HYBRID CONCEPT design: TIKKINA® comes with 3 AAA/LR03 batteries and is also compatible with the CORE rechargeable battery (not included); it automatically detects the energy source and adjusts lighting performance You can turn on the red lamp without having to turn the white LEDs on by long pressing the button; this is excellent news for astronomers and astrophotographers as this virtually eliminates the risk of ruining your night vision. With some other headlamp models, you have to turn the white lamp on and cycle through to red which isn't desirable if night vision preservation is important.

You can use either three AAA batteries, or the Petzl Actik Core High-capacity 1250 mAh Lithium-Ion rechargeable battery. (Image credit: Tantse Walter) While the new models share a very similar external appearance, there are real differences in performance and functionality, and we’ll take a look at those in just a moment, but first let’s take a moment to clarify what CORE is, and which models come with it. Also, the battery itself has a built-in USB charging port. So, you just have to open the battery compartment and plug it in while it’s in the headlamp. Very little fuss. Compatible with mounting accessories (not included) that allow the lamp to be attached to a helmet or bicycleYou switch between modes using the single large button. This is intuitive, unfiddly, and can be operated wearing gloves - all basic prerequisties for a headtotch torch, in my opinion. Batteries and burn time The direction of the beam can be manually adjusted for either close-up focused work or as a flood straight ahead of you. Petzl ACTIK CORE: Performance HYBRID CONCEPT design: TIKKA® comes with 3 AAA/LR03 batteries and is also compatible with the CORE rechargeable battery (not included); it automatically detects the energy source and adjusts lighting performance The Actik Core has been around for a long time .It has the same hinge design as its lower-priced siblings the Petzl Tikkina, and unfortunately I had the same problems with this as i had with that. I must again stress that I tested a pre-production sample, and Petzl has promised these issues will be fixed in production units; but I still think the design is less user-friendly than the old one. The strap is identical in function to that of the Tikkina, and controls are similar: short press to cycle through brightness modes, with the addition of a long press to activate red mode. It’s an easy torch to get used to. Balancing your battery life with brightness level is fairly straightforward: in max power mode, you’ll get a maximum output of 450 lumens for two hours with a CORE battery, and 350 lumens with AAAs. In standard power mode, you’re looking at 100 lumens for seven hours with a CORE, and 12 hours with AAAs. At the lowest light level, you’ll get seven lumens for a very healthy 110 hours with both battery types. The TIKKA has a green/amber/red light that indicates battery level too, so it’s easy to keep an eye on. We were sent the CORE version of the TIKKA, but also tested it with AAAs, finding the burn times indicated by Petzl to be pretty much spot on.

Since then there have been leaps and bounds of development, and we now have more choice of torches than ever before. You can go all out for lumens, or opt for a longer battery life; you can make it simple and lightweight, or dazzle yourself with a plethora of modes and settings; some torches have inbuilt USB-rechargeable batteries, while others even connect to your phone for programmable control. Users of Petzl's rechargeable CORE battery will be on familiar ground here. Due to its output the SWIFT RL requires a larger battery than its cousin the ACTIK, hence there is no compatibility between the two - something that may annoy some of our audience. However, when you think about the SWIFT's greater lumens and burn time, it's quite clear why. The SWIFT is providing a heavyweight amount of lighting within a lightweight and compact exterior. A red LED gives you a short-range night-vision-saving option too, for reading maps and the like. As a safety feature the red light can also be switched to strobe mode, visible at 700m and with a burn time of 400 hours. As well as throwing light out a long way, the ACTIK casts quite a wide beam, not the narrow focused spot that some torches offer. I find this wider field of vision feels more natural and less blinkered.All three torches operate in more or less the same way, as you would expect, and everything is straightforward – as it should be. The main (only!) switch is pressed to cycle between the three brightness levels and to get the red light on the Actik and Tikka you just press and hold. We found the cradle/clip slightly fiddly to use, certainly compared to the outgoing models’ hinge-style adjustor, however the advantages of the new system definitely outweigh the downsides. Firstly, the torch can be angled through a much wider range, especially upwards; secondly there’s less likelihood of it breaking; and lastly the ease with which you can unclip the torch and use with an ADAPT helmet or bike holder is a real bonus. Petzl have told us that on the final production versions the cradle/plate operation is a lot smoother than on the pre-production models we tested, so if that’s the case this becomes a mute point! We will keep customer information safe and secure and will not distribute or sell this information to a third party. The Actik Core has 450 Lumens (vs 350 on the Actik) which gives you an extra 5 meters (about 15 feet) beam when you are using it on maximum. The dispersion of light is wide, even and soft edged, so you don’t feel like you’re in a tunnel or a kaleidoscope and the three light settings are appropriate for most outdoor activities, walking, running or by rope. The SWIFT battery takes six hours to charge, which is a reasonable amount of time - significant enough to require some planning if you are heading out. Clearly this is fine if you put it on to charge before heading to work, but less fine if you forget and hope to charge it after. It would be great if this time was lower, but perhaps it's no surprise.