Zebralights H600 & H600F

[Renatomic808]

I have been searching for great reliable headlamps for a little while now. I've used Princeton Tec, and Fenix headlamps.

Quite a few of my headlamps have bitten the dust, mainly from water. Princeton Tec, when i bought it, didn't have its waterproof rating listed. Come to find out it had a rating of IPX6, which I thought would be enough. However, after about 3 canyons, the lens was fogged with water, and the battery compartment was filled as well. I believe I paid $90 at the time. It had a rating of close to 300 Lumens. (I may be able to find its dead body somewhere in my house. It ran off of 4AA batteries).

Fenix had an awesome headlamp that was reasonably priced, and very bright (220 Lumens on Turbo). It ran off of 4 AA batteries, and had a waterproof rating of IPX8. Still going strong, and no signs of leakage going through dozens of canyons. It costed me about $60. However, the downside of this headlamp, is that its no longer being produced, and finding it is quite difficult. I think its the model is HP11.

I decided to search online for "waterproof headlamp IPX8" on Google, which brought me upon zerbralight.com. Prices on all headlamp models were very reasonable, and they all had ratings of IPX8. So I figure.. why not give it a try? I went with their most blinding models. H600, and H600F. The high mode has a rating on over 400Lumens, and the turbo is over 700Lumens. It uses funky batteries... 18650 I believe.

First the Cree model. Early testing happened in my room during daylight. When you switch the headlamp on, it immediately starts in turbo mode. I had it pointed about 30degrees away from me... which was a mistake I still have a dark spot in my vision from the light blinding me. That was about 15 minutes ago. My room is now extremely lit up. I took it into a dark room with no light, to compare it with the Fenix Hp11. The light was insane. Entire room was lit up with the H600, while the Fenix light made me feel like I was in the dark.

I did the same thing with the floody model, that has the frosted lens. It really brightened up and spread extremely wide. Extremely useful in more smaller spaces.. especially narrower sections of canyons. There wasn't a hotspot, to keep me focused on a single spot. Definitely a powerful headlamp.

I chose a both a Cree, and a Floody for positioning of my crew. Person up front uses the hotspot headlamp for leading. They get to see what's farther up ahead, and can actually see down a 150ft waterfall, when leading. Floody is for the person in back. It supplements lighting for everyone else in the middle and front for a wider field of vision.

These are initial tests, and I will be doing field tests as soon as possible. But so far, the zebralights are promising. If it holds to its waterproof rating, and doesn't die on me, I may have found my new favorite headlamp. They're very reasonably priced. $90 for the headlamps, and $30 for a pair batteries and charger. I paid $210 for both headlamps and batters.. so it breaks down to $105 per headlamp. Considering the power of these, and HOPING for the reliability of its waterproof rating, I feel they are a great deal. They have other models, that run off of AA batteries, have a waterproof rating of IPX8, and have a rating of 220lumens for about $70.

Pictures coming soon.