Night Running
3rd Feb 2011
Am doing a reasonable amount of night running at the moment and experimenting with different lighting methods. I reviewed the LED Lenser P7 recently which has been my favourite option for a while. It's a hand held torch so you can direct it quickly without having to move your head - though I suppose you could argue that you need to move your head to look at wherever the light is pointing! It's short and therefore balances well in the hand, and it has a collar that you can move with thumb and forefinger to focus or spread the beam depending on the terrain. It's also pretty lightweight and the batteries last pretty well. Then last night I went out with a new headtorch from Silva. The X-trail Plus is a 140lumens (compared to 200 for the P7) and claims to light both the ground in front of you with a bright beam, and the peripheral area with a diffuse beam (they've called it intelligent light which is a bit of a claim really). I didn't really get on with it as a head torch half as well as the hand held. For one thing my hair kept coming loose from the headband and flapping in front of the beam, and the light wasn't as bright as I would have liked (or am used to). The jury's out at the moment and I'll report back with a full review of the X-trail in a few weeks.