Oops. I visited REI today at lunch and wound up buying a Petzl Tikka
Plus before I read you "don't buy Petzl" warning. (I posted a response
similar to this hours ago but got a message that tere was a network
problem -- I haven't seen it yet so it looks like it was probably lost
in the internet...

Assuming the power switch is good, let me offer rec.woodworking my
unscientific tradeoff analysis... between The Petzl MYO 5, The Petzl
Tikka Plus, and the Black Diamond Gemini Headlamp.

Petzl MYO 5 Petzl Tikka Plus Black
Diamond Gemini
Price $75 $33 $38
Halogen yes no yes
# LED's 5 4 2
batteries 4 AA 3AAA 3 AA
tilt yes yes yes
weight 4.9 w/0 batteries 1.3 7.1
battery location back front back
focus yes no no
water resistent yes yes yes
extra bulb halogen LED halogen
number of settings 5 3 + blinking 3
battery life/setting ??? 80/120/150/480 7/?/500
halogen range 100 meters N/A 70
meters
LED range/setting ??? 15/10/5 ~10


The hologen bulb feature is nice for a beam -- in case you need to see
whether that's a bear making a noise 100 yards away. It does drain the
battery though.

I got conflicting data on the Black Diamond battery life -- one web
source said 7 hours on max brightness and 500 on the dimest. Another
said 4 on the max and 69 on the dim.

My decision: since I use mine mostly for woodworking, not avoiding
cliffs in the dark or spotting wild animals about to attack, I wanted
comfort. This drove me to the Tikka plus because it's very light and
the batteries are in front so if I lay my head on the bottom of a
cabinet I don't have a battery pack as a pillow. The halogen beam was
not as important.






Andy Dingley wrote in message . ..
On 15 Oct 2004 06:37:49 -0700, (Never Enough
Money) wrote:

Anybody use headlamps in their shop?

Handy things, but I only use them for crawling around under machines.
If you need more light, go to a S/H office furniture shop and get a
big old draughtsman's Anglepoise or Luxo, preferably wall mounted. One
with a magnifier _and_ a hinged lid over the top can do double duty as
either light, or light and magnifier.

If you really want a headlight, get an LED one. More efficient, less
power needed, so lighter batteries.

Seems a company called Petzl makes the high end ones.

No, they make the expensive ones. I've a pile of Petzls with bust
switches - even the cool one with the non-round screwthread.