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At a glance
- Lighting Settings:
- PowerTap™/Burst: 1100 lumens for 10 seconds at a time @ 125 meters – uses both spot and flood together for max lighting
- High: 600 lumens, 4.25 hrs @ 110 meters
- Medium: 300 lumens, 14 hrs @ 58 meters – this is the setting you’ll most likely hike/run in
- Low: 7 lumens, 120 hrs @ 8 meters
- Solid/Strobe/SOS modes on high/medium/low
- Highest/Lowest setting flicker indicator
- Red, Green, and Blue mode at a lower intensity
- Weight: ~109 grams
- Battery: Proprietary 2200mAh
- Lockout (digital)
- LED Battery level indicator
- IP67 waterproof rating – dustproof, protected against temporary water immersion
- MSRP: $119.95
- Purchase at: Black Diamond | REI
The Black Diamond Distance LT 1100 Headlamp is a handsome, sleek hiking/backpacking/trail running headlamp with an impressive amount of lighting settings, all within a well-engineered package, weighing in at only a little over a hundred grams. The battery is modular, with the light itself and buttons on a swivel housing, connected to the removable battery, which itself snaps into the head strap.
This removable proprietary battery can be charged using the built-in USB-C port and included USB-C cable. Battery life on “medium” (our most used setting) will last more than a few nights out before needing a recharge and those who optimize their use of the light by taking advantage of the red LED while in camp will be able to extend this battery life much further. The proprietary battery may turn off some who need power for weeks at a time and/or don’t want to shell out for an expensive extra battery, but those people may be in the minority.
This headlamp is about giving the user a huge choice when lighting up what’s in front of them — be it a sweeping ridgeline with major exposure, or the inside of a cramped tent with a stinky buddy — rather than keeping things simple with more limited options. If you’re looking for the one headlamp to handle a wide spectrum of activities, the Black Diamond Distance LT 1100 Headlamp may be just right for you.
Lighting Settings in Detail
The amount of lighting settings is unreal.
The Black Diamond Distance LT 1100 Headlamp supports both a spot and flood modes, although they call them something a little different: “depth lighting” and, “diffuse lighting” — it’s the same thing.
For both lighting modes, you’re able to adjust the intensity of the light, from ~7 to ~600 lumens smoothly rather than in a few pre-set steps, really allowing you to get the lighting intensity specific to your preferences. And for all lighting modes, you can set the light to be a solid beam, blinking, or in “SOS” mode.
Colored Lighting Settings
In addition to the white light, three colors are available on this light: red, green, and blue. Red is often used in camping situations to preserve the night vision of you and your campmates — no one likes getting a bright white light shined into their eyes — while also preserving battery life by using an LED that consumes less power. You may need to use imagination and creativity for utilizing blue, green as I do not have a handy use case to throw out. For each color, you do also have the option to set the intensity of the light +/- a few lumens and use them in strobe and SOS modes, as well as of course: a solid beam.
Passthrough Support?
I haven’t verified if this headlamp supports charging while the light is turned on. Regardless, the charging cable would hang awkwardly in front of one’s face when wearing it if you did tried, so that may be a hint that it does not.
If you do turn on the light while it is plugged in, the light will turn on. From trial and error, I found the following:
If you tap the right side when the headlamp is plugged in, it will be put in PowerTap™/Burst mode (the highest setting) and will not dim after 10 seconds. If you unplug the headlamp, it will still stay on that setting. When unplugged you can cancel indefinite PowerTap™/Burst mode by tapping the right side of the headlamp twice.
I don’t know if this is a bug or a feature. The light becomes very hot when put into this mode. As is my reputation, I am very good at finding bugs.
Lighting Control Interface
Two buttons is about the limit of what I want for complexity in my lights. Digital lockout works by pressing both buttons at once. Turning on/off (once unlocked) uses the top right button, switching modes uses the top left. The PowerTap™/Burst mode is enabled by tapping the right side of the light at a hot spot. I am happy that it’s there for a quick look-see if the sound I heard in back of me was a deer or mountain lion, but I have to admit I’ve tapped it by accident more than I’ve cared (more on that, later).
Battery indicator is found snug on the side of the light. I really enjoy that the small LED indicators can be hidden from plain sight, as these types of indicators when exposed are enough to keep me up at night. The light itself can be tilted approx 45 degrees on the frontal plane separate from the battery that stays snug against the strap’s cradle, keeping most of the weight of the light as close to your forehead as possible.
Functions in Detail
The Black Diamond Distance LT 1100 Headlamp has two physical buttons on the top, and one hot spot on the right side that more or less acts as another button. You’ll need all these buttons to fully use all the lighting settings described above.
Here’s a cheat sheet:
- To turn on an unlocked light, press the larger, top right-side button
- To cycle through the different lighting modes, press the smaller, top left-side button
- When you’re on one of the colored LEDs, press and hold the top left-side button to change the color.
- To change the intensity while on any of these modes, press and hold the top right-side button. The light will either brighten or dim until it hits the maximum or minimum lighting intensity, then flicker.
- If you continue to hold the top right button down, the light will then dim or brighten until it hits the minimum or maximum lighting intensity, then it flickers again.
- To enable PowerTap™/Burst mode, tap the hotspot on the right side of the headlamp. Both the spot and flood lights will come on at the same time at about the same high intensity.
- If you tap this right side button when on a colored LED, the colored LED will go to its maximum setting too!
- To enable strobe mode, click the top, right-side button twice in quick succession.
- To enable SOS mode, click the top right-side button twice in quick succession, then tap the right side hotspot.
- Turn off the headlamp but pressing the top, right-side button
- To lock/unlock the headlamp, press and hold the top two buttons for a few seconds. The blue LED will blink for a few seconds, then lock. The flood light will turn on for a second afterwards when it unlocks.
- If you try to turn on the light when it’s locked, the blue LED will blink, but the light will not turn on.
A battery life indicator is found on the left hand side, which doubles as an indicator when the battery is charging when plugged in.
Features I Love
The Weight
At ~109 grams, this is a fairly lightweight option, with a ton of throw and light intensity — and of course: all those lighting options/settings. There are lighter head lamps on the market, but none that I know of with all the features packed into the LT 1100.
Weight breakdown of all the parts:
- Strap: 21 grams
- Battery: 54 grams
- Light itself: 33 grams
Visual Design
This light drips, in a very 90’s/00’s kid, retro-way. The lens/transparent front panel combo reminds me of all the see-thru electronics found throughout the households of my friends and I, from my corded phone, to my first big-kid-iMac,
Engineering
The engineering is obviously top-notch, with all the discrete components working flawlessly together. The quick release locks for the light to remove itself from the battery and the strap cradle remove itself from the battery work as designed.
Features I’m Not Quite in Love With
The Propriety Battery
There are a few problems with using a proprietary battery. Yes, it is replaceable, so if it somehow wears out after several hundred/thousand charge cycles or gets damaged, you can replace it, rather than having to replace the whole light. That’s great!
The MSRP for an additional battery — $24.95 — is somewhat higher than standard non-proprietary batteries like an 1860 lithium rechargeable used in other head lamps, which you can find online for as little as $10.00 from a reputable store. This 1860 battery would have approx. 33% more capacity than the battery that comes with the LT 1100 and with that additional capacity: more runtime. 18650 batteries aren’t very common outside of specialty battery stores themselves, but 123 Lithium Batteries (non-rechargeable) are — even in grocery stores — and two of those can work in a pinch.
But you’ll also have to order the LT 1100’s battery direct from Black Diamond — and maybe at some select brick and mortar Black Diamond retailers — which may be a hassle if you’re traveling. There is also the question of how long the battery will be available. Currently, this specific battery is only used on this one light. Once this light reaches it’s EOL, so may this battery — or at least when inventory for this battery dwindles.
Runtime of the LT 1100 itself is basically endless, so long as you have an endless supply of batteries or a third party battery pack, but this comes with a few catches – one being the price of additional batteries/pack. In theory, you could simply have just one additional battery and one in reserve – and when in reserve, have that battery hooked up to a battery pack/outlet charging. But, for some reason the USB-C port used to charge the battery is a part of the light, and not a part of the battery itself!. Black Diamond does have a battery charging cradle to charge batteries for its other lights, but as I write this, they do not for this model.
You do have to ask yourself if this is actually a problem, as using the light at even the high setting will give you over four hours of runtime. In my last overnight fastpack, I never felt the need to have the light on that level and a medium setting gave me more than enough runtime for a midnight start and a 10:00pm bed down.
If I was to take this light thru-hiking, I may opt for perhaps one extra battery to see me through most 5 day carries before hitting town and a little bit of insurance for a worst case scenario. Only when I’m attempting a very long distance FKT — over 7 days – would I feel the need to want a truly “endless” battery capacity that can only be afforded by bringing a collection of external batteries.
PowerTap™/Burst Tapping
The feature in of itself is useful – I can think of many reasons I would want my light on full blast. But the tactile-less area you tap to enable it is just too easy to hit by accident and more often than not, I do. I’ve noticed I brush against the side hot spot with the lower part of my forefinger when I go to press one of the top buttons with the tip of my finger, as my finger wraps around the body of the light.
As a critique, I propose that this hot spot should just be another button — or at the very least: an area that has some sort of difference in texture, or even simply a raised surface. Since the area you tap is on the same swivel as the rest of the headlamp (minus battery), not only is the tap area basically invisible to touch, it moves, violating I’m sure many written treatises of human user interface. This hot spot has been a feature on many Black Diamond headlamps that even I have owned, so maybe I’m a minority with this gripe.
When the light is on full blast, that 10 seconds may feel like the longest of your life if you enable this setting by accident. I’ve been The Guy that wanted to simply dim their light while hiking late at night through a dispersed campsite, only to enable a mini sun throughout the area. If you have monster hands like me, be aware. If you panic — just like I do — note the bust mode can be disabled by tapping the hot spot again.
Proprietary Strap
If you somehow break or lose the proprietary strap, you may be SOL. Black Diamond states that the strap is helmet-compatible, but this is most likely the case for almost all straps, as it is the helmet that is headlamp compatible, having small tabs for the strap to fit within.
Features I’m Ambivalent On
Multi-color lights
My imagination may be lacking (a regular state of mind), but I’m not sure the best use for the blue or green LED — although the Red LED is useful for campsite duties, so as to not destroy you or your hapless camping buddies’ night vision. It’s a very small critique, as the additional colors added to the light impact the price, runtime or weight of this light very little, and does adds a bit of fun.
Final Thoughts
Most headlamps that appeal to me start off as reasonably lightweight, then gravitate towards one or a few of three different strengths: they’re very simple, they’re very cheap, or they’re very feature-rich. The Black Diamond Distance LT 1100 is firmly in the “feature rich” camp. I’m not sure what other features they could have possibly packed into this headlamp. Perhaps the ability to connect to an app to control the light via your phone? The ability to connect it to a drone network that are similarly-equipped for light shows? Maybe I shouldn’t give Black Diamond any ideas…
The cost of all these features is literally the MSRP. The sticker price will come out to a little bit more than other, simpler lights that do not have as many of the bells and whistles and much, much more than a cheaper light that doesn’t come close to the quality of the engineering of the LT 1100. The price of entry also extends to any additional batteries you pick up — I do suggest at least one extra if you hammer it out on the trails for multiple days on end.
If you’re looking for a handsome, feature-rich head lamp that certain to last for years to come and the proprietary battery isn’t a deal-breaker, I can with high confidence suggest the Black Diamond Distance LT 1100.
