For certain situations a high power headlamp is an absolute necessity. For long races that go in to the night, for instance, a high power headlamp is exactly what you need, because you’ll be moving fast and you’ll need something that illuminates a sufficient distance in front of you, so that you don’t get any surprises underfoot, and end up hurting yourself. Just remember that a high power headlamp left on high will drain your batteries rather quickly.
High Power Headlamp
What to look for when you want a high power headlamp.- Lumens – If you want to have a high power headlamp then the number you need to pay attention to is the lumens. The more lumens a headlamp can produce, the brighter it will be. Something like 300 lumens, for instance, will produce enough light that you wont have to worry about not being able to see anything in front of you.
- Batteries – If you’re going to be producing a large amount of light for a significant amount of time then you’ll need a good battery to go along with your high lumens headlamp, otherwise your headlamp wont last all that long. Consider getting a headlamp with an auxiliary battery pack, which will last longer than a head mounted battery pack.
Best High Power Headlamp
Some of the best choices for a high power headlamp.- Petzl Ultra - There aren't too many headlamps that will do better than the Ultra from Petzl when it comes to brightness. With 350 lumens at its disposal, there's not much that you wont be able to see when you turn the Ultra up to high. Unfortunately you can expect just 2 hours of running on high, and only 17 on low. It's a headlamp built for one thing, and that's to put out plenty of light. The batteries are rechargeable, however, so you wont have to worry about constantly buying new ones.
- Mammut X-Shot - The X-Shot gives you an impressive 200 lumens to work with, which is more than enough for most people. But what really sets it apart is the multiple power settings, the lowest of which gives you a total of 500 hours of battery life to work with. You wont get much light on that setting, but you have the option, at least. It's also relatively small and lightweight, at just 5.2 ounces, which is 150 grams.
- Princeton Tec Apex Pro - Another headlamp with a maximum of 200 lumens of light. The Apex Pro also gets an impressive 100 hours of usable light on the lowest power setting. What makes it a little different is that it's waterproof, so that you don't need to put it away when it starts raining hard, which is an area where a lot of headlamps actually fail. So an ultralight headlamp that's ideal for bad weather.
