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Petzl Bindi Rechargeable Headlamp Review

Petzl Bindi Headlamp Review

The Petzl Bindi is a lightweight, but powerful rechargeable headlamp that weighs 1.2 oz (35 g). With a light output of 200 lumens, it’s perfect for backpacking, hiking, camping, or trail running, with white and red light modes. The Bindi has a built-in battery and a micro-USB recharging port with an easy-to-read battery meter so you can tell when the headlamp is running low on juice or fully charged. Two different locks, one digital and one physical, prevent accidental activation of the headlamp when it’s packed.

Petzl Bindi Rechargeable headlamp

Brightness
Controls
Battery
Comfort
Weight

Ultralight and Ultrabright

The Petzl Bindi is an ultralight USB rechargable headlamp with white and red light modes. It's easy to use with a built-in battery meter and digital lock to prevent accidental activation.

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Light Intensity and Color

The Bindi is a small headlamp, but don’t let that fool you. Both the white and red light modes will hurt your eyes if you look directly into them. That said, the battery capacity of the Bindi (680 mAh) is about half that of other rechargeable headlamps, making it more suitable for in-camp use where the battery life will be longest and not for extended night hiking or trail running in the dark. See SectionHiker’s Gear Guide: 10 Best Rechargeable Headlamps for a list of the best rechargeable headlamps that we recommend.

For example, the Bindi has three white light intensities: low (5 lumens), medium (100 lumens), and high (200 lumens). The lower the intensity, the longer the battery will last: the low setting will burn for 50 hours, the medium setting for 3 hours, and the high setting for 2 hours. There’s no way to dim the light in between these settings or to focus the beam, which is set to a broad floodlight spread.

The battery life in red mode is significantly better, but it is also better for in-close nighttime tasks like reading a map or sitting around a campfire. The red light comes with two settings, a low-intensity light that burns at 1 lumen for 33 hours and a strobe light, good for night cycling or running that will burn for 200 hours and is visible from 400 meters.

If you do drain the Bindi battery unexpectedly fast, it has a unique white light reserve mode that will continue to burn for 90 minutes at 3 lumens. While dim, this will give you enough light to get you settled for the night in your sleeping bag or an emergency bivy sack. This is a fairly unique safety feature among headlamp manufacturers, but a quite useful one, given the Bindi’s limited power capacity.

The Bindi is rechargeable with a micro-USB cord. It also has a battery meter.
The Bindi is rechargeable with a micro-USB cord. It also has a battery meter.

Control Login, Battery Meter, Lock

The sequence of button presses used to control the Bindi is completely digital but easy to enumerate by pushing the control button repeatedly (even if you can’t remember them), to cycle through the white and red lights and their intensity levels.  Petzl’s documentation for this headlamp is also very good and available in both graphic and written form. I dislike headlamps with complicated push-button control sequences because I don’t use them frequently enough to commit them to memory. Simplicity is a benefit, for me, at least.

When you start the Bindi, the battery meter will display a colored light for 4 seconds that indicates the headlamp’s charge level. There are three energy ranges indicated by red, orange, and green lights, that correspond to 0-33%, 33%-66%, and 66%-100% level charges. While these levels are directional at best, you can mitigate the risk of running out of power by recharging the headlamp after each use and by carrying a portable battery, even a small one to recharge it if necessary.

The Bindi has two locks to prevent accidental activation. A long 4-second press on the control button will digitally lock the headlamp, while a subsequent 4-second press will unlock it. Alternatively, or in addition, you can flip the headlamp upside down in its cradle. This blocks access to the control button and reduces the chance of accidentally pressing it.

Cradle and Headband

The Bindi swivels inside its cradle and can be pointed up or down a full 360 degrees on the angle you want it to point if you’re using the headband. The cradle can also be used as a separate stand to position the beam if you don’t want to use the headband.

The Bindi’s headband takes some getting used to. It’s just an elastic cord that pinches uncomfortably if you make it too tight. Unfortunately, it’s tightly integrated with the Bindi’s cradle and not easily replaceable. While a more conventional headlamp headband would have been overkill for such a small light, I far prefer the ultralight headband on the classic Petzl e+Lite and wish Petzl had used that instead. It’s not a deal killer but does diminish the desirability of the headlamp.

The head band cradle can also be used as stand for task lighting
The headband cradle can also be used as a stand for task lighting.

Do You Need a Rechargeable Head Lamp?

If you already carry a power pack to recharge your cell phone in the backcountry, it makes sense to switch to a rechargeable headlamp like the Bindi if you haven’t already. There’s a huge shift underway towards the use of standardized rechargeable electronics in the backcountry that can be recharged with portable power packs and micro-USB, Apple Lightning, or USB Type C cable connectors. I used to carry device-specific spare batteries for my cell phone, camera, GPS, satellite messenger, and headlamp. No more. I’ve since switched to devices that can all be charged by carrying a single power pack and micro-USB or lightning adapters. It makes packing for a trip simpler and cuts down on waste.

Comparable Rechargeable Headlamps

Make / ModelLumensWeight
Petzl Actik Core6003.1 oz
Coast Fl1R Micro Headlamp3001.7 oz
Black Diamond SPOT-R Headlamp3252.6 oz
Nitecore NU 337005.3 oz
Fenix HM50R7002.75 oz
Black Diamond Astro 300-R3002.65 oz
Biolite 800 Pro8005.1 oz
Nitecore NU 25 UL4001.59 oz
LEDlenser MH106005.6 oz
Petzl Bindi Ultralight 2001.2 oz

Recommendation

The Petzl Bindi is an ultralight, mico-USB rechargeable headlamp that’s well suited for in-camp use on backpacking trips where you don’t need a long burning, high-intensity light. While the Bindi does have plenty of light output at high power, if you need it, it doesn’t have a big enough battery for hiking all night or long multi-hour trail runs. However, it has an easy-to-remember control sequence and comes with a full range of premium features including white and red light modes, a red strobe light, a battery meter, and 2 locks to prevent accidental activation. If you’re looking for high quality, ultralight USB-rechargeable headlamp you’ll have a hard time topping the Petzl Bindi. Add in the fact that Petzl provides a 5-year warranty, you really can’t go wrong with it. Highly Recommended.

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15 comments

  1. I currently use AAA type head lamps and while they work fine it is a pain to carry and replace the batteries. Like my smart phone, etc. it is far easier to plug it in to a charging device and to carry a fully charged charging device for all your devices.
    I see one of these in my Christmas Stocking…email with link sent to wife :)

  2. I still have a couple lights that use AAA batteries. I bought a batch of lithium batteries on fleaBay just for my lights. The lithium batteries are lighter and last longer. All that being said, my go to headlamps are rechargeable.

    The Petzl Bindi will certainly last the duration of any trail running I do… but then again, the only time I’d be running on the trail is if something’s chasing me… and I might not want to turn on the light to see what it is!

  3. What, if any, is the advantage to carrying a Bindi vs a Petzl e-lite? This past summer I hiked 700+ miles on the AT (in a single stretch). I carried an Anker power pack (10,000 mAh) to recharge my i-phone, camera (Olympus TG-5) and inReach Explorer. At times I did not have the opportunity to recharge my battery for 6 days or so. The e-lite requires a small battery, provided enough light and made carrying extra batteries a non-issue. I feel that having to recharge a Bindi may stretch the limits of my system too far. I only depleted the power pack once and did not run my other devices dry. I used the phone to run Guthooks app.

    • If you never used up the battery on your e+Lite, I doubt you will on the Bindi either. The thing I like about it is not having to hunt in drug stores for the little batteries the e+Lite requires. I’m happy not to do that ever again.

    • I have used both the Bindi and the e+lite. At 50 lumens, the e+lite was OK for activities while in-camp but not much else. Try hanging a bear bag in a northern forest at night with a 50 lumen headlamp and you know what I’m talking about. With 100 and 200 lumen settings, the Bindi is much more practical and still ultra light. With that being said, because the e+lite is so small and light, I almost always carry it as an emergency backup headlamp should my primary headlamp fail.

      • I view the Bindi as an upgraded remake of the e+Lite. It has a lot of the same attributes (small, lock, red mode, stand, easy to use) but rechargeable.

      • I guess the lumens thing is different for each person. When I thru hiked the AT in 2010, the most popular headlamp was 40 lumens on high. I did a ton of night hikes and I never felt it was too dim.

        My current headlamp has 60 lumens on high, but I rarely use that setting, I normally night hike with the 21 lumen medium setting. I have no problems even hiking full speed with that, plenty of light.

        I just hate the trend of super bright headlamps nowadays, there’s no need for any that bright, and it makes shopping for headlamps a lot harder, I want a lower power one with long battery life.

  4. It’s good to see that Petzl is making a headlamp with a lock now (I don’t remember that before), never again will I buy a headlamp without one.

    I’ve been looking hard at the Nitecore NU 25. The actual weight is more like 1.8/1.9oz. Nitecore provides the weight for this model without the headband attached (the headlamp ships that way). A few reviewers have weighed it with the headband and consistently come up with the ~1.9oz weight, still not bad, moves the NU 25 to second lightest on the list, after the Bindi.

  5. I have the Bindi, and i love it, but how exactly is red mode with 1 lumen and 33 hours better than white mode with 5 lumens for 50 hours? Its 17 hours and 4 lumens less

  6. Petzl Bindi
    Good:
    – light and convenient
    – nice double lock in bag funcion
    – great head and neck binder-wire
    – battery level indicator, working every time you switch on and off lamp, but not precise
    – full range of light direction up-down like angle headlamp

    Bad:
    – LED too cool, why you put this cheap looking emiter on expensive lamp ???
    – beam pattern is not enough flood for me – spot exist, and aside from are not very uniform darker areas. You have to aim this headlamp when you doing something close
    – lamp always starts in LOW mode… I know it is great for backpackers, but in my opinion (small battery, and relative dim, ipx4) this is mainly maintenance in-door headlamp, so this should start in memory mode, or on HIGH first. Every time when I want to do something i house or near, I have to click 3 times (not too fast) to force this thing to give any light
    – Pointless Medium. Lamp is overall not bright. Battery capacity is expected, but 2h on high is lie. It is more like 1.5h, I don’t know how long it last on medium in reality, because is to dim even on high
    – Loooong 4h charging…
    – Not fully waterproof, probably not heavy rainproof – WHY ???
    – When connected to charger it wdon’t work in High mode – High is not available, so If You want to use this with batterypack – You have max. 100lm
    – Price to high for lamp like this with so many drawbacks

    • Petzl numbers are always optimistic.
      They used to rate it as usable up to the same level as from the moon.
      You could debate if ANSI 10% or enthusiast 50% of output should define the end of runtime but I’d say that when you have passed the level below the run time is out.
      Moonlight is definitely not to be considered as high mode.

  7. “The battery life in red mode is significantly better”
    How is 1 lumen at 30h better than 5 lumen at 50h?

    I’d rather have 100h of white light at 1 lumen than 30h of red.

    Also, the mode spacing is unfortunate – the step from 100 to 200 is too small.
    40-50 lumen would have been a better mid mode and the battery time would improve accordingly.

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