I bought this lamp when my old Petzl Zoom headlamp finally became unreliable due to some broken wires. Shopping for a new headlamp gave me a slight case of "future shock", as headlamps have evolved and improved quite a bit since I bought my Zoom all those years ago. Petzl continues to offer a range of excellent headlamps, but I ended up buying the Black Diamond headlamp because it was a bit more compact than the top of the line Petzl.

First impressions: This is a sturdy, well thought out piece of equipment. The on/off button is easy to find and use with gloves or mittens on, and thoughtfully placed at the bottom of the lens housing, so that when the lens housing is pointed straight down the button is protected from accidentally turning on when the light is being carried in your pack. The straps are comfortable, easy to adjust, and go over a hat or climbing helmet easily. Both the straps and the battery cable are very sturdy. The battery case is very sturdy, secure, compact and easy to open, and shaped to fit nicely against the back of one's head. It's very easy to wear this headlamp under the hood of one's parka, which will help keep the batteries warm and extend battery life. The lens housing includes a flashing "find me" LED light to help locate the light in one's backpack after dark. The "find me" light changes from green to yellow to red as the batteries are depleted, which eliminates any guess work about whether or not to change batteries or pack spare batteries. The "find me" feature is a very nice touch, especially in the middle of the night when you need to step outside your tent for a few minutes.

None of these clever features are worth much, though, unless you can actually see with your headlamp when you have to. The Vectra IQ delivers very nicely in this department. It has 4 LEDs that deliver 3 levels of light plus a flashing mode. The brightest level is more than enough for map reading or hiking over rough ground on a dark night, and the weakest is enough to let cars know you are there when walking or jogging on a road. The Vectra also has a Xenon bulb with 3 brightness settings. The brightest Xenon bulb setting will let you do fine detail work at night (repairs, first aid) or will serve as a good long range light for route finding if you happen to be bushwhacking at night, or looking for rappel anchors on a long technical descent from a climb. The brightest Xenon bulb setting will also leave you seeing spots before your eyes if you make the mistake of looking straight at it. The lower Xenon bulb settings are comparable to the LED bulb settings in brightness. The lamp comes with a spare, lower powered Xenon bulb, and replacement bulbs in both strengths are available from Black Diamond. I find myself using the brightest LED setting about 95% of the time and using the Xenon bulb only when absolutely necessary, simply because the Xenon bulb eats batteries very quickly when it is putting out all that light.

This brings us to the one real drawback of the Vectra IQ: it really is more complex than it has to be. One LED setting (the highest)and one Xenon bulb setting (also the highest) is enough for about 99.9% of time I spend using this light. I have other, smaller headlamps for car camping, jogging on roads at night, etc., and I'm sure anyone who buys this lamp will have multiple headlamps as well.

If all you want to do is find your way across the campground to the bathrooms on a dark night, or make yourself visible to cars while jogging, this light is quite excessive. If your backcountry travels involve pre-dawn starts, long climbs that end after dark, or search and rescue work, this is the light for you.

Recommended: Yes