very nice headlamp (at IS): Nitecore HC50

You're correct. For some reason I was thinking it was normally 89. Thanks again.

You guys are killing my wallet. Looks like a very nice headlamp that should be good and floody, the only drawback I see is it’s a little big. Nice price for a premium brand headlamp.

Are there any shipping costs to europe?

Well, 6,41$ is pretty acceptable.

Almost double the price for me for postage :frowning:

That's really strange. My postage came up as $6.41, so I don't see why yours shouldn't.

Looks like that design concept that originated in Germany and first appeared in the Spark SD6 is becoming more popular. What caught my attention on this is the weight, 130gm is really pushing the limit, 80g is the max I will go without counter balancing, but prefer to stay below 70g if it’s an all night event. Also what they need to do with this is add the ability to interchange the lens from flood to spot, and perhaps add a belt clip and options to mag mount or tripod mount as Spark did with the SD series. Would also be nice to see the option of a warmer emitter for professional use, T6 is not very good in the field for patient assessment as the CRI is not high enough to differentiate venous from arterial blood, cap refill, or cyanosis. Personally, seldom being subject to having avoid the attentions of a sniper, I found years ago in practice neither I nor my colleagues ever actually had a use for the red emitters when in the field, I used to prefer to read a map with moonlight mode, now, as all my topo’s are digital, I’m always looking at a backlight GPS anyway.

Just jumped on this one as a present for my best friend for Christmas along w an i2 intellicharger. He currently has a cheap Home Depot headlamp for work (HVAC), and is constantly commenting on all my “bright” lights. I think he will be happy! :slight_smile:

This is a great perspective with some excellent input! Thanks for sharing!

130g indeed is pretty heavy for a headlamp. The Zebralight h600 is only 39grams and it also takes an 18650, now granted without the multi-emitters. I’ve been debating that one and this nitecore one for a while now.

i hope there is NW tint for this HL :slight_smile:

My ZL H600 gets hot pretty quick in high-mode.
Have used it a lot, it´s a great light!

Just couldn´t resist this offer, paid a lot more for my H600…

Considering the increased weight (larger heatsink) of the HC50 it must be able to endure longer runtimes on high without overheating.

I just got back from a mild alpine descent of 440 vertical meters on a trail over a distance of 8km. It was snowing, and I gave the person I was escorting a Spark SX5 NW headlamp for their head, and a Spark SD52 to wear on their hip belt (both have T5 emitters). After about 10 minutes they took the headlamp off and said it was giving them a headache, and completed the entire descent with just the light on the hip belt. Part of the reason (I suspect, as they mentioned this) was the T5 tint reflecting back off the falling snow was very annoying to them. It may have also been due to the weight of the headlamp. Also I was originally walking behind them, and they asked me to walk in front as they found my light casting their shadow on the snow to be very disconcerting for getting good footing.

I only mention this because it illustrates how very real the seemingly inconsequential factors can become in the real world. The T5 really reflects badly off fog, rain, and snow. I felt that the person I was accompanying was perhaps too ‘high maintenance’, but the reality was weight, and tint, of the headlamp became factors that had the real potential to impact the achievement of your objectives.

If you are considering this light as a Xmas present for a friend that currently has something from Home Depot, then this is probably a nice present. If you are very serious about what you do in the backcountry when you are miles away from the trailhead and you were considering this for your own quiver, I’d wait a bit before pulling the trigger. In fact, during the de-briefing tonight it was mentioned that I should have mounted the Convoy M1 with T4 emitter I was carrying as a backup in my pack on my hip belt and killed my headlamp, thereby eliminating a lot of the reflection problem, and on reflection that makes a lot of sense. So now I am trying to figure out the best possibilities for perhaps hip mounting a forward facing Convoy M1.

That reflection is why I love right angle lights so much. I hate the reflection while I'm hiking, so I use it as a flashlight, and then put it on my head when I'm taking a break and need both hands.

Funny you should mention that. About 3 nights ago I got caught later than expected with my spouse while we were descending from a late afternoon climb. So we only had the backup flashlights that were in our packs, I had an SL6S with T5 emitter, and she had a modded Ws611 host from FT with a T4 emitter in it. It was not snowing so reflection was not a problem, but, my big problem was, with a ski pole in each hand, holding the light between my fingers so it would point forward along the trail in the same hand that was gripping the pole got my fingers really cold in a matter of minutes. It made me realize that there is one point in favour of a headlamp, but again, in light of your observation, an even better point for hip mounting a light. In fact, I also noticed tonight, when both of our headlamps were switched off and we were just using the hip belt mounted lights, you could stop and talk to each other at any time without blinding the other person with your headlamp every time you turned to look at them.

I'm excited already!
I heard you guys have incredible service, and this is a real nice confirmation.

This is slightly off-topic, but any approximation on when your Zebralight SC600W MkII L2 are coming in?

Hip mounting is something I should try. A webbing belt should fit nicely into the headlamp "frame".

Use with trekking poles is something that I've been thinking about lately. I don't use trekking poles most of the time, but they're definitely with me if I'm crossing snow fields, and gripping a light and trekking pole in the same hand might be a problem. I'm going to attach some short loops of shock cord to each end of my light. They should grip the outside of my fingers, which should allow me to use it with trekking poles and would prevent it from falling if I must shift my hands like one does when self arresting with a trekking pole.

Of course the one annoyance of using the poles and having the light on your hand is the swinging movement. A friend of mine suggested an arrangement something along these lines which I just threw together just now. The spot it is on the hip belt may have it pointing too obliquily to the left however:

According to Zebralight production was delayed on the SC600W MKII L2, best estimate from them right now is early December.

Ya, this will be the perfect present for my non flashaholic buddy as an introduction to “real” lights. He will likely use it a half an hour at a time while trouble shooting HVAC equipment while at work. He is sure to be very happy with this present. :santa:

These are in stock and have shipped. Ordered this morning and shipped today.