Rechargeable LED/Halogen head torch hybrid from the Swedish navigation meisters, but is it as good as the spec' suggests?
|
Silva M1 Headtorch First
Look
|
|
|
Price:
£49.95
|
|
Weight: 320 grammes (light unit plus
battery pack)
|
|
Features: 4-watt
halogen bulb plus 3 LEDs, hammered surface reflector,
waterproof to IP56 standard, adjustable headband, NiMH
rechargeable battery with 6V DC 200mA mains recharger
supplied, mesh carry sack. Claimed burn time: halogen - 1 hr
45 mins, LED - 100 hrs.
|
The Concept Silva is best know for making compasses and - more
recently - GPS units, but the company's orienteering associations has
spawned a range of headtorches as well. The M1 is their top of the
range general use model - they also make some seriously big ,
high-powered jobbies - and in the modern idiom houses both a strong
4-watt halogen bulk for long-range work and a set of three LED bulbs
in the same compact housing.
Where the M1 stands out from the competition and its own stablemates,
the M2 and M3 (all curiously named after motorways you know) is in
coming complete with rechargeable battery pack and a mains recharger.
That allows it to use a more powerful 4-watt halogen bulb compared to
the 2.4 watt unit in the M2, though burn time is down
accordingly.
Features
The M1 may be grey, but visually it's not dissimilar to the
classic Petzl Zoom with a three strap head band and a square battery
box mounted at the rear. There's no zoom though as Silva reckon it's
pretty pointless in the real world and, of course, unlike the Zoom,
but like the latest Duo and the Lucido T-61, it has both halogen and
LEDs in one package.
Charging is dead easy, just unplug the power cord from the light
unit and plug straight into the mains charger supplied.
In Action The light performance from the Silva is good. The
LED gives the normal, bright white diffuse glow and is more than
adequate for camping and most walking use, while the 4-watt halogen
unit throws out a piercing beam for picking out more distant features
- claimed range is 75 metres.
|
|
Just visible - LEDs sit at top,
4-watt
haogen bulb in center
|
Operation is straightforward with a push-button on/off switch that
alternates between the two light types and is easy to use even with
glove. The torch sits easily on a bare head with easily used tension
adjusters for both straps and mated nicely with a Half Dome helmet as
well. The light unit swivels neatly for up and down adjustment
too.
We did have a couple of quibbles - first, the tension straps
locate into a notched holder in the lamp housing and battery box
which means they pull out far too easily under a firm pull. It means
you can change the light unit easily, but at the cost of potentially
dropping the while caboodle if a strap say, snared on a branch.
Getting them back in place with gloved or frozen fingers is an
unneeded faff. Sorry Silva.
Next, the power plug is a sliding fit in the light unit and we
managed to unplug it a couple of times, something that could happen
easily, if say, you scraped the cord on an overhanging piece of rock
while climbing, leaving the user in darkness. Not good.
Recharging
The M1's other weakness is the rechargeable battery. From empty,
charging time is approximately 16 hours and even when
half-discharged, it takes another 8 hours to get up to maximum
charge. Plus there's no smart charger, so leaving the battery plugged
in for longer could knacker it for ever. On top of that, there's no
charge indicator, so you never know quite how long you need to leave
things be.
On top of that, because the charger is mains only and at present,
while there's a solar charger available, there's no car charger, the
light's usefulness on multi-day wilderness trips is limited. Having
said that, if you're purely using the LEDs, the 100-hour battery life
should see you okay, but if you need the halogen as well, your
recharging options are going to be limited. And even if you have
access to the mains, 16 hours is a long time to wait.
It may be a bit harsh, but while the M1 would have seemed
revolutionary just a short while back, right now it looks slightly
flawed. We found the pull-out straps and the plug annoying, but both
should be relatively easy for Silva to fix, or you could just tape
the plug in place.
The battery-charging issue however is more fundamental and limits
the usefulness of the torch. If you're never going to use the halogen
it doesn't really matter, but in that case, why not just go for a
lighter, cheaper LED-only torch instead?
It's a shame as bar these problems, the actual light performance
and build quality of the unit seem first rate. On balance though, if
you're after a Silva head torch for use away from home, we think the
M2, which uses 4 AA cells and a less powerful halogen bulb would be a
better choice, but that's before you even begin to consider
competition like Lucido's T-61 and Petzl's new Myo Zoom replacement
(more on that soon). Potentially very good but flawed as it stands.
Know more or want to?
If you'd like to add your own experiences of this product check
out our user review system and post your opinions to the world. If
you have questions you can mail
us direct, ask
Richard Gear or try a posting to our gear
forum.
