The one I bought when I started camping on my own is still working nicely.
The new one I bought for my van has more lumens (a measurement of brightness) and I bought a Core rechargeable battery for it.
I have also bought their pouch that can turn a headlamp into a small lantnern, very cute.
Buy one with as many lumens as you can afford, with variable brightness to suit what you need when you need to use it.
Their Tikkina is less than 30 GBP and it has 3 lighting levels; with no red light or flashing red light functions.
DK
------------- Apple The Campervan - A Van For Work, Rest & Play!
- 2027: ? NL+DE+FR
- 2026: FR+DE
- 2025: 17/77
'24: 10/49; '23: 9/47;'22: 8/46; '21: 9/34
* Ex-tenter
* Treat life events like a dog: if you can't eat it, play with it or hump it, p1$$ on it and walk away!
Quote: Originally posted by stevemark on 24/9/2026
Hi DK. Thank you so much for that reply. I will definatley keep all that in mind.
Kind regards
Stephen
You are welcome, and welcome to UKCS!
I started off with cheapo ones when I started to go camping in 2005/6 and they were not very good and did not last long.
No complaint once I bought my Petzls.
DK
------------- Apple The Campervan - A Van For Work, Rest & Play!
- 2027: ? NL+DE+FR
- 2026: FR+DE
- 2025: 17/77
'24: 10/49; '23: 9/47;'22: 8/46; '21: 9/34
* Ex-tenter
* Treat life events like a dog: if you can't eat it, play with it or hump it, p1$$ on it and walk away!
For backpacking & campervan I only use USB C rechargeable headlamps now. Cheap Decathlon one has served me well for years in campervan. Further redundancy with wind up torch & torch built in to battery starter power pack & rechargeable tyre inflator.
Good move going for a headtorch over a handheld — hands-free makes cooking and tent faff much easier. A few things worth weighing beyond brand and raw lumens:
Don't be seduced by the headline lumen number — that's usually a "boost" mode that only holds a couple of minutes before it steps down to protect the battery and LED. Round camp you'll actually live on the lowest setting (10–30 lumens is plenty for pottering, reading or finding the loo), so what matters more is a regulated output that stays steady rather than slowly fading, and the runtime on low.
Go for a wide flood beam rather than a tight spot — a spot just dazzles everything at arm's length and is really only for picking out a path ahead.
I'd also step up to one with a red mode (the Tikkina skips it, the Tikka has it): red preserves your night vision and won't dazzle whoever's next to you.
Autumn gotcha — Li-ion rechargeables can refuse to charge near freezing, and you can't swap a flat cell at 2am. A lamp that also takes AAAs (or Petzl's Core hybrid) lets you carry spares, and a lock-out stops it switching itself on in the bag.
Happy to narrow it down if you say how you'll mostly use it (campsite pottering vs walking in the dark).
They are absolutely brilliant (pun intended!) ... use a lot for work as well (theatre lighting). I've tried m,any over the years ... this one is in a league of its own!
Tricky one to judge in advance, but to some extent you are balancing illumination against battery life! The brighter the light, the shorter the battery will last is the general principle!
BUT, the ideal brightness and light pattern are dependent on the task at hand, if walking you need good distance illumination in a narrowish beam, if doing close up tasks, you need a wider area illuminated at a moderate illumination, too bright and it will dazzle you, plus totally destroy your night vision for when you need to look to a unilluminated area, it can take a good 15 mins for night vision to fully recover after exposure to bright light.
Ideal head torch for general use should have switched different illumination patterns for different tasks, a dimming capability so as not to be too bright for really close work, and ideally exchangeable batteries/battery pack, so that you can simply swap batteries/pack to carry on an unfinished task. In-built non-exchangeable rechargeables have the huge disadvantage that you may have hours of recharging to wait before the torch becomes fit to use again if batteries become discharged on a task!
A day of all things motorhome and campervan. The show is held both in the main indoor arena and across the grounds. Catering, hot drinks and food options are available. Easy access to the site and free parking included. Win one of five pairs of day tickets
Topic: Headlamps
via mobile 25/9/2026 at 12:46am
