My wife has asked for present hints and I was wondering about one of these.
I like the one with the zip band:

£18.75 from wiggle seems the best price.

But only if it’s bright enough to use as the only light with me.

So is it good enough for setting up a bivi/hammock?

Or should I just stick with my tactikka?

not as bright as the tacktikka. i have one as an emergency light in my bag. but dont let that stop you getting one as a present.

imo its fine for setting up camp , close confines work and a bit of reading.

its no cope for seeing the scary monster that chasing you.

I’ve got one on my xmas list too. I got the previous version for a pressie last xmas, that one resides in my saddle bag. I want the other one for other backup uses (like travelling and as a general spare)

Its not massively bright so you could ride with it, but for close up tasks and general camp duties (setting up, breaking down, cooking, chores) its fine. Once you’re out in the open your eyes are night adjusted anyway so you don’t want anything massively bright, in fact you really want a red light so your eyes remained night adjusted, the e+lite has this.

The new one is smaller, the old one has an elastic strap so it packs bigger (and comes in a little case), but it has a whistle on the strap so is good for keeping for emergencies)

Thanks. So it’s on the verge of being bright enough.
Mostly I need it for tying knots and inspecting for obstacles.

A potential downside is the lack of rechargeable batteries for it.
That would irritate if I did actually use it (instead of just having it as a backup).

I find that my one is bright enough for cooking and sorting your gear out on bivis and also handy for night ride bike fettling (when you don’t want 1000 headlight lumens reflecting back off your components)

One downside though is that it’s easy to knock out of alignment when it brushes against tarps, jacket hoods and light vegetation, etc, and I’m always having to straighten it out and point the beam back in the right direction.

It’s still a handy tool to have though.

EDIT: Battery life, IME, is excellent.

Hmm – seems you can get rechargeable batteries – although they seem rare:
ML2032 or LIR2032 is what they’re called – often made by Maxell.

Chargers look even rarer – only found them in china so far.

Got the older model in my pack as a back up/repair light,use it quite a lot on night rides at our stop off point ie talking rubbish and eating handy when I need to find things in my pack and don’t want 1000lumens blinding me while doing it.

I’ve added it to the list. If she buys it then I’ll sort out the charger myself.
Thanks to this site the Aeropress is also on the list.

Let’s see what turns up!

Cheers all!

alpkit is much betterer

“alpkit is much betterer”

at being bigger.

Hmm – seems you can get rechargeable batteries – although they seem rare:
ML2032 or LIR2032 is what they’re called – often made by Maxell.

i wouldnt bother – by their nature rechargables will be flat by the time you have an emergency.

I’ve used a micro 20-ish gram head torch from poundland for bivi set ups and my Tikka on red LED mode is fine too. I’d imagine any ’emergency’ light would have to put out more than either of those, enough to illuminate a path and read a map.

Its primarily a backup torch, so rechargeables aren’t actually much help

These primaries are small and light enough to carry spares, and cheap (online)

Plus their chemistry means they won’t discharge over time and they have a long tail, so fade over a period of time rather than run at full whack and suddenly drop off

For that reason I reckon it makes a good lightweight bivi type light, or as a backup

i wouldnt bother – by their nature rechargables will be flat by the time you have an emergency.

Yes, I get you.
Although, I was hoping it might be usable as my only light on summer trips, where obviously I could charge the batteries in preparation.

The alpkit head torches are fine (both my boys have them), but I prefer the tactikka (because it’d brighter) and I really liked my old Zipka for compactness and pocketability.
I have considered just buying a zipka 2+ instead, but then I noticed this, so thought I’d ask opinions.

had the previous version…but managed to destroy the zip-band function while repairing my mech at a nightride last winter..
so returned back to a tikka+2 as emergency light….quite expensive and bulky…but bright and reliable..should be fine for the next years..