Camping with JetBeam BA20, BC40, ShiningBeam S-mini, & Romisen RC-N3

Recently went on 2 camping trips and took these new (to me) lights with me to try them out. Wanted to share some thoughts in an effort to help those who may be considering one of these lights. This forum has really helped me and I am hoping I can do the same for someone else.

In a nutshell, all 4 of these were FANTASTIC lights. They all appear to be a really good value.

The BA20, S-mini, & Romisen all performed about the same, with the edge, regarding light output, going to the S-mini. The other 2 were so close, but the BA20 was probably just a tad brighter. All 3 of these had NO problem at lighting up the woods. It's actually quite amazing how much light these little tools can put out. In fact, so bright are these lights, that my "need" for the BC40 pretty much became more of a novelty.

Regarding the BC40, it's BRIGHT and I can think of no reason why anyone would "need" anything brighter for this kind of activity. It casts PLENTY of light PLENTY far.

Jonny

Thanks for the info. I found that when camping I actually need a lot less light and prefer something that can go pretty low. I found that I rarely used the big poweful lights because they put out too much light and where too bulky to comfortably carry. They were nice to light up the woods far away and impress.

This is why I like a multimode light with a low low and a decent high for when you need a few moments to see something far. Small single cell lights with AA cell or larger actually work very well and have decent runtime. And spares are easy to carry.

regulator said:

Thanks for the info. I found that when camping I actually need a lot less light and prefer something that can go pretty low. I found that I rarely used the big poweful lights because they put out too much light and where too bulky to comfortably carry. They were nice to light up the woods far away and impress.

This is why I like a multimode light with a low low and a decent high for when you need a few moments to see something far. Small single cell lights with AA cell or larger actually work very well and have decent runtime. And spares are easy to carry.

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I agree. The brighter lights tends to be problematic while navigating through the woods. Especially thick woods.

I actually had no problem night fishing from my kayak with nothing but my little ZL H501 (1 x AA).

I do like the more powerful lights (BC40) for things like searching for flying squirrels in the tall oaks, or for identifying the landscape along the shore while out in a kayak at night (assuming there is no moonlight).

Jonny