Bag and head torch
The Mammut Ambient Light dry bag is a clever piece of innovation; it's a dry bag that doubles as a diffuser for the Mammut T-Trail head torch. Or any other that you could jury rig into place. It has a three litre capacity and weighs 54g, it's just the right size to hold my RAB Microlight Jacket in fact. It's not a coated fabric so should be immersible and I was told that you could use it to carry water by which I assume from a tap back to your tent. I've not filled it with water to see how it affects the diffusion as I want to keep it as a dry bag!
Lamp in place
The T-Trail head torch weighs 82g comparable to a Petzl Tikka. It has four settings; low, medium, high and flashing. This equates to a 10m spread with battery life of 80hrs for the low setting, 20m/40hrs for the medium and 30m/20hrs for the high. And it's powered by three AAA batteries. The lamp has a tilt function too.
In use
To set up the diffuser it's a simple matter of detaching the lamp from the head band, emptying the dry bag, shaping the bag, roll the top down four times and slot the lamp in place at the bottom of the bag. On the high setting there is a good amount of light enough to fill my Hex3. The lantern can be placed on the ground or hung from the apex of your shelter. In smaller tents this might mean it will get in the way of your head space this wasn't an issue with the Hex3 as you would guess. Hanging the lantern upside down, that is with the lamp above the diffuser, gave the best performance. On the high setting you may need to pack a spare set of batteries if you're out for more than a couple of days in the darker days of the year but if you manage the usage then that shouldn't be an issue.
All in all a great piece of kit. Call 01625 508218 for your nearest stockist.
