GearFlogger

Stanley HID Spotlight

Set your phasers on blind, gentlemen. And if you're wearing a red shirt, put your head between your legs and kiss your ass goodbye. Even the Stanley HID spotlight can't save you now.

Sometimes you just need to put a big freakin' light on the scene. For search and rescue work, scouting routes or whatever, the Stanley spotlight does the job. At 4.5lb it's not exactly fast and light, but it has to be big to hold a 12v rechargeable battery and a 35w high intensity discharge lamp. It goes for about an hour on a full charge, more if you use the optional dim mode.

On top is a three LED light array for area use, and a padded lanyard is included, as are both wall and cigarette lighter adapters. The HID spotlight is heavy-duty tool for throwing serious light out. If you live or work in the big wide open, it's hard to beat the value.

$69.99 at Amazon

Icon Rogue 2 flashlight

Every once in a while someone does something a little bit different and pulls it off. Icon has succeeded in pushing flashlight form, if not function, in a new direction that actually works. And it provides capable defense against large ungulates to boot.

Icon makes two lights, the Rogue and the Modus, the former an aluminum body and the latter polymer. Each is available in a 1 and a 2 model indicating the number of AA batteries used. We tested the Rogue 2, an interesting design waterproof to 1 meter thanks to a sealed body with rubber O-rings. A bit large for two AA design, the cutouts in the body keep it light at less than six ounces, dissipate heat efficiently and make it a pleasure to handle. The aluminum is very sturdy and the whole unit has a high-quality fit, finish and feel to it.

There's nothing fancy in the function. There's high (3 hours at 100 lumens) and low (72 hours at 10 lumens) beam. Low is adequate for around-camp use and won't blind your tent-mates. High really cranks and will put an even, white, artifact-free spot out quite a distance. The Rogue 2, unlike the Modus, will roll off a flat surface but using one of the two included lanyards will prevent that. One is neck sized with a cool snap that will separate under pressure so you can't hang yourself. The other is wrist sized with a sliding keeper. They both come attached to a teeny carabiner that unfortunately doesn't fit easily through the cutouts, so just get one of those circular key-ring thingies and attach it.

Don't thread the lanyards directly through the cutouts: the edges are sharp, and in fact we verified it works well to peel carrots and such. How's that for flexibility? Fear not, however, to cut yourself accidentally you'd have to really try. In which case it's not really an accident, is it you moron? It does have one trick that some of our more tactical-minded testers liked: while pushing the end-cap button cycles between high and low beam, if you leave it off for a minute it will reset and come on high, so if you need to blind a moose or something - no kidding, that's a valid defense - you're all set.

$47.95 at Battery Junction

Black Crater Cord Lock Light

The small but useful category is getting a workout these days. Black Crater, a name synonomous with Sarah Palin's political future, brings us the Cord Lock Light. You'll never guess what it is or what it does.

It's a light... that locks... on a cord! It's quite cool, a high-visibility yellow cord lock of standard size that contains an LED light and three-position switch. The three lighting options are low, high and flash, although there's not a significant illumination difference between low and high except in battery life: 20 hours versus 12, with 50 hours for the strobe function.

Light output is equivalent to other small LED keychain-style lights, as is cost, but you're getting a perfectly serviceable cord lock in the deal. The Cord Lock Light weighs all of a quarter-ounce and the possibilities are endless: sleeping bags, backpacks, keychains, jackets, nipple ring, you name it. It's water-resistant, but I didn't have the heart to give it a submersive test because, well, it's really quite useful and I don't want to destroy it.

UPDATE: Black Crater said I could submerge it so I did. Turns out it still works. OK, I'm impressed.

$10.00 at REI

Princeton Tec Fuel headlamp

Headlamps have come a long way in the last few years, giving more bright for less buck, and Princeton Tec seems to have the formula dialed in with the Fuel. At only 2.7oz you'll forget the Fuel is mounted on your brain bucket, but you'll never fail to appreciate the 35 lumens of illumination provided by four LEDs.

The Fuel is low-profile, barely big enough to hold its three AAA batteries (included, no less). Even with such a light light, Princeton didn't skimp on the headband: it's plenty wide and has a soft lining. The feature set is complete, with three brightness levels and a flash mode, ranging from 50 to 160 hours rated runtime and 15 to 35 meters throw, all roughly accurate in testing. Field of view side-to-side is also good.

Usability is great. The clever little hobbitses at Princeton obviously put some thought into the design, even making the plastic buckle double as a tool to release the battery compartment cover. The beam can be adjusted through a full 90 degrees vertically, and the body has a little lip on it that makes adjustments easy even with one gloved hand. Given the features you'd expect to pay a lot more for this little gem of a lamp, but the price is just icing on the cake.

$26.95 at Backcountry

Coghlan's Cooler Light

Coghlan is the caulking of the outdoor products universe, making small but useful items that fill in the cracks. The Coghlan Cooler Light is one of those items where you can easily visualize how it was invented:

Night falls. Man stumbles to cooler looking for beer. Man opens cooler. Man grabs bottle, pops it open and chugs. Man vomits 'cause he mistakenly grabbed his vegetarian girlfriend's fermented wheat grass instead of a cold PBR. If only the cooler had a light like a fridge!

Projectilosity is the mother of invention, and the Cooler Light is invented. Just stick it to the inside of the cooler lid using the attached sticky tab and it uses alien technology to sense when it rotates vertical. At that point a dim but usable LED light shines through the plastic wing and lets you safely identify cooler contents. It does work as advertised, although for the same price you can get one of those teeny LED keychain lights. Still, might be useful for kids and brain-impaired dirtbag climbers. Your call.

$11.95 at REI

Energizer Trailfinder 1 Watt LED Headlight

I don't know if there's any truth to the rumor that the little pink Energizer bunny is the unholy offspring of Barney the purple dinosaur (of indeterminate sexual orientation) and a Hostess Sno-Ball, but it's my job to pass these things on. In any case the bunny now has a line of Trailfinder outdoor lights that are pretty decent.

We tested the 1 Watt LED Headlight; other models are available with fewer, smaller light configurations and they are even less expensive. The Trailfinder is a working man's headlamp: i.e. a bit bulky and heavy at 4.6oz, but those are the only dings. What you get for not much money is a solid, dependable headlamp, and bonus: it comes with three Energizer batteries. The Trailfinder 1 Watt has three modes: two small LEDs (50 hours) for general flood illumination; two small red LEDs (75 hours) for low-light and night vision; and a honkin' big 1 watt LED (11 hours) to blind your enemies. We never maxed out the listed run times but they seem reasonable.

All lighting modes function well, and the red lights are particularly useful for saving battery life and not ruining your night vision. They also won't wake up your tent mates when you're trying to find something in the dark.The battery compartment is easily accessible, and there's a forward tilt feature that is solid enough to use on the trail. The wide headband is comfy and fully adjustable even over helmets. Other lights may be lighter, run longer or shine brighter, but if you're on a budget the Trailfinder lights provide excellent value.

$21.87 at Lowe's

Coleman Exponent lantern

When I think Coleman I think car camping, but they're changing my mind with their Exponent line of gear. The line includes tents, sleeping bags, stoves and other products targeted at - gasp - climbers and their fast-and-light ilk. So if you're feeling ilky check this out: a clever 5.2oz lantern that measures just over two inches on any given dimension when closed.

Pull on the cap and the lantern in a clear plastic housing slides out. The cap is fairly smooth and it can stick a bit if you haven't opened it recently, so it helps to thread a fine cord through the corner holes on the cap to make a pull ring. The bulb is rated at 100 lumens and apparently is not user-replaceable. The battery compartment on the bottom holds three CR123A batteries, included, and there's a little integrated ring so you can hang it from the included mini-carabiner.

The LED has a large, easy to operate switch and throws plenty of light on both high and low settings: 5 and 12 hours respectively as the low is not much lower. It also strobes for emergency use. On the plus side it's compact, lightweight and rugged with a 5-year warranty. Offsetting this is the higher price and shorter battery life, especially compared with a headlamp, but for group lighting this may be your ticket.

$59.95 at REI

Black Diamond Wiz headlamp

I guess with a product lineup as vast as Black Diamond's, they're bound to pinch a stinker once in a while. They have done so with their Wiz headlamp, designed - so they say - to be kid-friendly somehow.

Claims: it's smaller, less bright, more durable and has a "tiltable housing." There are plenty of other lamps, including many by BD, that match these specs, so I'm calling bulls**t. The only truly useful feature is that it supposedly shuts off after one hour to save battery life; I haven't bothered to leave it on that long, but if true I'll give them a point.

Then I'll take away ten for the crappy on/off switch that requires you to press hard and hold it down for longer than the average kid has patience for. Once it's on, pressing briefly on the switch in a normal way turns it to strobe and back. You have to hold it down to make it go out, which is surprisingly difficult for the kids I watched try to figure it out. Back to the drawing board, BD. I recommend finding an ACTUAL CHILD to test it this time. And no, prolonged adolescence in your "extreme athletes" doesn't qualify them for the job.

$18.00 at REI

Petzl E+Lite headlamp

Evidently named by the same people who get paid - real money no less - to come up with alternatives to beige like sagebrush or burnt sahara, the Petzl E+LITE is nonetheless a smokin' light LED light.

How light? Just under an ounce for the light and strap, and 1.6oz including the case, which is the big orange thingy at the top of the picture left. It has a clip to attach to a pack strap or hat brim. It even pans and tilts. Waterproof to 3 feet (or, as they say in the godless socialist regimes, 1 meter), it has five modes: dim white, bright white, strobe white, bright red and strobe red.

Powered by two lithium watch batteries it has a supposed burn time of 35 hours on bright white (illumination to 19 meters) or 45 hours on dim white (11 meters). This is not a primary light for working major projects or filming porn, but it's the best just-in-case shiner out there right now. Buy it, throw it in your pack and forget about it until you really need it.

$29.95 at REI

Photon Micro Light II LED light

I fell in love with the original Photon Micro Light back in the day, huddled under a poncho in the field with Uncle Sam's Army. Military maps are red light readable so as not to destroy your night vision, and the Micro Light is available with a red bulb.

This saves a soldier from the hassle of toting around the unbelievably crappy Army-issue right-angle flashlight. I've put mine through the wash and subjected it to various other torture tests and its always come through shining bright.

Small enough it's easy to keep on a leash around your neck, the battery lasts forever and the new and improved version has a much-appreciated on-off switch so you don't get lockjaw holding the button down with your teeth. An ounce of prevention available in a dizzying array of colors. Stay gold, pony boy.

$15.95 at REI