I’ve always been sceptical about rechargeable outdoors equipment. Batteries that failed to hold a charge, a sudden drop off in performance, and the ever present danger of mixing up charged batteries with flat ones. So when I was looking for a new head-torch you might be thinking that I’d be wary of one which came with it’s own custom fit rechargeable battery pack. A quick check showed that the Petzl Actik Core was also compatible with AAA batteries, so it would be easy to throw a pack in to the rucksack as spares if required. Were I giving the torch heavy use I’d perhaps be inclined to invest in a second dedicated battery, but for the intermittent use I’ve been subjecting it to that’s not necessary.
The torch weighs 82g and comes with a standard USB to micro-USB cable. To charge it’s simply a matter of opening up the body of the torch and connecting the cable. A small light on the battery unit shows red when charging and turns green when charged. While in use should the battery level decrease substantially then the torch will flash a few times before dropping automatically onto the next lower setting. There are three white light settings and two red light settings. The steady red setting is low output to protect night vision while the flashing strobe setting goes to the other end of the scale; it’s designed to be seen from a distance. There are three white light settings, low, medium and high (or as Petzl describe it Max Autonomy, Standard and Max Power). High gives full on 350 lumen illumination, turning night into day, allowing ground to be covered at good speed, ideal for running or fast walking. This does drain the battery though, with a life of only around two hours on that setting. Standard provides a reasonably good amount of light for over double the amount of time while on the lowest setting you can expect around 160 hours of low level short radius illumination.
Switching between modes is fairly straightforward with some practice. Pressing the power button switches the head-torch onto it’s lowest setting. A brief press on the button cycles to the next setting, and so on. While on any white light mode a longer press will toggle to red mode, and again a brief press cycles through the two modes. A long press will switch the head-torch off.
In the Max Power mode there’s good close up visibility as well as fairly decent general visibility for a short distance.
After a bit of practice I’ve found it fairly easy to manipulate the power settings while wearing the torch. The one concern I have is that the power button is of a rubberised material rather than the solid plastic of earlier Petzl models I have used. While clearly lighter and simpler than a solid plastic button, it could be switched on while in a bag if something is pressed against it, and if that something is sharp it could possibly cut it, breaking the waterproofing of the seal. It’s a similar setup to a GPS unit I’ve been using for many years which has perished and is now no longer fully sealed. It would take many years for that to happen though, and as of now this has earned its place as my main headtorch of choice, for walking, running, cycling.
The Airdrie Rambler 