Camping: LED visibility (spectrum) vs incan! Lantern recommendation

foogan

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Nov 2, 2009
Messages
10
So I was camping on the weekend. I brought along a various assortment of lights. They have made me wonder if LED is the way to go for actual visibility. While doing some camp chores, I found my LED lights served to be more of a blinding nuisance rather than an illuminating aid. As far as illuminating objects, colors, surroundings to help discern what's going on in a functional manner as I would in daylight, I found my stock 2AA mag to be the most satisfying when compared to a 4AA Brunton Glorb XB, or my Mastercraft 3-led button cell penlight for general tasks.

As a miscellaneous Xmas gift from my mother, that penlight has always been remarkably bright for various tasks, such as finding the remote when it falls under the bed, looking for a screw on the floor, etc.. But doesn't seem to have the spectrum cojones for a pitch dark camp job.

The Brunton Glorb XB, I picked up last minute before going camping for $10, regular $35, at Canadian Tire here, and it seems to have great reviews.. But I'll be damned if I could find the stupid thing to be useful for anything more than a tent light. The reflector design with Cree LED served nothing more than to blind the S$%t out of me with no real benefit for most tasks. It seems solely purposeful as a directly overhead mounted light, which I must say it was fantastic at in the tent.

I also have a Maglight 6D with a Terralux TLE-300M-EX, which I had noooooo trouble with. :p

So to the point, I want to get a decent general purpose lantern (or two, depending on price) for area light. I want useful light that I can see things around me with, so I don't have to juggle my 6D while I'm doing something.

I'd either be interested in a single lantern or two separate lanterns to accomplish bright useful output for high visibility, and decently effective output with good runtime to be left on for the duration of an evening as ambient light of sort.

Size/weight aren't of importance, and I'd prefer alkalines, regardless of size or quantity. I understand that propane lanterns offer high output, but aren't as cost efficient as alkaline lanterns? My purpose is efficient and effective ambient lighting.

Any input on LED vs. Incan vs. etc? Reflector types to look for? Simple builds/mods/ingenius repurposing?
 

badtziscool

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Oct 13, 2006
Messages
1,722
Not as cost effective? I know the lantern itself is more expensive than some led lanterns, but the cost of the fuel is almost nothing compared to the amount of batteries you would go through to keep up with a gas lantern. Especially for the equivalent output.

I know a fuel powered lantern isn't very modern, but for me it adds to the whole camping experience. The type of light, the hiss, the burning of the mantles when you first light it. Of course I would never take one on a backpacking trip, but for something like car camping/luxury camping, the only thing, for me, that can beat a gas lantern is a camp fire.

One thing that I found that is pretty useful, just because it's so convenient and effective, is if you have something like a surefire P60 format light (c2/6p/etc.) you can get a diffuser wand that just slips over the head of the light. It works really well in lighting a whole area like inside of your tent or around the table. Search for xenoled tw02 and you'll see what it'll look like. And with a p60 format flashlight, you can have a traditional flashlight in a compact format, the ability to turn it into a "lantern" with the diffuser wand, and you can change out the light engine to all different types of leds from a cool tint to warm tint to red/blue/green/etc.
 

netprince

Enlightened
Joined
Sep 7, 2008
Messages
547
I'm curious if you have tried any neutral tint or warm tint LEDs (flashlights/headlamps/lanterns)? It sounds to me that what you are describing is a primary reason people get neutral tints.

A neutral tinted headlamp gets by far the most use when I am camping.
 
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