User Review: Black Diamond Ion

Black Diamond Ion
Above: The current Ion, which may differ slightly from the version reviewed.

Reviewed May 3, 2006 by kmsquared

Rating:
Price Paid: $25

I've used an Ion for a couple of seasons. It's sturdy and certainly very lightweight.

However, this is my big gripe about it: it uses a unique battery that can be hard to find, that is pretty expensive -- about a buck a volt -- and that doesn't last very long. After I put in a fresh battery, the light's peak brightness drops off rather quickly. I seem to get about 16 hours of truly useful light from these batteries. You can't find these batteries in the average drugstore or hardware store -- not even in most outdoors stores.

So I've changed this season to a Petzl Tikka Plus, which uses AAA batteries, as does my GPS unit. Now I need a camera that works on AAAs....

So far, the Tikka Plus has given me plenty of light at the lowest setting for many hours. The Tikka Plus weighs more than the Ion, but I think the extra ounces are worth it for the battery commonality, lower cost, and (apparently) longer life in this application.