User Review: Black Diamond Zenix IQ
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Rating: 
Price Paid: don't know...a present
The Zenix is a good compromise between weight and utility for night navigation and use around camp. It's got twin 'normal' LEDs with three brightness settings for general use that are cycled through by a half press of the main button. The low power LEDs are great for walking along a track, cooking around camp or reading in a tent. It also has a more focused 1 watt(?) LED that can throw light up to about 30m, and this is useful for routefinding.
It's still nowhere nearly as powerful as the halogens that Petzl (for example) use in their Myos, but by the same token it doesn't need the bulky parabolic reflector mounting of a halogen, and doesn't suck anywhere nearly as much juice. It runs on only 2aa batteries so it sheds weight and bulk there too.
BD has got some new design features that may/may not be useful depending on your useage. It's got a super low power coloured LED that flashes periodically to allow you to find it in the dark. This LED changes colour if the batteries are nearly drained (not much use to me since I'm colour blind...but other people said that they could see it!). I did find the flashing feature useful on occasion and somewhat irritating on other occasions (actually it irritated other people more when I had it on my head but they got distracted by it). Still, all things considered this is a good feature.
The only relatively minor gripes are with the process of switching between the low power and high power LEDs. The switch is located under the main light housing, is quite small, and is blocked if you have the housing pointing downwards. If you're doing extensive night nav and have to frequently switch between the low and high power LEDs you basically have to keep swinging the housing upwards to press the button and the downwards to get the light back on the ground. Repeat this over a number of hours and you are likely to start to get the irrits.
Also, the button is not easily pressed with gloved hands, and I often had to take overgloves off to get it to function (particularly to 'half press' it). Oh yeah, final really minor gripe...there's no 'memory' for the brightness setting on the low power LEDs (after you flick briefly to the 1W LED). eg, if you had the torch set to the middle brightness setting on the low power LEDs, it cycles back to the maximum setting after flicking briefly to the 1W LED (Myos go back to the original setting).
All in all a good torch with some new and interesting design features. Not the top choice as torch for extended night nav in rogaining/mountaineering as it's not quite powerful enough, and it's not quite small enough to be an ultralight/emergency headtorch. But if you might need something for both situations, for example on a long overseas trip involving different activities, and can therefore only take one torch, then the zenix is a very good choice.
Where to Buy
Buy Online We found the Zenix IQ at 1 online store:
| Store | Product Description | Price |
 Teton Village Sports | Zenix IQ Headlamp | $47.95 | Buy Now |
You may also want to check availablity with these other Black Diamond retailers:
- Moosejaw
- Campmor
- Backcountry.com
- Altrec Outdoors
- Backcountry Outlet
- CampSaver.com
- REI
- RockCreek
- Ramsey Outdoor
- Oregon Mountain Community
- Massey's
- Gear for Adventure
- EMS
- Sierra Trading Post
- US Outdoor Store
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