Headlamps
Product 2018
Femme, Homme, Enfant
Even if this head lamp is designed for daily use, you can widen its use, which is what we did. In the outdoors the Petzl Bindi can be considered as a safety head lamp, but it is in fact much more than this.
With its ultra-lightweight; 35g, you wouldn’t hesitate to take it in your hiking back pack, trail running pack or out on your bike (coming home late, passages through tunnels). Lightweight lamps are common, but at 200 lumens they are rarer.
Out on the trails the Bindi provides almost 8 hours of full power, before fading. Using it in economy mode is signaled with three flashing lights. Then three short flashes every 30 seconds. The light beam on full power, may not be as fierce as the flagship Petzl, but it is still extremely impressive.
Lightweight, powerful for its size, the Bindi is also very practical. Very compact, and easy to use: a simple elastic head band enables you to fix it to your head or around your neck. Adjustment is also fast. The button is easily accessible, three power settings for the white light and two for the red light. One long press you can go from one to the other.
When turning on and turning off a small diode light shows the level of battery remaining: red, the lamp is charged 0-33%; orange: 33 – 66%; green 66 – 100%.
We did wonder for a long time if this lamp was waterproof. This could’ve been the weak point for this traveler’s lamp. By looking very closely at the instruction pamphlet, we found it written in size 6 lettering – you can submerge it down to 1 meter for 30 minutes. But Petzl don’t seem that sure about it, as they do say to dry the lamp out well if it is in contact with humidity, especially salt water. Also to dry the USB connection socket out before charging. We did not test the lamp in water.
The Petzl Bindi is charged using a USB micro connection. We would’ve liked a small bag to store the cable and the lamp. If you forget the cable, you have no means of recharging it as you cannot use a phone cable and you cannot use ordinary batteries. You cannot change the battery either.
What didn’t we like; the white plastic gets dirty quickly if it’s at the bottom of your pack. The elastic head band is ok but comfort could be improved. If you want to read in bed, or camping you need to slide the band to the side slightly or the plastic buckle at the back digs into your head. The notches that block the different lamp positions wear down and therefore lose their efficiency. But these are really nit-picking details, the Bindi has many advantages.
This lamp is very lightweight, “powerful” for its weight, rechargeable and practical. This lamp would find itself in any traveler’s bag. It is cheaper than the LedLenser SE05 ( 54,90 euros), that has 180 lumens for 105g.
We used this equipment over a long period of time
These are our thoughts after intensive use:
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