Article by Markus Zinkl
Black Diamond Deploy Headlamp ($70/ €60,00)
Introduction
Anyone who, like me, often travels light and fast on the trails knows that every gram counts. That's why I was really excited about the new Black Diamond Deploy 325. Small, compact and with 325 lumens on paper, it looked promising at first glance. After a few tours, it's time to draw some conclusions.
First impression: comfort at its finest
What immediately struck me as positive was the weight – or rather, the lack of weight. At 48 g, the lamp is light as a feather.
BD has really thought this through also incorporating a wider, softly padded headband. This is a blessing for the forehead and a huge difference from the thin rubber straps found on the Nitecore NU25 UL or NU20, for example. The result: the lamp sits securely and is extremely comfortable. Even during fast downhills or bumpy passages, there is no annoying bouncing – absolutely no "bounce". A big plus! The design is slim and designed so that you can easily wear the lamp under the brim of a cap.
Operation: Simple and well thought out
The Deploy is very easy to operate. There are essentially only two buttons, everything is logically arranged, and it is immediately intuitive to use.
The wide button turns the lamp on and off with a single press. Holding down the button makes the lamp brighter or dimmer. Simply release the button when the desired brightness is achieved.
Double-clicking the wide button also activates a strobe. I find the lock function extremely practical. Once activated, the buttons are locked. To do this, simply hold both buttons down for a few seconds until the lights flash briefly. This prevents the lamp from accidentally turning on in your backpack and draining the battery.
When switching on and off, the charge status indicator also lights up. The charge status is displayed here via 3 blue LEDs.
The thing about the light cone: Ingenious trick instead of a hinge
Now here's the trick: the Deploy doesn't have a traditional angle adjustment. So you can't tilt it up or down. At first I thought, "What's the point of that?" But BD has saved on the hinge to reduce weight and cleverly solved the problem.
The round mode button allows the light beam to be adjusted electronically:
Mode 1: A focused beam that shines straight ahead.
Mode 2: Illumination further ahead.
Mode 3: A very wide, close light beam that illuminates the area directly in front of you.
This works surprisingly well in practice and covers most situations. Nevertheless, I must admit that I would sometimes have preferred a stepless, flexible adjustment by hand.
What I like and what is missing
The lamp is charged via USB-C, which I think is great – finally a standard for everything. The fast charging function is also excellent. With IPX4 certification, it is protected against splashing water, so a rain shower is no problem. Safety is ensured by the reflective headband, which promises 360-degree visibility.
But now for the big but: there is no red light function. This is a real drawback, especially for us fastpackers and UL hikers, who often work in the dark at the campsite or are out and about with others. You don't want to constantly blind your companions. For me, that's the biggest criticism.
The battery life was okay, but not outstanding. On medium setting, the battery lasted about 3 hours for me. That's also below the 4.3 hours specified by BD. That's enough for most evenings and mornings, but for long night-time use, you have to conserve power or carry a power bank with you.
A minor point, but one that is relevant for gram counters, is the pack size. Due to the fixed connection between the housing and the headband, it cannot be wrapped tightly around the lamp. This makes the pack size a tad larger than it needs to be.
Conclusions
The Black Diamond Deploy 325 is a super interesting headlamp for anyone who cares a lot about weight and comfort. The idea of an electronically adjustable light beam is clever and works well. It fits great and is super easy to use.
So who is it suitable for? Perfect for runners, for quick after-work runs or for anyone looking for an extremely lightweight and comfortable "always-with-you lamp".
However, anyone looking for a lamp for long night hikes, for use in camp with other people, or simply an all-round solution will sorely miss the red light and perhaps a longer battery life. For me personally, the lack of a red light mode is unfortunately a dealbreaker for my fastpacking tours, but the comfort is truly outstanding, so I will continue to use them for my evening runs when a long runtime is not necessary.
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Samples were provided at no charge for review purposes. No compensation was provided by brands for writing this article. RoadTrail Run does have affiliate partnerships and may earn commission on products purchased via shopping links in this article. These partnerships do not influence our editorial content. The opinions herein are entirely the authors'.
Tester
Markus Zinkl is 35 years old and lives in a small village in Bavaria, Germany. He started running just to support his main sport, football. Since he stopped playing football, running has become his main sport to stay fit. He now runs 5-6 times a week, covering between 60 and 80 kilometres. Apart from a local relay race, he rarely runs in competitions. Markus runs both on trails and on roads and is an absolute gear geek. In addition to running, he spends most of his free time hiking, especially in the mountains, where his interest in gear also comes into play.
Translated form Markus's original German with the assistance of Deepl.com
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