Silva Launches World's Brightest LED Head Torch

The nice people at Silva were going to take the outdoors meeja up to the Lakes and lavish wine and fine food on us while impressing us with their new L-series LED headlamp range, but unfortunately they cancelled... Never mind, we're going to tell you about the L-Series anyway

Silva says that the L1, the flagship of the four-model L-series range, is the brightest LED headlight in the world and offers 'unprecedented performance'. Retailing for £69.95, the L1 uses a single ultra-bright, three-watt Luxeon LED with four settings - Power Save, Bright, Ultra Bright and Biking Alert.

The headlamp - above - is claimed to kick out at 63-metre focussed beam for distance work as well as a close-up flood beam. Claimed maximum burn time is 170 hours from four AA batteries housed in a two-piece battery box and Silva says that the unit is 'completely weatherproof'.

At 226 grammes (claimed) with batteries, the Silva is around 55 grammes heavier than the Petzl Myo XP and to give a near identical range, though to achieve that length of beam, the Petzl needs to use its short duration 'boost' setting. The Silva torch can also use a remote battery box for extreme cold weather conditions.

Alongside the L1 are three other LED headlamps. The L2 uses a less powerful 1-watt single LED to give a 35-metre range and weighs 165 grammes thanks to using just two AAs, price is £39.95.

The L3 is a more traditional looking five-LED unit costing £29.95 and is designed for 'close / medium' work with five light modes and a 22-meter maximum range.

Finally the L4 - pictured - is a Tikka-esqe 4-LED version with a 15-metre range and 90-hour burn time from three AA batteries and weights 82 grammes including batteries. Price is just under 20 squid.