Petzl Swift RL Headlamp - Orange

Why it's worth it

The Swift RL adjusts its own brightness as you move, so you stop fiddling with modes on rough ground. It's 1100 lumens at about 100 grams, with a split headband that stays put whether you're hiking, running or scrambling.

Reactive lighting is the reason to buy this one. A sensor on the front reads the light bouncing back at you and adjusts the output constantly, roughly a thousand times a second according to Switchback Travel. Look down at your boots and it dims. Look up the trail and it throws. You stop thumbing through modes on a rocky descent, which is exactly when you'd rather keep both hands on your poles.

That habit pays off in battery life. Petzl rates the lamp at up to 15 hours in reactive mode on mixed terrain, against about 2 hours locked at full output. Most nights you'll never need full output. The 1100-lumen ceiling is there for the moment the trail disappears and you want to sweep the treeline to find a blaze.

From our review of 8 hiking headlamps

What we like

• +Reactive lighting is the reason to buy this one
• +That habit pays off in battery life
• +It weighs about 100 grams, and the split headband is the part owners keep coming back to
• +The small stuff is done right, too

What to know

• –Reactive lighting has a personality
• –There's no AAA fallback