Petzl Tikka Plus (£30 78g)

Overview

The Tikka Plus is the latest in a long line of LED headlamps from Petzl. In 2006 Petzl have announced that they will be 80% brighter than the 2005 model (which I own).

The Plus has 4 'white' LEDS which run off 3x AAA batteries all of which are contained in the front unit which also has a tilt adjustment and so it is ideal for campsite and outdoor use.

The headlamp has 4 lighting settings:

• Maximum (100h. 32m falling to 15m after 10 hours, 5m after 30 hours)
• Optimum (120h. 23m falling to 13m after 10 hours, 6m after 30 hours)
• Economic (150h. 15m falling to 11m after 10 hours, 9m after 30 hours)
• Flashing (who cares!)

Outdoor Testing

I have been using one of these for over a year and tend to use it on the Economic setting for around my camp site. If I use it as just a camping light then I guess it is good for 4-6 weeks on a single set of batteries. When the batteries are fresh the Economic mode is more than adequate for reading or anything else that you want to do. As the batteries fade I tend to go through the settings so that at the end I am using the torch on Maximum brightness.

One set of batteries have seen me through mabye 3 weeks of camping and some night walking.

The adjustable angle of the torch makes it ideal both for walking and camping. It is always easy to find and set the 'right' angle for the task at hand.

Early Conclusions

The Tikka Plus is a 'pack and forget' item. I throw it into my pack and dig it out when needed. So far it has been completely reliable.

The Petzl battery durations are a little optimistic in the real world since they stop the clock when you have only about 1 candle of light output - usable but not practical.

For campsite only use the usable battery life has to be in excess of 40 hours and might even be in excess of 60 hours - so long that I haven't bothered to measure it. For walking at night I would tend to be more cautious and budget for a running life of about 30 hours - starting on Economic mode and then upping the power as batteries fade.

The only real competition to this light is from something like the "Black Diamond Spot Headtorch" or some of the more specialist Petzl models.

Of particular interest for the Ultralight is the Petzl e+Lite which at 27g with bombproof wateproof construction and a 45h runtime off 2 cell batteries must make it well worth considering as an alternative to a Petzl or a Keyring torch like the Cyba-lite Micro.