Nite Ize Inova STS Headlamp

This is a great price, a well made product, but the 'swipe-to-shine' method to turn the thing on is ABSOLUTELY USELESS.I must have tried 100s of times of the couple of days I had this item, and probably managed to turn it on less than 5% of the time. What on earth is wrong with a simple button??Seriously, save your money and get a silva trail runner or something that is fit for purpose. This is a dangerous product that no way would I trust going out in the dark with.Gave 1* because I couldn't give zero.

I am giving four stars because I find the torch a bit on the heavy side bopping up and down on your forehead. I think once it gets colder and I am wearing a hat it will be a lot more comfortable.At first it was a pain to get to grips with the swipe action to turn on and set brightness etc however once I learned to got soft and swipe across the full touch pad it worked a treat.It lights up the path well and give a broad spectrum of light whereas my previous cheaper head torch would just give some good light but limited on spectrum.

Switch can be temperamental, but not too bad.

It does some things well, but I doubt I would buy another. The lamp is bright, with three modes (bright, dim, flash). The red LEDs are also bright and have the same modes, and are very useful for making yourself visible at night. Where it falls down is the mode selection. It doesn't have a switch or a button, but instead you slide your finger across an area on the top of the head lamp. In theory it's great, but in practice it's too unreliable. You have to slide your finger at just the right speed, in just the right place and with the correct amount of pressure. That's fine when you're sitting on your sofa, but less helpful when you find yourself in a real world situation. I recently used mine during a night hike with my Scout troop and found it extremely frustrating. Sometimes it would work, sometimes not. I found myself having to remove it from my head to change the mode, then put it back on. More than once I had to resort to opening the battery compartment to turn it off, as any number of finger-slides failed. During our hike it rained, and with the headlight and my fingers wet it became even more unreliable. I had to take it off and dry it before I could change the mode, although it did change on it's own when it wet material of my hood brushed it. Basically, a good idea, but it just doesn't work well enough.