I?ve been looking for a new caving lamp for a while, nothing wrong with the Bisun M2 I?ve used for the last two years, in fact it?s been bombproof but as people seem to be getting brighter and brighter lamps, I seemed to develop a bit of light envy! Also the M2 really only has one power level with a choice of either spot or flood.
I really wanted a brighter light, with a couple of power levels, including a low light that would run for ages if needed, a really bright setting and a spot beam that would be used for erm... well, spotting stuff.
The problem is I?m mean (ask anyone who knows me. Mean, they?ll say. ). So basically my budget was around the sub ?100 level (ok, around ?50 really, I know!)
I?ve looked at quite a few of the options and you can get some quite bright and apparently tough lights for the money. One of the Fenix Head torches looked really good actually but the problem with them all was Durability and Beam pattern.
The advantage with a Bisun Lamp is you retrofit the Led reflector into an Oldham (or Oldham stylee) Lamp. The Oldham design, I think is well proven for toughness and really needs no more comment than that. The two LED design that Bisun lamps use is important though. The flood is completely even and you can always see right into your periphery vision (seeing where you?re walking is always a plus) and with the options of slight beam blending (a bit of spot in the flood for instance) you get a great beam but without the hot spot that I find distracting (one of my main problems with the cheaper, bright lights). The Spot is nicely focused thanks to the design of the reflector.
Eventually I thought of contacting Bisun again to see what products they had. LED technology has moved on a lot in two years. However the Bisun line up didn?t have what I was looking for in my price range. I fired off an email and Dave (of Bisun) got back to me with the option of testing a new 3 Level Lamp model that he was thinking of adding to the range, within my kind of budget.
I agreed and I have to say I?ve been really pleased with the result (if fact I?ve actually paid money for it, the highest endorsement a mean person can give really. Cheques in the post Dave.. really.) Also a refreshing change for someone to listen to what you are after and the price range you?re thinking about and then just basically build it for you.
The lamp is on the bisun website www.bisun.co.uk, it?s called the R3, I think.
The Lamp has 3 power settings; a Low around 20 lumen, the Mid around 60 Lumen and the High about 155 lumen.
You can have the beams totally independent (all spot or all flood) or have a bit of beam blending or a lot of beam blending depending on where you place a jumper on the circuit board.
Fitting the reflector in the headset is really easy and the instructions on the website are easy to follow.
The lamp uses the original switch and operation is intuitive. Basically you switch through the power levels in one direction for the flood settings and the other direction for the spot settings.
My impressions on the light in use;
Flood - Regarding the power setting - the 'Low' is fine for general caving if you have to preserve battery power, that is to say, you can see stuff but its not bright. Its the pilot lamp essentially.
The 'Mid' setting felt about as bright as the M2 or brighter. Hard to tell, the point is that it's more than enough to cave all day on.
The 'High' setting is brilliant in flood mode, it feels like you?re taking daylight underground with you.
Spot - Settings - Same as above. The beam is a perfect shape and on the high setting is really impressive
Beam Blending - Ok, I started off with the jumper in (what I'll call) position two, that is with lots of beam blending. For me it was just too much. I found it distracting and felt that I needed more flood light (even though it was fine, your eyes are draw forward sort of thing)
Halfway into the trip I changed the jumper to position one. Immediately felt that was perfect mix, just right for me and felt like no wasted power. I think the spot beam giving the flood beam a bit of forward punch is really good. Also the spot beam was much better.
Regarding runtime, I did a test from fully charged to flat.
From 3xAA Enloop 2500mah fully charged, brand new batteries.
I got 6 hours constant high power. The lamp then dropped into low setting for a further 2 ? to 3 hours before flickering and dimming away.
I haven?t tested the lamp on the other settings but clever people will be able to work it out from the power consumption.
Dave or the website can give you more information on power consumption and lumens and things like that.
I really wanted a brighter light, with a couple of power levels, including a low light that would run for ages if needed, a really bright setting and a spot beam that would be used for erm... well, spotting stuff.
The problem is I?m mean (ask anyone who knows me. Mean, they?ll say. ). So basically my budget was around the sub ?100 level (ok, around ?50 really, I know!)
I?ve looked at quite a few of the options and you can get some quite bright and apparently tough lights for the money. One of the Fenix Head torches looked really good actually but the problem with them all was Durability and Beam pattern.
The advantage with a Bisun Lamp is you retrofit the Led reflector into an Oldham (or Oldham stylee) Lamp. The Oldham design, I think is well proven for toughness and really needs no more comment than that. The two LED design that Bisun lamps use is important though. The flood is completely even and you can always see right into your periphery vision (seeing where you?re walking is always a plus) and with the options of slight beam blending (a bit of spot in the flood for instance) you get a great beam but without the hot spot that I find distracting (one of my main problems with the cheaper, bright lights). The Spot is nicely focused thanks to the design of the reflector.
Eventually I thought of contacting Bisun again to see what products they had. LED technology has moved on a lot in two years. However the Bisun line up didn?t have what I was looking for in my price range. I fired off an email and Dave (of Bisun) got back to me with the option of testing a new 3 Level Lamp model that he was thinking of adding to the range, within my kind of budget.
I agreed and I have to say I?ve been really pleased with the result (if fact I?ve actually paid money for it, the highest endorsement a mean person can give really. Cheques in the post Dave.. really.) Also a refreshing change for someone to listen to what you are after and the price range you?re thinking about and then just basically build it for you.
The lamp is on the bisun website www.bisun.co.uk, it?s called the R3, I think.
The Lamp has 3 power settings; a Low around 20 lumen, the Mid around 60 Lumen and the High about 155 lumen.
You can have the beams totally independent (all spot or all flood) or have a bit of beam blending or a lot of beam blending depending on where you place a jumper on the circuit board.
Fitting the reflector in the headset is really easy and the instructions on the website are easy to follow.
The lamp uses the original switch and operation is intuitive. Basically you switch through the power levels in one direction for the flood settings and the other direction for the spot settings.
My impressions on the light in use;
Flood - Regarding the power setting - the 'Low' is fine for general caving if you have to preserve battery power, that is to say, you can see stuff but its not bright. Its the pilot lamp essentially.
The 'Mid' setting felt about as bright as the M2 or brighter. Hard to tell, the point is that it's more than enough to cave all day on.
The 'High' setting is brilliant in flood mode, it feels like you?re taking daylight underground with you.
Spot - Settings - Same as above. The beam is a perfect shape and on the high setting is really impressive
Beam Blending - Ok, I started off with the jumper in (what I'll call) position two, that is with lots of beam blending. For me it was just too much. I found it distracting and felt that I needed more flood light (even though it was fine, your eyes are draw forward sort of thing)
Halfway into the trip I changed the jumper to position one. Immediately felt that was perfect mix, just right for me and felt like no wasted power. I think the spot beam giving the flood beam a bit of forward punch is really good. Also the spot beam was much better.
Regarding runtime, I did a test from fully charged to flat.
From 3xAA Enloop 2500mah fully charged, brand new batteries.
I got 6 hours constant high power. The lamp then dropped into low setting for a further 2 ? to 3 hours before flickering and dimming away.
I haven?t tested the lamp on the other settings but clever people will be able to work it out from the power consumption.
Dave or the website can give you more information on power consumption and lumens and things like that.