Camping lanterns in real use

Poppy

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Left to right:
30 ? lumen 4AA satellite lantern, 300 lumen GE Enbrighten lantern 4D cell, 300 lumen 4/8 AA Energizer with light fusion technology, 300 lumen Ozark trail 4D cell, Ryobi 18V Plus One lantern.

The satellite lantern is the least efficient lantern we own, but lasts long enough on 4AA cells that we always take it on camping trips. It is a directional floody lantern that hangs from the top of the inside of the tent, facing down. It is one of those things... that just works! We'll let it run for a few hours, and when the kids are ready to bed down, it isn't so bright that they can't fall asleep with it on. Later when we come into the tent, there is enough light to get oriented, and organized. Hopefully the last of us remembers to reach up and turn it off.

I didn't bring the GE lantern on this trip, but others have brought it on other trips I was on. As mentioned in reviews of it, it's tint is fairly NW. On some trips, people would run it on max, which might be a bit glaring, but not terrible. It does light up the camping table fairly well, and runs a long time on 4D cells.

The Energizer folding lantern was the best for illuminating the table, and cooking area. The troop had trail boxes that stood at the end of the picnic tables. They contained all the cooking pots, utensils, and Coleman stove, etc. The lantern was placed on top of it and since it is directional, it lighted the table and cooking area nicely, and it is the least glaring of the lot.

The Ozark trail lantern, in it's original format may have been the most offensive of the lot, with a decidedly cool emitter. I swapped in a warm/NW emitter, which made it better. Even at that... we used the low output level.

The Ryobi lantern, is more comfortable head standing than tail standing, and does a little better job lighting the surface it is resting on when it is head standing. So I removed the handle for it. It's ok to use for cooking if you position it well. But the CW isn't to my liking. Long run-times and easy to recharge batteries is it's big plus.

Someone brought two additional lanterns of note:
The Brushnell TRKR 1000 lumen lantern.
With such a larger diffuser, it wasn't too glarey. I was similar to shining a flashlight into a opaque water gallon container.

The Coleman 1000 lumen CPX6 lantern
Overall I think that the tint and glare is similar to the GE Enbrighten lantern.
This light was left on all night long on top of one of the picnic tables that was somewhat centered in the campsite. Although there was a full moon, the site was pretty wooded, and this lantern sort-of acted like a night light at home.

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There were probably 30-35 people in our site, two to a tent, with each having their own equipment. At the half a dozen or so tables there were lanterns here and there, but all set on low, or their batteries were weak. The point being, none was putting out it's maximum listed output. IMO, it was better to have multiple lanterns set at 100 lumens or less, than a few at anywhere near 300 -1000.
 
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Subterrestrial

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Jul 20, 2016
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Hey Poppy, the pic is not working. :(

I completely concur though. Matches my camp light checklist:

_Strong cooking/task light

_General area light(s)

_Personal area/tent light

I also think most campers should have a headlamp and at least one flashlight.
 

Poppy

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Dec 20, 2012
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Location
Northern New Jersey
Thanks Subterrestrial.

Working with Google pictures are a bit of a PIA. Fine for other google users (who are logged in), but not others. It should work now.

I agree with you that other than the lanterns, a camper should have two additional lights. My preference is a headlamp, and flashlight, but when there are a lot of people camping together, especially kids, I'd prefer that THEY don't use headlamps. Far too often they shine them directly in the face of the person they are looking at to speak with them.

Cooking with a NW headlamp is the way to go. And if cooking raw meat, to use a thermometer.
 

xxo

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Apr 30, 2015
Messages
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Thanks for the real world use comparison.

The only one I am familiar with is the Energizer folding lantern - great concept but not so good build quality and attention to detail (pretty much par for the coarse with Energizer).
 

JasonJ

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Feb 4, 2013
Messages
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Nice post. I have both the Energizer folding lantern and the Ozark Trail lantern. I concur with your assessment of the Energizer, it's a dang good piece and I wish I had more than the one.

The Ozark Trail I have two of, and they've helped a ton when we've had power outages. The D cells in these last FOREVER... or at least 2+ years that I've left them in the lights (yes, I know... they're alkaline, so they could leak). I found that if I wrapped the lens of the lantern in a couple layers of plastic wrap, then used rubber bands to hold it in place, it works as an excellent diffuser and takes away a ton of the harsh glare that these lanterns output.
 
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