horrible as say, Xanes/Inbike lights
- spectacular value for the price.
- power is nearly enough for tough terrain, sufficient for light trails free from obstacles
- nope for navigation, but might do in a pinch sometimes, depends on how lost you are
- very steady on the forehead if strapped on properly, namely a bit higher above the eyes than normal
- quality – it is, well, made. That comma means that it is indeed made, but that’s about it. No seals around the detector diodes is an understatement, the holes are way bigger than the diodes themselves. Overall buildness is a bit harsh let’s say but nothing too horrific. Some might say that there is no such word as buildness, I say there might be. I am the one who coined the term “tallness of height” which over 30 people know have heard and noticed.
- floodiness (another great word) is weird – the outer ring is quite dim but bright enough to make my nose light up if I don’t pay attention to the mounting. Weirdly distracting but I do have a rather large nose for some reason.

I also ordered a new, larger Salomon running belt because why not run with a navigation light, main light and a backup light. I love it when my hobbies compliment each other. I seem to type shorter sentences like if it was supposed to be a voiceover when it is a brief forum post.

Later this week I will post some pictures that will vaguely tell you something perhaps, but maybe not. Taken with a phone on the run, manually adjusted on the spot so they kind of sort of resemble what I see in real life so I wouldn’t call them beamshots, just locations revisited. I’m not sure what the video policy is here – I don’t have a youtube channel but if I made a review would it be considered a spammy promo for a channel?

Here’s a small preview from a Boirut lit run, yes, this is what I have to deal with:

Hello
a little exotics from the Czech Republic

Výkonné a kvalitní české čelovky Lucifer

Oh blody hell, that does look VERY interesting. I can even kind of sort of understand the language as an Eastern European myself. Expensive as hell but damn interesting.

Would it want test samples / free from factory /

prototyp

Pýtate sa, či chcem preskúmať?
Jesus our languages are a bit apart it seems haha

But if so then yes indeed!

try to write to the factory

I might do that if I’ll figure out a decent way to film it, thanks for the tip mate!