Not as bright as halogen, but it puts out enough light that you can easily do camp chores, follow your trail, climb, whatever. What it lacks in brightness it makes up for by saving weight. Not only is the lamp itself light, but since it uses LEDs (they burn much longer and use less juice) you don't have to carry a set of back up batteries.
Just picked one of these up two weeks ago and love this thing. I really enjoyed my Tikka but the Moonlight is much more comfortable, fits my helmet better, has a pivot for light direction and holds up to rain and water much better.
I love this thing. After using a Petzyl Micro, I won't go back. Best feature is its weight, I don't feel it on my head and the lighting is great. Fits great on my helmet too without wanting to flip off it.
No complaints on this product. Spent lots of time researching the BD and Tikka. The adjustable head makes it worthwhile by itself. Batteries last a long time, but become noticably dimmer after several cold weather climbs. Bought one for my girlfriend, but didn't think about the pony tail issue, which turns out to be kind of a hassle for her. Still, she digs it and just wears her hair differently to avoid the issue. I think these are now at REI for about $28.
I need to amend my earlier review dated July 23, 2002.
On my last climbing trip I packed my Moonlight into a plastic box with some other odds and ends for my trip. The pin that mounts the headlamp part to the head harness broke. I have also had trouble with the wire connections inside of the casing.
I sent the unit back to Black Diamond and received a new one in the mail free of charge.
More than sufficient for night hiking. The batteries just keep on going - lasted thru. a rainy, cold night in Mt. Rainier NP during an unexpected (bivy-sack free) bivy.
Probably too weak for climbing. Rapping an unknown route in the dark with only this headlamp was a bit unnerving.
Durability issues: The connector cable running from light bulb housing to the battery pack in the back loosened up after about a year of every-weekend-type use. REI replaced it for me free of charge. Same thing happened to my friend's Moonlight as well after roughly same amount of use.
Great LED light. I like the swivel set up that allows you to position the light where you want it (the Tikka doesn't). The on and off switch is pretty foolproof as well and will not be "bumped" or "accidentally" turned on while in your pack. Illumination is good for the trail and camp but not for climbing. This fits onto my helmet (Edilrid) nicely and is a solid product. The light didn't start dimming until the 25 hour mark and even then, not a problem. I found that I wanted to change out the batt's at about the 50 hour mark although illumination was still ok for reading at this point. I recently used this light on a climb of Mt. Hood and starting at 2am I found it to be very adequate. A nice product.
I found this headlamp to be a pretty good unit. I would like to have a brighter light for our early alpine start, but it is OK. Let somebody else lead the team until the sun comes up and then you have more than enough light to stay on their heels. I did appreciate the soft light around camp. It was great for doing chores and not over powering when trying to read. It burns for hours, which is a big plus.
This is my first headlamp. It works great for camp chores and hiking along a trail. It's not quite bright enough for route finding though. I also like that the bulbs last for ever and the batteries almost last forever (50+ hours).
Wish I could have reviewed this head lamp a back when I got it. This is a great head lamp but the early model has issues. Dont buy the first model unless you can return it. My buddies and I have bought four of them and have returned all of them when the became stobe lights or refused to work at all due to a faulty wire in the battery housing. The REI customer service rep I talked to said they got lots of them back.
The new model, which I own, does not seem to have this problem so I can recommend this head lamp. The new model has adjustable brightness levels so you can tell them from the early model.
I love the amount of light it casts around me when I am hiking, camping and ice or trad climbing at night. Not great for far away but awsome for up close. Just stay away from the old model unless you buy it from REI or somewhere else that will take it back if it stops working.
Good headlamp. Used to navigate trails to a decent degree during a moonless night (managed to get lost once though). The only downfall is the same that exists for led's and that is lack of range, I think I would like to upgrade to one of Black Diamonds combo lights. The batteries last for ever with this lamp which is great.
A very usefull small, lightwieght product. It works well and I find myself using it even when not in the backcountry, hiking, camping, or climbing. Battery life is forever, I have yet to go through the initial set of batteries for this thing. Simple to use, good quality, and in a small package.
Cons: The typical LED issue, no range. This is especially annoying trying to naviagate in the dark anything past 10ft is out of the question. I have since switched to a Princeton tec LED/Halogen light combo with a remote but optional 6 C battery pack for cold weather. Otherwise it uses 2AA witch is perfect 99% of the time.
I bought this product about a year ago. I liked the light weight and long life battery expectancy. However, I found that the quality of light was poor, at least on the trail. I noticed that I had poor depth perception and that the range was fairly short. Maybe that is typical of LED light sources. What really disappointed me was the malfuction on a Rainier summit day. At 1 AM I find out that wiring inside the battery case had come apart in transit. After wasting a half hour trying to fix it we ended up taping a hand held light to a helmet. I do not recomend this product for anything but the lightest use.
marcminish - Jul 23, 2002 11:59 am - Voted 3/5
Untitled Review