Disgusted from Cornwall.
New member
I have always been very much of the mind that Oldham lamps are the way to go. I don't like gucci lego, gimmicks or nonsense and following using an old Oldham, I progressed to sticking a Cree LED in mine about 9 years or so ago. It was great for a while and then I met RF. We went into a copper mine and there was another Roy present. RF had one of his Magnumstars (in the order of 3000 lumens) and RM had a Trigon, (in the order of 1750). I genuinely thought my lamp was broken when I made my own way out. These were the way to go. At that point, I was a fan of lots of power and a belt battery seemed a perfect backup to a ridiculous lamp. I wasn't thinking about one of these for photography, but merely to light up massive spaces properly. I picked up a Trigon.
I love my Trigon. It's a great lamp. Whilst it has 900L of flood (very rarely used) the main beam settings are just great. The middle one being used quite a lot with the others as required. It is enough and works a treat. This was mounted on a Protex helmet.
To my horror, I gathered that RF was not continuing his Oldham conversions and since I am a slave to my own dogma, I decided to order another one as a spare! RF said "You can have my Magnumstar if you like". I thought, Ok and it arrived a while later. This thing is a whole different order of crazy. You can make a dark underground space too bright! I remember cycling to weirdy-beardies (local mine explorers meeting) as drink driving is unwise and I was overtaken by a VW Passat. There wasn't quite a shadow, but my lamp was brighter than his headlights!
More recently, I have got into exploring in quite a profound manner and this has involved doing some pretty extreme trips. I found that my belt battery was snagging up and I was quite often being "hung" by my lead. This got quite irritating. I was always referred to as "can you light that up for me?"
The explorers I was hanging out with at that time had a variety of exotica (as they are all quite flash) including a Rude Nora and various types of Scurion. I was always of the opinion that the Scurion was an over-hyped piece of gucci jewelry. Watching one of the chaps rigging a pitch with his Scurion 700 on probably 3/4 spot, I was really really impressed with the quality of light. It is crisp. To the point that I thought "there's your money's worth, right there". I also borrowed one of the chaps Petzl Ecrin hats to look down a shaft whose batcastle I was sat on. Instantly, it was balanced, comfortable and great. I thought "bloody hell, why have I been using this archaic crap all along?"
For various aspects of work and more cavey trips, I decided to bite the bullet and get a new Ecrin helmet (ebay from the states) and a Scurion 1500. (Because you don't do things by halves, the money would have got spent anyway). I received this and set about assembling it. I DO REALLY REALLY LIKE THE BATTERY BOX.
Down to the testing. Since the other chaps have a 700, 900 and 1500, I was looking forward to having all of the quality with the whack of the Trigon with the 1500 . This is not quite the case.
Whilst the 1500 is a very very nice lamp, it has 800 of flood and 800 of beam. You can use both of these simultaneously. You can also program your own settings. Whilst the 1500 has a single LED for flood (giving a lovely crisp light) the Beam is very beamy. To the point I am not as happy as I could be about it. If you use the two simultaneously, you get a very bright central spot within your flood. This is apparent at very low beam settings (relative to flood). The RF lamps have a nicer spill to the main beam. The RF beam is a better general purpose light.
Both the RF offerings (these models are now updated with RF's bespoke bodies) give out a lot of light. The 2 or 3 emitters give a less crisp light up close, but you get a better "daytime" result. When I took all the lamps outside in the dark. The RFs lit up the back of my house like daytime, whereas the Scurion was pretty good, but definitely not daytime!
I'm very happy with the quality of the Scurion and it's going to get a lot of use in extreme trips. However, I will be keeping the RFs for other use. Apart from the clearly beautiful electronics visible inside the Scurion, the rest of it is more rough than I would have expected for the price. In light of this, RF's current lot are definitely contenders. (I haven't seen one really close up). The Scurion battery box is a very nice design and shape, however, it is still quite like a bit of bent tube, when you look at it in a certain way! The rest of it is a bit gucci-lego in the way a BMW X5 is a bit like some sort of non-descript japcrap.
To sum up the above in a series of points.
1. Scurion is beautifully balanced on a helmet, looks very nice, has a load of user programmable modes, has a kick ass battery box, is bloody expensive. Beam is a bit too beamy, lovely flood, bragging rights
2. RF blows the sh!t out of everything light wise. Is good value, belt battery not the most ideal for poky stuff (helmet options available) It's by far the better lamp in terms of sheer output, ability and value (the Trigon - Magnumstar is just more of the same).
Now, I am going to keep and love all of my lamps, because they each have a role to play. Should I have no lamps, I would look first at what RF has to offer, because the quality (crispness) of the Scurion is down to it's one emitter. RF does something very similar. Should I be hellbent on having lots of light (Once you've had black, there's no going back) the bigger models are in their own unique league.
To sum up, the Scurion 1500 is a VERY nice lamp and most certainly allows you to smugly feel all accomplished around your fellow cavers and ego centric exploring rad-dudes. The bottom line is, the ultimate head mounted light source for going down holes is still a RF.
I'm very interested in the new RF models. Although the Scurion may last 15 years or so, I doubt I will be a repeat customer.
I love my Trigon. It's a great lamp. Whilst it has 900L of flood (very rarely used) the main beam settings are just great. The middle one being used quite a lot with the others as required. It is enough and works a treat. This was mounted on a Protex helmet.
To my horror, I gathered that RF was not continuing his Oldham conversions and since I am a slave to my own dogma, I decided to order another one as a spare! RF said "You can have my Magnumstar if you like". I thought, Ok and it arrived a while later. This thing is a whole different order of crazy. You can make a dark underground space too bright! I remember cycling to weirdy-beardies (local mine explorers meeting) as drink driving is unwise and I was overtaken by a VW Passat. There wasn't quite a shadow, but my lamp was brighter than his headlights!
More recently, I have got into exploring in quite a profound manner and this has involved doing some pretty extreme trips. I found that my belt battery was snagging up and I was quite often being "hung" by my lead. This got quite irritating. I was always referred to as "can you light that up for me?"
The explorers I was hanging out with at that time had a variety of exotica (as they are all quite flash) including a Rude Nora and various types of Scurion. I was always of the opinion that the Scurion was an over-hyped piece of gucci jewelry. Watching one of the chaps rigging a pitch with his Scurion 700 on probably 3/4 spot, I was really really impressed with the quality of light. It is crisp. To the point that I thought "there's your money's worth, right there". I also borrowed one of the chaps Petzl Ecrin hats to look down a shaft whose batcastle I was sat on. Instantly, it was balanced, comfortable and great. I thought "bloody hell, why have I been using this archaic crap all along?"
For various aspects of work and more cavey trips, I decided to bite the bullet and get a new Ecrin helmet (ebay from the states) and a Scurion 1500. (Because you don't do things by halves, the money would have got spent anyway). I received this and set about assembling it. I DO REALLY REALLY LIKE THE BATTERY BOX.
Down to the testing. Since the other chaps have a 700, 900 and 1500, I was looking forward to having all of the quality with the whack of the Trigon with the 1500 . This is not quite the case.
Whilst the 1500 is a very very nice lamp, it has 800 of flood and 800 of beam. You can use both of these simultaneously. You can also program your own settings. Whilst the 1500 has a single LED for flood (giving a lovely crisp light) the Beam is very beamy. To the point I am not as happy as I could be about it. If you use the two simultaneously, you get a very bright central spot within your flood. This is apparent at very low beam settings (relative to flood). The RF lamps have a nicer spill to the main beam. The RF beam is a better general purpose light.
Both the RF offerings (these models are now updated with RF's bespoke bodies) give out a lot of light. The 2 or 3 emitters give a less crisp light up close, but you get a better "daytime" result. When I took all the lamps outside in the dark. The RFs lit up the back of my house like daytime, whereas the Scurion was pretty good, but definitely not daytime!
I'm very happy with the quality of the Scurion and it's going to get a lot of use in extreme trips. However, I will be keeping the RFs for other use. Apart from the clearly beautiful electronics visible inside the Scurion, the rest of it is more rough than I would have expected for the price. In light of this, RF's current lot are definitely contenders. (I haven't seen one really close up). The Scurion battery box is a very nice design and shape, however, it is still quite like a bit of bent tube, when you look at it in a certain way! The rest of it is a bit gucci-lego in the way a BMW X5 is a bit like some sort of non-descript japcrap.
To sum up the above in a series of points.
1. Scurion is beautifully balanced on a helmet, looks very nice, has a load of user programmable modes, has a kick ass battery box, is bloody expensive. Beam is a bit too beamy, lovely flood, bragging rights
2. RF blows the sh!t out of everything light wise. Is good value, belt battery not the most ideal for poky stuff (helmet options available) It's by far the better lamp in terms of sheer output, ability and value (the Trigon - Magnumstar is just more of the same).
Now, I am going to keep and love all of my lamps, because they each have a role to play. Should I have no lamps, I would look first at what RF has to offer, because the quality (crispness) of the Scurion is down to it's one emitter. RF does something very similar. Should I be hellbent on having lots of light (Once you've had black, there's no going back) the bigger models are in their own unique league.
To sum up, the Scurion 1500 is a VERY nice lamp and most certainly allows you to smugly feel all accomplished around your fellow cavers and ego centric exploring rad-dudes. The bottom line is, the ultimate head mounted light source for going down holes is still a RF.
I'm very interested in the new RF models. Although the Scurion may last 15 years or so, I doubt I will be a repeat customer.
