Archive for the 'Shiny new kit' Category

Review – Lifeventure Downlight 900 sleeping bag – First thoughts

Posted by on June 4th 2011 in My reviews, Shiny new kit
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This item has been supplied by Adam Smith, representing Go Outdoors.

The sleeping bag being reviewed is the Lifeventure Downlight 900, the Go Outdoors link is here and the Lifeventure link is here.

The first thing to report is what this item's like straight out of the packaging... it's different. There's no traditional strappy compression sack, instead there's a drybag with a roll-top closure and an air-valve air-vent and stopper. The bag has welded seams and the fabric appears to be quite durable with a woven outer face and a coated inner face. Once filled, the drybag is as airtight as any other roll-top drybag - I sat on it and it didn't squeak or leak. I'm not ready to do an immersion-test on it just yet though. When I removed the stopper it was easy to expel the excess air and the contents compressed well to form a shape that would easily slip into a pack, or into a larger mesh pocket on the outside of a pack. When stuffed with clothing the drybag makes a useful pillow which fits neatly in or under the hood of the sleeping bag.

 

After taking out the sleeping bag and giving it a shake and a rest to allow the fill to loft, I stuck it on the lawn and took a few pics. My observations from this, and a few other notes, are listed below.

 

 

For the full spec I'd advise going to the Lifeventure site, but here are some of my observations:

 

  • The head-end is not cowled but it's still a nice fit around the face with the elasticated drawcord. There's also a down-filled neck-baffle with a non-stretch drawcord. Both drawcords have captive cord-grips on the side opposite to the main zip.
  • There is a small (about 5" x 4") zipped pocket on the outside and two Velcro-closed internal pockets (about 4.5" x 4.5") on the inside - one near the chest, one near the ankle.
  • The 2-way main zip is unbranded but seems to be the same as the YKK zips in my other sleeping bags. The zip opens 3/4 of the way across the foot end which allows for the user to sleep with feet out of the end (rather than out of the end of the side). It also allows the sleeping bag to be opened fully for use as a blanket. The zip has a corded pull-tag on the top puller and there is a Velcro-closed puller cover at the top end of the zip. The full-length down-filled zip-baffle has a woven anti-snag strip.
  • The foot is oval, allowing the user's feet to fit without restriction (but if you've got absolutely huge feet, YMMV).
  • There are two pairs of hanging-loops at the foot end - one pair inside, one pair outside.
  • It has single-layer box-wall construction with a lightweight ripstop outer and a Tactel nylon and micro polyester inner. The stitchwork is good - I've found no bad bits and no loose ends.
  • The outer fabric has "Ex3" treatment - see the Lifeventure website for details of this.
  • The fill is "high quality duck down", I've yet to find a proper fill-power figure in the blurb but the swing-tag says that there is 300g of the stuff in there.
  • The claimed length and widths are about right.
  • The claimed weight is 900g, I measured this one and found that the sleeping bag weighs 970g, the drybag adds another 110g. It's worth noting that with the drybag, unlike when using a standard compression bag, no additional waterproof outer bag is required.
  • The claimed "packed size" is obviously dictated by the drybag length and width, I managed to compress the filled drybag to an average thickness of 3cm with ease. I'll try the sleeping bag in a standard compression bag sometime soon and report back with the critical measurements.
  • Compared to other "mummy-shaped" sleeping bags this one has more width in the leg area, this makes it quite easy for the user to move around inside it.

All things considered, this looks like a nice bit of gear and I hope it performs as well as it looks. I was tempted to set up a tent in the garden so I can give this kit a night out, but I've been told that I'm too busy this weekend. Next week, maybe?

 

UPDATE (7th June, 2011):

I knew that there was something bugging me about what I'd claimed to be an air-valve on the drybag. Eventually the penny dropped and I realised that it's not a valve at all - there's no diaphragm in there. What I looked at and thought was a diaphragm is actually an internal baffle-plate to prevent the fabric of the bag from being pushed through the hole during compression - think of the cargo-hold window scene at the end of Alien Resurrection and you'll get my drift. Without the stopper in the hole, air can flow in or out depending on the pressure-difference. I'm sorry for any confusion caused by my error.

 

UPDATE (20th June, 2011):

Incoming information provided by Andy Howard (Product Designer, Lifemarque Limited)...
Please find some spec. details for the Downlight 900 that you are interested in:
Shell fabric: 300T nylon diamond ripstop and 290T nylon 6 corner ripstop
Lining fabric: 300T nylon diamond ripstop
Filling: 80% grey duck down, fill weight: 300g, fill power: 500g/m2

ITMA

Posted by on June 4th 2011 in My reviews, Shiny new kit
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Time for more kit reviews. Adam Smith, formerly of Fitness Footwear, is now batting for Go Outdoors. He's starting a new programme of product reviews and he's asked some of us bloggers to test, compare and contrast some kit.

After much deliberation I chose to review a sleeping bag. I'd narrowed it down to a choice of two - both Lifeventure Downlight bags. My preference was for the Downlight 900 as it ticked all the boxes for what I would use for warmer-weather high-up wildcamping where there's always a risk of adverse conditions, but it was over-budget so I opted for the Downlight 600 instead, figuring that I could supplement the reduced insulation by layering-up if necessary.

After all that, it turned out that the 600 wasn't in stock at the warehouse. I don't know how many strings he pulled, but Adam arranged to send me the 900 instead and despite it being over-budget, he wouldn't accept my offer to pay the excess. Cheers, Adam!

The bag arrived today and it looks like an interesting bit of kit. I'll post an initial review with some pics and data sometime soon.

Uberlightweighter’s smartphone

Posted by on May 6th 2011 in In the News, Shiny new kit

While surfing the Beeb for more election titbits I happened across this article about the PaperPhone, looks like it could save a bit of weight...

 

 

Can't tell if it has GPS, if it does it'll be an interesting gadget for the gramme-counters out there.

More details here.

Not so smart now, eh?

Posted by on March 11th 2011 in A bit of a rant, Bargains, Discounts, Shiny new kit

Virgin Mobile are doing free smartphones on discounted tariffs for Virgin Media customers so I decided to get me a HTC Wildfire. Ordered yesterday, delivered today, everything was looking good...

I got the old and the new phones into Bluetooth mode so as to get the contacts and calendar entries shuffled across, they do connect but the data wouldn't transfer due to some incompatibility thing. First fail. No worries, I thought, I can set it up for connection to the laptop and for transfer of contacts and calendar entries...

Second fail was on page 4 of the quick-start guide - "Please make sure to copy HTCDriver.exe from your phone's microSD card and install it to your computer". Easy enough, you'd think, but said file wasn't there. After some effing and blinding I found out that things have moved on since the guide was printed, and the file needed from the card is now HTC Sync_3.0 5422.exe so I started to install that only to be told to temporarily disable all anti-virus software. WTF? That's got to be a bad thing these days. I class it as the third fail. Needless to say it was necessary, so I risked it and managed to get away without letting any nasties.

Then the lappy was suddenly running the HTC Sync software in readyness for the USB connection to the Wildfire. Looking good again.

So I connected the phone and it installed but wouldn't connect to HTC Sync. More effing and blinding until I Googled and found out that "USB Debugging" had to be enabled in the phone. Amazingly, there's nothing in the guide or the handbook about the need to do that. Fourth fail.

Eventually it connected, and I told it to transfer contacts and calendar details from my Outlook 2000 installation, which I'd recently synced with the old phone.

No dice. "Unable to copy contacts from PIM" was the message. Oh, FFS! Fifth fail.

Next option was to export from Outlook to a .csv file, import that into gmail and then use the Wildfire to read-in the info. I fired up Outlook and went through the export routine only to be informed that the import/export facility hadn't been installed and that I'd need the Office 2000 installation disk. Fail six. Took me over an hour to find that, I was beginning to lose the will to live.

Eventually I did the export, I even set up a gmail account, I even got as far as doing the read-in using the phone but it's all gone tits-up - the data looks like it's been chucked in from a distance by a blind troll, hardly any of the names have the correct numbers or email addresses. Fail seven.

The phone may well be smart, but the software's shite and the ensuing jumping-through-of-hoops has led me to the conclusion that most of my free time tomorrow will be spent doing manual entry of data for the 237 contacts in my address book.

Arse!

Oh, and it occurs to me that I won't be out of the woods even then - Chris and Anna both got new smartphones too, and it's Muggins here who'll have to do all the setting up for them.

The Buttermere trip – a quick gear roundup

Posted by on November 4th 2010 in Bargains, Great Escapes, Shiny new kit
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Just thought I'd do a short post about some of the kit that my family used during our recent trip to Buttermere. There's not much here to excite the lightweighters out there but when kitting out a family sometimes value-for-money is a more important consideration than grammes-per-litre, and often cheap doesn't mean bad.

Footwear

I wore my AKU Crodas, Ella wore hers. Neither of us had any issues, they were nice and comfy. Chris was breaking-in her Scarpa Mantas - it was her first full-day outing in these stiff boots and they were obviously overkill for the route and the conditions, but they did need to do some mileage before being used in anger. Aside from an issue with the fit around her ankles, they were fine. Anna wore an old pair of hand-me-down Hi-Tec mids, no idea which model, they were fine too. We've promised her some new boots next year. Despite the bog-trotting and beck-crossings, we all enjoyed dry feet all day.

Regarding the performance of the Fitness Footwear test-and-review samples, I wore the Merrell Chameleon Wrap Slams for the walk to and from The Fish on Thursday night and they were fine (apart from the squeakiness), even in the wet. If Friday hadn't been forecast to be wet all day, I'd have worn them on the hill too, but the AKUs got the vote at the last minute. The Salomon Exit Aeros were a dead loss - comfy for driving but dangerously slippery even when getting out of the car and stepping onto a damp motorway-services car-park.

Other Clothing

I was trying out some different socks - for many years I've used only Thorlo KXs, KXLs or STs, but I'd seen some Wed'ze RNS 700 ski/snowboarding socks in Decathlon and I'd decided to try a pair. Actually, they're not bad - nice and long, padded in the right places, thin in the right places, and they stay up!

Packs

I carried the LA Alpine Attack 40 - my standard any-season day-pack for a few years now. It's a tough, solid performer with few techie bits, the easy-access external crampon-pocket this time being used for the bothy-shelter instead of the JetBoil PCS. Ella used her Berghaus Womens Freeflow III 35+8, the shape and the back-size are both perfect for her. Chris was using a new Quechua pack - the Forclaz 25 Air - she said it was a good carry. It's got some nice features for a sub-£25 pack, such as decent-sized and well-placed belt-pockets, a lurid green stowaway rain-cover, and a comfy air-cooling system mesh back. With the rain-cover deployed, there was no way that we would have lost her! Anna had a new Quechua pack too - the Arpenaz 20 - and it was just right for her slight frame.

Shelter/Safety

I figured that having some sort of shelter for the kids during snack-breaks would be a good idea, so I took the Terra Nova Bothy 4. It turned out to be a good call - the kids enjoyed sitting/eating/playing in it. I might invest in a bigger version for whenever we walk with another family.

Obviously we carried, used or wore many other items, but other than the above there was nothing to write home about.

Observing Report 16th-17th October 2010 (First light for the new scope)

Posted by on November 1st 2010 in Astrostuff, Observing Reports, Pics, Shiny new kit
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Sorry this is a bit late but I'm playing catch-up here.

Saturday night was forecast reasonably clear so I grabbed the chance to point the baby R-C scope skywards to see what it could do. Although this scope is built primarily for imaging, I wanted to try some visual observing first to see how it compared to the 8" Newt.

I'd been told that aside from the reduced light-grasp due to the reduced aperture, the contrast would be reduced due to the relative size of the secondary obstruction. Well, I believed that until I looked at Jupiter's clearly-defined belts through the 8mm eyepiece. It looked good, and there were no issues with holding the planet and its moons in focus at the same time. I had a look at some Messier objects through various eyepieces and was similarly impressed.

After that I removed the eyepiece and put the webcam in at prime focus and went back to Jupiter and its moons. The scope has a larger native magnification than the Newt, so it was hard to gauge the differences, but it was certainly no worse, I reckon it'll make a fair grab 'n go planetary webcamming scope.

Finally I set it up with the D50 at prime focus and took some guided long exposures of a few objects - M1 (The Crab Nebula), Comet 103P/Hartley again,  M33 (The Triangulum Galaxy) again, M67 (an open cluster in the constellation Cancer) and M74 (a face-on spiral galaxy in the constellation Pisces). Hartley was really motoring - in the pic the comet's elongation gives an indication of how far it was moving during each 300s exposure.

The data for the last two was dumped due to it being affected by high-level thin clouds, but I processed the rest and got some reasonable results bearing in mind the small amount of data that was used. I'm sufficiently encouraged by these to plan ahead for a decently-long session with M33 when the skies eventually clear here, I reckon I could get much better results with more data at better settings. It that works, I'll go for M74 which is supposed to be the most difficult Messier object for amateur astronomers to observe.

Anyway, the pics are as follows:

103P/Hartley, currently in the constellation Auriga.
Subs: 10 light @ 300s, darks, flats, ISO200.
D50 and AT2FF on the 6" R-C, guided with PHD.

 M33 (aka NGC 598), a spiral galaxy in the constellation Triangulum.
Subs: 12 light @ 300s, darks, flats, ISO200.
D50 and AT2FF on the 6" R-C, guided with PHD.

 M1 (aka NGC 1952), The Crab Nebula in the constellation Taurus.
Subs: 12 light @ 300s, darks, flats, ISO200.
D50 and AT2FF on the 6" R-C, guided with PHD.

By the time I'd finished taking flat-frames, packed away and locked up, it was getting light. I was knackered but happy. For such a small scope, the baby R-C has proved to be good and I'm glad that I bought it.
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