Alpkit Manta R.I.P

Alpkit’s single-unit Manta was kind of the uncrowned queen of budget headtorches, a sort of devoted followed in the footsteps of the venerable, default cheap choice Gamma, but by no means a bad thing. But now, Alpkit has revealed, it is no more.

So that’s the bad, or maybe bad, news. On the upside, it’s going to be replaced by not one, but two new models which should be an upgrade on the original. For a start, both of them can use rechargeable batteries for added convenient and rather than the Manta’s plastic body, they are made from metal, or more specifically, light but tough aluminium.

Hello Prism!

The new lights are called Prism, that’s one of them up there at the head of the page, they have a tough hard ano finish and are properly waterproof to IPX7 standard, which is brilliant news, far too many headtorches are simply ‘splash proof’. There’s a 100 version with 100 lumens plus, for the light hungry, a 550 which has – you guessed it – a whopping 550 lumens.

Alongside the Prism models, there’s also going to be something called the Arc, a plastic-bodied, 190-lumen torch that weighs 170 grammes and looks like a potentially versatile mountain all-rounder.

We like the look of the Prism a lot. Anyway, you can get more info from Alpkit’s sneaky preview blog page thing at www.alpkit.com/develop/mantas-are-out-of-stock-whats-coming-next.