Petzl Bindi 200 Lumens Black

Product Information

When buying Torches and Headtorches, the quality of the product is going to be one of the factors that you really scrutinise before you commit to buying. That said, if the budget is a major concern then the ACTIK remains a very solid choice for the all-round user.

All these modes will work until the Bindi’s internal circuitry triggers the “reserve” mode, which preserves 3 lumens of light for an extra 1 hour 30 minutes, according to Petzl. There’s also a 3-lumen red “proximity” mode to preserve night vision that’s rated for 33 hours. Finally, the Bindi carries an emergency red strobe Petzl claims is visible for 400 meters and will run for 200 hours. The USB-to-mini USB cord is 12 inches long (30.5cm), which is fine if charging from a computer or in a car, but far too short if charging from a wall outlet. I recognize that there is no perfect solution here, because too long a cord would get easily tangled and be hard to manage, but too short of a cord leaves me placing the headlamp on the ground to charge (risk having it stepped on) or having to pull out a mini-extension cord (pain in the butt).

Operating the light through the single button was intuitive: A single press turned on the white light, and subsequent presses scrolled through its three modes. An extended button hold activated the red light; pressing it again fired the red emergency beacon. The Bindi doesn’t have a memory for light mode, but it does switch on to the last-used color mode.

While not the best color-rendering headlamp on the list, the light is optimized for running. It gives you decent depth perception for a single light source, although a second source definitely improves depth perception while running on trails. This light has a red light also, so it can do double duty around camp or on the hiking trail.

I’ve tested the Petzl Bindi for three months in a variety of conditions, mostly dark ones. My best guess for total run time is approximately 50 hours and I’ve recharged it a handful of times, sometimes from fully dead and sometimes from mid-battery life. It has been exposed to temperatures ranging from 40F to 95F (4C to 35C) and some damp conditions but nothing extreme. Some headlamps have a technology that automatically adjusts the low and max output based on the objects in front of you, which saves battery power. A handful of designs also have a strobe mode, which is helpful for visibility in areas with high vehicle traffic. Battery Life Overall, Sean is very impressed with the user interface. “It was my go-to headlamp during early mornings in camp and late nights on the trail. I used it in rain, snow, and cold conditions. And through it all, I really appreciated the wonderful simplicity of the single button. Just press it once and the light turns on. Press it again to cycle through modes. It’s that simple”

It’s also a little complicated, with the ability to link to your smartphone via an app. While that isn’t a negative, it’s a bit unnecessary for most people. Some headlamps offer the ability for the user to program buttons and lighting on their own. As we said earlier, a few headlamps offer apps for a plethora of options.Headlamps are a hotly contested item here in the GearJunkie office. We each have our favorites, and the arguments get hot over the most important headlamp features, specs, and user interfaces. But for most users, a rechargeable battery is reliable, functional, and much more efficient and environmentally friendly. Not only do you produce less waste, but rechargeable batteries require much less energy to produce than disposable batteries and can run for up to 3,000 cycles without losing effectiveness. We test headlamps and compare brightness and run-time while considering the best applications for each model; (photo/Eric Philips) How We Test Headlamps

When you start the Bindi, the battery meter will display a colored light for 4 seconds that indicates the headlamp’s charge level. There are three energy ranges indicated by red, orange, and green lights, that correspond to 0-33%, 33%-66%, 66%-100% level charges. While these levels are directional at best, you can mitigate the risk of running out of power by recharging the headlamp after each use and by carrying a portable battery, even a small one to recharge it if necessary. While this is safety-first, the NEO5R proved to be no slouch in terms of performance in testing. It has an incredibly good runtime and came in just behind our premium selection (also a Ledlenser light) in terms of the overall runtime. The Bindi is a small headlamp, but don’t let that fool you. Both the white and red light modes will hurt your eyes if you look directly into them. That said, the battery capacity of the Bindi (680 mAh) is about half that of other rechargeable headlamps, making it more suitable for in-camp use where the battery life will be longest and not for extended night hiking or trail running in the dark. See SectionHiker’s Gear Guide: 10 Best Rechargeable Headlamps for a list of the best rechargeable headlamps that we recommend. Some headlamps automatically adjust between the two based on the objects in front of you. The automatic mode switch also preserves the battery. Others may use reactive technology to sense how much light to project, again, preserving battery life.We've already run through the various modes in Brightness and Burn Time, so I'll avoid repeating myself on that front. For example, the Bindi has three white light intensities: low (5 lumens), medium (100 lumens), and high (200 lumens). The lower the intensity, the longer the battery will last: the low setting will burn for 50 hours, the medium setting for 3 hours, and the high setting for 2 hours. There’s no way to dim the light in between these settings or to focus the beam, which is set to a broad floodlight spread. This is a hotly contested choice, as each member of the GearJunkie crew has their personal favorite headlamp. But some of us have put the BioLite 330 to the test for years now, and it’s as great of a headlamp today as it was when we first got it.