More Information
 On: 2005-11-17
Ive owned or borrowed several different Petzl headlamps, and Im finally (mostly) satisfied with my current one, the Tikka XP. Ive also tried a few other manufacturers (e.g., Princeton Tec Matrix) and havent seen anything (at REI anyway) comparable to this model yet.
Heres my take on the features listed in the product description:
- A very good long distance beam. If you ever do get stuck needing this (e.g. route finding difficulties), youll be glad having something better than the Tikka Plus. I can light up a rock face 100 feet away quite well with the XP and not very well with the Plus. Some of the newest LED lamps have this ability, but it isnt common, and it is rarely coupled with the next item.
- A very good wide angle beam. The sliding diffuser works perfectly for walking on a trial, doing stuff at camp, etc. It is pretty smooth for reading too, though there is a tiny bit of room for improvement there (you can see a few bright spots as the tiny prisms do not perfectly defocus). An advantage of the diffuser is if someone does look accidentally at the bulb they arent as blinded (do not look at this bulb without the diffuser, especially in boost mode - Petzl warns that you can damage your eyes).
- Easy to change batteries. The Tikki Plus was lousy in this regard - it didnt tilt enough to access the battery closest to the hinge. The XP doesnt have that problem, though the hinge opposite of the one you pry open is just a tiny bit blocked by the hinge making changing batteries marginally more difficult than it should have been. If you run rechargeables, you want the battery exchanging process to be painless and they are just about there (but the Princeton Tec Matrix is better in this regard).
- The battery indicator looks good, but I havent used it enough to comment on how accurate the 70% and 90% measurements are.
The few things I dont like:
- 3 AAA batteries. I dont like odd numbers of batteries. If you need to buy batteries, they usually come in 2 or 4, not 3. Also, AAA is not as economical as AA whether we are talking alkaline or Ni-MH. The best configuration is really 2 AA opposed as in many Princeton Tec lights because it then becomes possible to use the new rechargeable CR-V3 lithium ion batteries. Lithium is of course the current optimum battery - efficient at low temperature, low self discharge, better energy density than anything else right now. True putting 2 heavy alkalines will put more weight on the single strap design (which I prefer of the the 2 strap), but the lighter CR-V3 would be perfect. If it were possible to run LEDs efficiently on 1.2 V, another nice configuration would be a single NiMH AA.
- Two buttons is not enough for complicated functionality. One button on the XP cycles power and 4 modes while the second is only for the boost. Much better would have been to use 3 buttons, 1 for power only, 1 for mode up and 1 for mode down (with the same mode sequence). And the lamp should remember what mode it is in when you turn it off .
- No precise energy control. The directions describe how the light drops measurably as the batteries decay. This problem is mitigated by using NiMH which are more constant voltage over life, but still - a design that controls voltage or current so that the light stays the same over the battery life (which can now be checked by the small LED) would be an improvement.
- This doesnt bother me, but some of have said theyd rather be able to leave the lamp in boost mode (as long as the temperature sensor stays below the critical point). But I would only use that setting very momentarily and holding the button isnt that much of an inconvenience.
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