The Black Diamond Spot Headlamp is the best headlamp on the market. It’s rugged, features a ton of lighting options, and is extremely bright on its highest setting.
The Black Diamond Spot Headlamp is the best headlamp on the market. The Black Diamond Spot features 300 lumens of adjustable light with a fully waterproof construction.
- Max Lumens: 300
Headlamps aren’t sexy, but they’re worth their weight in gold when you need to light the area in front of you and still have your hands free to accomplish other tasks.
Who Should be Interested
If you’re in the market for the best headlamp that can do everything you need it to do without breaking the bank, then the Black Diamond Spot Headlamp is for you.
Hikers, preppers, campers, or anyone in need of a headlamp will love this headlamp’s lightweight and lack of slipping.
It’s great for camping, hiking, walking or running at night and for shoving in a bug out bag.
- One Triple Power LED, one Single Power white LED and a Single Power red LED emit 200 lumens (max...
- Power Tap Technology allows fast and simple transitioning between full and dimmed power
- Red night-vision mode has proximity and strobe settings, and activates without cycling through the...
- Sleek, low profile design uses three AAA batteries and three-level power meter shows remaining...
- Water proof; Protected against water immersion down to >1m (3.3 ft) for 30 minutes (IPX 8)
Features
The Black Diamond Spot Headlamp weighs just over 3 oz. which means it isn’t going to become a burden when it’s on your head.
The body is plastic and the colored portion is a rubberized coating that adds some durability to the headlamp. The rubber coating also covers the only button on the headlamp making sure it’s sealed from dirt, sand, mud, and rain. It’s waterproof to 1m when it’s submerged for less than 30 minutes.
The headband is made of a traditional elastic material that hasn’t stretched out on me in about 40 hours of use. The headband comfortably fits the largest heads and can even be extended enough to fit on a helmet.
While you’re wearing the headlamp, it doesn’t get uncomfortable like some headlamps have a tendency to do. It also doesn’t slip around on my head at all which can sometimes be a problem with headlamps heavier than this.
Tilting the Black Diamond Spot Headlamp down allows you to lock the headlamp into one of four notches so you can better direct the light where you need it most. This is nice when you’re walking so that you can look ahead while still lighting the ground in front of you.
There are a whole host of lighting options available with the Black Diamond Spot Headlamp. It has both white and red spotlights, each one being dimmable. It also has a wide-angle flood light for lighting an area close to you (around a campsite for example).
At max brightness, it can produce a 300-lumen spotlight that covers 80 meters. At max power, the batteries will last you around 30 hours. The battery life is one of the things that caused us to name it the best headlamp.
At minimum brightness, you get a 6 lumen light that travels about 3 meters. At this setting, you get about 125 hours of run time.
The Black Diamond Spot Headlamp is powered by three AAA batteries that are included.
Pros
One of the best features of the Black Diamond Spot Headlamp is the ability to go from whatever dimmed setting you’re using, straight to the max setting by tapping the right side of the bezel. Tapping it again goes right back to the last setting you were on. This works with both the white light and red light.
I also like that the last lighting setting is remembered when you power it back on. Too many headlamps reset when they get turned off, which is especially problematic if you’re using red light.
Ultimately, we find this to be the best headlamp on the market.
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Cons
One of the worst features of the headlamp is the strobe function. Luckily it’s difficult to accidentally turn it on, but it doesn’t need to be there at all. You could definitely use it as a signaling device if you’re in an emergency situation, but I don’t like to have a strobe at all on lights that are supposed to be a primary light. I carry an emergency strobe specifically for that purpose.
The other downside is the time it takes to learn how to switch between all of the functions the light has. It has one real button, so switching between modes and brightness settings is all accomplished by holding the button for different lengths of time or pressing it a certain number of times. After you get used to it, it’s not bad. It just takes longer to get used to than I like.
Some runners may find this headlamp a little on the large side. When I took it out running on some trails I was initially very aware that I had a headlamp on, but after about 10 mins that feeling was gone.
Conclusion
We spent a long time looking for the best headlamp before we got lucky and ran into the Black Diamond Spot Headlamp. Prior to this, we were continually buying headlamps for work and play. Each one disappointed us and most were more expensive than this!
We always recommend the Black Diamond Spot Headlamp when someone asks about the best headlamp on the market. It’s simply the best value that we’ve found in this sector.
