Just to up our coverage of this year's OS Outdoors Show, we found
the latest contender in the spiralling headtorch weapons' race in the
form of Vision Adventure's mighty noggin light.
VA is an offshoot of Hope Technology, a company which among other
things, builds serious lights for night-time mountain biking. The
Vision Adventure head light is an adaptation of their bike lights but
with a head mount.
It's a serious bit of kit with two 5-watt LEDs housed in a CNCed
alloy casing and with a remote, headband-mounted, rechargeable
battery for ease of use. To put that all in perspective, Silva's L1
uses a single 3-watt LED while even their new LX model, due out soon
after production delays, has only a single 5-watt bulb.
So we're talking lots and lots of lights. Up to a 100-metre beam
according to VA, though there are four different power settings
giving from around two hours to 14 hours of light.
All of which begs the question of who needs this much light? For
the average walker or climber it's overkill, but for adventure racers
moving fast over rough terrain at night or fell-runners who want to
train on the fells at night, it promises spectacular illumination
plus good definition thanks to the head mounting.
It all comes at a price though - a weight of 320 grammes - though that's only around 80 grammes more than an L1 - and a
retail tag of £175. Ouch, but you're getting a lot for the
dosh.
More details at www.vision-adventure.co.uk
Chris McSweeny
