With a simple tap of your fingertips, you can adjust the intensity and vary the brightness depending on where you are. When the Storm is turned on the small light will glow green, orange, or red for three seconds, depending on battery life.

It's well made, very bright when needed, and I'm confident it will last even through some rough handling and moisture. I gave the SPOT 400-R a run for its money on a number of occasions and for different activities including night hiking and navigation, climbing, dog walking, running and very importantly – locating the toilet whilst camping! Like any good headlamp, the Storm has multiple settings (six, in fact), and three lenses: one for distance mode, another for proximity mode, and one that you can toggle between red, green, and blue—versus the standard headlamp bright white—to preserve your night vision. Increasing the light output is done in the same manner by continuing to press the on/off switch—the light will decrease to its lowest output and then will begin to gradually increase its output. However, if you're looking for a long burn time then the inbuilt battery of the Storm 500-R in particular is going to be hard to beat.Regarding the Black Diamond’s lumen rating 400lm is meant to be the equivalent of 400 candles in brightness. Having had the previous Storm I was a little weary of how this would perform as the last one killed off batteries like crazy, and this was because of a fault with the unit. Simply touch a factory determined spot on the right side of the headlamp with your finger and the lamp will switch back and forth from bright to dim. These two white single power LEDs are the second light that is cycled to when the on/off button is pressed.

There's the same tapered elastic headband, with its soft and reasonably unsweaty feel on the head, and since there's less weight to carry here the strap feels more comfy and secure than the Storm. The Storm 400 also has three different coloured night vision modes and peripheral white lighting for ease of seeing for close-range activities in the dark. The four AAA battery configuration also simplfiies use with rechargeables, since many chargers require an even number of batteries.Black Diamond uses ANSI FL-1 testing to measure this, which is the lighting industry’s standard battery life test for LED products, and the three hour flat-to-full charge time is reasonable. This user has the need to run the lamp on alkaline batteries if caught away from a power source for a long expedition. Its operating temperature is the same too: from 43C (which definitely beats my personal upper safe working limit) down to a nippy -17C.

At the moment I'm currently beginning my training to become a UK Mountain Leader and I'm pretty excited about it because I love being outside. We also use both 1st party and 3rd party cookies to improve the user experience on our site and offer relevant marketing. As per the Storm, this is measured according to the ANSI FL-1 test standard, which means that by the time 4 hours have elapsed you're on 10% of initial output. So far I’ve used this unit for everything from camping to a bit of basic cave exploration, and also on night time runs where it’s great for illuminating everything when I get tired and start stumbling everywhere like a drunk after banging out 20 miles.The two single power white LEDs create a good deal of diffuse light that is great doing chores around camp, setting up a tent in the dark, or illuminating a trail for nighttime hiking. The Black Diamond Storm 400 is engineered for epics in all conditions, featuring a robust waterproof/dustproof housing and 400 lumens of bright light. Often with headtorches, weight and power are something of a trade-off, but the SPOT 400-R is an exception to that rule with a maximum distance of 100m at 400 Lumen output. As the name suggests, the headlamp emits up to 400 lumens on its highest setting, which, if left on, will last an average of five hours.

As I use this headlamp quite often, I tend to go through batteries pretty quickly unless I'm careful to use the dimmer when I can. Finally there are two single power red LEDs that are the third and final light that can be cycled to by pressing the on/off switch. I preferred a dimmed red for tasks that didn’t require much light, and a dimmed blue for scoping the guidebook. The Storm also has three different coloured night vision modes and peripheral white lighting for close-range activities like carefully re-racking for the final summit pitch in the dark. The torch will remember the dimmed output you previously had it set to, and I don't know if this reduces or adds to my faff factor.

The headlamp has Black Diamonds Brightness Memory feature, which allows you to turn the light on and off at a chosen brightness without reverting back to the default, full power setting. The Duel fuel means that while supplied with AAA batteries it is also compatible with Black Diamonds Lithium Ion BD 1500 battery. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.