8-Bulb Led Headlamp

My thoughts when viewing this product: "Well, It's as cheap as the others and they all got crappy reviews... But it says 'Japan,' and they make good electronics so it must be good. Right?"I almost want to take off one star because there's a MADE IN CHINA sticker on this product. Other than that, the lamp works great. It takes 3 AAA batteries and the whole loading mechanism feels kind of cheap, but you really can't beat it for < $6.The lamp has five settings, all of which are controlled by pushing the black button on top. The first three will turn on two, four, or eight LEDs, respectively, while the fourth will flash all eight lights on and off repeatedly. Push once more to to turn it off. With all eight lights on, it gets incredibly bright. I bought this for an upcoming camping trip and I'm thinking about buying a spare.If you're scared off by the poor reviews of other LED headlights that are similarly priced and you feel like spending $15+ on a name brand product, don't do it. Go for this one. I'll update if this suddenly breaks down or anything like that.***UPDATE***Second one just came in the mail. Works just as well as the first one. I highly recommend these!

As noted in the heading for this review, the stitching is very poor - just a single row of stitching that you can pull apart with your hands using only moderate pressure. It fell apart during my 3rd or 4th time using it, and because there is a gap in the plastic loop that the band attaches to, its difficult tying a knot around the loop without it slipping through when the band is stretched. Thankfully I was using it during an early morning hike and it became bright enough to see in about 10-15min. Several headlamps I looked at also used very similar base plates, bands, and similar stitching. I would highly recommend reinforcing the stitch yourself with another 2 or so rows of stitching so that you don't end up in the dark with a dysfunctional headlamp on a hike or emergency situation, when you need it most. The battery compartment is poorly made and feels like it could fall apart and leave you fumbling in the dark. The battery loader on mine warped after loading batteries in the first time and occasionally gets stuck. The battery cap fits loosely and can potentially fall off - I used small tab of duct tape under the cap to get a tight fit, which I would also recommend doing. I bought this through Amazon for about $5, it doesn't come with AAA's which are fairly expensive now. I got a 2 pack of slightly higher quality headlamps for $10 at Costco which came with 6x AAA Duracell Batteries, is supposed to be rain resistant and more importantly is rated for the amount of hours a set of AAA's will typically last in the two brightness settings. Those lamps were brighter and battery compartment was also a lot better. Though the stitching was only slightly better on those and needed to be reinforced as well.The light from this headlamp is pretty bright (though not as bright as other, single LED headlamps) and is more than bright enough for hiking through the forest at night. I normally use the low and medium settings when hiking, and only needed to use the high setting when we ran into a large black bear and on several occasions for deer while hiking in Yosemite. The high setting covers a pretty good distance btw.

Fits well - comfortable and stays in place. I've found I prefer headlamps with a strap that goes over the top of the head.Adequately bright light with good range of illumination.Great price under ten bucks!Took off a star as I find it pretty annoying to operate the unit by a single push button. You much scroll through 2-LED, 4-LED, 8-LED, flashing 8-LED, off settings. So to get full bright, you have to hit the button 3 times. To turn off, you have to scroll through the extremely annoying bright flashing mode. You can get fast with the button presses, but it is still annoying after a few months of use. I'd prefer one button to turn on/off and a slider or 2nd button to move though modes.

First be ware before you opened the plastic casing. It is one hard nut to crack. Make sure your scissors are sharp or you have a box cutter. Lol. Now back to the subject at hand. There are no instructions how to insert or open the area where the batteries are housed. So after several attempts I was able to unscrew the tight lid that exposed the compartment that housed the batteries. (You will need to purchase 3 AAA batteries). I had to hit the area ( on the inside of my hand) where the batteries are housed to loosen up theCase/ compartment for the batteries. It finally came out in my hand. Now for the hard part. There's no diagram showing you in which direction to place the batteries in. (which direction to place the + or the -. I an no rocket scientist but it took me a while to get it going. I did it and one down three to go. We purchased 4for our grandchildren to encourage them to read (especially in bed at night under the covers)

It was broken as I pulled it from the package. I was really excited about this headlamp because I like reading at night. When I got it the lens was cracked and half the lights didn't work. Maybe I got one of the few broken ones, but by my experience this is a waste of money. I'd like a replacement or my money back, but we shall see.