Reviews > Lighting > Headlamps - LED > Princeton Tec Apex > Ralph Ditton > Long Term Report

Name: Ralph Ditton
Age: 54
Height: 1. 76 m (5 ft 9 in)
Weight: 77 kg (170 lb)
Email: rdassetts@optusnet dot com dot au
City: Perth. Western Australia. Australia

ultrabright being used for cooking
Backpacking Background
I have been walking the Bibbulmun Track over five years and the Coastal Plain Trail. My goal is to complete the 964 km (603 mi) Bibbulmun Track and become an End to End walker. I am nearly there.

Since the last report I have had five nights in the field testing the headlamp.
In mid June at Prickly Bark on the Coastal Plain Trail I used the headlamp around the campsite on the Ultrabright high setting as the light meter initially was orange but after ten minutes it blinked three times and the battery meter went to red. I was still using the original batteries.
Night time temperature dropped down to -2.9 C (26.8 F) at 3.42 am. The skies were clear with light winds. The air was very dry with a low dew point. (Source: Bureau of Meteorology).
It did not matter what setting on the Ultrabright I used, there was hardly any difference. When I switched to the 3 Watt to look down the track and examine the campsite from the periphery, again switching between high and low was hardly discernible.
I did undertake a night time geocache hunt with the headlamp using the 3 Watt to get close to the area, then switching over to the Ultrabright as it was a gentler light to read my GPS and gave a wider spread of beam to assist in locating the cache.
When I located the cache, I switched back to the highest setting of the 3 Watt to examine the contents of the cache as this light was stronger and I needed to write in the log and read the log comments from other finders.

examining cache
Trying to take photographs in the headlamp beam was difficult in hindsight because some of the photos had a streaming of colours . I do not know the cause but it was impressive.

streaming colours from cache
Back at the campsite, my friend and I played a dice game called Yahtzee with the headlamp setting on Ultrabright high. This setting with low battery power did not dazzle the eyes of my playing partner when I looked up to talk to him.
I switched the headlamp on at 6 pm and during the course of the evening I switched between all settings and lights bar the strobe. The battery meter was red throughout. I turned off the headlamp when I went to bed at 11.14 pm.
From my Field report, I used the batteries for one hour after the meter went to red. Adding my field trip to the one hour, I had used the batteries for six hours fourteen minutes when the battery meter was red apart from the first ten minutes when it started off orange.

On the next field trip, our group did a night walk into camp over a 5 kilometer distance (3.1 mi).
I still had not changed the batteries as I wanted to see how long that they would last.
Disaster struck the group. One had left his headlamp at home and the other had his tied to the outside of his backpack and had the battery compartment ripped open on a branch. He lost the batteries and the operating buttons. That left two of us with light. One took the lead and I brought up the rear. The setting I chose was the Ultrabright high so that the beam was wide and long enough for the two in the middle to see where to put their feet and where the track was going. There was heavy cloud cover and it did rain when we got to camp.
My battery meter was still red. When I first switched it on it immediately went to red.
There was one problem with this arrangement. I had no light for my feet. I got a general idea of the layout and hazards on the track from watching my two charges in front of me, but I was tripping up on small rocks sticking up out of the track . If I looked down at my feet, I took most of the light away from the two in front of me which would have defeated the exercise. Fortunately I did not trip and crash to earth, just stumble and crash into the back of the person in front of me.
I was illuminating about six paces in front of me as we were spaced roughly 2 m (6.5 ft) apart.
When we got to the campsite, I got my sleeping gear and cooking gear set up as the other two wanted my headlamp to set up their tent and sleeping arrangements.
It took a good while to get the headlamp back as they both liked it that much they did not want to part with it.
I then proceeded to cook and eat my evening meal using the headlamp on the high setting of Ultrabright.

eating my meal by headlamp
After three of us had our evening meal, the fourth person wanted to borrow the headlamp again to make damper by the camp fire.(A type of bread without using yeast, but using self raising flour instead). I did not see my headlamp for another two hours.
Finally when I got it back around 11 pm I decided to change the batteries. The headlamp had been on Ultrabright high for nearly five hours. This made a total of eleven hours (rounding) when the battery meter was showing red. 
When I changed the batteries and resealed the battery case, I noticed that the "O" ring that sits in the groove around the top of the batter compartment and creates a seal against moisture had fallen out onto the table. I undid the battery case and reinstalled the "O" ring. This is one area of concern as this is the second time this has happened. The first time was when I opened the battery compartment up upon receipt to put the batteries in.

Everyone was impressed with the headlamp with the new batteries. My friend and I had a comparative test between his 1 Watt  which had a maximum, optimum and economic modes and my 3 Watt and 4 Ultrabright.
My 3 Watt on the lower setting was still more powerful that his maximum setting. The Ultrabright high setting compared very favourably with his optimum. His was more focused whilst mine was wider.
The Apex won the "more grunt" test and no wonder they didn't want to give it back to me.

At home a few nights later I used the headlamp to illuminate my ankle to inspect a tick bite. Our 100 watt light was not strong enough for me to have a thorough look as I suspected the head was still buried in my leg. The 3 Watt high setting was excellent for me to examine the tick bite and I did find a remnant of the tick still in me that was causing an infection.

On the 12th and 13th of July, 2006, I used the headlamp at Moitch campsite on the Coastal Plain Trail which is at an elevation of 58 m (190 ft) and Prickly Bark campsite which is at an elevation of 83 m (272 ft).
The main use was to use the headlamp around the campsite. I mainly used the lower setting of the Ultrabright as any higher setting or use of the 3 Watt tended to dazzle my companion when we were playing Yahtzee and talking to each other. The only times I used the 3 Watt was to check out noises in the bush around the camp and to do a geocache hunt for a cache located close to the camp at Moitch.
At Prickly Bark I just used the headlamp around the campsite. Again I had it on the lower setting of the Ultrabright.
Whilst at Moitch the headlamp flashed three times and in a few seconds flashed again three times and the power meter went to red. I was not aware of what colour the power meter was just before the change occurred. I did look when I first put the headlamp on and the power meter was green.
The batteries were the same fresh ones that I had put in at Shapcott and had two hours of use, mainly on the high Ultrabright setting. I switched my headlamp on about 6 pm and the flashing of lights occurred at 10.55 pm. This meant that I had approximately seven hours of use, predominately on the lower setting of Ultrabright before the power meter went to red.
The batteries were the same type as supplied by the manufacturer. They were Duracell Alkaline AA (LR6) and made in China.
I continued to use the same batteries till the end of my trip which meant that I used the batteries for another six hours whilst the battery meter was red.
The night temperature at Moitch went from 6 C (43 F) to 0 C (32 F) before I retired. The temperature then plummeted to -4 C (24 F).

I have had no reason to use the flash mode as thankfully I have not had any emergency, nor do I ride a bicycle where this mode would be of use to alert oncoming pedestrians on multipurpose cycleways/pathways.

Summary
Overall I am impressed with the features of the headlamp, especially the output of the 3 Watt light. It is of great assistance when doing night time geocaching and walking the trail. The light picks up the track reflector markers very easily and from a good distance.
The optimum setting around camp where the bulk of burn time occurs is the lower setting of the Ultrabright if I do not want to dazzle other campers eyes. When I am on my own, the higher setting of Ultrabright is an excellent light source. This setting is handy when cooking at night as it allows me to see if the food is nearly ready and not starting to burn especially when cooking sausages and onions.
The first set of batteries gave approximately nineteen hours switching between all levels and eleven hours when the  power meter was red. The second set of batteries gave approximately nine hours switching between all levels and so far six hours with the power meter showing red.
The chart provided by the manufacturer shows regulated/constant burn time for alkaline batteries and the range is between one hour for the high setting on 3 Watt and fourteen hours the Ultrabright low setting. The regulated LED maintained the initial brightness whilst the batteries had sufficient voltage then dropped when the power meter went to red, indicating low voltage.
I am getting longer life out of the batteries in the red zone than the advertised maximum of twenty minutes of run time remaining.
Why did I get around nineteen hours out of the first set of batteries and nine hours out of the second set of batteries before the red light on the power meter came on?
I suspect it is because the first set of batteries were made in the U.S.A and the second set are made in China.

Pro
Excellent light source at all levels.
Comfortable fit.
Good range of tilt when I want to adjust the angle of the light for various task.
Regulated/burn time works for a constant light.
Excellent for night time activities on the track and geocaching.
Versatile around camp with a choice of light settings.
Very easy to operate the control pads to switch between various levels.

Con
Rubber seal in battery pack keeps falling out when opening battery pack.
Extremely difficult to retrieve from friends who borrow it.
It is easy to dazzle other people's eyes if using the 3 Watt.

Thank you Princeton Tec for the opportunity to test this outstanding headlamp.
 

Reviews > Lighting > Headlamps - LED > Princeton Tec Apex > Ralph Ditton > Long Term Report