Black Diamond Storm 500-R Headlamp Review

What’s in the box

A rechargeable head torch with white light plus red, green and blue LEDs behind one lens, on a wide, soft headband. Two buttons sit on top of the lamp, and the side doubles as a touch zone for Power Tap. It charges by micro-USB, and three blue lights on the back show how much battery is left.

Quick Specs

Brightness and run time

The throw is what we like most. On max, the Storm lights the bush a long way ahead, and the medium and low settings save the battery when you don’t need it all. Black Diamond’s figures, to the ANSI FL-1 standard:

After the run time, medium keeps 15 h and max 20 h of reserve light for close-up jobs.

Colours and Power Tap

Next to white light, the Storm has red, green and blue LEDs. Red is the one for keeping your night vision or not blinding the people around you at camp, and green and blue add a few more options. The other feature we really like is Power Tap: tap the side of the lamp and it jumps from your normal setting to full power, and tap again to go back. There’s also a dimmer, a strobe and a lock so it can’t turn on in your bag. The buttons, one by one:

Comfort, size and weight

The downside is the size. Next to our other head torches, the Storm is bulky, and it weighed 101 g on our scale. The headband makes up for it, though: it’s wide, soft and really comfortable, which is why we don’t mind the extra size.

Charging and battery

The one thing that’s really annoying: it charges with a micro-USB cable. It needs its own cable, where most of our other gear charges by USB-C. The port sits beside the lens, and three blue lights on the back show the battery level, so you know when it needs a charge. The battery is built in, so you can’t swap in fresh ones on the trail: top it up from a power bank instead. It’s rated IP67: dust-tight, and fine 1 m underwater for 30 minutes.

Vs our other head torches

The Storm is the biggest of the three Black Diamond head torches we’ve tested, with the longest throw and coloured light. The Spot 400 is smaller and lighter on AAA batteries, and the Astro 300 is the simplest, with white light only. The Wuben H4 has more output and a separate spot and flood, but it’s fiddlier to use and charge.

	This reviewStorm 500-R	Astro 300→	Spot 400→	Wuben H4→
Power Tap	Yes	No	Yes	No
Throw	120 m	55 m	100 m	66 m
Light	White, Red, Green, Blue	White	White, Red	White spot, White flood, Red
Water rating	IP67	IPX4	IPX8	IP68
Brightness	500 lm	300 lm	400 lm	800 lm
Run time on max	7 h	4 h on AAA	2.5 h on AAA	2.3 h after turbo
Power	2400 mAh built in, micro-USB	3 × AAA or BD 1500	3 × AAA or BD 1500	1700 mAh pack or 3 × AAA
Weight	101 g	82 g	78 g	99 g
Our score	9.1	9.0	9.4	8.5

Conclusion: Black Diamond Storm 500-R Headlamp

The Black Diamond Storm 500-R is our head torch for longer trips: a big 500-lumen beam that reaches 120 m, red, green and blue light, Power Tap to jump to full power, and a really comfortable headband. It’s IP67 and comes with a 3-year warranty. It’s bulky and heavier than our other head torches at 101 g, and it still charges by micro-USB, but for $120, on a long trip where you don’t want to recharge every other day, it’s the one we take.