Brunton L3

The light really is the brightest headlamp that I have ever used. A 3 Watt LED pokes a neat round hole into the darkest night and is great when hiking at dusk or around the camp. However my experience so far with the construction of the lamp makes me think about a backup Petzl in the bag whenever I head out again...

1. When I got it in the mail, one spring inside the battery compartment was just lying loose. I sent the lamp back and Brunton replaced it!

2. The little plastic clips that hold the wire onto the headband broke off as I changed from the regular battery arrangement to the belt Megapack configuration. Lousy poor quality plastic. My partner had the same issue!!

3. The cover for the battery has a security loop onto the wire. One of these also broke off as I changed batteries for the first time... again lousy plastic.

4. If that was not enough... I also found that when I put New rechargeable batteries into the lamp it would not work!!! I found that there is a piece of plastic near the Positive pole inside the battery compartment that prevents the pole from making contact... I stuffed Al foil inside and made contact.

5.The tilt angle is just not quite enough to make reading at night comfortable... I have to push the headband up the back of my head to get light on the paper... Really!!

6. The headband at full extension is just TIGHT on my head... just a few millimeters and a band over the top would make it comfortable for me... Like the Petzl...

I wish they had looked at the details ... Brunton would have the best light on the planet if they had concentrated a little on these details.

Noel J. Mount

When I finally put the two top Luxeon 3-watt headlamps in front of me, I said to myself: Don't be ever never
haoxed by the origin of any product again! This L3 Brunton is made in China, while The Princeton Apex
rival headlamp is made in USA. The L3 is the winner!!
Far better bright light, longer distance (by a little),
and the most important, a very unbelievable battery life time.

Don't look to the battery indicator with the Princeton,
with the L3 you don't need to look after the battery.

Not like the Princeton Apex, this L3 battery chart is almost fully true. It's 200 hours on low beam is around the track, 170 did with me. The highest beam tested with me in one night over three hours of continuous use, best beam you'll ever see with such a tiny headlamp.

If I used the supplied 4C battery compartment it should give even more time.

I read many customers complaining of just one hour of high beam with the Princeton Apex and not as advertised by 72 hours ... that was in cold weather, but in hot weather, like here in the Gulf, it only made 40+ minutes with me (the Princeton I mean).

Again, for anyone who doesn't believe that China made is over the U.S. made, just buy the L3 and Princeton Apex like me and test it yourself!!

Light itself is brilliant with no dead spot centre on like the Princeton Tech APEX. Its ability to hold brightness as the batteries fade is fantastic. The beam is brighter than anything else I have and can match a Cygolite Dual Cross for both power and light colour making it great off road biking combination.

Why two stars? Well the belt battery pack clip fell off exploding batteries over the ground in darkness. The battery packs that clip to the headlamp strap loss their covers and much the same happens.

Basically a great light wrecked by poor manufacturing design and quality. If the electronics were packaged by Princeton Tech then it would be on of the most truly brilliant (excuse the pun) light available.

Fair headlamp, but for the price I'd stick with the Rayovac K2 Highbeam (Picked two up last year at Cost Co for $15 apiece).

A side by side test at night on the lake actually showed the K2 to be brighter and battery life was longer on the K2 using "AA" batteries for both.
The L3 did have a more "white" light quality than the K2 though. K2 had a slightly yellow look. The L3 was extremely white and eliminated shadows.

The L3 external battery pack for the 4 "C" cell batteries failed after two night trips.

One call to Brunton solved that. They sent me a new one, no questions asked. Excellent customer service !
Battery life on the "C" cell battery pack is exceptional.

Excellent for all night excursions.

I bought this headlamp to replace my Petzel MYO 5, and words cannot describe the difference. This headlamp puts out more light than my surefire e2e and makes my MYO 5 look like a wax candle. The beam has no dark spots in the center and the light is a bright white.

The truly amazing thing about the Brunton L3 is the claimed battery life. While I have only had the light about a week I can say that five days of constant use and there is no loss of brightness. Therefore I believe the 200 hour claim from Brunton. The optional 4 C-cell pack makes this light's potential unreal.

The only gripe I have is that the beam might be a bit too focused, but not to the point where it takes away from the effectiveness of the light. I recommend this light for anyone who is sick of the weak output of other LED headlamps, and Halogen headlamps for that matter. It is truly a good investment.

I'm a serious caver, living in a cold climate, and this light is my best answer to date! Outshines the Petzls my buddies use, and outruns them on batteries too! With the option of using four AA's on my helmet and getting a rated 200 hours of burn-time, or, in colder, winter caving conditions, using the (comes with it!) four C-cell belt/pocket box for a 300% longer burn-time, it's great. On the downside, it's a pricey light with a somewhat lightweight single pivot and a button that's a bit hard to push, esp. with gloves on. But it comes with a life-time guarantee, is very light on the head, and has a confirmed 200 foot reach, which is awesome!