Hello everybody. I happened to find what has proven to be a pretty darn good headlamp at Wal-Mart that you might be interested in.

You need to understand a little of my perspective on lights. I am what might be called a "flashlight snob" in that I expect a lot of quality in my lights, and I am willing to pay for that quality. I am not one of those who doesn't want to pay over $20 for a light like a SureFire or Fenix, saying "well it's just a flashlight...". No, I am a happy SureFire A2 Aviator owner along with a lot of other lights and headlamps.


The Ray-O-Vac "Sportsman Xtreme" LED headlamp has a 1 watt Luxeon LED emitter, a pair of 5mm red LEDs and a 5mm blue LED. The housing is a single molded piece with a rubberized click switch and gasketed battery compartment. It is very compact, and weighs 2oz with a single Energizer lithium cell installed. It has a Petzl-type diffuser that can be flipped over either the main LED or the little ones, and it works well.

I saw this unit on the rack at WalMart and was intrigued. I had been looking for a AA-powered headlamp to replace my old Princeton Tec EOS since getting a Garmin GPS that takes AA cells. The RayOvac headlamp package didn't say anything about power regulation and I swore off of unregulated lights a long time ago, but at $18.83 I figured it was worth a try.

I tested it at home against the EOS and the RayOvac was great. The main LED was a pure white tint with no rings or dark spots. In spot mode it out-threw the EOS, and with the diffuser in place it flooded very well.

I did a little searching at CandlePowerForums.com and found this thread. To my delight, the experts at CPF.com had put this light through the ringer, including taking it apart to examine the internals. Turns out that it is one tough SOB and is well-gasketed at the potential water entry points. The main LED is a Luxeon and is fully regulated. All reports are that the brightness is quite steady right up to the point the cell is exhausted, then you've still got about 10 minutes on the little LEDs. Runtime w/ an alkaline cell is about 2 hours but goes up to 3.5 hours w/ a lithium cell, which is all I use in these lights anyway.

Some reported that the unit could easily get switched on in a pack, but just backing off about 1/4 turn on the battery cap prevents this. I tested this, it works and the gasket is still engaged.

While a white 5mm LED would be preferable over blue, this is a heck of a good light for outdoors, survival and EDC. Small, lightweight, watertight, AA-powered, regulated, good spot/flood... for $18.83 at WalMart.

Check it out.