Lanterns, flashlights and lighting - post yours

[Bill D]

What can I say. I'm addicted to flashlights and lighting etc. Every time I go through a dept store, my GF has to remind me I have enough flashlights

I hope with this thread we can have a little bit of fun.

Post pics of your patio lanterns, LED exteriors, flashlights, Coleman lanterns (the classics are beautiful), candles... you name it... if it lights up post it. Even a nice evening pic of a pop up with the interior lights on can look beautiful.

 

[Lighthawk]

Great idea for a thread!

I'll kick off with one of the standard items we carry with us.
BD headlamp with red LED option. Lightweight, both bright and dimmable, with red LED for optimal night sky viewing.

 

[Bseek]

I love my Luci Emrg lights. They are solar lights that are sort of an inflatable pillow. I have the frosted side ones. They have 3 LED lights, that can be on, flashing or red. I keep them on the dashboard while driving, but make sure they are not inflated. As the air in them heats up, it might split the pillow.

https://www.amazon.com/MPOWERD-Luci-EMRG-Emergency-Inflatable/dp/B00F5TIOXG/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1467085640&sr=8-4&keywords=Luci

$9.95

I have a small strip of hook velcro that I keep over my head on the bed. It slips through the built in handle on the light and it hangs at a perfect level for reading in bed. That is assuming you have an ATC or FWC with the velcro for the Arctic or All weather pack.

 

[Bill D]

https://www.amazon.com/MPOWERD-Luci-EMRG-Emergency-Inflatable/dp/B00F5TIOXG/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1467085640&sr=8-4&keywords=Luci

$9.95

I have a small strip of hook velcro that I keep over my head on the bed. It slips through the built in handle on the light and it hangs at a perfect level for reading in bed. That is assuming you have an ATC or FWC with the velcro for the Arctic or All weather pack.

Bseek, that is one of the strangest lights I have ever seen. I love it!!!
and for $10. Incredible how it takes no room, it's solar and you can use it at bed time. So versatile.

 

[Bill D]

Say hello to my little friend. The Nitecore MH20.
Pound for pound one of the brightest lights on the market.

Not surprising, I use moonlight mode and setting 1 and 2 the most. 1000 lumens is really just for searching or bragging rights, not practical for camping. There are plenty of inexpensive lights that are bright. This unit is waterproof, very well made and has thermal regulation.

If you are a gadget geek you will appreciate that it is USB rechargeable and you can check the battery voltage at anytime by twisting the end cap. 4.2V = full charge 3.5V = time to recharge (so you don't deplete the battery).

When you reconnect the end cap, if it flashes 3X then 7X, then you know you have 3.7V. Pretty simple.

Moonlight mode (1 lumen) is awesome for walking around the campground at night time. You can see rocks etc. but you don't lose your night vision. When you walk by other campers you don't disturb them.


~$80USD

 

[ski3pin]

Great idea for a thread!

I'll kick off with one of the standard items we carry with us.
BD headlamp with red LED option. Lightweight, both bright and dimmable, with red LED for optimal night sky viewing.

Same here with headlamps with red option for night vision. We have a couple of old Petzls we've had for years, old friends now.

 

[Old Crow]

Here's one that DIDN'T work out for me.

I really liked this Folding LED panel lantern at first. I liked its form factor and the fact that I could dim it to just the right level for the task. I used it as an area light for working on the camper and truck and as a table-top light for the picnic table. It was a bit bluer than I prefer but it cast plenty of light for an outside meal at night or I could dim it down to a glow-light for sitting out. And it worked in near-freezing temperatures. I could tilt the panel to just the right angle for the job and it was relatively compact for a 300-lumen output.

But then it started simply turning itself off after a few minutes -- even after a battery change. It would sometimes refuse to start at all and other times start flashing or simply turn off within a minute of starting up.

I had it past the return period so contacted the manufacturer. I was told they'd be happy to refund my $30 (even though I couldn't find my receipt) and occasionally something like this happens. But when I received the check, I was disappointed to see it contained a legal agreement specifying that by cashing the check I agreed to never pursuing any legal remedy against the manufacturer for any product at any time in the future. (Really?)

I bought a second one at my local Home Depot and of course tried it out right away. Same thing. It ran for ten minutes or so and shut itself off and started doing the same flashing and refusing-to-turn-on things the old one had. There's a demo mode on these that you have to disable so I again went through that process several times. Same thing. New batteries (in case the ones that came with it were bad).... same thing. I gave up and returned it.

I could have just had the bad luck to get two bad units in a row, I suppose. I'm a bit surprised to see it seems to get decent reviews on Amazon. I see there are recent one-star reviews sprinkled liberally through them but lots of good comments too.

I'd be interested to hear of anyone else's experience with this model. I really liked it (until I didn't).

 

[Stalking Light]

I have a couple of BD headlamps (Icon and ReVolt) and a Fenix PD35 in my truck and camper.

 

[takesiteasy]

We use some small led clip on book lights for reading at night in the camper. We use headlamps when moving about. We have a small red led light that clips to the fan knob that we can turn on as needed during the night. We had led bulbs put in the camper lights but we don't use them very much- too bright most of the time. I've been thinking of putting a red bulb in one of them but I haven't found one yet.

 

[Wandering Sagebrush]

Here's a LED lantern that I find handy. In addition to uses in the camper, I have used it for night photography by wrapping a colored plastic sheet around the light to act as a gel for lighting up foregrounds. The LED portion flips up to provide 360º light.



An example of the photos...

 

[Old Crow]

I've had good luck with this LED headlamp (the lime-green HD Plus model). I like its one-touch-off feature but it takes a bit of mental adjustment.

The headlamp has four light modes, including red. The trick you have to learn is to decide what mode you want before turning it on. If you click once, you get red. If you just leave it alone for two seconds at that point, your next click will turn it off (not advance to the next mode). That's very handy for preserving your night vision.

For the other modes, you click the number of times necessary to get to the mode you want (from OFF). For reading, I know I click four times for flood-only, then hold down for dimming. After I'm done reading, one click turns it off.

The spotlight is 200 lumens and supposedly good for 70 meters. I tend to use flood mode most of the time I'm out at night but will click on Spot if I want to look for those spooky red eye reflections out there in the scary woods.

The headband is comfortable and I like how far the light tilts out from the battery-pack to adjust the light-angle down in front of you. Battery changes are easy.

I believe I bought mine at Lowe's or Home Depot. About $20.

 

[Alley-Kat]

My wife purchased the Greenlight Planet - Sun King Mobile.
While driving we have the solar panel on the dash, then when we camp the light goes into the camper with us.
She uses it on the table, and because it's closer to what she is looking at, it's a bit brighter than my ceiling mounted LED's. It also can charge our smart phones.

 

[Bad Habit]

Anytime I go to Harbor Freight during a sale, I pick up a couple of these little 27 led lights, they have magnets so you can stick them to camper jacks, etc. and/or little hooks to hang them. Not great but cheap and available enough to have a few. Some of their sales they will be 2 for 1 at the sale price or free when you buy $xx amount.

 

[RicoV]

@ Old Crow: On your 2 folding panel lanterns I'll presume you tried this? (from another forum's comments): "It arrives from the factory in 'try me' mode. Remove all batteries and put them back in... no more cutoffs or flashing. This technique also works when the batteries are going low and begin to flash. Be sure to dim it slightly and the battery life will be extended."

 

[Old Crow]

@ Old Crow: On your 2 folding panel lanterns I'll presume you tried this? (from another forum's comments): "It arrives from the factory in 'try me' mode. Remove all batteries and put them back in... no more cutoffs or flashing. This technique also works when the batteries are going low and begin to flash. Be sure to dim it slightly and the battery life will be extended."

Thanks for the tip, RicoV!

Yeah, I'm confident I did indeed disable 'try me' or 'demo' mode. I used the first lantern successfully for a few months with no issues. When it started the odd behavior my first thought was the batteries must be low but new ones didn't help. I also tried running it with only four batteries (it can use either four or eight) but that didn't change anything. When I called it in, the customer service person also led me through the demo-disable process yet again and ultimately said the lantern was defective.

The second one also seemed to switch out of demo mode OK but failed its first longer test by shutting itself down in about ten minutes. Subsequent starts sometimes worked, sometimes didn't.

 

[craig333]

I finally had to quit cold turkey.

 

[highz]

Great idea for a thread!

I'll kick off with one of the standard items we carry with us.
BD headlamp with red LED option. Lightweight, both bright and dimmable, with red LED for optimal night sky viewing.

This is what I use, too. I used Petzls at work, but after we got a batch with bad switches, I switched to the Black Diamond for my personal headlamp. I'm very pleased with it.

When I am backpacking, I wrap the headlamp around a translucent water bottle, with the light pointing into the bottle, and it make a very good diffuse tent lamp.

Part of the camping experience for me is enjoying the night. I'm glad to have a headlamp to find my way around, but I'm also glad to turn it off and let my eyes adapt to the dark. I try to avoid lights that are too bright. To be honest, I cringe when I see ads for the super-bright LED flashlights. One flash in the eyes and your night vision is gone for several minutes.

 

[Lighthawk]

When I am backpacking, I wrap the headlamp around a translucent water bottle, with the light pointing into the bottle, and it make a very good diffuse tent lamp.

-----snip----

^^Yes!^^ Works in the camper for indirect lighting as well.

 

[ski3pin]

<snip>

Part of the camping experience for me is enjoying the night. I'm glad to have a headlamp to find my way around, but I'm also glad to turn it off and let my eyes adapt to the dark. I try to avoid lights that are too bright. To be honest, I cringe when I see ads for the super-bright LED flashlights. One flash in the eyes and your night vision is gone for several minutes.

x2

 

[takesiteasy]

This goes for me too. I learned as a kid that I could see way better at night without a flashlight once my eyes adjusted to the darkness, which can take some time just sitting in the dark. I passed that lesson on to my kids at a young age. The red light solution came to me much later. We rarely use flashlights unless truly necessary.