G'day everyone, my name is Dominic and today we're doing a long-term test review on the Petzl
Actik Core 450. It's one that I've had for about three years now and I recently just used it on
the Australian Alps walking track for 23 days. To start off the Petzl Actik Core 450
is a rechargeable headlamp which means that being a core model comes with the core rechargeable
battery but it's also compatible with three AAA batteries and I think in the last three years I've
had it, the number of different trips I've taken on it I would have only recharged it a dozen or so
times because on that lower setting of five lumens you'll be looking at about 130 hours of battery
life which almost lasted me my whole Australian Alps Walking Track and on that lower setting here,
I do believe it's about five lumens or so, it's what I use 95 percent of the time just to save
that battery life but it was more than enough whether you're cooking or you're just walking
around camp and hanging out with friends around the fire there's not much more that you need.
If you go to the middle setting it reduces the hours significantly so it drops back to eight
and then the highest setting at 450 lumens is about two hours or so.
But that lower setting is more than enough for most of the situations you'll find yourself in.
So first things first we'll take a look at the headband. I use it when running, hiking,
camping, fishing. I've used it for the lot so it's quite comfortable. It's just a single strap,
it is adjustable, uh very easy to adjust. So it's just a single buckle there, opens up, pulls tight
and that adjusts it. Holds on my head quite well. There's never any slippage or anything like that.
The head strap that I've had on this one it's going on three years and there's minimal wear
and tear on there. A funny story my friend actually dropped it on the fire the second
day that I bought it. There's a little burn mark there but it hasn't even frayed
and so I've been pretty lucky with that one there. But yeah just super comfortable and
I've been very happy with it so like you know any good mid-range headlamp it's going to come with
a water resistance rating of IPX4 which means any time we've been hiking in the rain whether it's
absolutely coming down really hard or if it's just a light sprinkle I never had to worry about any
water getting in there and damaging the internals. It's going to be more than enough to get by on any
light rain or any rain you'll be hiking through. So just taking a look inside the head unit here
it just opens up like that this is the battery it comes out quite easily with the pull tab.
That's what the core battery looks like it is rechargeable via micro usb and when you plug it
in that's going to turn red that little indicator there and after about three hours from fully flat
that will go green indicating that it's fully juiced up and ready to go just pop that one back
in there like that snaps in snapshot feature that I do like on this on the Petzl Actik Core 450 is
the adjustability you've got here so you can tilt that down when you're working with your hands and
then when you're doing any walking, fishing tilt that one up and you can have it looking directly
where you want to go. So the Petzl Actik Core 450 here is going to come with three different
levels of brightness on the white light and then it also has a red light function as well
which I found invaluable on those nights with lots of bugs and you're trying to cook, you're
trying to drink switch it to that red light and it should keep most of the bugs away as well as
when you're camping with your friends and whatnot switch that red light keep the night visibility
and you won't be blinding any of your friends. Now closing thoughts, super reliable headlamp and
I think you know fantastic value for money at that mid-range level you've got all the modes you need.
It's been, particularly on my recent trek super reliable, it's taken a lot
of big hits knocks you know bumps all the rest, stashed at the bottom of a pack,
it's been wet and it hasn't skipped a beat and i've always known that I
can rely on it whenever I pull it out of my pack, it's been awesome.