Top choice
The Spot 400 is an easy-to-use, bright enough light that offers long-lasting battery life and reliable performance, year after year.
Black Diamond Spot has been our favorite since 2012. You can certainly find stronger lamps with better visibility, but this one occupies the part of the Venn diagram where price, reliability, performance, and ease of use overlap.
It is more than bright enough. The maximum setting for the Spot is 400 lumens, which we found we didn’t need much of a time. For dog walking and camping evenings, the medium (200 lumens) does well. (This also makes the battery last longer.) The lowest setting is 6 lumens, which is bright enough to read a map with.
You have a choice of two beam shapes and two colors. The Spot 400 has three LED lights, two white and one red. The main “spot” LED casts a white light far down the road in front of you, which is useful when walking or walking your dog at night. We could see trees (and some local dogs) from 100 meters away. The Spot also offers a flood option (a white LED that creates a wide beam) and a red LED; like the main LED, both of these giants output 400 lumens and are dimmable.
It is free. The Spot weighs 3 ounces, which is light enough that you might forget you have a light on your head. And the polyester band (which also contains spandex) is comfortable against your skin even if you sweat.
It is usable. The Spot 400’s main button, which turns on the lamp and changes its brightness, sits slightly higher than the top of the headlight body (the 350’s button sits flush). This little improvement is incredibly helpful when you need to quickly find a button with your finger. You switch to LEDs with a small button, from light to flood light to red light. Pressing both buttons at the same time for two seconds activates the Spot’s lock mode, which prevents the light from accidentally shining on your bag — this is one of the few lights we’ve tested with such a mode. The Spot also has PowerTap functionality; find the small starburst icon next to the light and tap it to quickly blast it to maximum, then tap it again to go back to low.
Works with standard or rechargeable batteries. The Spot 400 can hold three AAA batteries (included with the light) or a Black Diamond rechargeable lithium ion battery (sold separately). We tested the Spot 400 with AAA and BD 1500 batteries; we also tested the new Black Diamond Spot 400R, a variant of the Spot that you recharge using a Micro-USB cable. (You can’t remove its battery — it’s built in.) After all this, we decided that if you’d like to have a rechargeable headlamp, it makes more sense to buy the Spot 400 and an extra rechargeable battery, so you can use less disposable batteries, than you do to buy the Spot 400R.
Battery life is good enough. In our tests, this lamp ran for a maximum of three hours (beating Black Diamond’s average of 2.5 hours). Even after three hours, it continued to run, but lost a significant amount of light, which can leave you squinting when you’re looking for small items in your tent or trying to navigate a dark lane. After 10 hours, we closed it. The Spot has a battery life indicator that comes on when the headlamp is about to turn off or needs charging. (If you press the main button, the indicator will also show how full the battery is.)
It works in the rain — but you can go swimming with it. The Spot 400 has an IPX water resistance rating of 8, which means it will work under up to 1.1 meters of water for up to 30 minutes. We dropped the light into a shallow bucket of water and it continued to shine, even in the water. Keep in mind that this level of water protection is intended primarily for accidental exposure, not for deliberate underwater adventure. When we took the Spot out of the bucket, the battery bag was full of moisture. After leaving it on overnight to dry, the lamp worked just as well as it did before the water test.
It is a very (very) heavy lamp. The Spot 400 is known as one of the longest lasting lamps available. Jenni ran it through the dryer cycle, and it wasn’t too bad for wear. We also threw it in our bags on long trips, it got lost in the trunk of our cars from time to time, and Jenni let her toddler play with it. All Black Diamond lamps are backed by the company’s three-year warranty.
How high is the Spot lamp
Jenni has had multiple versions of the Spot since 2015, and they never fail, even on rainy, windy days and long hikes. (The previous author of this guide, Eve O’Neill, has had her Spot lamp since 2011, and has never experienced any problems.)
Many other workers have also used this model for more than five years without it getting old. We did have feedback in the comments that Spot’s headband is wearing out, however. This is normal for any stretch of wear and tear, but if it occurs within the three-year warranty period, a Black Diamond representative said customers can file a claim to have the headbands repaired or replaced.
Flaws but not dealbreakers
The 400 has a small hot spot in the middle of the beam. You’re more likely to notice it if you need light that extends far (like trail runs or midnight trips to the bathroom while camping).
The manual is not easy to understand. The manual explains the functions of the lamp with pictures only, like the IKEA instructions. It takes patience to click through each setting and find the option you want, but once you learn how to use the 400, you’ll be good to go.