Black Diamond Gemini

Jonathan Shilland
Reviewed: 09 February 2005

FEELS WELL BUILT. CLEVER DESIGN AND GOOD RELIABILITY.

As confessed by the packaging, battery life on the Halogen bulb is pretty poor. I've found myself never using the halogen. Whilst it is handy to have the option, I would perhaps recommend the starlight, which is slightly cheaper, doing away with the halogen bulb and replacing it with more powerful LEDs.

No complaints, both modes are good and design doesn't overlook small things like being able to lock the bulb housing down over the on/off switch to prevent accidental draining in the rucksack. Consider the LED only version. Also note- although £35 is stated, usually sells for £30. Although value isn't fantastic, it beats that of the petzl range, and if anything feels a great deal better constructed.

Andrew McCrorie
Reviewed: 01 December 2004

GOOD

Reasonably light & LED puts out enough light to walk in dark for me, 2 LED's on new model even better. I bought it as I hadn't tried LED's before so wanted both LED & conventional bulbs, now I would go for a pure LED torch.

1/ Leads on original model wear & break where they enter battery & lamp cases. This can be fixed temporarily in the field and BD have provided me with the new model as a replacement, extra LED, batteries & all. The new model apparently has improved wiring.
2/ Conventional bulb not necessary.
3/ Expensive.

It works well and is fairly light.
My ideal headlamp tho would be 1/2 the weight w batteries, have multiple LED's with adjustable light levels, run on 2 AA batteries, be watertight and cheaper too.

Alex Thornton-Smith
Reviewed: 29 June 2004

VERY PLEASED

Light and compact. Well made. LED useful. Seems water-resistant (so far).

Not the brightest (with standard bulb).

I'd never owned a headtorch before this as they all seemed heavy and bulky. The BD Gemini is so small and light though that I often carry it with me wherever I'm going - you never know when you might find an exciting hole in the ground to explore! Around camp it's excellent and the LED feature is nice for reading/cooking/under-car maintenance without hammering the batteries. The halogen beam is not the brightest although it is perfectly adequate for my use (I haven't used it for climbing yet). You can buy more powerful bulbs for it but I haven't tried these and I guess if you're a "power-user" you'd be looking at something different anyway. This year it has been improved with the addition of another LED and a rubber bezel although I couldn't see much wrong with the old one. Combined halogen/LED torches are the way forwards - I would definitely buy another of these.

ben brockway
Reviewed: 22 June 2004

LIGHT, BRIGHT AND NOW A LITTLE BETTER

Low weight, especially in comparison to Petzl alternatives. Good battery life. Batteries easy to find, and rechargeables can be used easily. Waterproof battery box and main lamp.

Will the voltage regulator be avalanche transceiver friendly? In the unlikely event of nocturnal avalanches when I'm wearing the transceiver...ok, so maybe not that likely. I hope.

The old gemini has been updated this year by the addition of the extra LED, which improves light output without destroying the battery life. This makes an already good torch an even better one. I hadn't noticed any distracting glare from the clear plastic bezel, but this could be readily fixed with a little gaffer tape if needed.

Basically light, compact, bright and easy to use. Only had mine for a 6 months but no damage yet...recommended

chris ward
Reviewed: 22 May 2004

FLEXIBLE

Long life in LED mode - good brightness from halogen when needed.
Uses normal AA batteries.

Halogen beam distance isn't amazing

An excellent headtorch that seems very durable and good value when compared to other LED/halogen switchable torches.