Review: Coleman 3AA Cree XR-C MicroPacker™ Lantern

[WildChild]

I was quite interested by the Coleman 4AA Pack-Away® Lantern when I saw the announcement last year but yet, it's still impossible to find it in Canada. I've been looking for a while for good small LED lantern for camping and I've had problems finding one here. I tried last year the Osram Dragon lantern but the battery compartment was too small for rechargeable batteries so I damaged the shrink wrap of a few new batteries and it also had a bad contact problems.

Last week-end, when checking again for a lantern, I found the Coleman Cree XR-C 3AA MicroPacker™ at Canadian Tire store. At the first look, I thought it had a Cree XR-E LED but I quickly saw that the die was different. I hesited to buy it as the XR-C is less efficient but I went to the store again today and I told myself: why not? There was also the 8D lantern that had a XR-E in it but I found it too big. So, here's my review!

First, the description from Coleman:
* Highly metalized cone reflects light
* Cree XR-C LED
* 65 lumens on high
* Durable metalized finish
* Runs 14 hr on low, 8 hr on high,
75 hr on emergency strobe
* Powered by three AA cell batteries, included
* 7 oz (198 g) with batteries

As the description tells, there are 3 levels of light, activated in the order high, low, strobe and off. Each press on the button switch to the next level. For the high level, I would say it's 65 emitter lumens as my SureFire L1 is much brighter. The lantern appears slightly brighter than my L0D-CE (P4 bin). The light appears perfectly white. The low level is still bright and appears to my eyes approximately half as bright as the high level. The emergency strobe flashes at the high level at 2 quick pulses per second.

I find the high level to be bright enough for most uses. It is probably too bright in complete darkness. I think that brighter is not always better and all my recent flashlights purchases reflect this (SureFire E2L, L1, G2L, A2, E2D, Outdoorsman). As I don't have a lightmeter, I cannot tell if all levels are regulated and I cannot make good runtime tests. Runtime will probably be much better on NiMH and lithium batteries.

I took some current measurement with my DMM. Since the lantern has an electronic switch, it does pull some current on the batteries when it's turned off. Here are my measurement:

* High: 380 mA
* Low: 151 mA
* Strobe: Unable to take a good measurement...
* Off: 0.45 mA

With this draw when off, it will drain completely the batteries in around 200 days. It's probably a good idea to store this lantern without the batteries inside. Personally, I don't care as I have plenty of flashlights I can grab quickly if I need light. I will use it mainly during my camping trips.

The Cree XR-C impress me. While being less efficient than the XR-E, it's still very bright with its smaller die. It has only two bond wires and the pattern on the die is also different. It has four squares while the XR-E has three lines.

The overall design seems good to me. It doesn't give the feeling it will break quickly. Coleman covers it with a five years warranty. There is a mirror coated glare shield you can raise behind it to direct the light to the front. There isn't much light reflected by it but it can help giving a good ambient light in a room by turning it so the light reflect on a wall, while you're not being blinded by the direct light. There is plenty of room in the battery compartment and the batteries holder feels thought. Fatter NiMH batteries are not tight at all in the battery holder, nor when you put back the holder in the lantern.

Overall, I like this lantern. Here's a small summary:

Pros:
- Uses an efficient LED.
- White light with no blueish tint.
- Small.
- Easy UI.
- Feels thought.
- Battery compartment and holder are big enough to accept fatter NiMH AA.

Cons:
- Draw current on the batteries when turned off (electronic switch)

Now, a few pictures of the beast:

View of the Cree XR-C LED:

Closer view of the Cree XR-C LED:

Front view:

Side view:

Back view:

Back view with glare shield raised:

Front view with glare shield raised:

Top view:

Bottom view:

Inside of the batteries compartment:

Top view of the batteries holder:

Side view of the batteries holder:

Bottom view of the batteries holder:

High level, 1/8s exposure (take a look at the cute little cow):

Low level, 1/8s exposure:

 

[Sarratt]

Thanks for the review and nicely done.

I've been debating with myself about this lantern. Like you I am still searching for a Canadian distributor that carries the 4AA model.
:sigh:

Could you read comfortably with the lantern approx. one meter away ?

 

[WildChild]

Thanks for the review and nicely done.

I've been debating with myself about this lantern. Like you I am still searching for a Canadian distributor that carries the 4AA model.
:sigh:

Could you read comfortably with the lantern approx. one meter away ?

If you check on Coleman Canada's website, the 4AA isn't available here. The only option is to order from the USA. Anyway, if you get it from Canadian Tire and you don't like it, it's easy to return it. And, yes, you can read comfortably with the lantern. 65 lumens is still quite bright!

 

[DM51]

Your last 2 pics don't seem to be working (I'm not seeing them, anyway) and they may be important as from the text I think they must be beamshots.

I would be particularly interested to see them, including one taken from above the lantern if possible, as I would like to see if there is a problem with artifacts.

It looks as if this may not be a problem, however it was a very serious one with its predecessor, the Coleman 4AA packaway, and I would like to see if they have improved the idea.

The 4AA version, reviewed here, was a very neat little light but it was totally wrecked by having seriously bad artifacts, all caused by having a clear window rather than a frosted one. A great shame, and I hope they have now improved on that.

This does look as if it will be better, but it would be good to see some evidence.

 

[WildChild]

It's strange because they are working for me. Like the 4AA Pack-Away, there are a lot of artifacts in the beam but I don't see them as a problem. I know it will be different with someone else.

[EDIT]
Beamshot from top

[/EDIT]

 

[DM51]

Thanks, WildChild - I can see your pics now, and that new pic from overhead (post #5, immediately above this one) is very useful.

Very good review - thanks! This light looks a whole lot better than its 4AA predecessor - in fact very good indeed. The artifacts seem to have gone!

A pity about the 0.45mA draw when off, but I think I can live with that.

 

[Gene]

These are still on sale for $12.13 over on the Coleman website in their "Family Store". Just type in FAMILY when it asks for the login. (Thanks to TOOCOOL!).

 

[WildChild]

Camping trip report: I used the lantern during two dinner at night. The high level was too bright and the low level was just about perfect. The lantern was on the side and it was lighting just perfectly the table. I feared the direct light from the exposed LED would be annoying but it wasn't at all. I really like this lantern and it's very good for the price! at ~$12, if you can get it at this price, it's cheap (they are $25 + taxes over here).

 

[gokusay99]

I saw on their website, it had been upgraded to: Cree® XLamp® XR-E LED - 80 lumens on high. So is this a good deal now at $17 shipped? I have an old Riverrock Lantern K2 version, will this coleman be better ? :thinking:

 

[WildChild]

I saw on their website, it had been upgraded to: Cree® XLamp® XR-E LED - 80 lumens on high. So is this a good deal now at $17 shipped? I have an old Riverrock Lantern K2 version, will this coleman be better ? :thinking:

Cool! This lantern was just released in Canada with the XR-C... It will take a while before we get the XR-E version. For sure, the XR-E will be brighter but runtime seems to be the same based on the specs.

 

[Turbo DV8]

Thanks, WildChild - I can see your pics now, and that new pic from overhead (post #5, immediately above this one) is very useful. The artifacts seem to have gone!

Actually, it's not useful at all! I just picked one up at Target on clearance. Man, this beam is absolutely fugly. Either that, or the River Rock spoiled me. It's going back. It projects a narrow band horizontally, most of the rest upwards, with a band of greenish light between the two. None downwards. So the beam shot from above looking down shows you very little in the way of the artifacts which are present. This would be OK sitting indoors with a white ceiling for bounce, but outside, most of the light just goes up, up and a-w-a-y. You might get around this if you could hang or stand it upside down, but you can't. You can hang or stand the RR upside down, but how ironic that it doesn't need to be upside down to get light downward. Also, major glare. River Rock: no glare. The switch doesn't have "memory" in that when in high mode, you have to press three more times through the remaining modes to turn it off. Negative points also for having to load a battery carrier, and flimsy latch-style cover. RR: no carrier, and solid screw-on base. This thing might be a good toy at 75% off, but otherwise, I'm glad I scored one RR when they were on clearance. This Micropacker makes me appreciate the RR even more.

 

[DM51]

Maybe frosting the window would solve that. It works very well in this mod.