Discussion: Hey, I like your new LED headl...

Hey, I like your new LED headlamp! What kind is it?

You mean brand and model?

It's brand new 2007 version of Lupine Wilma X. Lupine introduced this new model four weeks ago. It's like last years Wilma X, but now max power is 15W instead of 12W. There is four 3.5 W leds, it should give 830 lumens, twice as much as last years model. And the bam is much wider as you can see - I like wide beam, my night O technique isn't based on spottig far a way objects. I need to see well near to be able to run fast. But it's so bright you actually can spot far a way places anyway, but my old over the hill eyes can't see well as fasr as this light goes.

(if you wonder in what my night O technique is based on, well, it is based on luck :)

Disadvantages? Price. Expensive as hell, or little over. If you run just couple of times a year, it will make a lot of euros per one run. I am not a top athlete, I really don't deserve this good lamp. But who cares. And I have a good excuse, my wife is a top runner and if she one day likes to run night races she needs to have competetive light. But women don't have night legs in Tiomila/Jukola/43-kavlen or any other relay, lucky me ;-)

Okay, thanks for info. I don't do a lot of night O-runs, but time to time I go for 24hr rogaines. Last year I borrowed 20W Silva headlamp and really enjoyed it (at least for the first 4 hours or so). But it looks like I'm going to run one of the night legs at Jukola and even if it's not so dark over there it's a good excuse to buy new toy :)

With 9W it burns 4 hours and still is brighter than 20W halogen. With 6W it burns about 6 hours, about equals 20W halogen. With 1W it burn 28 hours eguals something like 6W halogen, good light for working with hands, but not quite enough for running fast in forest. I guess you could easily run all night with this lamp by using 6W most of the night, 12W when bright light is needed and 1W on roads/paths. Or getting bigger or two batteries and running it with 6W all night.

It sounds like head lamp I was looking for :)

Do you know what brand of LED it uses?

I just bought my first really white LED flashlight. Everything I've had before was either blue, which I didn't like in green vegetation, or somewhere between amber and brown. Apparently they haven't figured out how to reliably make really white LEDs---They just make a whole bunch and sort what they get into groups (called "bins"). Then they sell the nice white ones for a lot of money, and the lesser colors for less.

Up until I saw a really good white LED, I wasn't interested in LED headlamps for orienteering. Now I am.

I'd like to know if Eric Buckley agrees with you about the problems with HIDs. I've only heard good things from him about his HID headlamp / bike light.

I found the following web site:

http://gretnabikes.com/default.asp

And they are located in Lancaster, PA.

As far as I know it's Seoul P4 Emitter:

http://www.lupine-lights.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t...
http://www.led-tech.de/de/High-Power-LEDs/-3.5W-Se...

I was afraid of the led color and I had to test run the lamp first to see what the color is like. It wasn't that blue, it was really white. I have tried with some low intensity Petzl leds head lamps, I can't see much with the blue light I got from those. This was different. Bit it's difficult so say will it stay that whit or will it turn blue after 200 hours or something. You can change led emitters and lenses without buying new lamp, like you can upgrade the old 420 lumen wilma X to 750 lumens.

The HID dimming may be Lupine Edison issue, not general one. And maybe it's not the bulb, it can be the reflector. If you run it hot for long times, it is not any wonder the reflector turns a bit dark. Lupines HID reflector is quite small and close to the bulb.

LED's advantage is possibility to use big variety of low intensities to get good light for other purposes than running (and to get some extra hours of dim light if you ran out of battery). And reliability, if you turn accidently turn it off you don't need to wait 10 sec to turn it on again like you have to do with HID. HID's advantages over LED has been the high intensity, color of the light and beam shape. Those advantages are not that big any longer, you need about 20W HID to really get more light, and color isn't that big issue any more either. With good reflector you still get better beam shape than with led lenses, but this LED's beam isn't that bad - the very center could be brighter for spotting and tehre could be more light in very edges (over 80 degrees angle).

I have heard rumours Lupine is seriously considering to discontinue soon making those HID lights (Edison series), that should tell something.

I guess Eric uses Light&Motion HID. I this LED should be about 25% brigher that that. I can run this with 75% (12W) and get about the same amount of light.

Anyway, if it's possible get your hands on the lamp first, compare the beam with a 20W halogen before you buy one. I have been sick for two weeks now, I haven't been able to test run it properly. I'll make my first O with the lamp tomorrow.

Here is comparison photos of Wilma old led and the new one. Color depends a lot of the camera, but here you get some idea about the blueness issue.

http://www.lupine-lights.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t...