Petzl Tactikka

Rating: 4 / 5

Pros:
Comfortable and light, long runtime, common AAA batteries, perfect work area lighting output

Cons:
Red filter is ineffective, producing a bright orange light with lots of white bleed; only one output level

It took forever to get this in from Botach (seriously, don’t order ANYTHING but closeout items from them if you need it this year), but they had the best price by a good 20% and were the only place I could find that carries the camo version (the other one is black with big ugly white logos): Petzl Tactikka @ Botach.

The light itself has been upgraded from the unit pictured on the site, and has the Tactikka Plus style ratchet adjustment for tilting the light to the preferred angle. Granted we didn’t come anywhere close to using them for the advertised 110-hour runtime, but they did not fade at all on a 5 hour night hike (actually, the return leg of a 10 hour hike). They are light enough to be comfortable despite running on 3 AAAs, and are adjustable from helmet-size all the way down to thigh size.

Their built-in red filter is kind of a joke, actually more of a bright orange and a lot of white bleeds out the sides. It is handy for working on something up close I suppose, though the white light is not terribly overpowering. While I still grab for my Surefire to investigate sounds or search along the side of the trail, for hiking/climbing/running it is the perfect amount of illumination for lighting up the path close ahead and not white-out your night vision.

In action tested at 25/50 feet (2 lights on the same spot), 25 feet (one light), 10 feet (one light) and 3 feet (2 lights):

The Bottom Line:
This is a great headlight, however for only $5 more the Tactikka Plus has an extra LED, strobe setting, and 3 output levels – well worth the small extra investment.