The two I use are both Petzl, I'm sure this could help someone out.
What I use:
Tikka+
Petzl.com - Tikka+
Petzl has been around and in this market for a LONG time.
The Tikka+ I used this past December on a trip to the USVI which pretty much threw it through both cold and warm and wet extremes.
It took probably a good dozen dunkings the whole trip (including being submerged for 5-10 seconds at a time) and managed to rot out the batteries.
Because it uses LED's it survived. And suvived quite happily.
Swapped out the triple A's and she works again.
It has interchangeable lenses (clear/green/red) that are a little hard to get out but after a few swaps they snap in and out quickly. Keep the lenses in your surf bag. (The Tactikka comes with a red lense that flips down so you get white light.)
Life on the batteries with various amounts of use including use into the winter skiing/hiking was impressive, being an LED light there's very little draw on the batteries, it has 3 light settings plus a flashing emergency setting.
Duo LED14/8/5
Petzl.com - Duo
It comes with either the battery pack on the strap or a belt pack. (depending on the model)
I've used both the LED14 and the LED8.
This is a SERIOUS headlamp that I used when I still worked at the ski resort.
It has both 14 (or 8 or 5) LED's plus a halogen bulb.
It either runs on AA's or on its own battery pack.
I prefer the battery pack over AA's because you end up saving money on batteries in the long run (you get about 45 hours out of a charge vs 100 hours average out of AA's)
Its also waterproof down to 5 meters which makes it a great candidate if you're a hardcore every night in the surf fisherman.
The halogen is nice when you're stumbling around in serious rocky terrain and don't feel like killing yourself. I haven't bothered to contact Petzl about a red lense but I'm sure one could be fabricated easily for this light (or use a thin gel over the LED part of the lense).
The Petzl headlamps are a bit more money than the competition, but their lifespan and warranty are unparalleled. I've used both in some pretty harsh environments and they've survived were other cheaper ones end up dying pretty quickly either from abuse or temperature extremes. (4 hours in -20F temps while helping move snowguns is a pretty good test, and I killed both an industrial and another brand that was my backup... the next time i was out i used my own Duo, and it never once lost brightness or failed... i always used it from then on when doing overtime with the snowmaking crew and they were all impressed by them.)
Anyone who wants to add their experiences with other makes/models please do, I'm sure John could throw this in the How-To or something.
Hybrid Mode
