Has anyone else seen this?
Looking beyound the hype and marketing of it's 'brain'. It leaves me wondering how well that light sensor will practically work. Your whole head will have to move in order to trigger the light sensor, I can see it being very annoying.
Far from it.
I had an evening to try out the Nao. Unfortunately no time to take pictures, but i did take it on a night trek.
First some facts:
-The light is comfortable to wear and ti's easy to adjust size.
-It uses single 18650 battery pack with a 3 pin plug (so i guess it monitors temperature)
-The cable that can be detached from battery box and has 4 pins.
-The battery box also has a USB plug that doesn't need cable unless the plug on computer is too recessed.
-The light will be programmable the same way as Tikka Core is. Current software (OS 2.0 ) doesn't recognize it. PC recognized it as Petzl NAO battery charger (if memory serves me right)
-It has a twist switch with mode memory (reactive/manual) and locked position. Short twist and the light fades on. Long twist changes the mode from reactive to manual and vice versa. By default manual mode has two brightness levels. When switched off the light fades out.
-I didn't notice any PWM and I believe it is current regulated as it seemed greener on lower levels.
And then some impressions:
As skeptical as I was about light changing intensity by it self I must admit I was pleasantly surprised. It makes the light truly hands free. You want to see what's there? Just look in that direction and the light will shine as much as it can or needs to. No need to let go of the rope to adjust it. It also conserves your night vision by quickly dimming when an object gets close to it (checking time on wrist watch, changing the tilt of lamp...)
This type of behavior takes a little time to get used to. Objects that are getting closer will be equally bright so walking up to a marking on a wall won't make it any brighter. Also in cold conditions condensed exhaled air will dim it, but I believe it's better to dim the light than blind the user.
I think Nao is a good trekking light and will spoil many of us (I already miss the feature on my headlamps). However I'm still waiting for IPx8 grade caving light and hoping that Petzl hasn't forgot about us (cavers that is).
That is very cool! Any idea on price point?
It might cost as much as Petzl Ultra
I think I saw a reference to a price of $180 somewhere.
Response from petzlcrew on YouTube: "The NAO will be available in July 2012 at the price of 125€ (depending of where you live)."
It seems like it will cost 150€/175$. I wonder where that leaves Petzl Ultra with same lumen rating and 270€ price