BackpackGearTest.org Review - /reviews/Lighting/Headlamps - LED/Princeton Tec Quad/James E. Triplett/Field Report

Additional Product Information
Paraphrased from the Princeton Tec website, and the product literature:

Test Conditions
I have been using the Princeton Tec Quad for daily pre-dawn hikes, as well as on three overnight trips to Palisades Kepler Park (once) and Pinicon Ridge Park (twice). The LED headlamp has been used as a trail light, a camp light, and an inside-the-tent reading light. The headlamp has also been used for collecting firewood from my wood shed, and other around the house activities. The weather during the test period has been predominately clear, although some hikes were during light snowfall. Temperatures have ranged from -15 to 55 F (-26 to 13 C).

Headlamp Usage
Back when I was a kid and we would draw cartoons when we had some free time at school, the common theme was that our super heroes saw things by emitting energy from their eyes and projecting a beam toward whatever they were looking at. This was depicted by a dashed line traveling from the hero's eyes to, for example, an evil villain. Often the evil villain would be shocked or surprised when the beam hit him. I think in some ways, at least at a very young age, we actually thought that the act of seeing involved the projection of "sight" from one's eyes. The cold hard truth that "seeing" really just involved looking at light reflected off of stuff was kind of disappointing. But now, enter the Princeton Tec Quad Headlamp. The headlamp is worn very close to one's eyes, and whatever direction I look, I project a beam toward whatever evil thing I need to see. This is so cool! It is very much like the early misconception of projecting sight.

Besides now having the ability to "project sight" from my head... I have learned a couple of other interesting things about headlamps, although they don't quite fall into the super power category. My first additional observation seems obvious, but whenever and wherever I turn my head to look, the light moves simultaneously. This makes sense when I am turning to look at something, but what about when my head moves unintentionally? When clipping down a trail, especially when loaded down with gear, there is a significant jarring sensation on my head and body. When wearing the Princeton Tec Quad headlamp the jarring is virtually unnoticeable as the light moves in perfect harmony with my line of sight. The wide beam of the Quad adds to this sensation of not seeing the light beam bounce around, and it is really quite a phenomenon. Carrying a flashlight down a similar trail I find it almost impossible to keep the light beam still. Carrying the Quad in my hand, even with its wide light dispersion, I still get the bouncing beam effect. But when wearing the Quad headlamp? Gone. The annoying (and sometimes nauseating) jarring of the light beam is pretty much absent.

My second additional observation is not as obvious, until you think about it, but where did all the shadows go? With the Princeton Tec light source smack dab in the middle of my forehead, all the shadows fall precisely opposite of whatever is casting the shadow, and they can't be seen. It's like if you were standing on the sun looking for the dark side of the earth. The physics are obvious to think about, but the phenomenon of walking through woods without shadows is quite something. It's a bit eerie, but rather cool at the same time. This effect is most pronounced when there is very little ambient light, and lack of light from sources other than the headlamp.

In The Field
The Princeton Tec Quad has been a pleasure to use in the field. I find the wide beam to be especially nice when hiking in darkness, primarily due to the lack of a jarring sensation as described above. The large yellow button on top of the lamp makes turning the light off and on easy - even with gloves. This switch has also proven to be impervious to accidental activation and has never turned on while the headlamp was in my backpack or any other location. As the temperatures have plummeted in February I have found that the wide headband of the Princeton Tec actually helps keep me warmer when I use it over a stocking cap. The pressure from the band helps keep my ears warm and seals the cap around my head. While heading down the trail it is easy to turn on and adjust the headlamp. The pivoting head makes it easy to angle the lamp so that the brightest spot is the proper distance ahead.

I have primarily used the Princeton Tec Quad in the brightest mode when hiking, and medium or low when around camp or in a tent. The lighting is very even with no hot or cool spots detectable in the light pattern. The color of light is maybe a little to the blue side of white, but it is pretty white in my opinion. In high mode the light beam is supposed to project around 95 feet (29 meters) and that seems pretty accurate. It's a little hard to tell with varying ambient light from the moon and stars, but especially with snow on the ground the light tends to illuminate objects at a great distance. The pictures below are a little unclear, but demonstrate the three brightness levels of the headlamp. I find the lowest setting sufficient for inside a tent.

As this test has progressed the batteries have indeed lost some of their output. As described in the literature, the Ultrabright Nichia LEDs are in a circuit which is designed to maintain brightness of a lighting mode (high, medium, or low) as long as possible before there simply isn't enough voltage to accomplish this. Initially I wasn't sure what would happen at this point, but it turns out the performance makes perfect sense. As the batteries loose their power the headlamp seems pretty much the same brightness as it originally did. As this loss of power continues there becomes a time when the "High" setting drops down to become the same intensity as the "Medium" setting. So at this point, when stepping through the modes, there are now medium, medium, and low, with no distinguishable difference between the first medium (formerly "high") setting and the medium setting. That is where I am with the battery life right now, although the two medium settings appear to be approaching the low, or dimmest, setting. This is a nice way for the headlamp to behave, and I do appreciate that the lamp is pretty consistent in brightness throughout a single use of an hour or more. There is no flickering or getting dimmer then brighter.

Reviews > Lighting > Headlamps - LED > Princeton Tec Quad > James E. Triplett > Field Report

Reviews > Lighting > Headlamps - LED > Princeton Tec Quad > James E. Triplett > Field Report