Black Diamond Spot Headlamp

Trading on past quality? Good features but bad build quality – I'm disappointed to the point of angry with this brand. At the price, you'd expect quality. But no: it's cheap garbage masquerading as quality. You can confirm what I say below by watching a video called 'Headlamp Black Diamond Storm 400 JUNK!!!', that shows the build quality undeniably. I expect this is one of those cases where in the PAST they made good stuff, but then decided they can make a few extra bucks by going cheap on the components and manufacturing. But people still buy it because they're still expecting quality. I've bought two and been ripped off twice. The first one stopped working after a mild drop. Note that the only use I make of my torches is a festival once a year and at home. The festival is known for being on land with hardly any rocks: just soft soil and grass. The second one: the hinge soon broke. You could still use it. But soon the metal part that touches the batteries came out and you could see what cheap flimsy garbage it was. This company should hang their heads in shame. One day someone may get lost in the bush and suffer injury or death because of this garbage workmanship. It's really no better than a supermarket or hardware store job but three times the price. The only good thing about this torch is that it has a few good features and stays on the head comfortably. NEVER AGAIN !

Pretty useless – Certainly does not shine 84 metres as claimed. I wanted it for spot lighting wildlife but 8 metres is more like its range. It’s even hard to spotlight a snail at 1 metre as the light diffuses rather than concentrates in one spot. The battery pack above the eyes causes the band to constantly slip down. Tightening it hard enough to prevent this causes a headache. My previous lamp had a bigger battery pack at the back with wires to the front and an extra band over the top of the head to stop it slipping down. I will now search for another like that.

Not White Light – My old Black Diamond headlamp was fading and as it was really good I got a new spot. Well it was totally hopeless for me as 75% of the spot was yellow so I returned it to Anaconda who happily gave me a refund.

Good light, bad headband – Initial impressions good, though I found the headband difficult to adjust to a smaller size, and my head is not small. Over the next 6 months the band lost elasticity and stretched to the point where the torch was unusable for it's design purpose Didn't use for a while - on its next outing noticed the plastic coating of the wire from battery pack to light was split and peeling off. So to repeat - good light unit but fatally hampered by poor peripherals.

Useful features, solid design, good battery life – This torch has an excellent range of light levels - from super-bright to power-sipping low. The controls are pretty intuitive without having a heap of buttons. The ability to lock the button from accidentally turning on while in a bag gives peace of mind that your batteries will be full when you need the torch. The red light works well, and is also adjustable to a very low light level for retaining maximum night vision. The torch takes three standard NiMH rechargeable batteries, which are significantly more cost effective than alkaline batteries in the long term.