I went to the Minneapolis Sportshow on Saturday with the intention of just hanging with a friend, seeing some of my outfitting pals, looking around and going home without buying anything. I failed at the final goal. I had help pulling the trigger on my purchase as my friend encouraged me and I'm glad he did.

I bought a Nitecore HC 50 headlamp for $59. This is an aluminum body headlamp that has a super bright 565 lumen Cree LCD bulb. It has 5 brightness settings that are very easily cycled through so you don't need to use the blinding light unless needed. The on/off power switch is also the cycling switch that operates like a camera shutter. Hard touch for on/off, soft touch to cycle. The switch has a colored light indicator to let you know when the battery is good, low or almost out and it even tells you the voltage in the batteries you just installed through a series of blinking lights so you know if you have a fresh set or not.

I liked the solid construction, all aluminum body, red night vision bulbs, easy on off and brightness cycling, voltage feature and adjustability. I wish it had a switch lock so it wouldn't go on accidentally in the pack, but I can just loosen the battery compartment cover before I pack it-hoping to remember to do that each time. It comes with an extra set of O rings for the battery compartment to keep it waterproof.

It is a little heavier (about 5-6 ounces) than my Black Diamond but not so much that it will be a burden. There have been times when 100-150 lumens just isn't enough to see deep into the woods or out over the water that the extra brightness will help. It will mean I can leave my compact tactical flashlight at home now so net-net it is probably a weight reduction.

They had another Nitecore headlamp that was awesome but it was about $100. The Nitecore HC 90 has a whopping 900 lumen bulb with a sliding switch for infinite light adjustment. It has blue, green and red night vision and a rechargeable NiCD battery that recharges through a USB cable included. For out in the woods this would be a great feature if you carry a power brick to recharge electronics (camera batteries, GPS, etc) as I do on long trips.

If you do anything that having a superbirght headlamp is needed from caving, to night hiking to just snowblowing your driveway at 3 am these headlamps are something you should look at.