I mean this is BLF after all. I got a pair of these:
Weight 24g for the light (w/o the 3 aaa batteries) + 6g for the strap. Pretty minimal. I haven’t gotten to turn one on yet but they have the COB leds that we see in everything now, so maybe the 120 lumen rating has some connection to reality. Getting the back off to put the batteries in is a slight PITA but it’s not something I expect to do that often. I thought I had some AAA’s handy but it turns out I don’t, so I will get some more at the next Costco run.
Shipping is free if you’re a Meh member, otherwise $5. I’m a member so two lights for $7 shipped is hard to beat. They are not very sturdy looking and probably not waterproof, but should function ok for occasional use. I will probably leave one in my backpack and the other in glove compartment.
So those are my new lights for today. Some time back I got three 1AAA lights on sale for $6 (yes $2 a light) and those were a good buy also, so I might review them too.
This head lamp sold on Lazada Thailand for just 105 baht or about US$3 comes with a 3000 mAh battery. It is popular among rubber tappers in southern Thailand, who need to go out in rubber plantations during the wee hours to tap rubber latex.
Just imagine how much money those manufacturers of fancy head lamps are making, selling their expensive gear for so much.
Also imagine the poor quality control and budget components it uses. Just because there’s cheap lights around, doesn’t mean every brand is making heaps.
That included 3000mAh battery would be fake rubbish with 300mAh most likely. Some recycled rusted rewrapped battery
I’m liking this cheap 3aaa light rather more: it weighs less than other 3aaa lights in this format, it’s comfortable, etc. I might get another pair of them just to take one apart. One thing I wonder is if I can run it on L92 lithium cells. It weighs around 63 grams with alkaleaks iirc, not bad. I could also put in a fairly beefy lipo pack in the 3aaa compartment but I’m not likely to use this light enough to warrant that.
Addition (Sept 7): I better note a really dumb design misfeature, which is that the light cycles through high-low-strobe-off with no timeouts. That means if it’s on high, to shut it off you have to click 3 times, cycling it through low and strobe. This is tolerable for an occasionally used light but I could imagine it being nuts if you use the light a lot. Other than that it seems like a thoughtful, cost conscious, minimal design. The beam is wide and smooth and tint is not too bad. There is no adjustable angle plate but on a light this small, you can adjust the light’s position on your head to point it where you want. I weighed my old Princeton Tec Aurora (the one with the three 5mm leds) which does have that feature, and it’s 83.9g with alkaleaks, plus it keeps popping open (I put a rubber band around it to prevent that). This Litezall light holds together pretty well by comparison.
