Congratulations for such a cool forum! You helped me pick a Wurkkos HD15R, my goodness what an upgrade from my crappy headlamp! I wish I had known before! Now I essentially use it every day, especially for DIY work in and outside the house where lighting is poor.
But I would like to try something different. The few things I don’t like of the HD15:
only 3 level settings, I wish there was a setting between mid and high. High uses too much battery and mid is sometimes not enough.
I want a light with much better flood for close-range work, and it should not be red. I often use it for very close objects for electric work (maybe 10-30cm) and I need accurate color rendition, so a natural light in the 5-6k range. I can’t use the flood in the HD15 because it’s red and there’s too much reflection from the throw, it’s too narrow and uncomfortable at close range.
I often wear a hat and the headband does not work well with hats, not easy to adjust or keep in place, in general I am not a fan of this headband, it gets tangles or moves out of place.
I like to set the light on a table or object so I don’t have to wear it on my head while I work, the magnet is useful but most time I wish the light was easier to set on objects and orient the beam easily. I think the combination of round shape and the headband don’t help.
Doesn’t have a battery gauge, it only had led color change which is better than nothing but it’s a guess work. Also I would like to charge it only to 80-90% to preserve battery life, but it’s also a guesswork
Things I like are the weight, size, metal casing, battery duration I find very acceptable, the magnet, I like also the moonlight mode.
Do you guys have any suggestion? My budget is around 30-40 euros, I could spend a bit more if needed.
I have a HD15 with 4000k where BOTH the spot and the flood are high Cri. I think it is the best headlight for under $35. The flood is already wider than most other headlights. It could use a few more modes to spread out the spacing. I have a suggestion but it is well above your budget.
Armytek wizard C2 Pro Nichia. 4500k high Cri.
It is the same size. The flood is just a fraction wider. 8 levels of light spacing in advanced mode or 7 in the basic mode. A better clip. With the clip on the tail end you can snap it in and out of the head mount without removing the clip. The battery indicator is a little bit better than the HD15. A better battery. You will have to pad the head mount if you’re not wearing it on a hat.
I almost got one last time! I wish they had a comparison chart because they many different models that look quite similar. Did you have any model in mind?
It’s not really a strange choice. Some people like skilhunt lights so they’re going to have multiple cables and lights. Same with armytek and olight. All three of those companies developed their magnetic charging systems before type c was on all Android phones and other devices. All three of those magnetic charging systems provide better waterproof ratings then almost all type C ports. You may not care about that but some people do. You are unlikely to find your perfect headlight. So you have to pick and choose what you think is most important to you and which light has most of those important details.
I would recommend watching multiple YouTube videos of all the lights that you are considering and some that you’ve written off already.
Like you I like a wide smooth beam. That puts armytek at the top of the list as far as I’m concerned. Write down all of the features that you want and don’t want to deal without and then find the light that closely matches those most important features and look at price last not first.
That’s really overwhelming because of all the models, especially for beginners. I wish there was a website that would allow to filter the million models based on features, like some cellphone websites.
I have compared various specs, and really the h300 seemed the most balanced of all, also in terms of price. The only thing that stops me from buying is that there’s no throw/flood nor red.
My main features are in order of importance
good flood in medium mode, at least 150+ lumen
3 modes (flood, throw, red)
battery life in medium mode
good headband + magnet
most common use is work at close range and use at night outside to do general work such as maintenance, gardening. It will be used for camping as well.
If there’s none that have all of them, I could buy a magnet as an accessory.
Edit: I see the Armytek store on aliexpress has now a sale.
Can you develop? The H300 is brighter with the XHP50.2. The H200 seem to tick all boxes, but the H04 seem to have longer run time at the same level and more choices of TIR. In any case the LH351D is also in my HD15R, so I don’t actually see any big differences in lumen if I had to choose that option.
I tried, thanks! I think it’s good for an initial filter, but it seems that it’s not up to date?
Anyway after much thought I am down to the Wizard C2 Pro (either Nichia or White) and the H200 with Nichia. I am just trying to figure out which one has the most neutral tint.
Not this is getting hard to decide, between black friday offer and a coupon I could get the C2 Nichia or the C2 White in sand color for 63 euros, that’s actually cheaper than the H200.
