Coleman micro fluorescent @ Walmart

Anyone got experience yet with this new light?

It has a shock mounted CCF tube powered by 4 AA batteries with a claimed life of "up to 5 hours". It has an amber lens that can cover the light for those that like amber or it can be positioned flexibly without the lens. It's a little like a CCF version of the Energizer LED folding camp light.

$12 at Walmart.

Coleman press release

I haven't seen it. I can tell you that short CCFTs have rather low efficiency, less than the current generation of white LEDs. That's even before you take into account the efficiency of the inverter required to drive the tube. Over a decade ago, I had occasion to design a high efficieny DC to AC inverter for hot cathode fluorescents. As a first step in the design process we bought a variety of battery operated fluorescent devices and reverse engineered the invertors. In general, we were surprised at just how bad the designs were.

I picked one up yesterday. The lamp assy flips up to the open position which reveals the clear lens. With the lamp assy in the closed position, the lens is yellow. The yellow part is not removable. It has a lanyard for hanging from a tree or your neck. Pretty good output, about the same as the Energizer Arc White. I will probably cover the yellow side with some of that adhesive backed metal tape to give the clear side a reflector.