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