Olympia EX100 CREE XP-C LED Headlamp Review

A feature packed headlamp with an exceptionally bright beam.

By Sam Perez

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The 100 lumen beam made night cooking a blast.

I had the opportunity to take this exceptional headlamp on my recent camping trip to Joshua Tree National Park and it definitely pulled its weight. The focusable 100 lumen light was BRIGHT which was perfect when it came to cooking up a late night dinner for the crew. The versatility of being able to easily adjust the beam from a single spot to a wide flood of light with the focus slider made it great for a variety of night activities.

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The beam focus is easily adjusted with a 1x to 4x slider.

One interesting feature is an infrared sensor, which allows you activate the light on and off by waving your hand in front of the lamp which is helpful if you’re wearing thick gloves or have dirty hands. I wasn’t too fond of this feature because I found myself constantly triggering the sensor by accident whenever I went into my tent or ducked under a low tree branch (it has an 8″ range). This feature is easily turned off by double pressing the button when turning the headlamp on.

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The unfocused beam is HUGE!

The device has single button control which can be a little confusing at first but it wasn’t too hard to master. One press turns the light on with infrared control and a double press turns the light on without it. In either of these modes you can press again and hold the button down and it will fade the level of brightness. Once you release the button it will stay at that level. Three presses of the button will switch to the red LEDs and a fourth press will make them blink SOS in morse code. After being in any mode for at least a second, the headlamp can be turned off completely with a single button press. Easy enough, right?

The head straps are fairly comfortable but were a bit frustrating to adjust- especially in the dark! But once you get it set to your head size it DSC_7923feels great and stays on tight. The battery pack felt a bit bulky at first (it takes 3 AA batteries) however once I got used to the weight, I found that it actually counter balances the front quite well. It also has a safety/visibility red light on the back with it’s own dedicated button that sets it to either a constant on mode or a blinking mode which would definitely be great for night jogging.

Overall it’s a very bright and feature rich head lamp that’s well built and can really take a beating. For around $35 it is a great value and it definitely will accompany me on many future trips to come.

Basic Info:

  • Uses high quality Cree LEDs
  • 100 Lumens
  • Water Resistant
  • 27000cd Beam Intensity
  • 185 hour run time
  • 105 meter beam range
  • Resists impacts from falling up to 1 meter.
  • The headlamp meets FL 1 standards

Feature List:

  • Four light settings – high with infrared, high without infrared, red, and SOS signal two activation modes Manual/Infrared.
  • Sensor activation, white LED turns on/off with a wave of the hand (red leds stay on)
  • Red rear light on battery case
  • Smooth operation of dimming control
  • Focus control from 1x to 4x magnification
  • Pivoting head
  • 2-year warranty

 

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