The TRUTH About Camping Lights!

I just wanted to give my short opinion on this subject. My wife and I do a lot of camping and in fact we just returned from a short, early winter camping trip with lots more to come. We camp in very rural areas with all the scary stuff like bears and pumas and maybe the occasional "real scary" creature, the TWO LEGGED type!

The BRIGHTEST and FURTHEST throwing hand-held lights that are all the rage ARE NOT required or even needed! Yeah, they're cool in your backyard at night or lighting up the interior of your house or a wall or with a light meter showing lux and all that. What you NEED is a good area light that will light up your camping area, a nice table area light and a couple of decent all around pocket lights.

I love the old reliable gas or propane lanterns that have been around for years and provide great area or table light but they come at the expense of delicate cloth mantles and the chance of blowing out in high winds. Our "old faithful" Coleman propane lantern on this trip "blew" out one of the mantles from vibration and rough handling.

With all this stuff about "hand cannons" and brightess and the furthest throwing "this and that", it really is meaningless in the real world of camping. You want area light!

For navigating around the campsite and going to the toilet, get yourself a good LED light with LOTS of sidespill, (the area outside of the main beam). ANY of todays LESS powerful and moderately powerful LED lights will do. When you're in low light and no light circumstances, you WON'T BELIEVE how POWERFUL these lights become!

I really have no recommendation for a really good area light for camping other than the old Coleman's and their ilk. I REALLY wish someome would come out with a great LED area light that would light up table and area. Of course that would distract modders and manufacturers from their real goal of providing city folk, (who don't really use their lights except for tests), from their precious "light cannons and throwing monsters".

ALL lights have a place in this crazy world we live in including lights that have NO real world value, but a great LED area light would be appreciated by you manufactuers and modders would be a BREATH OF FRESH AIR! Keep the light "cannons" coming but provide an LED area light that REALLY shines! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Gene, you're too right about that... in the dark, all you really need is a small amount of light that actually goes a long way. Usually I'll have my Eternalight Ergo3 as an area light, but its kinda troublesome sometimes as its hard to keep it upright on the ground on its own. My other camping/hiking lights are the Pelican 3Led headlamp, Ultra G on a neck lanyard (backup) and a UKE 2L just for spotting longer distances. While there is no need for a light to spot something 100 feet away, but its still useful to have one on hand that'll throw a decent distance. This is especially useful for spotting the trail ahead, or even to check out noises in the bush without having to walk in and find out its a bear or something. So IMHO yes, while its not absolutely necessary, but it still helps and is reassuring to have a light with a decent throw on hand, at least...

I've been camping the past 2 weekends in some PITCH black areas. I think an eternalight (the elitemax has better "feet" and will stand up pretty well) with some type of light diffusing "cap" would do QUITE nicely for this. Either that, or hang it from a tree with some thin cord or somthing.

Amen! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/happy14.gif I completely agree with everything you just wrote. I only use a headlamp while camping.

I went camping a week ago, and my most used light was my CMG Infinity Ultra G on a lanyard around my neck. I also used my EternaLight ErgoXray when I wanted a little more oomph. The locator beacon feature inside the case came in handy to make it easy to find. Of course I brought many more lights to play with....I mean use /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif. I do think having at least one bright light with throw is a must, just in case. As for area lighting, I prefer the good old campfire. That's most of the reason to go camping IMHO.

I do as much camping as I can and have used lanterns, both gas/fuel and battery. The one thing I dislike about them is they put light in your face - not on what you want to look at.

My solution was tripuss (cpf link). 3 Luxeons on flexible stalks that I can point where I want. The heads they are mounted in project a flood beam (60 degree) and the light is very usable without blinding you every time you look around.

I agree that in darkness all you need/want is a few mA of LED lighting to walk around. Maintains your nightvision, lets you navigate safely and you can still enjoy the stars... I'm a GREAT believe in LED drivers that have dimming capability, why waste battery life blinding yourself /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

george.

There's many "types" of camping. I have a shack (no electricity, unless sombody packs a gen) out in the Mojave desert. I light it with propane (hard plummed) and heat it with a wood stove. I do have a crude septic sys and water tank. For walking around outside at night an Arc AA level light is fine. UV with some visable is great for avoiding/finding scorpions in the summer. Lighting the mountain behind me (or annoying my neighbors 1/2 mile away) with my M6- priceless! If you have to pack it, needs to be small and light, including spares. If you don't...

Larry

I hope my project actually works, I might have a luminary that meets everyones demands. I'll know more in a week or two when I can get to 'play' with my Uncles lathe. So far, my raw idea seems to be what I was looking for. Finish product was to be 1¼"×4" but looks like I'll have to increase the diameter to 1½" to fit the guts in the body. I plan to run it on 2 123's in parallel with an option to connect to a 6V SLA for longer run times as well as being dimmable. In the corner of my living room (13'×18') I'm able to see quite well and was able to read novel size text about 8' from it. I think with some refinements this light will work great for an area/tent/emergency light.

Arcwhite would be good for camping... portable flood and an incan for spotting stuff if needed. If it gets cold just keep it in your pocket till you need it. Also multiple LED lights would be good for hanging down from a tree over a picnic area, flourescent lanterns are good for lighting up a general area also but most are designed for horizontal light output. A headlamp with 5mm LEDs would be fine also for most things also.

If you're camping near your car then you can carry lots of stuff. I think a good headlamp will do most of what you need and can be very light in the event you are backpacking. For my longer backpacking trips I used a light plastic 2AA incan from REI. I don't recall that I used it much anyway. I'm thinking that a TwinTask 1L or 2L would be a good camping light, with something like an Infinity Ultra in your pocket. But then I mostly just use my light to dig through my gear bag, find things in the tent, or look at my watch in the middle of the night.

I know I would take my uke2AAA eled, super long runtime, waterproof, small backup light and cheap to replace if lost.

Gene,

I know how you feel. During the summer some friends and i went hiking and we all had SF's. Well, we blinded ourselves more than need talk about and i ended up using my inova pocket light as a walking light.

Now, on the flip side of this coin, one should always carry a lith incan to spot things that may rustle in bushes etc,. On our trip, i scanned an area with my SF and saw eyes looking at me from afar. Well it was a coyote and i am glad is was not a bear.

Anyhow, one should carry a led and lith incan when in GODS country (mountains)

my .2cents

naw... just be a weirdo and carry a thor in one hand and a countycomm $1 keychain light in the other /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif

I´ve been on a camping trip in scotland/inner hebrides this summer and the light most used was the Arc AAA. For reading in the tent, even the longbow micra is to bright.
I second that one should carry a small LED-light and perhaps a "CPF-standard" incan or high-power LED (e. g. SF G2, L2) for "lighting everything up" - tasks.
But a light also very practible will be a Minim*g with Badboy drop-in, because You can remove the bezel and use it as a sort-of lantern in the tent.
My wife and I plan to do a hiking trip in northern Sweden next autumn. At the moment, the lights I plan to take with me are the Arc AAA and the Minim*g/Badboy. And perhaps the G2 or Kl5 I hope to have then. Problem is they all use different battery types.
Well, I still have time to do some thinking or buying other, better lights /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

If you're out in the woods walking around, then a little LED is ok, but it's nice to be able to light up the sky (i.e. at least a 6 volt lantern with halogen bulb) or a Maxabeam. Otherwise, what's the point of this forum, you'd be just as well camping with a 2 AA minimag, yes, that's still fun, but your campfire puts out more light.

When I went hunting a couple of months ago, I got plenty of use from my minimag with a ministar2 luxeon. My stinger got some action but not as much.

Although unnecessary, we had lots of fun with THOR!

What you need and what would be fun to use are two different things. So I took all my lights with me and had a blast.

the UKE 4AA eLED fits the bill as the best camping light to me /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Just got back from camping and yes...deer hunting.

ARC AAA is the perfect tent light. run it for hours without worrying about running down the batt. puts out just the right amount of light in a tent. the perfect backup/utility light

MR-X for night woods tracking duties.

I don't like to carry different kinds of batteries that are only usable in one thing, myself. When I'm in the woods, I only carry AAs, as they work in the radio, GPS, etc.

I use the old, 3-LED style PT Matrix for general use, Infinity Ultra for close distance tracking, and Terralux Ministar & Lambda Pill modded Minimags for throw. Even for SAR work, that's way more than I need. And I just laugh at all of the other guys lugging all of their d-cell Maglites around. .

Gene,
I mostly agree with you about having a good flood light, but I wouldn't say there's no use for throw in camping. It all depends on what kind of camping you're doing. For sitting around the picnic table, running to the porta-potty type camping, then you can get away with just having a single LED flood light to light up the area. But if you're way out in the wild, backpacking on an hard to find trail at night, then a light with more throw definitely has a place. Sometimes it's nice, almost necessary, to be able to see a couple hundred feet in front of you to know whether that's a bush in front of you, or a bear. And sometimes you want to know whether you're walking next to a 10 foot cliff, or 300 foot cliff. It makes a lot of difference. So if all your camping is done within 10 feet of a car, then the lights you use are really more of a luxury than a necessity. But if I had to choose only one light to have, I'd rather have a light with long throw (all else being equal). I can always still use it to do camp chores, it's slightly more difficult, but it would be impossible to use a flood light to light up the distance.