# 90 Lumen Black Diamond Spot



## carrot (Sep 30, 2011)

I was at REI today and I noticed that the Black Diamond Spot is now 90 lumens. 

The old 75 lumens BD Spot is now marked down to $25 (from $40), so it is also a good deal. 

Picked one up today and I do not have an older Spot to compare it to but they looked functionally unchanged in package besides the new lumen rating. It is indeed very bright.

This brings the Spot to parity with the Storm and in fact may be considered "better" for many users: nearly as bright, $10 cheaper, uses one less battery and is lighter.

I'll be using the Spot as much as I can in the following weeks and will write a review when it is ready.


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## gcbryan (Sep 30, 2011)

The 75 lumens Spot at $25 would be the best value out there IMO. The new Spot with only a $10 difference between the Spot and Storm is not a good deal IMO.

For $10 (Storm) you get regulation, waterproof and a flood mode that is much brighter. 
The difference between the way the Spot and Storm are sealed is dramatic both at the battery compartment and around the front lens.


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## carrot (Sep 30, 2011)

How do you know if the Storm's flood is brighter than the NEW Spot's flood? Since I do not have a Storm and you do not have a 90lm Spot...

In any case I did not pay full retail for my Spot, so I am happy. If the Spot exceeds my expectations I will probably pick up a Storm to try out.


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## gcbryan (Oct 1, 2011)

carrot said:


> How do you know if the Storm's flood is brighter than the NEW Spot's flood? Since I do not have a Storm and you do not have a 90lm Spot...
> 
> In any case I did not pay full retail for my Spot, so I am happy. If the Spot exceeds my expectations I will probably pick up a Storm to try out.


 
I wasn't implying that you didn't get a good deal. I remember reading that you get headlamps at a discount.

I don't know for sure but since the old Spot was new as well (75 lumen model just came out this year I believe) I'm guessing that the 90 lumens model is just an improvement in LED bin. No one is really going to see the difference between 75 and 90 lumens.

I'm just going on the fact that I had a new Spot earlier this year and traded it back in to get a new Storm. The flood light output between the two was very noticeable (and not expected). 

I read your post with interest and my immediate thought was at $25 the 75 lumens Spot can't be beat.


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## carrot (Oct 1, 2011)

gcbryan said:


> I'm just going on the fact that I had a new Spot earlier this year and traded it back in to get a new Storm. The flood light output between the two was very noticeable (and not expected).


You are really making it hard for me to not want to try a Storm just out of curiosity to find out exactly what the differences are.



gcbryan said:


> I read your post with interest and my immediate thought was at $25 the 75 lumens Spot can't be beat.


For sure. With all the features the Spot has it is easily a solid competitor against the (more expensive) XP2. I'm still trying to decide if I appreciate the extra versatility over the XP2's bare-bones simplicity, however.


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## gcbryan (Oct 1, 2011)

carrot said:


> You are really making it hard for me to not want to try a Storm just out of curiosity to find out exactly what the differences are.
> 
> 
> For sure. With all the features the Spot has it is easily a solid competitor against the (more expensive) XP2. I'm still trying to decide if I appreciate the extra versatility over the XP2's bare-bones simplicity, however.


 
You have every other headlamp out there...you know you want the Storm 

Just look at the front of the Spot. You can see the plastic parts coming together. I don't see how it would even survive (leaking) a bathtub test. Same with the battery compartment. Flood mode in the Storm is something that you could use to hike if necessary and is certainly more than bright enough around camp. In the Spot it would be hard to hike (even in an easy area) with just the flood mode.

Lithium batteries in the Storm makes it pretty light as well. If I had it to do over though I'd get the black model rather than orange. There is no light leaking out like with the XP2 but the plastic glows a bit near the bottom. I covered it up with tape but I'm guessing that in the black mode that wouldn't be necessary.

Most people wouldn't notice it anyway I suppose.

The XP2 is more simple to operate. That's why I got an EOS as well just to try that aspect out. I think the EOS competes well with the XP2. It just doesn't have the diffuser but I diffused mine so that's not an issue. The red LED is nice in the XP2 and Spot and most of the others but it's not necessary if you have a low enough low which is why it's not really an issue in the Zebralights.


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## robostudent5000 (Oct 1, 2011)

carrot said:


> I'll be using the Spot as much as I can in the following weeks and will write a review when it is ready.


 
hey hey hey! don't forget about the Mammut S-flex review. priorities man!


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## robostudent5000 (Oct 1, 2011)

i noticed on REI that the 70 lumen PT Remix is on sale for $25 too and that there's a 100 lumen version of the Remix up on PT's website. i guess BD and PT are keeping up with each other.


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## carrot (Oct 2, 2011)

robostudent5000 said:


> hey hey hey! don't forget about the Mammut S-flex review. priorities man!


 
I will, but I just took the BD Spot on an eleven hour dayhike and four of those hours were with the Spot illuminating my way! So far I feel pretty positive about it.

What's holding me back from really putting the S-Flex through its paces is that it's a bit anemic for a primary headlamp for my tastes. I know a lot of thru-hikers who carry the diminutive Petzl E+Lite but being a CPFer more lumens is more better  In any case it has been excellent so far for nightly fridge raids.


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## carrot (Oct 22, 2011)

REI no longer has the closeout model of the BD Spot on their website but last I checked EMS.com still has plenty. Same price, $25 for 75 lumens.

Still impressed with my 90 lumen BD Spot, in fact I used it so much that I have even run down my first set of batteries to noticeably dim (red blink on the battery indicator).


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## HogoFogo (Nov 25, 2011)

carrot said:


> REI no longer has the closeout model of the BD Spot on their website but last I checked EMS.com still has plenty. Same price, $25 for 75 lumens.
> 
> Still impressed with my 90 lumen BD Spot, in fact I used it so much that I have even run down my first set of batteries to noticeably dim (red blink on the battery indicator).



Carrot, please tell me how much did it last more or less.
Thanks


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## carrot (Nov 25, 2011)

HogoFogo said:


> Carrot, please tell me how much did it last more or less.
> Thanks


Not sure. I definitely put more than 14 hours of use on a single set of batteries. I haven't fully depleted the batteries yet and I still find it to be usable.


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## robostudent5000 (Jan 23, 2012)

REi has the 75 lumens closeouts back on sale. and i see them still available on sale here and there. i got lucky, found one for less than $15 at Amazon warehouse, and since i can't pass up a bargain i bought it despite having a lot of concerns about it. now that i have it i can confirm all the issues that were previously reported by other users - the donut hole in the main beam is prominent enough to be distracting in real use and beams are just generally ugly on all modes, floods are too dim to be all that useful, red is only bright enough for reading or rummaging through your pack but really nothing else, and the case doesn't close all the way with Eneloops. but one positive thing i can say for it is that the case is made of pretty decent plastic. i've been burned by 2006-2009 era Black Diamond headlamps which were made with soft plastics that were creaky and cracked easily. i've mentioned that in the past as a possible area of concern on the newer Black Diamond lamps, but i guess i was wrong. the materials on the Spot look pretty solid and overall it appears to be much tougher than past models, at least upon initial review. anyway, i placed a disk of DC Fix over the main lens and the main beam is now as smoove as silk. it's not a bad backup/ loaner for $15.

Note: also, PWM is visible on any level other than max, but it's not that bad. not nearly as bad as the PWM on some of the previous gen BD lamps which could be nasty slow. the frequency on this one is tolerable.


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