What activities are you planning? There are many headlamps that offer short range beams, long range beams or a mixture of both. For Instance, are you backpacking, mountaineering, adventure racing or do you need something for the home that is hands free. Once you have narrowed down the use of your headlamp, you can then start looking at how much light you truly need.

Backpacking Headlamps: Most people heading into the backcountry are looking for a compact and lightweight headlamp. The Petzl Tikka Plus weighs only 64grams and uses 4 LED’s as well as having a tilt so that you can do a number of activities like cooking, reading and setting up your camp for the night. Another alternative is the Petzl Tikka XP which uses three lighting levels, dimming switch and optional colored filters that provide night time lighting with a focused or wide angle lens.

Car Camping Headlamps: Well you have no worries about weight so you can bring some powerful lighting on your next trip. What you have to decide is weather you are looking to have a disco in the desert or looking for something a little more subdued. One work horse in light power is the Princeton Tec Apex , with three Maxbright LED's and four ultra bright LED's, Princton Tec needed to add a Heatsink thermal regulator to protect the LED's from overheating, (sorry no disco balls on this one).

Backcountry Skiing Headlamps: When heading in the backcountry on those 4am crispy mornings you want a headlamp that has a good focused medium to long range beam. The Black Diamond Night Ray uses five SuperBright LEDs with center LED lens to project a beam for superb proximity lighting as well as a strobe feature for varied weather conditions.

Adventure Racing or back up Headlamps: If you plan on doing that next adventure race or need something as a back up headlamp. The Black Diamond Ion Headlamp is the hands down winner in this category. The Ion is one of the smallest and lightest headlamps on the market weighing less than an ounce.

Power Source: Always consider the power source on your headlamps and what batteries it uses. This will also determine how much extra weight you have to carry with you to stay charged up.