Hey guys, so like many of you (I imagine) I am driven crazy by headlamps that force you to switch through a million different modes (red/flashing red/flashing white/white...etc) to get to the one you want. I was looking for one that would let me just choose the one or two modes I wanted and get rid of the rest. At the MakerFaire the other day I may have found the headlamp that will let me do that, check it out: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1900436368/bosavi-headlamp?ref=live.

Never had much of a problem with headlight complexity that you describe. My favorite is a zebralight. They don't come much simpler or more functional than that.

Are you affiliated with the company?

not just for dinner anymore

When someone has one post only and it's all about the new product you simply must buy! it looks a little spammy.

There was a thread on the gear deals forum about this same kickstarter project (bosavi headlamp) - yeah, it looks pretty cool, and could be considered a good UL option if the final shipping product does what it says it will and you require the amount of output it generates - but I don't know if I would consider ease of use as major selling point for a headlamp. Even the most complex headlamps are still pretty simple to use. Give me a minute with a manual and I'll have garnered all the information I need.

Regarding the bosavi headlamp, from what I can tell, the battery is non-hot-swappable/non-replaceable: I view this as a weak point to what looks to be an otherwise attractive device.

I actually had a chance to see this product (bosavi headlamp) at my local climbing gym. A rep (one of the digital lighting engineers) was there to show it off and solicit ideas. The light was incredibly bright and simple, and the rep thought it would weigh in at about 2.1 oz. We had a long talk about what would make it really interesting to UL backpackers. The primary contributors to the weight is the battery and the aluminium housing. If I understood what the rep said correctly, lightening the housing by putting holes in it could actually improve performance and lighten the weight substantially, maybe even getting it down to around one ounce total. The long battery life (rechargeable and I think replaceable) makes it attractive if they can get the weight down. The cost is a bit high, but is in line with other products with the type of battery used. One thing I did think was attractive was a very lightweight, collapsible plastic sleeve that the light could slide into that made a pretty effective lantern. I think it has the possibility to be very competitive and possibly a big improvement over what's on the market now.

Edited by rgless on 05/30/2012 16:06:28 MDT.

Like that shade idea did you?

http://www.montbell.us/products/disp.php?cat_id=104&p_id=1124462

Ken,

I'll have to get one of these. Pretty cool.

Thanks for the link.

Richard

Hi Alice

Do you have any links at all to the person making this lamp? Please advise.

Cheers
Roger Caffin
Online Community Monitor
backpacking Light

You could always try his facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/people/Dan-Freschl/8622125

I didn't see anything about the beam pattern.

Why?

Not sure if the headband is in the specified weight but it is either the same weight or 2/3rds the weight of my zebralight, but half as bright, not as many lighting levels, not waterproof and doesn't run on simple AAs.

Hahaha, I gotta give Alice props for the thread title at least...I love Tolkien referrences. :)

But her post sounded SOOO obvious as a sales pitch. Way too obvious. I prefer more subtle sales methods myself. If I were Alice I'd have used the power of subliminal messages instead. Something like this:

"Hi everyone! bosavi My name is Alice. headlamp I'm new here to backpackinglight.com bosavi and I just wanted to shout out a quick headlamp hello to you all. :) Can any of you bosaviheadlamp recommend a decent light for me to wear on my head while I hike around bosavi at night? Much bosaviheadlamp appreciated and I look forward to bosavi learning a lot from all you headlamp great folks here."

One Headlamp to Rule Them All,

And in the Dark Outshine Them.

See, now that's creative.

I heard about the bosavi I think in the other thread that was mentioned and promptly went ahead and ordered one. I still don't think it's a solution for longer trips but for 3 or 4 nights I think it should work fine. Indefinitely if you take a solar charger.

By the way Roger check bosavi.com for contact details.

The OP made me think of those infomercial commercials where the "old, bad" ways are done in black and white with the actors grimacing, and then the new, awesome way is shown in colors and all smiles.

"Don't you hate wasting .3 seconds moving a switch a quarter inch? Have you lost loved ones due to the frustrations of multiple lighting modes? Not any more! Now, there is the..."

It's kinda cool and kinda ridiculous that they somehow got people to preorder 30k worth of headlamps.

This is Dan,
Creator of Bosavi. First of all, this is actually the second thread about Bosavi on BackpackingLight. One was started a couple of days ago by Devin Montgomery (who I have never met but became one of my first backers). You can see that thread here:http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=64536
Not sure if BPL staff can combine threads or not but I geeked out and gave some tech specs and stuff on that thread.
If anyone has any questions or anything drop me a line through the message box on the Kickstarter page.
And thank you BackpackingLight community. You are awesome!

And no, Alice isn't affiliated with the company. Just a little enthusiastic and I think trying a little too hard to spread the word.
Thank you Alice.