We are going on camp (with a large number of explorer scouts) in 2 weeks time, and when I went through the kit I wanted to take along a headlamp was quite high up on the list.

But unfortunately I was unable to find the excellent LED headlamp I bought a few years ago - and so I needed to get a new one. And as flashlight technology has moved on quite a lot in the last few years I did a bit of googling to see what the current state-of-the-art was.

And the best reviews I could find was of the Princeton Tec Apex headlamp.

This has a total of 5 LED's, with a very bright 3 watt LED in the middle, and 4 smaller LED's, 2 on each side of the main part of the light.

The middle LED is a 3-watt LED, and one of the brightest on any headlamp I could find, with a total light output of 60 lumens, and a range in the region of 50 metres. The lumen rating is quoted from the manufacturers website - and as they do not give any basis for how they arrived at these figures they are almost worthless for comparing anything but products from the same manufacturer.

But various reviews on the web bears out that this headlight is one of the brightest around.

The problem with such high-output LED's is normally the heat they produce, and there is a impressively large heatsink under the plastic at the back of the headlamp.

The battery case i well constructed - and it is indeed supposed to be waterproof - or as I see it - splashproof. But good enough for me to take along on kayaking trips. Another "feature" I was looking for was the ability to change the angle of the light to let me read in bed (or rather in my sleeping bag). And on this light it can be angled in a wide, continuous arc that should let me read in comfort.

I'll ad more to this after I have used it during Frost camp i 2 weeks time.

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