White MAX BURN TIME (lowest setting) : 18 to 100 lm / 35 metres / 10 to 70 h (reserve 10 lm for 2 h) Carry a spare battery (ACCU SWIFT RL, available as an accessory) for long expeditions, or simply to switch out the battery when it dies. REACTIVE LIGHTING technology: A light sensor automatically adjusts brightness and beam pattern, optimizing battery use. This means the SWIFT RL is equipped to meet a wide variety of needs in different environments — from navigating steep mountain terrain to finding flow on your after-dark trail run.

With an ergonomic adjustable headband, with two-part Petzl patent construction, this has a really comfortable fit and will stay fixed on your head even when you’re really moving about. Speaking of the headband, it’s reflective for heightened night-time visibility. Note, too, that while the Nao had the option to swap the reachargeable battery for AAA batteries, the Swift does not. You need to buy a spare rechargeable battery if you plan to use the head torch for many hours.

Aide au choix lampes EN

For close-range work (REACTIVE LIGHTING®), the SWIFT RL PRO provides 100 lumens of lighting power, bright enough to see 35 meters ahead and offer up to 50 hours of battery life.

Yes, the NAO+ is more expensive, bulkier, heavier, and has less output; however, what it has in abundance is battery life - something that is not to be underestimated! This is a crucial factor, especially when you compare the various burn times to how long the night can actually be. In midwinter, depending on where you are in the UK (and how grey a day it is), you can realistically get a good 18hrs of darkness. Whilst the ACTIK and the SWIFT can indeed cope with this through reducing their output, that - some may say - would defeat the object of carrying such a bright headtorch. With the NAO+ there is no need to compromise, with a highly respectable 350 lumens being possible over a time frame of 15-25hrs. That's a get out of jail card on the winter mountains! If you are running or walking on your own there are far fewer variables for the reactive technology to be influenced by. Even so, I found that the beam didn’t stay as bright as I would wish it to be to be able to see my way ahead. I am wondering if this is because of my myopia. I know I prefer a brighter beam and perhaps I require a brighter light to run by than the reactive beam offers me. Like seeing where you’re going when you’re outdoors? You’ll appreciate what the Petzl Swift RL brings to your adventures. Now to the reactive beam itself. Well, it does seem like a great idea. The battery is only used to the extent that you require a beam. Except, I have found a few flaws.Being equipped with REACTIVE LIGHTING technology means minimal handling required. The light sensor adjusts brightness and beam shape automatically, extending battery life. The SWIFT battery takes six hours to charge, which is a reasonable amount of time - significant enough to require some planning if you are heading out. Clearly this is fine if you put it on to charge before heading to work, but less fine if you forget and hope to charge it after. It would be great if this time was lower, but perhaps it's no surprise. Spare battery available for long expeditions, or simply to switch out the battery when it dies (ACCU SWIFT RL battery available as an accessory) The beam itself is worth focussing on for a moment. Much though lumens are useful in establishing how bright a torch is, it is just as critical to know how the headtorch uses that light. The SWIFT RL balances the requirements of the climber, runner, skiier and mountaineer, with a good blend of flooding in the foreground and a strong, focussed beam giving you the distance too. A reactive light beam describes how the head torch reacts to light. So if the torch sensor detects a lot of light in the area already, it reduces the beam output. The theory is that where you require less light you save on battery use.

Minimum burn time of 7 hours in REACTIVE LIGHTING® mode (STANDARD level), built to power through long activities Standard lighting should need no introduction, because it's what we've all been used to for years: you turn on the head torch and that's that. The REACTIVE LIGHTING® technology, uses a sensor to analyses the ambient light and automatically adjusts the brightness to your needs. If you use reactive lighting, you can expect a burn time of 10 – 50 hours in the lowest setting (100 lumens), 5 – 4 hours in the medium setting (300 lumens), or 2 – 30 hours in the highest setting (900 lumens). The total burn time depends on how much time you spend in total darkness on full beam or how much light there is where you are. On a well-lit night under a full moon, you should get a much longer battery life. Either way, the brightness is more than enough when using the reactive lighting on the lowest setting. I only ever use the brightest twin bulb setting if I am looking for the dog at the end of the garden at night or if I am running/cycling on a road without streetlights. Beam DistanceI ended up on a number of occasions “sharing” the beams of the dimmed Swift RL and the lower lumen output of a friend’s head torch. According to the charts issued by Petzl, you can save considerably on battery use and if you are a long-distance runner or someone doing a multi-day race, battery life is important. Mixed beam meets the need for high-performance lighting during outdoor activities: proximity or distance vision The maximum beam distance is about 150 meters in the highest power mode, and on the lowest beam, you get around 12 meters of visibility. In reality, you rarely need to use the high power setting on this headlamp unless you need to see far into the distance for some reason (like looking for your dog). The medium setting or reactive lighting is more than enough for things like jogging and cycling. Petzl has solved this by creating a second set of ‘standard’ settings too, which cut out the sensor and 'just' give you low/med/high beam as you’ve selected, like a normal, dumb headtorch. The hitch with the standard settings is that this drops full beam to a mere 550 lumens, presumably as the full 900 lumens will melt through steel like a superman eye laser - and the battery - if left constantly on for the entire 2 hour burn time.