LED lantern

Does anyone know how well the LED lantern or florescent compare to the 2 mantle propane lanterns. Thank you.

I find my mantle lanterns are much brighter than my LED lanterns. Many LED lanterns out there do have very artifact filled beams so nowadays I just use a diffuser on one of my lights which provides much more even lighting. I like having a mantle lantern when I camp because it just provides brighter and farther camp illumination for my wife. Oddly enough I like the noise of them as well.

Gas latern:
MUCH MUCH MUCH MUCH much much much much brighter
much loooooooonger runtime
much nicer light


Led Latern: small, brutally more robust

yellow said:

Gas latern:
MUCH MUCH MUCH MUCH much much much much brighter
much loooooooonger runtime
much nicer light


Led Latern: small, brutally more robust

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lol I was afraid that would be the answer but was not sure from some of the stuff I have read on here I thought they might have come up with something close by now in LED or florescent. Thanks for the responses.

i'm sure you could find someone around here to put a gas lantern to shame...but it might cost you, and you may need a car battery to power it :naughty:

I remember there was a thread about 4AA Sylvania Lantern that's been modded with either SSC P4 or higher power cree with some special reflector... it's bloody bright... I will try to look for it...

here you go:

http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=189628&page=2

just one? i was thinking like 4 or 5 of these new sst-90s....but if i need a lantern, i want to see like its daylight :devil:

This will probably be moved to the lantern forum, but while it's here...

I wish someone made lithium primary D cells.

I own a gas lantern, but I'd love to own a good LED lantern for blackouts, and be able to leave it on a shelf for several years knowing it'd still work.

Not to mention being able to use it indoors - sure you can do that with a gas lantern, but that's not exactly the greatest thing to be doing...

i thought i saw a picture of a 36500 lion batt, isn't that "D" size?

Gas lanterns would logically be brighter and burn longer thanks to the (relatively) immense amount of power released by burning gas.

SFG2Lman said:

i thought i saw a picture of a 36500 lion batt, isn't that "D" size?

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He said lithium primary, not rechargable.

Malkoff MC-E in a solarforce with the "lantern head" on it actually works pretty good, very reasonable amount of light off of a light weight enough stick with 2X18650's and sure don't have to worry about ruining the mantle on a propane type lantern. Save the gas for cooking!

lolzertank said:

He said lithium primary, not rechargable.

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ah he did indeed, my mistake

and to MrGman, I looked at those attachments, if my solarforce could tailstand that would be good, but that would eliminate the need to buy another light...and what fun is that? perhaps I'll go pick up a cheapo flourescent and "tweak" it a bit, if only i had more time

SFG2Lman said:

I looked at those attachments, if my solarforce could tailstand that would be good, but that would eliminate the need to buy another light...and what fun is that? perhaps I'll go pick up a cheapo flourescent and "tweak" it a bit, if only i had more time

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Your light doesn't need to tailstand for it to work, it should be able to 'headstand' on the crennelated bezel. Also, If I understand correctly I think there are tapped holes in the lantern head to take a camera tripod-type mount. Should be perfect with those mini- camera tripods that are made for backpackers. Anyway, I just ordered one of those SolarForce lantern heads so hopefully I'll find out for sure...

Looking forward to trying my Malkoff M60 in it, I wish I had one of those Malkoff MC-E's to really get some lantern illumination, goodness knows I have enough hosts&cells to get enough lantern runtime...:ironic:

If you made an LED light the same size and weight of a gas lantern, you could handily whoop it in both brightness and runtime.

However, no one wants such a large and heavy LED lantern, or to deal with the battery charging and maintenance that would come with it, so no manufacturer has bothered to make such a beast.

Kestrel said:

Your light doesn't need to tailstand for it to work, it should be able to 'headstand' on the crennelated bezel. Also, If I understand correctly I think there are tapped holes in the lantern head to take a camera tripod-type mount. Should be perfect with those mini- camera tripods that are made for backpackers. Anyway, I just ordered one of those SolarForce lantern heads so hopefully I'll find out for sure...

Looking forward to trying my Malkoff M60 in it, I wish I had one of those Malkoff MC-E's to really get some lantern illumination, goodness knows I have enough hosts&cells to get enough lantern runtime...:ironic:

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We have a way to make that happen for a small nominal fee.

Also since its not getting hot on the head and comes with a hole you can hang it. I hang mine under an umbrella on the patio or in the storage shed. If you are out camping you could hang it from a tree branch either right side up from the lantern head or upside down with the strap rings that lighthound sells for the solar force unit. I guess I am gonna have to take some pictures.

not to hijack the ops thread, but i just ordered one! should prove to be useful, thanks everyone!

I'm w/ Gman, MCE dropin + LT-1 Lantern = great setup.

i don't have an MCE drop-in unfortunately...but i'm sure my sst-90 drop-in will do alright :naughty:

MrGman said:

Malkoff MC-E in a solarforce with the "lantern head" on it actually works pretty good, very reasonable amount of light off of a light weight enough stick with 2X18650's and sure don't have to worry about ruining the mantle on a propane type lantern. Save the gas for cooking!

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I don't get the concept - a lantern is typically used for a while, so what's the point of using an MC-E (or even an M60) for that purpose?

I guess if you had a bunch of charged up rechargeables lying around when your power goes out maybe, or if you took a ton of cells camping, but I don't see the case for purchasing such an item when I could just use (or purchase) an actual lantern...

EDIT: I just thought of one thing this could be great for though - backpacking. As rarely as I do that anymore I'd easily spend the money on batteries and lug them and this thing around rather than a lantern (which I never bothered with for backpacking anyway).

Dude Dudeson said:

I don't get the concept - a lantern is typically used for a while, so what's the point of using an MC-E (or even an M60) for that purpose?

I guess if you had a bunch of charged up rechargeables lying around when your power goes out maybe, or if you took a ton of cells camping, but I don't see the case for purchasing such an item when I could just use (or purchase) an actual lantern...

EDIT: I just thought of one thing this could be great for though - backpacking. As rarely as I do that anymore I'd easily spend the money on batteries and lug them and this thing around rather than a lantern (which I never bothered with for backpacking anyway).

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Dude!!!, It works, with 2X 18650's its got 2 hours of run time at least plus for looking for stuff in the shed, which may have gas fumes from the lawn mower, never know???, don't want to take a chance lighting a gas lantern with flame and getting . I want to meet Jesus, but like the song says, not tonight. So hanging this thing up and pressing a button is a whole lot easier and safer. Next, I keep it in the kitchen hanging on the curtain rod as a quick and easy emergency lantern in case the power goes out.

If I wanted really long run time I could drop back to the Malkoff M60 or M60F. Or and I really hate to show off (I may be lying here) but I could put the Uniq Continuously variable tail cap back on it and simply turn it down and cut back on brightness and extend the on time that way. Been using that on it back and forth but I put it on another light for some testing of which by now I forgot why.

This is a very convenient tool. don't have to dig out the lantern, hope the mantle isn't ruined, screw in a propane bottle and fire it up, find a safe place to put it and set it down or hang it.

And so what if I carried extra batteries. How do you figure this is a problem compared to the size of those little green propane bottles. I could probably put 20 batteries into the size of one of those things and I would never use them. Plus I don't have to wait for it to cool down to be able to put it away. No disposing of propane bottles. what is not to love!!!!.


Now if your talking about one of those stinkin liquid gas lanterns that you have to fill and hope they don't leak and start a fire all over the place,

fawgettaboutit. Not going there. Mr Malkoff MC-E in a lantern head is the way to go. G.