With its bungee cord headband and compact design, the 35g Petzl Bindi is a a nifty little item that’lll be barely noticeable in your pack or pocket when you don’t need it.

Granted there are lighter headtorches out there, the 26g Petzl e+Lite 50 for instance, but you’ll be hard pushed to find one that has as much power as this. On its maximum setting it’s able to fire out a 200-lumen beam that’ll project as far as 36m.

There are five lighting modes altogether: the brightest at 200 lumens, the 100-lumen medium setting, a power saving 5-lumen option, then a red beam to preserve night vision and a red strobe for emergencies.

To turn it on and cycle through the power settings you just click the headtorch’s single button or hold it down for a couple of seconds to switch to the red light. To prevent this button from being pressed accidentally while in your pack you can spin the headtorch around on its little frame so that the button is guarded.

On the lowest setting this can run continuously for up to 50 hours, which essentially means it could last you the length of a big backpacking trip if you’re only really using it for a couple of hours while in your tent.

If you’re running it constantly on its top setting it’ll last 2 hours which is still pretty good considering the 200-lumen brightness.

“Petzl is one of the market leaders when it comes to headtorches”

With its feather weight of 35g, you’ve probably already guessed that there aren’t any AAA (or AA) batteries involved here. Instead, it uses a 680 mAh USB rechargeable battery, so if you’re carrying a mini battery pack you can juice it up on the go if needs be.

It’s not waterproof, but its IPX 4 rating means it should be resistant to splashes or rain from any direction.

Now granted it doesn’t look particularly comfortable, but you’d be surprised, because it actually feels like a normal strapped headtorch and holds just as well also. You can even use it to good effect if you wear it like a necklace.