BD Onsight 375 Headlamp

Anyone have strong opinions about it? Looking to replace my progressively fading Spot 300. Would be using for alpine starts and walls. Would get something else for backpacking/general use.

Look at one of the Fenix headlamps.  They are a lot better built than Black Diamond lights.

Or Nitecore.

BD actually put a lot of time and testing into developing the Onsight. For climbing in the dark users found that too bright of a light washed out the texture and made finding holds more difficult. The Onsight has a more focused beam for climbing and then a higher intensity mode to locate rappels or identify further away features. I agree that BD doesn't make the highest quality offerings on the market however for actual climbing at night, this is a pretty good headlamp. The Petzl Swift RL is my go2 for lots of hiking/scrambling/ running at night. 

Hope you find something you like! 

The onsight is a great light if paired with BD rechargeable battery.  It's not as good with AAA batteries. 

Every BD headlamp I've ever used has failed.  Their quality control is bad.

Buy a Fenix.  If you want a climbing specific headlamp from a climbing company, then get a Petzl.  

I never found the lockout function on BD headlamps to be useful.  It still is to easy for it to turn on in my pack.  I would always pull the batteries when I wasn't using it.

Zebra Light same weight and will absolutely smoke the BD for $30 more. Also made of metal. Once you switch to the 18650 battery family, you won't go back.

Thanks for input everyone!

One good thing about this headlamp is that the battery pack is on the back of the head, so it doesn't get hit by high wind and preserves battery power (situation like alpine start in Rainer for example).

snugwrote:

One good thing about this headlamp is that the battery pack is on the back of the head, so it doesn't get hit by high wind and preserves battery power (situation like alpine start in Rainer for example).

Interesting.  Never knew that routes always face into the wind.   Will use that next time I get off route  ;)

Nolan Nolanwrote:

Zebra Light same weight and will absolutely smoke the BD for $30 more. Also made of metal. Once you switch to the 18650 battery family, you won't go back.

Zebralight doesn't have any headlamps with both a spot and a flood mode. I wouldn't recommend a floody headlamp unless you're intentionally night climbing.

Austin Donisanwrote:

Zebralight doesn't have any headlamps with both a spot and a flood mode. I wouldn't recommend a floody headlamp unless you're intentionally night climbing.

The floody of the zebralight is orders of magnitude brighter than the spot of the BD headlamp. The quality of the flood is also far superiors. There is no reason to buy the BD light unless you want the cheaper option, which some might.

Edit: one order of magnitude, not orders

Nolan Nolanwrote:

The floody of the zebralight is orders of magnitude brighter than the spot of the BD headlamp. The quality of the flood is also far superiors. There is no reason to buy the BD light unless you want the cheaper option, which some might.

Edit: one order of magnitude, not orders

The BD headlamp is probably not good (I assume the discharge curve sucks), but you're totally wrong about the brightness. The BD peak illuminance is 2-3x greater than that Zebralight (look at the ANSI distance in the BD specs, calculate it for yourself for the Zebralight). That's even before you consider getting blinded by stuff in the foreground.

I think Zebralight headlamps are great and I own 2. But a floody headlamp sucks for routefinding and trail finding.

These questions seem to come up every year, I skim them to see if there's anything of value to make me see spending gobs of money on a new lamp as a worth investment and... nope, nada. 

Coast FL65 or FL75, two packs at costco are usually $30, 400+ lumens, adjustable from spot to flood, 3 intensity settings, only drawback is no lockout so, as another poster mentioned, pull at least one battery out. Can get one not in the box for $15, direct from Coast. I have never once been sad I had this light, always brighter than my partners (except for the guy w/ the $100 Fenix), reliable, economical... considering you can buy 4 of these before you're money behind on the Onsight, I'll take the Coast.

https://coastportland.com/products/coast-crew-fl75

Sounds like the Coast is High mode first. That is an automatic no for me with any headlamp.

It is. why is this problematic?

If you don't need much light for your task, you can inadvertently blind yourself, your partner, etc... and you are using the mode that wastes the most battery life first. Many good lights that are high first have an option to go low first, like a long press or something. (Zebralight for ex)

This is a larger problem with much much brighter lights where they can actually start a fire.

Austin Donisanwrote:

Zebralight doesn't have any headlamps with both a spot and a flood mode. I wouldn't recommend a floody headlamp unless you're intentionally night climbing.

Fenix has a lot of headlamps with both a spot and flood mode.  Similar quality to Zebralight.

I own this one:

https://www.fenixlighting.com/products/fenix-hp25r-v2-rechargeable-headlamp

Kai Larsonwrote:

Fenix has a lot of headlamps with both a spot and flood mode.  Similar quality to Zebralight.

I own this one:

https://www.fenixlighting.com/products/fenix-hp25r-v2-rechargeable-headlamp

That thing is a tank… it’s really heavy for a headlamp. I went off your recommendation and picked one up and I don’t think I’ll be carrying it into the backcountry. There are definitely lighter options out there. Its light quality is amazing. It will get used for dawn patrol. 

Sunny-Dwrote:

That thing is a tank… it’s really heavy for a headlamp. I went off your recommendation and picked one up and I don’t think I’ll be carrying it into the backcountry. There are definitely lighter options out there. Its light quality is amazing. It will get used for dawn patrol. 

Yes.  It's pretty heavy.  The spot is good for seeing a really long distance.  The OP wanted something with both a spot and flood mode.  I only need the spot when skiing.  

It's not my choice for alpine.  This is my alpine headlamp in the below link.  A lot lighter than the other one, with plenty of light for spotting crevasses etc. on pre-dawn approaches.  Also, you can buy a low temperature battery (from Nitecore) that works well when it's really cold.

Fenix headlamp