Black Diamond  Spot 400 Headlamp

I needed a headlamp for a long, moonless night hike. I narrowed my options down to the Spot 400, Spot 400-R, and the Petzl Actik Core. I liked the design, the look, and the name of the Spot more. It just seems like a more robust headlamp. I ruled out the 400-R because not being able to swap out batteries was a deal breaker. Note: Being able to recharge via micro-USB is a huge plus for both the Spot 400-R and the Actik. I haven’t tried it yet, but using the Actik Core battery (purchased separately) with the Spot 400 may give you the best of both worlds. If it fits. Everyone else in my group had the Actik. They were mostly jealous of my Spot 400…until we decided to use the red lamp for hiking. The Actik uses a spot light for its red LED. The Spot uses a flood light. I set the red LED as bright as it would go, and it was still not good for hiking. Everyone else in the group was able to see the trail just fine with their red LED. I was not, and eventually had to switch over to the dimmed white spot LED. As a result, I drew every moth around to my face, and killed my night vision. I’m sure the design of the red LED has use cases where it shines, but hiking is not one of them. 2 stars for hiking with the red LED. 5 stars for anything else.

I lost my old ReVolt, the best headlamp I ever owned. this looked like the best replacement when combined with the BD 1500 Li-ion battery. Net-net: I still wish I'd never lost my ReVolt, but I'll (probably) keep this. Pros: Good list of features, including choice of spot/area lighting, red light, and returning to the last setting if turned back on. Fully dim-able to a really low level. The instructions are easy to follow, but with all the features, you're likely to not remember how to do everything at first. At the regular "max" setting, the brightness is extraordinary; I've never owned a light this powerful. It's just short of "stadium lighting"; I exaggerate only a little. I disagree with the reviewer who thought the red light was too dim; it wasn't super bright, but seemed to do the job for me. It seems solid, and well built. Using either the BD 1500 or AAA batteries, the battery life is impressive. I went a week of car-camping, keeping it on medium or low (which is all you need) the whole time, and it's still at 80%. The BD 1500 has much longer full-level life, but substantially lower "reserve" time than the AAA's - defined by BD as additional time it provides "usable light" at a low level. Generally easy to use, with a couple of exceptions noted below. Cons: The "power tap" feature is WAY too sensitive; I activated it just by reaching up to turn the light off - annoying to say the least. Pulling a Buff over my head did the same thing. I finally started using only my left hand to operate the buttons, and that seemed to stop the problem, but still, you have to be cautious and it can activate without warning. If you hold the on button down just a tiny bit too long, and it turns on the the "max" level, no matter what it was at last time. The blue LEDs on the side of the unit that show battery level are far too bright. They come on for a moment whenever you turn the light off - which negates all the advantage of using the red light in, for instance, a tent or below a hat with a brim. A few long seconds of that blue light, and my eyes were already having to readjust to the dark. I put a couple of layers of duct tape over them, but could still light up a tent with blue. As others have mentioned, the light dug into my forehead painfully after a bit. I loosened the strap and added a bit of padding and that seems to have solved it. Overall, a good solid unit with some really annoying oddities and problems.