A summary of an American customer with 40 years of cave exploration experience testing our light Wisdom Lamp 4
( 9th, 2021)
Edited By David Peng
1 Where you can buy and where you can use Wisdom Lamp 4
The Wisdom Lamp 4 is a multi purpose Lamp made by New Wisdom Investment Limited. Like many other lights these are made in Shenzhen China. The US Distributor is Northwest Mine Supply in Wallace, Idaho. Wisdom also manufactures other mining lights and chargers. Not long after I began caving I used a miners lamp popular with cavers from the 1950s to 1990s called The Kohler Wheat Lamp. During that era The Kohler Wheat Lamp was considered by US cavers to be the best electric headlamp. Mining lamps are typically made very sturdy as they are designed for daily use.
This particular model is compact and suitable for cave exploration and many other outdoor activities. Wisdom is starting to market this light to the caving community. Using the included accessories this light can be used for bicycling, night hunting, mining, cave exploration and just about anywhere light is needed. As of this writing the cost of this light is 159.00 dollars.
if you are in USA and want to buy it,you can buy here .If you are from other places ,contact Wisdom for local distributors information.
2 How it performs
The light uses a Cree S5 LED. It is powered by 2 Panasonic 18650 Lithium Ion batteries. These batteries are arranged in a parallel arrangement giving the light 7000mAh of power. The construction is bulletproof PC. The mold design strengthens the hardness of the housing and lessens internal stress allowing for impact resistance suitable for the demands of any cave environment. The water resistance according to the specs is 50 meters. This is much more than other lights cavers now use.This is possible due to the entire light being sealed including the batteries. The weight is 169 grams.
The water resistance rating is greater than any other non dive rated headlamp I am aware of, much greater in fact. The spot intensity is due in part to the large and very polished reflector. Larger and deeper than reflectors on any other cave worthy headlamp I have yet to see. This is a smart design as it is better to get your output from the reflector than by simply pumping more lumens. This will allow the light to run longer, not draining the battery as soon or getting near as hot and having to step down on its high setting not long after turning on the highest output setting. This to me is a huge plus.
3 How you charge it and use it
3.1 About Charging
The light can be charged with the included USB cord. Also included is a wall plug, mine was a European style plug but I did have an adaptor for US style wall plugs. These adaptors are not expensive and can be found at Wallmart where they sell suitcases or in airports as well as online. An optional external charger is offered as well. The light slides into this charger. Instead of using a “female end” charge port found on many sport lights this light has charge points on the exterior made of stainless steel and gold plated brass. The USB cord connects to these points magnetically. This is a much better design as it does not allow dust and water in like the more traditional charge port.
3.2 About using
3.2.1 You can use the lamp to charge your phones
The light can also be used as a charging device for cell phones or other small devices using the included cords that connect to these same charge points. The light housing measures 3 inches wide and 2 and 3/4 inches tall.
3.2.2 You can use the lamp for caving and riding bicycles
A flat blade is mounted that allows it to connect to included head strap that has a angle adjustment on the blade itself, something I have yet to see on any other light. You can also mount this light to a helmet by drilling two holes and running a tight wide zip tie horizontally or by simply purchase ing a flat blade mount.Also included in my package a bicycle handlebar mount and the magnetic mount that the flat blade slides into to attach it to a metal surface for hands free light for situations like working under the hood of a car or anywhere hands free light is needed.Also included is a nice lanyard.
One thing I like about this light compared to some is a rather simple switch operation. Only three output settings with a nice range of the three. Low of 50 Lumens, medium of 265 Lumens and a high of 533 Lumens. The Lux ratings on these three outputs are 1800, 12,000 and 25,000. Run times are listed at 60 hours for the 50 lumen setting, 13 hours for the mid setting and 5 hours for the high setting.The light also has a “gear lock” feature that allows you to use just one of the three output settings. This can be done with a simple double press of switch when on. Pressing the button when off for three seconds will put the light in SOS mode. Once press while in this mode will shut the SOS off.
Cavers do not use this feature but this may be required for mining safety. This may come in handy for a search and rescue situation. A few lens covers are included to give you a range of optic options. The bare lens will give a somewhat concentrated far reaching spot. A spot much further reaching than any I have yet to see on a headlamp. The included diffuser lens covers give you a variety of flood options and one is for red light if needed.
These covers snap on easily and stay attached via a tiny lanyard like cord to keep you from losing it. I find the covers handy for protecting the bare lens from possible scratching while in transit or if the light needs to be carried in a cave pack. I tried these covers at home in the dark and found one particular that gave a nice flood that lights up around your feet without having to point the light at your feet. A battery indicator feature is activated by pressing the switch when off for more than 1.5 seconds. The main light LED and two auxiliary LEDs flash a series of light combinations to indicate current battery status. Once you get about one hour from the battery being drained the lamp will softly flash one time every five seconds as a reminder that battery is nearly used up. During this flashing you can turn the flashing off with a two second press of the switch.
3.2.3 What I feel about after using it
I received my sample in January of 2021. The package I received has all the accessories I described above. I charged it up as it like many Lith Ion lights it was sent with a partial charge. I turned it on inside the house first before dark and was impressed. I waited until dark and took it out in my large backyard and turned it on …..all I can say was WOW !! A far reaching spot beam with a “hotspot “ that is most similar to spot specific flashlights. I compared it to some of my best headlamps both multi sport style and more expensive cave specific small batch lights and none were close in spot intensity and range. I waited a couple weeks and took it to a moderate passage size Indiana cave and was impressed. At first my fear was with the bare lens that it would not put enough light around my feet without having to look directly down. I prefer a spot beam for traversing through a cave.This was not a problem for me . I also tried one diffuser that at home seemed to be the most usable flood pattern for caving and also was impressed. A week later I took this light to a larger passage Kentucky cave with 100 plus foot tall domes and this light had no problem lighting these domes. I also swim laps regular at my local gym and took it to the pool and placed it on bottom running in about 4 feet of water for close to an hour and that did not phase it. I have a high level of confidence this light will hold up to the rigors of cave exploration
4 What are the pros and cons of Wisdom Lamp 4?
This is the final part of my review where I will give the pros and cons of this light as far as its use for cave exploration. No light I have yet to see has no cons.
4.1 The pros
The pros certainly outweigh the cons and I also take into consideration this is a multi sport lamp made by a company that makes mining lights. This light produces a more intense spot than any cave worthy headlamp I have yet to see and I have seen and reviewed many.The tilt feature on the flat blade is something new to me. The accessories and diffusers give a wide variety of optic options. A very well thought out design in many ways. The price is reasonable considering what all you get and The light has a two year warranty and here in the USA, the light can be sent during this time to the US Distributor for warranty service.This outperformed many more expensive lights. The weight to me feels fine mounted to the front of a climbing helmet.
4.2 The cons
The cons are few, one is that you cannot remove the batteries, I understand why this is done to make it more waterproof. This may be an issue for some cavers depending on the nature of their trips. Expedition cavers are used to being able to replace batteries and have unlimited run times for multi day expeditions. Most cavers are recreational and trips typically last 4 to 6 hours maybe. Run times will be more than sufficient for those trips. I will say here you can get the low setting of 50 lumens that gives sufficient light to traverse many caves for 60 hours. I ran mine on the mid setting and only turning the high setting up to spot tall domes or look at larger trunk passage. Another con is it produces a magnetic field as the charge cord connects connects via a magnet. Magnets can throw off survey devices cavers use to maps caves. This will only be an issue to those who map caves. Again the majority of cavers are recreational cavers. Another very slight con is the light has a somewhat sensitive switch. Since batteries can not be removed it may be possible for this light to get turned on accidentally while in transit or storage. This issue can easily be corrected on future versions. The only cavers out there that may have an issue with this light are the few multi day expedition cavers and those who survey.
