Around the campsite or even walking, a headlamp is kind of a must. Invest in a warmer high-CRI light for best all-around light. Warm so you can still sleep later, and high-CRI for better recognition of snakes, branches, and such.
Floody light for area-lighting.
Throwy light to see the mountain lions lying in wait up ahead.
“Balanced beam”, “Throwy, but usable spill”, etc., is garbage. Compromise beams that do neither very well. When you need throwy they don’t have enough reach, and when you need floody the hotspot washes out everything else.
You’ll probably want at least an AAA light on a clip or around your neck in case of getting stranded on a trail but needing some light vs walking off a cliff.
Minimum setup? Floody headlamp, throwy handheld, AAA light (plus packed extra cells) on a necklace.
On many hikes and backpacking trips I’ve carried my two Zebralights (H600Fd III headlamp and a SC600w HI). A buddy and I have often left work on Friday afternoon, driven to the heart of the mountains and hiked for a few hours after dark to wake up in deep in the woods. Lots of fun with these two lights.
The headlamp is rated at up to 870 lumens which doesn’t sound like much these days, but it’s been plenty for my trips through New York’s Adirondack Mountains. These trails are very wooded so it might not work as well with more exposed mountains like out West in mountain lion country. Like it was mentioned before, keeping a lower level and having a very low level are most comfortable in camp. If I need to see exactly what’s making noise in the distance, the SC600w HI is a great way to punch through the darkness and see what’s up on the outskirts of the campsite.
No need to go as expensive as these. A Convoy or Sofirn or most any other 18650 light with a HI led will serve the same function. There are also a good number of good choices among headlamps too these days.
I think versatility is key, I prefer a lot of lumens on a moonless night because there are no shadows. On a moon lit night a good throw is enough just to light up something dark or far away. In the tent or just doing business, I prefer somthing sub lumen,
I was told that the thing with mountain lions, cougars or other cats is they like to sneak up on you and to have someone watch your back and sides. Someone recommended one of those cheap headbands that take a tube light and just wear it in addition to your headlamp so it looks like there are a bunch of lights walking with you and you are not alone.
I don’t actually know if they are scared of a tube light, I have never encountered a mountain lion,
Thanks for replies.
I haven’t been camping for last few years.
That was before I had decent (new LED) flashlights.
Since 2019, I bought quite a few flashlights and headlamps, although all budget ones but way brighter than my old D cell and 9 LED AAA ones.
I have two AAA flashlights.
One is Ultratac A7 and another is Enjoydeal.
The A7 is warmer (high CRI?) light with high, low and strobe mode with brighter center and lots of spill.
The $2 Enjoydeal is bluish light with just on and off mode and more throw than spill. Throws farther than A7.
As for AA, I have two Ultrafire Q5 SK68 clones. I like the size but I don’t have 14500 batteries to see how brighter these can get.
With AA, the AAA ones I mentioned above are brighter so I won’t be carrying these.
Then bunch of single 18650 and two dual 18650 flashlights, all are zoomies except one.
Then I have one cr123 weapon light that can be used as flashlight as I bought bunch of cr123 batteries and don’t use it much.
Those plus few 500 and 200 lumens headlamps so I think I’m covered for now.
We’ll try when I go out in the dark next time and I may hand few unwanted zoomies out to my friends.
^
My flashlight journey was started when I lost path in the wood with a group of people, without proper illumination devices.
All incand flashlights runs their batteries out and we managed to go back to basecamp with just one $5 AAA LED flashlight bought from dx.com some months earlier.
The flashlight was actually just a keychain that I put on my vehicle key and it helped us in the 5 hours walk down to the basecamp.
A good headlamp and a thrower like the GT Micro for weight savings while hiking. The Micro for longer distant sighting plus the ramping UI is great and I use my Armytek Wizard Pro because I really like the UI. Its main mode 2 at 200lms will go for 8 hours while main mode 1 at 70lms for 18 hours. It throws plenty of light with its defused lens at 70lms for me but these are my preferences and everyone’s will be different. A good hands free light is a must IMO. There are many great headlamps available from almost all flashlight manufactures nowadays. Good luck in your search for the perfect lighting
Well, I used to mountain bike single track with a fenix L1Tv2 on my helmet so you really don’t need as much light as one would think. Remember the eyes adjust to lower light environments.
If I was going to night hike I’d use a floodier headlamp along with a handheld to reach out if needed. Probably would go with something like my armytek wizard pro and either a ZL sc63w, Sofirn c8f LH351d or my malkoff m361w/219. Along with a single AAA pocket/keychain back up. Nothing too bulky or huge but enough to light up a moderate meadow or field. Actually with a head strap you could shave weight and use the ZL as both a handheld and your headlamp. This would work very well…
Generally for back country I’d try to match battery types on my main two lights for interchangeability if needed. The keychain light I would keep AA or AAA for easy sourcing if recharging becomes an issue somehow.
If my life depended on it, I would only trust the Surefire Titan for AAA.
Also anything that RovyVon sells. They’re just costly, not expensive.
Having a Nichia 219C-700 lumens in my necklace, feels very safe.
I have a few of them. Good stuff. Now they have new models.
They got me again. Dayum!!! no willpower.
If a person just needed a light in the tent and around the campfire, 10 or 20 lumens might be enough. Walking down a dark path with night-adjusted eyes, even 2-3 lumens might do. Seeing a critter or something farther away, might need 200 or 500 lumens, maybe more if the light has no throw. Signaling for help, a throwy 1000 lumens could be handy. It really depends on a lot of things.
I think because most of us are connoisseurs we sometimes overlook the bigger picture. For thousands of years people have navigated rural terrain and camped with just a bare flame.
Up until fairly recently in human history, most handheld lights produced 50 to 100 lumens. This was more than sufficient back then. I don’t mean to be a party pooper but the reality is unless you’re involved in SAR, 2 lights are sufficient for navigation, a headlamp and handheld, especially if weight is an issue. Flood - throw it really doesn’t matter in the big scheme of things, although i would lean towards throw if i had to choose as the beam has hybrid uses. Then again, I’ve found when i’m really out in the wilderness, even my thrunite TN42 didn’t throw far enough and that is rated for over a mile!
I would recommend a light headlamp like the thrunite TH20 and a handheld like the Lumintop X9L or M2R Pro. All options have enough light for all uses. Just my two cents.
A few years ago on solo 10 day winter trips carrying all food, tent etc in Scottish Highlands and Iceland, I took a Zebralight H502 with a few spare AA batteries. It’s max output is about 270lms.
As others have said, don’t need a lot of light.
Nowadays I would take either my Zebralight H600c or Armytek Wizard Pro. And if I wanted to indulge a bit perhaps a small thrower like FW1A Osram with 18500 or 18350 tube. Or maybe GTMicro Osram. Family commitments have changed things about since then
Have enjoyed reading this. Many good recommendations. It occurs to me that I would be just fine with my normal walking the dogs in the city setup. Perhaps not as good as many of the suggestions, but certainly more than adequate for the task. I have an SP40 on my head. Always have a Ti3 V2 in my pocket. That alone would likely be good enough. However, my current EDC (besides the Ti3) is the SC31 Pro. While I agree that in the mountains it would be very nice to have a thrower, the SC31 throws amazingly well for what it is. I really doubt any animal would try, or at least be successful, in attacking the tactical strobe;-)
Interesting take at things.
However, just because cavemen used to walk for thousands of years, should we be okay with a cart instead of cars?
They didn’t have the technology and didn’t have choice besides flames whether it was enough or not, they just dealt with it.
Back to the lights, recently got Convoy S2+ and it’s pretty good for walking with a lot of flooded light.
This and another thrower (Modoao) should be enough plus have small AAA lights as well.
I always bring the same lights camping: a Zebralight H600w for the trails and an ArmyTek Tiara C1 Pro for camp. The Zebralight has some throw but a nice spill so it's great for the trails (or when nature calls late at night). The Tiara has a TIR flood that is perfect for doing camp chores.
And both lights have a broad range of brightness settings from a moonlight-strength perfect for a nightlight or a super-powerful turbo blast for trying to identify what just made that scary noise...
So, instead of choosing one light with a particular lumen rating, I think it's preferable to have two lights --one flood and one with some throw-- that adjust to give you the amount of light you need for different tasks.
