It’s important to have the right type of gear when you go camping or backpacking. Things like a flashlight or a headlamp can make accomplishing tasks at your campsite after sundown (putting up your tent, building your fire, or blinding your partners) much easier. Today, we’re going to be talking about the black diamond headlamp, how it works, and what we thought about it.
Campgrounds, trails, or just your neighborhood roads can be somewhat dangerous in maybe you’ve got some wild animals nearby, and there are plenty of things to trip and fall over in the dark like tent spikes, camping gear – and let’s be honest, this is probably the real reason we all need a good light!
If you need to go scout around for wood, rocks, or just want to be seen while trekking down the road or trail, having a good headlamp is important.
Who We Are
Bearded Goat Gear is an active lifestyle company with the goal of getting you outside with the right gear. Whether it is backpacking, trail running, cycling or even making your way down a body of water; Bearded Goat Gear provides you with all the information you need to get the right equipment for your adventures.
Whether it is clothing, accessories, or access to a new outdoor trip, Bearded Goat Gear focuses on providing you with the info you need to enrich your experience and keep your enthusiasm going – and hey, getting new gear is just fun 🙂
Our Decision
The Black Diamond headlamp gets “two thumbs up.” It’s not exactly the same as the Nitecore, but it really is a good piece of equipment that deserves a good review. It’s easy to use, has several settings, the light is very bright (300 lumens) and it works well in any situation. It uses batteries, instead of having a rechargeable pack, but it’s not a deal breaker and might be a “pro” depending on your particular use case.
Video Review
What Did We Like the Most?
What we liked most about this Black Diamond headlamp was how quickly you can use it right out of the box. It’s a basic headlamp, of course, but for the most part it was easy to use and quickly became a favorite go-to piece of equipment. There is a little bit of a learning curve to it in the beginning, but once you’ve done it a few times you’ll get used to it and there shouldn’t be any issues after that.
We tested the black diamond headlamp for 4 months during hikes and camping trips to see well how it performed. It is waterproof for up to 30 minutes, so if you drop it or it falls in no more than 1 meter of water, it will survive as long as you can retrieve it within ½ an hour. It is very comfortable and has a wide band that’s easy to adjust. Great comfort factor on this one.
What Did We Like the Least?
Everything is done with one button. This can be a good thing and a bad thing. The good thing is that one button is easy to find when you’re trying to turn it on in the dark. It’s easy to find the button and turning it on is easy. The bad part about only having one button is that you may have to cycle through the settings more than once to find what you need.
It has a dimmer setting and you can cycle through the settings by holding down the button until you get to what you’re looking for. If you pass it, however, you’ll have to repeat the cycle. So you can see how that could be a pro and a con in this situation.
In what situation or condition would we use or recommend this Black Diamond headlamp the most?
This lightweight headlamp is great for use in all types of situations where you need a portable source of light such as camping, backpacking, hiking, cave exploring, trail running and more.
Features
The Black Diamond Spot 300 headlamp probably has what you need, but here is a list of features:
- Long battery life
- Lightweight headlamp (90.7 g with batteries)
- Includes a red strobe light (and non strobe red light)
- Water resistant up to 30 minutes
- Takes three AAA batteries. (alkaline or NiMH)
- Bright light mode when you need it (300 lumens)
- A focused beam of light extends low to the ground
- Beam distance is 80 meters on high, and 16 meters on low
Real World Use & Testing
As with all products that we purchase, we test them under the same conditions that you might face. Here is what we found.
Performance
The Black Diamond headlamp has 50 hours of battery life on the highest setting and works great. Longer battery life on the low setting, which is great for emergencies and extended trips.
We really enjoyed using it once we got over the initial issues with figuring out the button cycles.
We took it out during hikes and backpacking trips, and overnight camping trips. It was used frequently but was misplaced after the last outing and not found again for a few months.
Since it takes batteries you just have to make sure to bring some extras, in case you run out.
Any Issues?
The only issues was figuring out how to use the settings and the one-button thing. It would have been nice to have separate buttons for some functions for more ease of use. It’s a pro and a con, and takes some getting used to.
Any Potential Issues We See?
No, nothing other than the strangeness of the one-button functionality if you’re not familiar with it – but this is totally dependent on who’s using it and not really a limitation of the headlamp.
Value
The price for the Black Diamond Spot Headlamp is $39.00, which is a good price for a headlamp of this quality. The Nitecore headlamp was roughly the same price, so we felt that it was a good value for the money spent. . You can check the current price and purchase it here.
One thing that made a big difference was the wide band made it easy to stay on while running. Sometimes the narrower bands can be really uncomfortable, but this one was great for comfort and staying in place.
The dimming function was also something that was very useful. This is a great lightweight headlamp to take on any type of outing or trip to make sure you stay safe.
- Lightweight
- Decent price
- Several light output levels and dimmer ability
- Red light output
- Single button operation might be confusing at first