Petzl Skylight LED Torch
Mike Forrester |
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So you need something, well... re-chargeable. Like those whats-his-name wind-up radios. So you hit the web, chance upon www.flashlightreviews.com (well worth a look), and find that the world has moved on since you went camping with the boy scouts !
10 year guarantee - really - 10 years ! Made in Switzerland. That'll do for me..
Rubberised feel to the casing is neat and classy. On/off switch gives good click. Lanyard feels like mountaineering rope. The wee rubber bit on the other end is rubber and luminous plastic.
(I must learn to work that camera better)
Here comes the science bit.Its an LED, not a bulb. Bear with me, because I am old and I remember camping with Tilley Lamps. LEDs, apparently, are where it is at in shining light on things. Yes, the march of technology, no doubt invented in the Space Race when I wasn't paying attention. Whatever, its an LED bulb, and they are supposed to be unbreakable. If you hit it with a hammer I bet it would break, but in normal usage there's no filament to burn out, which must be good. And an LED is brighter than a filament bulb for the same power input. And all sorts of other good stuff you can read about at www.flashlightreviews.com. Me, I took it into the hall cupboard and closed the door. Very scientific, no :) Does it work ?Press the button, and the hall cupboard lights up. Press it again and darkness. Yep, passed the 'its a torch' test. Is it bright ?Impressively bright in motorcycle.co.uk's hall cupboard. At night, in a tent, when your eyes are acclimatised to dark, its even more impressive. Strung up from the roof, it bathes everything in a slightly blueish tint. Enough for reading if you want to. Certainly enough for normal in-tent activities. Will it run long enough ?The claim is 3 hours 'enough to read with' light, we haven't tried that long. But even if that is optimistic, there's got to be enough to stagger back from the bar, stagger about some more because you lost your tent, get your socks off and find your sleeping bag. And enough in reserve to get up in the night because you were drinking beer all evening. That will satisfy our requirement for 'longevity of illumination'. (We do like our scientific analysis here at Motorcycle Towers :) Oh, BTW, the wee rubber bit on the other end does glow in the dark so you can find it fumbling around in the night (see 'drinking beer' above). RechargingLeave it in the sunlight. On a bike, that is an interesting problem. In a car, you'd throw it on the dash or the parcel shelf. If you are only away for the weekend, you'll get away with not bothering. Longer trips on bike, we'll need to think about that one. Our guess, when you put your tent up in the evening, stick it on the end of a tentpole. And in the morning, while getting your three cups of coffee in..... Get back to us after the summer season, and we'll tell you if 3 coffees and most evening is enough, or if you need a dangle-on-the-handlebars-while-you-ride length of charge. (I should have been a scientist, me.)
Yeah, it works, but is it cool ?Some friends of motorcycle.co.uk think this is important. We care more about functionality. So we showed it to the Editor's girlfriend, and she went ooooh in a most sensual way.
Please Mister, can I have one ?www.petzl.com Or search Google for petzl skylight, there's various suppliers. In the UK, try TravelDri.co.uk. We got ours from Touratech, but don't see it listed there any more. Some months later - are we still impressed ?If you go camping, hiking, whatever - buy one of these. It's smallness is perfect. You never have that 'its bulky', 'do I really need it', 'is it worth taking' debate. Its so small you take it anyway, then you always have it. As a torch, it works great. Bright enough to do anything you need in the dark. It has never run out of power, and I've never felt I had to 'charge it' specially. It seems to get enough charging just from being in daylight a bit. It'll never run out of batteries, the bulb will never blow. Its very, very cool. When somebody asks what you want for your Birthday/Christmas - this is what you want. A year later - are we still impressed ?Yes. Discovered that when it is about to go flat, it flickers. Still plenty light to be useable, I guess that's its early-warning system. And dangled from the brake lever while you get your breakfast in and tent packed up for a couple days was plenty to restore full happiness. Some items of camping kit become permanent fixtures on your travels - this is one of them.
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Solar powered. Oh, they do that ? Yes, they do. 
£20 lighter, a Petzl Skylight lands on our mat. And it is quality kit.
Tiny. Really tiny. I mean way-small. Online blurb doesn't prepare you for the wee-ness of the thing. So here's a picture of ours on a matchbox.....