The manufacturer claims a four-hour charge time from empty to full, which is pretty difficult to test given that I can't independently test the capacity of the lithium ion battery. Taking Petzl on their word, four hours for a full charge seems awfully long, particularly if you're trying to charge mid-trip of a multi-day adventure off a portable power supply source. However, all of my charging has been done at home or in the car with plenty of time to spare. Standard lighting should need no introduction, because it's what we've all been used to for years: you turn on the head torch and that's that.

Some headlamps offer the ability for the user to program buttons and lighting on their own. As we said earlier, a few headlamps offer apps for a plethora of options. For instance, the Coast FL85Rhas an IPX4-rated construction, which is sweatproof but not fully waterproof. The Fenix HM 50R V2 has an IP68 rating meaning it can function while completely submerged up to a meter. Price mAh Li-Ion rechargeable battery is easily charged via a micro USB cable with a 4 hour recharge time.This is a nice feature, especially if you forget to recharge things on the regular. It’s also easy to move from floodlight to spotlight with a simple turn of the dial on the lamp. Since then there have been leaps and bounds of development, and we now have more choice of torches than ever before. You can go all out for lumens, or opt for a longer battery life; you can make it simple and lightweight, or dazzle yourself with a plethora of modes and settings; some torches have inbuilt USB-rechargeable batteries, while others even connect to your phone for programmable control. All these modes will work until the Bindi’s internal circuitry triggers the “reserve” mode, which preserves 3 lumens of light for an extra 1 hour 30 minutes, according to Petzl. There’s also a 3-lumen red “proximity” mode to preserve night vision that’s rated for 33 hours. Finally, the Bindi carries an emergency red strobe Petzl claims is visible for 400 meters and will run for 200 hours. Of course, it has a red beam. We will barely consider using a headlamp without one, as it’s critical in maintaining night vision, not blinding friends around camp, and conserving battery life.

The standard LED color is white (we’ll go into some variations on this in the Color Rendering section below). But many headlamps also have a red LED (or other colors) light.

I have 4 other headlamps and 2 additional light sources I rotate through depending on situational needs.