The River Rock 0.5W headlamp is one of several new River Rock Design lights showing up at Target. These lights tend to be much better quality than the the general consumer is familiar with and hopefully represents a trend toward raising the expectations of the "Average Joe" when it comes to buying illumination products. Specifically, the headlamp is very small, adequately bright (plus some) and runs a long time on two, readily available, AAA cells.

This particular light is made of blue translucent polycarbonate with a rubberized bezel ring and a polycarbonate lens. The elastic strap suspension system is a 3-point design, is fully adjustable, and provides ample adjustment room even for very large heads. The forehead plate has a thin foam pad which rests against the user's head, and the front is vertically click-adjustable to put the light right where you need it. All in all it is surprisingly well made with a rotating contact plate inside the battery compartment cover, and the cover itself is attached to the unit by a short lanyard to prevent its loss.

Bezel/Head: At the front of the light you will find the wide-angle 0.5W LED in the center of a smooth silvered reflector. Hidden somewhere in there is a voltage boost circuit to provide the proper voltage to drive the LED with only two AAA cells.

Output description: The white light produced by the LED is a high color temperature and produces fair color rendition weighted strongly toward the blue end of the spectrum. A significant blue tint is detectable even during normal use. This is fairly common with the 0.5W LEDs I have worked with and is my only real point of contention with this little headlamp. The beam itself is smooth with a bright center spot, wide corona, and a very wide dim spillbeam (not seen in photo). You may choose between "high" and "low" output modes depending on your illumination and battery conservation needs.

Beam at one meter at target center

Runtime Plot: This runtime was completed on the "high" setting which is advertised to last 7 hours. At 7 hours it was essentially completely dead in my test, running a little under 6 hours before reaching 50% starting output. Still, that's darn good runtime on just two AAA cells. Runtime on low is advertised at 25 hours.

Runtime completed with Duracell batteries. More information on runtime plots is available HERE.

Switch description: The switch is a rubber covered clickie on top of the headlamp. Click once for low, twice for high, and the third time turns it off.

Seals / Water Resistance: This little critter seems well suited for a wet environment. O-ring seals protect the bezel and the battery compartment. I'd call it "splashable" at a minimum; likely dunkable.

If it gets wet inside, just disassemble as much a possible without tools and let it dry before using again.

Ergonomics: There's a headlamp on my head??? It's so lightweight you'll almost forget you're wearing it. It's quite comfortable with the 3-point strap system and is very easy to operate.

Batteries: For batteries, this light takes two AAA alkaline cells.

To change out the batteries: twist the battery compartment door until it pops off, drop out the old cells, place in new cells observing proper polarity. Reattach the compartment door and you're ready to go.

What I Liked: Water resistant, Inherently impact resistant, Long battery life, Semi-regulated, Bright, Easy battery change, Lightweight

What I Didn't Like: Significant bluish tint to the beam.

Conclusions: If you can get past the fairly strong blue tint in the beam, this is a great headlamp. The fact that it only runs on two AAA cells means that it's cheap to "feed", very lightweight, and easy to carry replacement cells. Output is very good and overall it is very well made. An excellent lightweight headlamp in general.

Quick Facts Table: