Like so many of you, we spend our weekends out in the bush chasing long sections of singletrack through the trees. This fascination with a snaking piece of dirt often leads us to the middle of nowhere and, when night falls, you can find us curled up in a piece of canvas with nothing but a mattress and a pillow to lull our weary, often booze-soaked bodies, to sleep.
That’s why it is important to have a decent set of day-makers on hand. The last thing you want is to stub your toe on the corner of the Esky in the dark or, heaven forbid, wander into a swag that’s well passed its used-by date. We’ve tried headlights, solar camping lights and head torches but without a dual-battery setup in the ute we’re always operating in dim light. So we grabbed a few of these Ledlenser lights and they’ve been excellent for lighting up the dark, lonely nights and stopping us from ending up with smelly bed mates.
We Rate
RANGEWe grabbed the iF8R, iW7R and iW5R Flex because we also wanted to be able to work on cars and bikes at night, as something always seems to go wrong after a day of riding.
TOUGHThe iF8R spends most of its time in our gearbag which is sliding around in the back of the ute. They feel solid and heavy and the body is metal. The handle also is metal and the lighting system hasn’t smashed.
CONVENIENTEach light has a magnetic point and it’s so strong it takes some force to get it off! Just stick it against your pit tent or car and it stays put. You can even control the iF8R with your phone.
LIGHTConsidering this is a portable, battery-powered light and not hooked up to a car battery, the light is impressive. The big bastard provides up to 4500 lumen for up to 12 hours of continuous use, which was enough to light up our small campsite. The smaller ones are good for inside a tent or under the bonnet of a car
Don’t Rate
PRICE The iF8R is almost the cost of a small fridge and enough to get you two decent spotlights.
RECHARGE If you run out of power and can’t charge them where you are there is no way to get them working again as they do not take disposable batteries.
VERDICT
We’ve persevered with cheap, portable, solar camping lights and they never last a whole night and only give off a dim, yellow light. If they failed, we usually used phone light and we all know how that performs. These Zen Imports lights are not only extremely tough, they light up our campsites much better than a phone or portable solar light. As you can see in the picture we were able to light our whole unloading zone by just putting the iF8R on the ground using the actuating arm. It’s simple, easy and the lights can pretty much go wherever you want as they aren’t attached to the car. Mitch Lees
Get It Here
BILL
iF8R $399, iW7R $179.95, iW5R Flex $139.95
BROWSER
ledlenser.com.au
BLOWER
(02) 8878 3600
