Looking for a headlamp with high-CRI and amber.

For outdoor use I find it important to have a high-CRI primary beam, but most multi-spectrum headlamps have a cool-white 70-ish CRI primary beam. Many have high-CRI as a secondary beam, with flood optics, but not for the high beam. I assume they’re trying to pump up the lumens/cd figure for marketing, but this doesn’t really help in real world use.

I also want an amber secondary beam, it’s more useful than red but still avoids attracting a lot of bugs. When I’m walking around at night in the woods, I’ve got bugs flying in my face constantly. Using the common red beam on headlamps avoids this but it’s also really difficult to see where I’m walking, and washes out a lot of detail (especially text on red/white signs, which is sometimes important).

I also want something light and balanced, either 16340/18350 sized, or with a power pack on the back of my head. After a couple hours having something pull down on my forehead is annoying.

Is there anything out there that has these features (approximate order of priority)?

  1. Should be obvious but needs to be at least IP67.
  2. High-CRI white spot beam, amber flood beam, both adjustable brightness
  3. Additional high-CRI white flood beam
  4. Top-oriented button which can be operated with gloves.
  5. Easy access or default to amber (Photon Proton anyone?)
  6. Front-mounted 16340/18350 or rear-mounted 18650 or 21700
  7. Comfortable strap
  8. Maybe rotary selector like HDS
  9. USB charge/run capability (non-magnetic)

Amber doesn’t seem to be too common.

Is modifying a light an option for you? The Wurrkos HD20 has two emitters which can be turned on or off. It should be possible to swap one of them for amber. The Armytek Wizard WR is another option, but I’ve heard the Wizards are fairly difficult to open.

Also, they’re pricey, but VinH of Skylumen.com offers custom emitters in the Acebeam H30vn. Amber is not listed, but I’ve heard he sometimes does custom requests.

Both of these are 21700-powered lights, so they will be relatively big and heavy compared to other headlamps, but have really good battery capacity.

I don’t mind modifying a light, but for safety I would prefer something that’s built this way to begin with. I thought about getting a Panda 3.0 and changing both emitters.

But with that and the lights you mentioned that is a lot of weight, especially the Acebeam where the weight is further from my head resulting in more force. I find many headlamps are too heavy. I think a single-18650 from Skilhunt or Zebralight are about the maximum for my comfort. My Nitecore HC50 will basically slide off my head if I’m working under my car and turn my head, unless I really tighten the straps.

I don’t know why people are OK with this.

Silva has some models which seems to have orange light for map reading…
For example the Explore