Petzl Tikka Plus Review

By Court Rye | in Gear | Tags: Camping, Climbing

Tikka Plus Headlamps by Petzl

Petzl is one of the most trusted names in climbing gear and mountaineering. Their products are known for being rugged, long lasting and stylish. Tikka headlamps have been around for years but new innovations have taken them from activity specific accessories to something worth having on every trip.

First off, Tikka headlamps are very lightweight but still manage to pack in a great presentation. I prefer their colorful semi-opaque casing to the all black of some other brands. Having dropped my lamps several times I’d say they are durable, but I have also seen them crack so they aren’t completely indestructible. These things will last for years as long as you aren’t stomping on them. Battery life is excellent as most of the newer lamps use LED’s and their brightness is very impressive all things considered. The newest line of Tikka’s feature a larger LED which is even brighter than the four strip and last longer, drawing less power from the battery.

There are two versions of Tikka’s out there as mentioned above, a large LED version which has two smaller LED’s on the sides, one red and one white, and a four-LED version with all mid-sized bulbs. In the review below you’ll see the four LED version which comes with a red fold up filter lens (that can also be purchased separately for ~$6 if you own a plain Tikka). This is the real innovation! White light is great for following a trail, exploring the brush and shining your friends in the face for fun, but it is not so great for tent use or tight quarters caving.

The human eye responds to bright white light by contracting our pupils and leaving streaks of overexposure which stuns our vision. This is because white light contains all of the colors in the visible range and stimulates all three types of cones within our eyes that are made for receiving information. The solution to this is dimmer light, indirect light, or red light which only consists of the highest wavelengths of the spectrum which our eyes can see and only stimulate one type of cone, L cones which collect 500–700 nm wavelengths. Since human eye peak sensitivity is in the greenish-yellow region of the spectrum, using red allows our eyes to stay dilated and perceive both unlit objects (which may be reflecting moonlight using our M and S cones) as well as those directly in the red light itself. For all you science nuts check out the Wikipedia explanations.