The L50 serves as a general outdoor light for me – hiking, MTB, skitouring. Especially for the later two it is nice to have some throw to see what is ahead, and for MTB I usually have another (floodier with cutoff) light on my handlebars. So I wanted a throwy headlamp and SFT70 6500k would have been too cold, Ideal CCT for me would be around 3700-4000 K. I've been using it for about a month.
There's a lot to love about this light, it's light and small, the texture is comfortable to hold, the MAO finish seems to be surprisingly durable (nothing like Wurkkos HD10 MAO), then Anduril UI and a great driver that gives you wide range of brightness levels from extremely dim to turbo. I was worried about the switch placement but it is fine both for headlamp and handheld use. The button is not the largest but has a nice tactile action, I had no issue operating it even in thick gloves. The tail magnet is strong enough even for non-even metallic surfaces. It produces a beautiful colored beam that somehow seems to be easy on your eyes. Anduril for outdoor light could be controversial, I'm a weird person and I love it, it's set in slow ramping mode most of the times, I really like the momentary turbo and configurable floor / ceil levels.
The main downside for me is the headband, the one included is too heavy and the design of silicone rings means that the headlamp is pushed about 4 mm away from you forehead which causes the it to wobble up and down. It also does not allow you to remove the top strap without cutting it off. My temporary solution is some Wurkkos headband from 14500 light (probably HD10) with a thin EVA foam glued to one side for more comfort. Durability is also a question, so far there are no issues but it's only been a month. Regarding build quality the included VTC6 18650 rattles inside, a piece of paper solves that problem, according to a plastic Aliexpress calipers the internal diameter is 19 mm.
My personal preference is towards TIR instead of this reflector + frosted glass. With the throwy beam of SFT70 the reflector creates a bright hotspot with a strong cutoff into the spill. The spill is bright enough too see where you are walking but from my experience TIR could provide a more gradual transition while keeping the throw. Regarding weight for me the class of light 18650 headlamps is the heaviest that I'm willing to use long-term, so far every 21700 headlamp seemed to be too heavy.
Before the L50 I was using Fenix HM61R Amber, it's been absolutely reliable for about 6 years. It's the previous generation, now there is a gen 2, the Amber version has warmer LED and it allows you to go to the red mode from off directly (wow Fenix!). I also have H150 and e02 III for when I don't need this much light and weight.
Compared to the Fenix what I consider to be huge upgrade is the UI – I hate Fenix UI, it makes no sense to have to go through all brightness levels everytime when I want to dim the light. There's also no shortcut to low / high modes. The Fenix LED (SST 40?) is visibly green on lower outputs, I'm a beginner level tint snob but this is annoying outdoors especially with snow. L50 lacks red light but thanks to sublumen levels and low CCT I don't think I need those. The price seems to be reasonable but don't tell that to FFL. I don't have any way to measure driver efficiency but I hope that Lume X1 should be good. Fenix has a well stabilized output too.
Where HM61R shines is the headband + mounting "plate" and various adapters like helmet mount. HM61R is a throwy headlamp with TIR, L50 is even throwier, I think HM61R beam shape is a bit smoother thanks to the TIR lens. Long term reliability in wet is unknown with L50. I'm including turbo wall beamshots of both locked at 5000 K without exposure lock. HM61R includes onboard charging which I don't really use since it requires a special cable.
Weights:
L50:
* headlamp without battery with the steel eye: 54.9 g
* headband (modded Wurkkos): 29.3 g
* original headband (incl top strap): 42.3 g
* VTC6: 45.5 g
Fenix:
* headlamp without battery without clip: 53.8 g
* headband without top strap: 32.8 g
* VTC6: 45.5 g
Headbands for the L50 I've tried:
* original one technically works but it's uncomfortable, heavy, cumbersome and wobbles too much
* does not fit into the Fenix mount
* Skilhunt H04 headband is too large, later versions are rotatable and the mount places the headlamp too far forward, it tends to break in cold
* Wurkkos HD16 headband is too large and almost as bad as the original one
* Wurkkos HD10 headband is the best, loops are stretched a bit too much, we will see how it holds
I'd appreciate advice if someone knows more about:
* better headband
* removable helmet mount
* throwy TIR that keeps it waterproof
* best 18650 – is larger 18650 with higher IR better? what about cold use? what about tabless?
by ogsva
