I've been pining for a MOAH (Mother of all Headlamps, or at least as close to it as fiscally possible) for a while now and two non-custom ones in particular that I really like are the Silva Alpha 6 & Petzl Ultra. However, one look at the asking price for each and I needed to adopt the stance of "Look but don't touch!" (as with a lot of the nicer things in life).
Recently I came across the eGear X-Flare Pro Focus Control 400 and after a bit of searching, landed one for an excellent deal. Here is a preview of this headlamp (I'll convert into full review as time allows).
MFG SPECS
Case Material: High-Impact ABS Plastic
Size HxWxD: Headlamp: 3.7" x 2.6" x 3"
Battery Case: 1.2" x 3" x 1.7"
Weight w/batteries: 12.4 oz.
Bulb: 3x Rebel 100 White LEDs
Brightness: Up to 375 lumens
Modes & run time: High: 25 min
Medium: 1 hour
Low: 9 hours
Flashing: 80 hours
Beam Distance: 360 feet
Battery: 4.8V 2200mAh Ni-MH rechargeable
Water Resistance: Water resistant IPX4
DESIGN / FEATURES
The light features a triumvirate of Rebel 100's:
There is a nice big rotary knob that selects one of 4 modes and always in this order: H - M - L - SOS:
Nice chunk of heat-sinking w/vents all around:
TINT & BEAM PROFILE
Beam width is just over 18" at a distance of 2 ft from the wall and IMO, I think this should qualify for the flood list even though it's just a tad under 60 deg. (I measured 50). The beam is just a tad smaller all around than the Pixa 3's flood mode.
L: 1/13" | R: 1/80"
The beam is reminiscent of the HL501 and nearly flawless except from some imperfections around the outer edges due to the three Rebel 100's.
INDOOR SHOTS
High (flood)
High (spot)
Med (flood)
Med (spot)
Low (flood)
Low (spot)
For details of the shots and comparo vs. many other lights, check here.
RUNTIME
x = time in min. / y = relative output
The blue test was flawed and cut short as the lamp was getting quite hot so I turned on a fan, thus the upward trend starting around 30 min. The red test was conducted with a fan on at get go. So it looks like runtime on H (provided it can be kept cool enough) is regulated at just over an hour and then it goes into some weird PWM mode which was also cut short due to the 10K data point limit on my light meter. While the red line seems to portray that the lamp is ramping up and down, to my eyes it's actually steady at roughly a thrid to quarter of output on H. Will rerun this again in the future.
IMPRESSIONS
My initial impressions are that this is a very bright, solid and well crafted HL and certainly ranks as one of the better bang for the buck especially considering it comes with rechargeable batteries & charger.
More to come...
Cheers,
Tim
BB. Great review. I've seen quite a few of your beamshots and for some reason the lux/hotspot + spill i'm seeing doesn't seem to match up to 375 lumens. Or maybe I'm just not seeing the beamshot correctly. Do you think it's the claimed 375?
Is that you Jason? If so, great to meet you here, if not, pleased to make your acquaintance nontheless. 
I'd say that 375 is a little optimistic although I vaguely recall seeing on the box that they used ANSI FL1 (not 100% certain though and will need to dig up the box). I unfortunately don't have a IS yet (working on a DIY) but comparing it to a reliable source (M3LT rated @ 400 lumens), the hotspot is nowhere near as intense.
I'll take some ceiling bounce measurements tonight and report back.
Sadly/strangely, I no longer see this being sold by eGear any longer although I have see various iterations of it under other brand names.
OK, the M3LT starts off around 60 lux and settles in shortly thereafter around 53 lux.
The eGear in spot is about 25 lux and in flood roughly 24.5 lux. Sorry this is the best I can do for now until I get a DIY IS set up.
Hope that helps.
Definitely does not sound like it lives up to its claim. Do you happen to have a Spark ST6/SD6 headlamp? (Yes it is me).
Thank you for the nice review. Sorry to see it is not floody enough for me since I like it somewhat. And now that I'm a started -thanks for all the wonderful reviews you are posting. Really great photos, lovely writeups and anough tech talk to satisfy (me).
Love them. hours of reading and I'm not halfway through I think. I also really like the comparo thread you are doing. That is just awesome. You certainly put the leg work into it! It is much appreciated :-)
Hey Jason, great to see you on this board too. I unf. don't have any Spark products (would love to one day though...). Yeah this one falls short of claims but again, I can't recall if these were ANSI figures or not. If they're emitter lms then minus the roughly 30% efficiency loss and you'd be at 262 or so and I think that's a bit more realistic.
@ledsmoke - thx! Glad you're enjoying the reviews and yes it's quite a bit of work. On average (of course it depends on the light as well) I usually put in about 20hrs worth of work at a minimum for each review. This includes the pics, write ups, run times (in which case due to time constrainst, I don't often do the lower modes), measurements etc. I strive to strike a good balance between layman's and journeyman levels and whenever possible to inject a little humor here and there.
Cheers,
Tim
I find that you succeed in all 3.
Have finished reading your reviews now and I am even more impressed.
But you do seem to have an eye for pictures that is not often seen. That is truly good.
Out of interest, what was the excellent deal you found?
From here: http://www.nulime.com/egear-x-flare-hl-400-head/p53071
(although at the time I think it was slightly cheaper and by almost $40 from any other retailers). A quick google shows another dealer selling one slightly cheaper than above but since I order from nulime I can vouch for them.
Cheers,
Tim
Jason,
I just wrapped up lumens measurement for all my lights using my PVC LMD and I was wrong about the eGear. Reason being the M3LT was underrated at 400lms, I measured it to be 669 on High and the eGear @ 360lms in Spot and 339 in Flood 30 seconds after turn on. Incidentally I did find the original box and eGear does state ANSI output on Max to be 350lms so my measurement is right around there.
Regardless, I think it's no longer in production as I don't see it on eGear's site any longer. However, I believe there are many various companies rebranding this light.
Cheers,
Tim
nice light but 120$ is way over my budget