List Price: $59.95
Sale Price: $29.00
Today's Bonus: 52% Off
Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program When I first tried the Joby Gorillatorch Switchback, I was a little put off as it seemed overly complicated. Once I took a moment to figure it out, I find that I really like it. The unit has three components: a multifunction headlamp, a telescopic cover with a hanging hook that turns the headlamp into a small camp lantern, and a Gorillapod style flexible tripod with camera adaptor. The headlamp is the core of the system with the battery pack and an LED spotlight with high and low settings, two LED floodlights, and two red LED lights. To operate the lantern, the headlamp portion is snapped up into the telescopic lantern cover followed by the headband, and then the battery pack is snapped into the bottom. I found this a little difficult to do at first until I realized that the latch must be positively engaged (pushed down) so that it locks. Once this is done, I found the battery pack is held quite securely. There is a small cutout on the lantern where the operating buttons positioned. The lantern can then be raised and when the light is operated, it projects light in all directions. I found that on the bright setting, I was able to read with no problem. Once the headlamp is installed in the lantern cover, the flexible tripod can be snapped to the bottom. The tripod legs can be bent to accommodate most surfaces and can also be secured by wrapped the flexible legs around branches or poles (almost like a clamp). As a bonus, with the lantern removed and utilizing the camera adapter, the tripod legs can be used to hold a point-and-shoot camera.
Initially, I had problems with the battery pack as the latch to install the batteries is a little stiff. Once I opened it and saw the rubber waterproofing gasket, I realized that the stiffness and positive latching is to keep it from flying open during operation. The same with the latch for the lantern cover. The positive lock keeps it from coming apart. The floodlights do not operate at the same time as the spotlight. Pushing the button for the floodlights switches between red light (to preserve night vision) and white lights and holding down the floodlight button causes the red and white lights to flash alternately. Pressing the spotlight button once results in low spot and pressing it again give high spot (which I found to be pretty bright for a 2 AA headlamp.) Holding the spotlight button varies the lighting level. I like that is uses regular AA batteries (included) which means they are easy to find and I am not stuck buying oddball sized batteries. Lots of PROs for this little unit.
Now for the CONs which are few. I think that the small camera adaptor for the tripod will be easy to lose as there is no convenient way to store it with the lantern that I could find. (I think a little additional engineering could add a storage slot for the adaptor.) Also, stuffing the headlamp with the headband up into the lantern isn't the easiest thing to do. This is very minor as in my mind, the convenience of not having to carry a headlamp and a lantern more than outweighs this inconvenience. Finally, I believe they should also have a cover/carrying case available.
Overall, I really like the Gorillatorch Switchback. I find it to be lightweight to carry and fairly easy to operate. Its modularity means I can just use this and leave several other items at home. I think this would also be good for home use for those times when the power goes out, when you have to get back in those dark, out of the way areas or just when you need a light and your hands free. I highly recommend this for camping and outdoor use as well as around the house for emergencies.
Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>
Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program ####UPDATE 11/30/2011### Over time, the Switchback has served well as a headlamp. It's heavier than my Tikka, after 15 or 20 minutes of wearing it, the battery pack becomes uncomfortable as it presses against the back of my head, and the angle of the beam is not adjustable. However, with fresh batteries it produces a fantastic, bright beam of light. It's bright beam is it's best feature and the feature that makes it useful to me. Use as a lamp: During the recent heavy weather, with the seemingly frequent power outages, the lamp function came in handy. It's not a replacement for a decent lantern but it provided much needed light in my kids' room. The lamp light appears about equivalent to 2 or 3 candles. Packing the strap into the lamp housing and fitting it all together is a bid cumbersome but the compact package is nice. Upping my review from 3 to 4 stars.#####END UPDATE####The Switchback has several things going for it. First, when used without the "lamp shade" it produces a bright, somewhat broad beam. Compared with my Petzl E99 PG Tikka XP 2 Headlamp, Graphite the light is brighter and produces a larger spot. However, the bulky battery compartment, located on the back side of the head band, is uncomfortable when I wear it for more than 10 minutes or so. On top of that, because it juts out from the back of my head, I have managed to twice snag it on overhead obstructions. This only happen when I'm bending down, poking my head into a tight space. Fortunately, though the light landed on the ground each time, it was rugged enough to withstand the drops with no damage.
The "table lamp" functionality is not as useful as I had hoped. The problem is taking the bright LED light and dispersing it into a wide area. The white "lamp shade" does this but much brightness disappears in the process. It's not bright enough to use as a work light but may be ok as a power outage lamp or to illuminate the inside of a small tent. The legs of the unit, though, are outstanding. They are sturdy when in tripod configuration or wrapped around a tube, rail, or similar item. One of my sons attaches the light to his bunk bed rail to brighten his sleeping area. Converting from headlamp to table lamp is not as smooth and easy as I would like as there is just enough room in the unit to barely fit the headband and still snap everything into place.
The red lights are useful when glare would be a problem or when switching from light to dark areas. To get the best use of them, one needs to be very near the object being worked on. It's not the fault of the Joby but inexpensive red LED's are not incredibly bright.
Bottom light: The Switchback is most useful as a headlamp. However, it's lack of comfort and bulkiness make it a second choice to a dedicated headlamp. The lantern or table lamp part of the package is nice but not bright enough to be a must have.
Best Deals for JOBY GorillaTorch Switchback
The days of candles, kerosene lanterns and old unreliable flashlights need to be put behind us when it comes to emergency preparedness. Candles are fine for romantic evenings and dinner parties, and antique kerosene lanterns look great as decor on a mantlepiece. Old, unreliable flashlights are just that, and are usually not worth the time to fix them.My interest in the Joby GorillaTorch Switchback was as a result of having to deal with a five-day power outage that hit Lower Manhattan as a result of Hurricane Sandy in late October 2012. I was luckily better prepared than many of my friends and neighbors, but as a result of what happened, it became time to seriously re-think my own emergency planning. I have one of these 2-in-1 lanterns combined with a headlamp now, and I'll list the subjective pro and con points, then more of what I've found.
Likes:
+ Efficient design; very compact, multifunction lighting device with a modular headlamp
+ Water resistant housing; convenient hook in the top of the lantern
+ Clean white light; multiple LEDs with a good range of brightness settings
+ Clever headlamp design; fits into lantern as a multipurpose light source
+ Comes with two AA alkaline batteries; operates at full brightness with Ni-MH rechargeables
+ Adjustable headband; ergonomic and easy to fit for individual needs
+ Detachable GorillaPod base; can double up as a small camera tripod, adapter included
Dislikes:
Small instruction sheet; printed text may be too tiny for some to read without glasses
First Impressions:
When received, one notices that the box is easy to open from the top and all of the three main components are readily accessible. In the box one finds the lantern component, the headlamp with its five LEDs, and the small GorillaPod base. There's a small IKEA-style instruction sheet, the type with diagrams to follow for setup, and it's highly suggested that one reads these carefully, as it really helps for understanding how the Switchback goes together and operates. There are two AA alkaline batteries included which make it easy to get started right out of the box. I'll break this down by components first.
Headlamp Assembly:
This cleverly designed component is actually the main part of the Switchback, and there are three lenses holding a total of five LEDs. The rear mounted battery pack (holding two AA batteries) has a control panel with two orange button switches. The larger one in the center controls the main LED in the center of the headlamp and the the smaller diamond shape button controls the smaller outermost floodlights. The two outermost lenses have two LEDs each; one is a white 14 lumen flood LED and the other is a red 3 lumen flood LED. Press the diamond shape button and it will cycle between the red LEDs and the white; hold down on it for about a second and it will cause the floodlights to alternate as flashing red and white, which is excellent for emergency situations.
The center lens contains a single 130-lumen Cree XLamp LED, and this one is a spotlight, which is controlled by round center button on the control panel. Press this button once and it goes to its low setting, about 20 lumens. A second press takes it to high, which is 80 lumens. But if you hold down on this round button for three seconds, the LED increases like a volume control to its peak of 130 lumens, and this is much brighter than might be expected. Press it one more time and it goes off completely. There's also a tiny battery indicator to the right of the round button that comes on when you've dropped to about 10% power remaining, and it works.
I put the headlamp on to see what it was like to "wear" it for a couple of hours. The headband is easy to adjust, and quickly found that it should be worn with the JOBY letters in the up position, as the lamp assembly can be tilted downward for close work. Had thought that the battery pack with the weight of its two AA batteries might be uncomfortable, but even after a couple of hours wearing it, after one adjustment of the headband it was fine. Found that it was easy to reach back, locate the control panel, and control all of the functions of the light by fingertip.
Lantern Component:
The lantern itself is more of a collapsable shell that telescopes out from its sturdy white plastic housing. Once the headlamp is installed into the base, the assembly measures about 4½" high x 3¼" wide x 2" deep. It disperses an excellent, even amount of light in a 360° area when the assembly it turned on, probably due to its 92% "ultra-efficient holographic lens." The bright orange fold-in hook at the top make it handy for hanging, and with a gentle tug, the holographic lens is exposed.
Packing the headlamp assembly into the lantern isn't difficult, but it would be wise to do this carefully, folding the elastic headband in the process. It all fits just fine, but the power cord might get snagged if it's quickly jammed in when one is in a hurry.
GorillaPod Stand:
It's not necessary to attach the small GorillaPod to the bottom of the Switchback lantern, but it does add to its versatility when needed. The little GorillaPod snaps on easily, and then one can hang or hook it to a wide variety of surfaces: tree limbs, fence railings, vertical poles and such... it's limited only to your imagination. It has ten leg joints that allow it to be positioned as you like, and there's a small camera mounting plate with a ¼-20 treaded coin screw that will allow it to be attached with a coin to a compact digital camera. It supported my Nikon P7700 easily, and at about 16 ounces with filter and lens shade, it's no lightweight. The little camera mounting plate could easily be lost or misplaced; I stowed mine within the lantern component when packing the headlamp assembly inside, but that's an inelegant solution, which needs to be resolved.
In Use/Observations:
Was curious as to how well the battery life would hold up, so I inserted some freshly charged Sanyo eneloop AA Ni-MH Rechargeable Batteries and started some very basic tests. Setting the Switchback with its spotlight running at its maximum output of 130 lumens, the specs rated it at 1.5 hours; I got just under 2 hours with that first test, which was a surprise. The next test was to insert another set of charged eneloop batteries and run the floodlights at the 14 lumens setting, where the specs rate it at 35 hours, a good setting as a night light in emergency conditions. Again another surprise, as it was still going, though a bit dim, after 40 hours. That was enough for me to prove that the specs were conservative.
The only criticism that I have as a user of this product is that the Switchback really needs a more detailed description of its functions in the instruction sheet. This would be a great help to those of us who need glasses for reading. Even if Joby inserted a simple document with about 12-point type as a text only supplement, it would be a great help. Even if there was a link to a PDF file with larger type on the product page here, that would be good.
Summary:
This Joby GorillaTorch Switchback has proven to be an excellent addition to my personal arsenal of emergency preparedness essentials, along with an array of other items that had helped survive Hurricane Sandy this fall. It's not your grandfather's old kerosene lantern, which belongs on a shelf or mantlepiece. Think of this light as a multi-purpose gadget, almost like a Swiss Army knife or a multi-tool that's there when it's needed. I received this one as a gift from a good friend after I had posted it in my wish list here, and it was an excellent early Christmas present. As a result of my experience with this one, I've added the GorillaTorch Flare to my wish list for future purchase, and other than the instruction sheet issue, can highly recommend this to anyone looking for a great multi-purpose lamp.
12/7/2012
Honest reviews on JOBY GorillaTorch Switchback
We use this mostly to light up the bathroom when the little one's have to go in the middle of the night. But I also use it for DIY around the house. For plumbing work under a sink, or electrical work which necessitates killing the power this lamp excels.Pros:
Bright enough to easily light up a large room.
Two brightness levels controlled by the button, but the moveable cap actually allows for
infinite brightness levels (just slide the cap in and out of the housing to adjust
brightness).
Tripod allows you to put it almost anywhere.
Lamp on the headband can be tilted very handy.
When used as a headlamp works as well as any flashlight of comparable wattage.
Cons: The housing that holds the headband and lamp is just a little small so you have to
shoehorn the band and lamp in.
The tripod locks into the housing and is unlocked by sliding the lock to the open position and then depressing a button. The lock is small and in darkness can be hard to locate, and I'm not always sure which position is lock\unlock.
When not using the headband configuration this doesn't make a very good flashlight since it gives 360 of lighting which means some of the light is shining in your eyes. But if you hold it above your head it works well.
Overall: The smallish size of the case makes me deduct a star. Other than that, a little pricey, but all in all an excellent lamp and worth the price. 4 stars.
Addendum: I've had this light for a year and the wire that connects the lamp assembly to the battery
compartment is beginning to fray due to the small size of the case and the wire. The wire is bent at a
90 degree angle ans is scrunched against the side of the case. So I have to deduct a star.
0 comments:
Post a Comment