STORM 400 HEADLAMP

Product Information

The unit is almost like your own personal floodlight and for better or worse I’ve had complaints from people I’m blinding them with it! Assuming all batteries degrade over time, a torch without an integrated battery may end up lasting longer too. The PowerTap feature allows the user to make beam adjustments with a pretty casual bump of the fingertip to the right side of the light housing. To add insult to injury you can lock it out so an accidental tap of the button doesn't turn it on and drain your battery while in storage; lots of fun figuring out how to get it to turn back on when you need it and it's locked ;-). The fact that it has a very bright lamp I can dim to any setting, and then have full bright with a touch, is a very helpful function.

There's the same tapered elastic headband, with its soft and reasonably unsweaty feel on the head, and since there's less weight to carry here the strap feels more comfy and secure than the Storm. If this headlamp is to be used for biking, I would recommend using additional lights mounted to your bike for enhanced visibility of the road surface. This superb torch runs off easily available 4 x AAA alkaline batteries (supplied) and has a lock out mode to stop it accidentally turning on in your pack. ounces (112g), placing it just a bit higher than average, owing to its 4 AAA batteries (most use only 3).The only drawbacks I've found are it being 4 AAAs, which is nitpicking, and having slightly too soft proximity lighting.

Not too heavy for summer, but still with plenty of oomph for darker seasons, this is a torch you could be glad to carry year-round. Another advantage of the quick tap is that you can use it to help save battery life, by having the torch set at a lower output and then only tapping to full-distance for brief periods when you really need to pick out your route far ahead. You can even submerge the Storm down to 1 metre for 30 minutes without the need for further maintenance after submersion. A powerful 400 lumens LED with PowerTap Technology provides quick transition between full and dimmed modes for variable lighting on the go. If you want it all - and I think I definitely would in trickier situations at night - then the Power Tap puts you on full output from both LEDs.

The torch will remember the dimmed output you previously had it set to, and I don't know if this reduces or adds to my faff factor. The Storm also has three different coloured night vision modes and peripheral white lighting for close-range activities like carefully re-racking for the final summit pitch in the dark. When you need the best, brightest, most waterproof, feature rich headlamp that is also ready for any adventure no matter the conditions, reach for the Storm 450 Headlamp. Burly, dustproof, waterproof and strong – The Storm head torch from Black Diamond now pumps out an amazing 400 lumens of light. With an IP67 rating, it'll survive submersion to 1m for up to 30 minutes - which should be enough even for Eryri (Snowdonia) in December.

For a technical user who expects all-around performance and features out of their headlamp but still values a small size and compact package. If you’re after a lightweight, rechargeable headtorch with a decent burn time for night navigation, long descents in the dark or as a ‘just in case’ adventure component that you can rely on, this torch is for you. The Storm is rated IPX67, which means it is both waterproof to 1-meter submersion for 30 minutes, and dustproof. The Storm 400's PowerTap Technology enables you to quickly and easily access maximum brightness with the touch of a finger. For a broad field of vision at close proximity, flood mode casts a nice wide beam that's soft and not too dazzling.The smaller left hand button switches between spot, flood, and coloured light for night vision (with a choice of red, blue or green - all three being pointless complications as far as I'm concerned, but presumably someone wanted them).