Seeing the Light: REAKTIK+ Head Lamp

With Winter Solstice bearing down on us, most of the country is bathed in darkness from 6 pm ’till the next morning. That means that most of us who are outside in the afternoons, whether it be your daily home chores, out camping and trying to set the tent up, or you are going for a run – are doing so in the blanket of darkness.

Never fear however, because Petzl, the leaders in mountain climbing equipment have one of the best damn head lamps available on the market for such needs.

The pint size REACTIK+ head lamp is a multi-lens unit that can pump out 300 lumens of power. Using a rechargeable 1800mAh lithium-ion battery, the REACTIK is capable of delivering hours and hours of use before it needs to be recharged or swapped out with a AA in a pinch from Petzl’s standard inline battery pack that you can pick up separately.

Three separate lenses and a light meter gives you Low and High output white light, and autonomy mode that coupled with the light meter, allows the unit to vary the output of the head lamp based on how much light is being reflected into your face. Looking at a map? Lets turn that down so we do not blow out your retinas. Just happen to look up for a moment to check on the bacon cooking on the fire? Lets ratchet it up to max for the moment. The third lens gives you a 60lm Red LED so your night vision is not compromised, and can strobe in the event of an emergency.

For $109 bucks, the REACTIK+ is a little on the higher side of what head lamps have to offer, but its money well spent with how great this little guy performs.