H35B Cyclops

Cyclops H35B white- and red-light rechargeable headlamp. 2,000 lumens, 80 ANSI metres. Unbelievable value. Customer reviews

When I heard there was a new version of our hugely successful white-and-red D25LR headlamp which delivers twice as many lumens while costing much less I was (of course) sceptical, so I imported several samples to satisfy myself that it's really worth your hard-earned cash. 

And it really is!

These days headlamps are standard equipment for many kinds of nocturnal activity, from adventure racing and mountain biking to preparing food and sewing. Having plenty of light, and your hands free, while you crawl around in the ceiling or change a tyre on your car is just... priceless!

Of course you need a headlamp to laugh at loadshedding, but many people have discovered how useful it is to have light wherever they point their noses even when the skebengas at Eishkom are taking time off from wrecking our lives.

Red light has the advantage that it does not affect our night vision or dazzle other people, and it doesn't disturb other animals or (some say) attract mozzies. Red headlamps have become very popular among fishermen, sailors, hikers and campers, among many others.

When choosing a headlamp one looks for a broad beam that can be turned right up for cycling and running, and right down for reading or looking at a map, along with intermediate levels for moving around, checking the meat on a braai or lighting up a room.

Headlamps must be light enough to be worn all night, sealed against heavy rain or ocean spray, and tough enough to take hard use... for years. They also need to run for hours at higher outputs... and days at low power.

My H35B Cyclops ticks all these boxes, and then some!

It's equipped with three Luminus SST20 LEDs which collectively deliver more than 2,000 lumens of clear white light on "turbo", more than 1,000 lumens on "high" and a sustainable 600+ lumens on "medium". 

This white beam has five regular brightness levels, separate "turbo" and "moonlight" modes, a dual-frequency defensive strobe, SOS and beacon... so, yip, that's seven brightness levels and three strobes! 

The red beam comes from two PE emitters and is very bright and "pure" in colour – way better than any white light with a red filter. It delivers three brightness levels, a red strobe and an entertaining red-and-white strobe.

Both the white and red beams have a "car headlight" profile, i.e. brighter in the middle, so you can see a long way down the road, surrounded by a bright spill-beam to show the road surface and verges. Turned down, this profile works equally well for close-up stuff like checking manuals and working with your hands.

Both colours have mode-memory, so the light returns to the same regular brightness level when you turn it off and on. This is a key feature since most people don't want to spend time adjusting the beam every time they switch the light on...

With the white beam at full power ("turbo") the headlamp gets hot very quickly – which is a good thing because it means heat is being transferred efficiently from the LED to the aluminium housing, so it can dissipate into the atmosphere – and it steps down after about 30 seconds to avoid frying the electronics.

On "high" – the brightest of the five regular brightness levels – the Cyclops also gets pretty hot, but does not step down noticeably. This is fine if you're using the headlamp for running or quad biking, where there's lots of air movement to keep it cool, but for less... mobile... activities I'd recommend using the H35B on level four – it's still plenty bright and runs twice as long.

The Cyclops is solidly built with a rain-proof (IP66) anodised aluminium body, a USB-C charging port cleverly concealed underneath a screw-down collar, and an indicator light in the control switch to tell you the state of the battery during charging and in use.

It takes an industry standard 18650 rechargeable lithium ion (Li-Ion) battery which gives very long runtimes (I measured two and a half hours on "high", and each step down will run approximately twice as long as the one before) and is easy to replace when the time comes, 3-5 years down the line. 

For all-night or multi-night expeditions, if you can't charge your battery from the USB port in a vehicle, powerbank or solar charger, you could carry a few charged spares (they're about 50g each).

According to my kitchen scale, the H35B weighs less than 100g complete with battery, or about 115g with the standard headstrap which allows you to adjust the beam up and down through 180 degrees, and to unclip the headlamp if you need a hand-held light. The bracket also works as a table-stand, so you can aim the beam at the ceiling to light up a room through a round of loadshedding. 

We also offer an optional sports headstrap, which holds the light more firmly to the headstrap and to the head and is ideal for running and jumping (like over the rocks when you're fishing). This over-and-around headstrap is stitched to a silicone bracket which can be cut loose and used to mount the light on a helmet. We also stock velcro handlebar mounts which turn the Cyclops into a brilliant bike light.