Eugene, good to hear about the NiMH. Re requirements: I took the initial post as a challenge to meet certain specifications. 1) total weight under 1 ounce with everything, 2) super compact when packed (Doug even said the tiny e+LITE was bulky), 3) powered by replaceable, non-rechargeable lithium cells for shelf life (and I'd add cold weather performance). And I'd add mechanical switching to eliminate parasitic drain affecting the shelf life. But that is all somewhat artificial, aimed at an emergency kit light intended to sit unused for years, not that common a plan.

Ultralight hikers are fond of the Nitecore NU20 which is quite bright, is USB rechargeable, and weighs ~ 1 ounce including battery but not including their somewhat overweight headstrap which is another ounce. Some people replace the headstrap with one made of shock cord (see imgur pic above), that weighs just a few grams. The Petzl Bindi (36g including headband) is comparable and I might prefer it to the Nitecore if I were shopping for this type light. Either gets the weight to a little above 1 oz, but both miss on the non-rechargeable lithium requirement. I'd still call them good ultralight answers even if they don't quite meet Doug's spec.

If I get a serious headlamp myself, it will probably be 18650 powered rather than ultralight. For now I'm ok without one since I don't go caving or do any other hardcore headlamp things.

Even with a mechanical switch if your going to store a light unused for years you should remove the batteries as they can still sometimes leak even when just stored (alkaline mostly)

Foursevens used to make the “Prism” — a headband with a 90 degree flashlight diffuser adapter. One would take a flashlight of the correct diameter, attach the Prism to it, and put it into the headband. I still have one and it works reasonably well. It’s not clear to me why it was not a bigger commercial success.

The new hotness in my collection of headlamps is the Nitecore UT27. One-touch access to red, and simulates a “zoomie” by changing levels of the “throw” emitter vs. the “flood” emitter in a coordinated fashion. It’s a rechargeable light with the tradeoffs that come with that. My one dislike is that the lowest white light mode is 55lm — I prefer a true moonlight mode.

No affiliations with any of these.

I am impressed with thee wide variety of lights, both handheld and headlamps, available today - compare that with the headlamp I used my first season fighting fires 91957) - a Justrite with incandescent bulb powered by four leaky D cells (carbon zinc) that produced a very dim light = great inducement to finish suppression before sundown. Today my EDC keychain light is brighter and more dependable 9also shines longer0.


today a diligent search will find a suitable light - everything from super light to super bright

Eugene, yeah, flashlight people call alkalines "alkaleaks" and advise against them. I haven't had leak probs so far with eneloops or lithiums. Eneloops in particular (that specific brand, not that type of cell in general) seem to have very good charge retention, like 5+ years. So they're almost always preferable to alkaleaks in those formats, with lithium primaries available for some special purposes (super light, cold weather etc).

Chaosmagnet, that is interesting about the Prism. I'll take a look for it, but I've sort of changed ideas. I figure I almost always have a 1aaa light in my pocket so it might as well be a right angle one, and then I could just stash a tiny headband for it. I resisted ordering a Manker yesterday as it had too many annoyances.

Hikerman, yeah, I think flashlight electronics (batteries, leds, voltage converters, MCU's) are now all quite mature and further improvements to them (short of some totally new technology) will be small tweaks. But there is still lots of space for new flashlight design in terms of things like form factors, as we are seeing here. I remember zinc-carbon batteries and they still exist, but are rarely seen these days, heh. Btw if you want a super heavy duty, super expensive headlamp, look up Scurion. I've never seen one but apparently high end cavers like to use them. I'll stick with Zebralight .

Not many other AAA angle lights. Lumintop had one for a while, the HLAAA but discontinued it a few years ago. They also made a bunch for CountyComm, I believe, but they've seemingly been discontinued too.

Yep them Scurions shore are expensive. And I thought my Zebralights were pricey!!

Yeah, caving lights are. Phaethon, Sternlight etc.

Though Little Monkey Caving here in the UK recently put out a relatively inexpensive model, (only twice the price of a ZL).

While I have not had an lithium or eneloop leak, but did have a off brand NiMH and Radio Shack NiMH leak in the past. So I lean toward the "anything is possible" and try to be sure to store separate no matter what kind of battery it has.

Most experiences with Eneloops have been rather good. Off brands seem to be a different matter. Charge retention is a trivial matter. if a battery is low, pop it on the charger or connect to a power bank and replenish. It is just a different mindset from using "one and out" clunkers. Do the math and see how much money you will save....

As with any battery stock, keep a suitable number of charged batteries on hand for instant replacement.