fifty-fifty which forum this belongs in – bugger it, here'll do:

I'm after a small light headtorch with a nice wide brightish spread but only needs a range of about 5-10 yards

anyone got a good suggestion (apart from get to the chat forum) ?

Cheers

some of these maybe.
http://www.dealextreme.com/search.dx/search.p7

Try petzl. They're the leading brand. I use a tikka but it's not the most powerful, but it's real compact and batteries last for ages.

I've a Petzl Tikka Plus which is ok but I'm after summing better as I do a bit of sea fishing (at night) mebbe a Myo XP, Can get them for £43, 150 lumens on 'burst' mode.

My bro's got a myo xp (I think – external battery pack?). Really rates it. He's a proper gear snob sometimes as well.

Petzl Tikka XP. So light you forget your waring it, easy to adjust, batteries last for ever, spot or flood beam and four power setttings so you can read with it with out blinding yourself. After my leatherman its probably the most useful thing I own.

I have a Fenix HP10, cheaper and much brighter than any similar priced headtorch from the 'big brand' outdoors companies (Petzl, Black Diamond, Silva). So far, the only draw backs are the poor instructions in badly translated english, but that's still normal from the far East. It cost me £49.99 in the UK. It's 230 lumens on max setting, you have to assemble it yourself (ie strap, battery pack, torch), it was only launched in October and uses the latest technology LED, all the 'big brand' outdoors headtorch manufacturers currently use older LED technology. It weighs a bit more (battery pack), but is much brighter than the Petzl Tikka XP (80 lumens). It doesn't come with the flood light piece, but I bought one of those for a few quid on ebay.

Fenix HP10

Petzl do an Ultra at 320 lumens, but that costs £250 and is multiple LEDs rather than just one, so isn't really a fair comparison to the Fenix HP10.

Alpkit Gamma. 15 quid.

+1 for the Alpkit

http://www.alpkit.com/shop/cart.php?target=product&product_id=16345&category_id=253

+2 for the Alpkit,they were also doing a buy 10 get one free deal last year.They make excellent Christmas presents.

+3 for alpkit. Bought one about 3 months ago (following advice on here!) for running at night. It's brilliant (pun completely intended) and even comes with spare batteries!

Another vote for the Petzl Myo XP – bit heavier than some of the other Petzl torches but great performance and amazing battery life. I bought it to do the Three Peaks challenge a couple of years back (we did Snowdon in the dark), and it's performed brilliantly. By all accounts the new model is even brighter. It was fairly pricy when I first got it, but I think prices have come down and there are deals to be had if you have a look around.

Probably the most useful and well-used bit of kit I own. Can also be used for biking as the strap will fit around a helmet. I did a night-time loop of Loughrigg Terrace the other week with just that and a single CatEye commuter LED, and it was fine.

Alpkit. They have been successful at work since they came out, were using around 30 of them regularly. The red led on the battery box is useful if you want to have some visibility from the rear, but can be switched independant of the main light. The small leds are useful where a lower light is required. For the price, difficult to beat.

Paul

cheers for this lot – off to the "shops" then…

petzl tikka plus. is great, (good enough to get me to the top of kilimanjaro in the dark anyway)- got to cotswold outdoor, they will do you a discount (i got 20% for doing world challenge :D)

just saw some pretty sweet looking silva headtorches designed for running , check them out at the tri centre in edinburgh

alpkit – blows away my petzl

Another vote for a Petzl Myo XP, as with all things Petzl you just know it'll work really well.

I'd have to say though that the boost mode doesn't seem to make that much practical difference- I usually find that what I could see already is more brightly lit, but I can't see much I couldn't see before.

Silva onces a excellent and very good value at:

Dash4it website

I have bought several for myself and as gifts. Batteries last ages.

I always take one on night rides as emergency backup and it has been used quite a few times!

I borrowed a Myo XP in march from a ~10hr exmoor night hike thing I do every year – certainly worked well enough (my old one is a Petzl Duo and eats rather more batteries), think there's an improved version out. But whether it's any better than it's nearest rivals I couldn't say.

Sorry I didn't read your OP, get the Alpkit headtorch. A pal of mine turned up with one and it was shit compared to my Fenix HP10, but but but, I was blown away at how good it was for £15.

alpkitastic…………….

alpkitordered………

cheers all

and you get batteries with the Alpkit one.