Underground Journal

The Petzl Tikka XP and Petzl MYO XP Reviewed

In recent years the development of white LED lights and their widespread adoption has completely transformed the world of flashlights and allowed the development of new and innovative headlamps such as the Petzl Tikka XP and Petzl MYO XP. Now lights can keep burning for days instead of just hours and modern electronics have helped develop ever brighter lights that can keep burning for longer. Prices have also come down dramatically. Just a few years ago you would have paid through the nose to buy a decent torch powered by just a couple of LEDs. Now you can buy one for not much more than what you would have paid for a quality halogen-powered flashlight just a few years ago.

Two great examples of the new generation of lights are the Tikka XP and Myo XP that are made by Petzl. Both are head-torches that offer a variety of different power settings. These are good for everything from reading in bed to cooking and doing camp chores to the very brightest settings which allow you to shoot out a bright beam of light. This is especially useful for mountaineering when you may need to light up a path to try to find a route. They are also widely used by search and rescue teams to help with night rescues. Headlamps that are good for close-up work such as cooking or reading are now commonplace and cheap enough. But those with really powerful beams are a breed apart. This is because they use high-technology super-bright LEDs for their main beams, rather than just lighting up lots more little LEDs.

A different level of technology has to go into these sorts of lamps, mainly because they draw much more power and generate more heat than conventional LED lamps. But their extra light-throwing ability is unsurpassed since it compares really well with the output of Halogen and other similar lights yet uses only a fraction of the power. Older lights would only be able to provide power for a few hours before running down the batteries whereas these will last for many days, depending on the power setting used. For serious outdoor enthusiasts it is difficult to beat the output and convenience of the Petzl Tikka XP and Petzl MYO XP.

(0) Comments Permalink