Very bright headlamp. I find the two side lights to be useful to create a large floodlight and the focus function helps in this matter as well. The light in the middle can be set to high or low intensity. Battery life is dependent on intensity of course but even on maximum, it is rated at 6 hours. I found the headband to be much more comfortable than the Petzl it replaces. Also, the way the battery compartment opens is better thought out than the Petzl which would open by itself if it fell or was knocked throwing the batteries all over the place. It shouldn’t happen with this one. If you want more light intensity you might have to look at the headlamps that have rechargeable lithium-ion battery packs. I like the convenience of using 3 AAA batteries which are available anywhere and don’t need recharging.

As a HUGE Flashlight aficionado I have dozens of headlamps of all kinds from many manufacturers, dozens of flashlights from cheap to more expensive and a number of bike lights too as I LOVE to ride at night on pitch dark trails and roads with only the lights lighting the way.

I own a few other Energizer headlamps including their green 250 lumen version which I also like very much. I got this one as I wanted something even brighter in a small package. I’m glad I got this one.

While this doesn’t have the variable brightness dimming feature of the green 250 lumen light, which I really like, once you play around with the various setting on this light you can get 4 basic light output settings which is good enough for just about any situation. The Green one is capable of going Very dim so if you need a light to be able to go dim for use in reading something and conserving power, then that light might be a better choice. This light does have a Low setting of 45 lumen which is good enough to be able to read something on white paper and not be blinded by the reflection though.

The biggest feature of this light other than it’s brightness is what’s called the “DIGITAL DIMMING” feature which uses Energizers gradual “dimming” technology to gradually CHANGE between the two flood lights on either side of the light and the bright main beam in the middle. You can stop anywhere in between to achieve a balance between both types of beams or go all the way to spot at which point the two FLOOD beams will go off completely, OR go all the way to FLOOD which still leaves the main light on in very low power which gives just a SLIGHT hotpspot in the middle of the light which is good as it gives a slight extra middle light beam. This light is bright enough that the wide flood mode just described is bright enough for most applications and I believe it will also save the batteries some too. It’s about twice as bright as the FLOOD mode on the 250 Lumen Green light mentioned previously.

I’ve discovered that the main light is obviously the brightest at the max of 400 lumens, then by putting the FOCUS mode on the spot light, that’s probably about 300 lumens light as it’s not as bright as when it’s on the high maximum mode, then the “Digital flood” mode on MAX FLOOD mode is probably about 120 to 150 lumens but unfortunately the packaging gives NO details about this and finally the main mode LOW mode is the dimmest which is does mention that it’s 45 lumens.

I used 1100MA rechargeable batteries in all my lights and so far I’ve gotten at least several hours with this light mostly on high as I’ve taken it out to the woods to to test it and it’s still going strong.

As with most all of these brighter Energizer lights, including the Green one, there is a bit of a SPILL from the main light that gets into your eyes and can be annoying or distracting. Just putting a bit of electrical tape or black duct tape on the bottom of it solves this problem. This was much worse with the GREEN 250L light but again, small piece of electrical tape solved the problem so it’s a very minor issue but one I wish Energizer would address though.

The straps on these lights are all very comfortable as I often end up leaving it on for many minutes and sometimes a half hour or more without even thinking about it as I forget that it’s on my head as It’s so comfortable. I use it while biking as well and regular bumps don’t move it but I don’t go mountain biking or do jumps. Others have said that it wouldn’t stay put in that situation unless you really tighten it a lot.

One thing I noticed about this light, and I don’t know if it’s supposed to be this way or if it’s just mine as it doesn’t say at all on the packaging, but when you put the light on the highest setting, it seems to have an AUTO BRIGHTENING for some reason. It will start out at probably 250 lumens then pretty quickly, over about the next 20 to 30 seconds, increase to the full 400 lumens.

I’m not entirely sure why it does this though I have read in other lights that have this feature that it’s done to help protect the LED’s themselves from sudden voltage spikes. This helps the LED’s last longer by not subjecting it to abrupt max voltage input when the light it put on high. I assume that this is the same reason that Energizer did this too, unless it’s just my particular one that has this quirk I’m not sure. I’ll check some other reviews and update this here if I find that to be the case.

Overall I’m very happy with this light and if needed I would gladly get another one.

Got it on sale good product for a good price

This headlamp is, first of all, much lighter and far more compact than a previous Energizer 7 led model (maybe 5-7 years old) I will use for comparison in this review. I have no way to measure a led output in lumens but this headlamp is far brighter than the older version. It is surprisingly bright for such a light unit powered by AAA batteries. I would compare the power (on high mode) to a decent 18650 Li-ion flashlight. II cannot confirm or deny that the output of this light is 250 lumens, but I see it as sufficiently powerful (on high mode) to cover a vast percentage of everyone’s needs. Of course it’s always a matter of what you get for what you pay. In this category, (blister item under $30), I think this model is actually the top of the line as for today, despite a default reflecting light in the wearer’s eyes.The red light is powerful enough, and a must have in my opinion. This is a nice feature on this light, the red light comes at push #1, that’s what you want. 2 pushes for high mode. 3 for low mode. All this on the right button. The left button activates the focus feature, a nice addition, but not a vital one to be honest.
Thanks to previous reviewers, I was aware of this light having a problem with reflecting on the wearer’s eyes and face. I can only confirm that this is the main default on this otherwise overall great headlamp. I’ve partially manage to diminish this nuisance by darkening the lower part of the lens with permanent black marker, tape could possibly do the job as well. Without this problem, this headlamp would be 5 stars. I stay an Energizer fan with this purchase.

Great product. I’m using these for my night cycling rides and trekking.
Far better than what we get in Decathlons

I buy these headlamps in bulk for our fire department, I velcro’d them to our forestry helmets for working at night. They seem to be the best bang for the buck in terms of brightness versus battery life. They’re fairly low profile (compared to some that are much bulkier). They also have the red-light mode which is useful when talking to people without blinding them, and keeping your night vision good when you don’t want a ton of light. They also have multiple lighting modes which are useful for different situations (wide vs spot, brightness adjust, etc). I’ve used it for fishing, backpacking, etc… Not sure why amazon asked me to rate its “Motion Detection” since there is no motion detection, but, its a great headlamp.