What is the best head lamp for medics?
 

After our last two call-outs at night over the past month, it has become clear that our paramedics need a head lamp to see patients that we are taking care of.
My boss has given me the funding to purchase these items so Im looking for the best quality for the least cost (obviously). Does any other medics here use head lamps? Id like to konw what the best ones are. Research so far looks like Petzl is the better quality. Thanks for any help.
HTM

I like the Photon Fusion, but it is a bit larger than most of the Petzls.

TR

The Petzls are all pretty sexy. I use the Princton Tecs because of price. I prefer LEDs for most work because the batteries last longer and they are far more durable. You may need to consider an incandescent bulp vs LED for medical work though. LEDs are wonderful but there are some serious color shifts. Some colors "disappear" or blend into their surroundings when illuminated with LEDs. I'm not a medic but I would think accurately distinguishing color would be important. Incandescent bulbs give a broad spectrum "warmer" light with a better color rendering. Unfortunately (relative to LEDs) they are less durable and they eat batteries. But they are usually cheaper as a system (almost cheap enough to be considered disposable). One of the Docs/Medics will be along shortly to add to the discussion. My .02 - Peregrino

ETA: Course you could do what a compadre showed me a while ago - Get one of the one-cell SureFire lights, keep it on you always, and when you need a headlamp - clip it to the brim of your baseball cap. Kills more than one bird with the same stone and you get a cool toy out of it. That and it'll put out more light than almost any headlamp. Course we're back to the battery life thing. If you use it for an extended period during a treatment, you'll need to change batteries religiously. FWIW - P.

I've been using a Petzl Myo Xp and have been very pleased with its performance.

Thanks for your input guys. Im making notes on what you said.

I have found that being able to focus the beam really helped when working in the dark places that I find myself when doing unconventional work out of "civilization". :D Having the ability to sharply concentrate the available light source for intricate/delicate work while still having the ability to then widen the beam for overall scene viewing is a nice benefit. Nothing worse than having simulated tunnel vision due to a narrow beam or vice versa having dim/broad lighting when trying to see with detail and work with precision.

I will let the gear gurus point you to what works best as far as model, etc. Good luck

considerations:
- color of light
>white is great if loosing your night vision isn't an issue
>green or blue still allows differentiation of blood but not cyanosis and preserves 'night' vision
- LED vs incandescent: personnal choice with altered purity of color
- size/weight: always important: too big or too heavy and you'll tend to not use it. Also means of wearing it is important,.i.e., is it a clip on or does it have a head strap, can you change its angle, etc.

All this means is you have to tailor the equipment to the needs and the people using it. May want to check out the Equipped to Survive website, they did a nice review of these lights as I recall.

ss

Hey guys, we were at the Outdoor Retailer show last week in Salt Lake City, and checked out the new Petzl Tikka XP. I was with Patrick (owner of Kifaru), and they gave him one to test. The new XP will come in a military version as a kit. The body is OD, and you will have a choice of an OD or Coyote headband. The military version will be supplied with 3 different colored lenses, and an adaptor to mount the light on PALS webbing. We played with it that night behind the motel we were staying at, and it was a pretty impressive little headlamp. There are 3 power settings for the 1 watt LED, and it has a focused light beam with a sliding gate over the lens, that converts it to a wide angle flood beam. There is a button for a boost mode, which increases the light output by about 50% over the maximum level, that you can use for up to 20 seconds at a time, to prevent overheating. The light body is tiltable, and removes in a flash to change batteries, or connect to PALS webbing on your gear, with the supplied adaptor. They didn't have any military versions to give out at the show, but I plan on getting one as soon as they become available. Definately worth checking out.

Mel

Mel:

Don't be a stranger, stick around here and post more often.

Thanks for your input.

Have you seen SureFire's new helmet light?

TR

Mel: Thanks for posting in with that info. Did you get a time line on when this new model will be out?
Thanks again
HTM

Hey TR, I'll try to be a little more active here, just been so damn busy. Tell me more about this new Surefire helmet light! Will it work on hats also? HTM, I'm waiting on a callback to get a timeline on the availability of the military version Tikka XP.

Mel

Mel:

Sorry, the SureFire HL1-WH/BL helmet light is designed for sidemounting on the TC 2000 MICH, but you can probably mount it on any hard hat that you can stick/screw/attach it to.

IIRC, it is a twp piece affair, with the light QD from the conformal mount, so you could use it as a hand held, or take it off if it was not needed.

It runs off of one SF123 3v. lithium battery.

The light has multiple switching lighting options with three 5mm white LEDs, two 5mm blue LEDS, and one 3mm IR LED at 850nm.

There is a three position toggle switch with a white light position, a blue light position, and an off position. There is a secondary momentary switch which cycles white and blue lights through low, medium and high settings. A final two position toggle switch cycles the IR lights between a strobe setting (IFF) and the OFF setting.

It is made from glass filled nylon and weighs 2.8 oz.

Pretty slick.

TR

Hey TR, thanks for the info on the new helmet light. Sounds very cool, and I can't wait to see one in person. I must say that Surefire definately stays right on the cutting edge of technology!

Mel

along the same lines
 

I wear NODs, a conventional headlamp won't mount with them. (unless there is a mdoel where the head can swivel 90 degrees to the left/right.)

For a helmet mounted light I use a surefire E1E, 2.2 oz and 90 minutes of burn time, clicking tailcap, attached by velcro to the non-firing side of my helmet. Can swap it out for a M1 infrared illuminator as needed.

Idea stolen blatantly from BL and adapted for white light/medical use.;)

Dan

I have a Petzl Tikka Plus.......don't know nothing about nothing......but I love my Petzl!