So, found these yesterday at B & M Bargains. Three very good things about these:
They're bright.
They give off nice diffused light, no piercing LED.
But the very best thing is that the light colour is about 3000k, these things give off a nice, yellow light. I bought 3 yesterday and was so impressed with them I went and got another 7 this morning. I'll probably have about half a dozen of these in the tent, with a few for spares.
So get down to B & M's if you want an LED light with a WARM colour temperature, although Manchester Fort has just been cleared out of them ;) These are ace.
------------- Aug 2017 St Martins Campsite, Scilly
Jul 2017 Trewan Hall, Cornwall
Jun 2017 Higher Kestle Farm, Cornwall
Mar 2017 Pitch Perfect camping Bath
Aug 2016 Brittany/Normandy:-
La Ferme Croas Men (near Morlaix)
Le Ranolien (Ploumanac'h)
Le Bois Courdrais (Cugen)
Chateau de Montfreville (Montfreville)
Well I've been away with them for about 3 or 4 nights now and the 6 or so I've been using are still on the original alkaline batteries after being on for about 3 or 4 hours each night, I reckon I'll have to replace them if I go away for a couple of nights shortly, which I think I will. But I use 6 of them on low most of the time, when I want a bit of light I stick them all on the middle setting, gives plenty of light and is a nice colour at that setting. I reckon the high setting would go through batteries a lot quicker.
Funny you mention candles, one of these on it's lowest setting just face up on a table gives a very similar light to a candle that isn't flickering.
I've got loads of lamps, just got a case for my Petzl head torch that turns it into a lantern. But I'll probably just keep using these because of the light colour
3000k is the light colour but what lumens are they? Not very much I suspect if you need 6 of them.
I have a 300 lumen LED lantern which hangs from the hook on the roof and it lights up the whole tent...plenty enough for reading.
300 lumens is roughly equivalent to an old style 25w bulb (divide the lumens by 12). The lantern I have also comes in 500 lumens and 1000 lumens ( 40w and about 80w). I have to admit it is a bit dazzling if you look at it directly.
They're supposed to be 150 each and I say I use 6, but 4 are in the front of the tent and 2 in the bedroom, tent is a Berghaus Air 4.
Depends on your requirements, some people would probably be happy using 2 or 3 of them. I like a lot of light! So it is 3000k eh? That's pretty good, I wish the manufacturers of lanterns would use this type of LED. So much nicer colour temp.
So as an update to this, this morning I've bought two of these:
I wanted the 530 model, but Go Outdoors in Stockport only had the 380. So I took a couple, got a discount card for a fiver and got a total of a tenner off the pair of them. Still pricey, but I'm after a specific feature they have, nice and warm LED light.
These lanterns are very nice indeed. You have four light colour settings, Natural (both cold and warm LEDS lit, 380 lumens), Cool (only cold colour LEDs lit, 250 lumens), Warm (only warm LEDs lit, 160 lumens), Candle (flickering warm LED). I was wondering how good 160 lumens would be, surprisingly good. And to have a warm LED light at about 2800k is very nice. So happy I picked up a couple of them, I think I'll go get the 530 somewhere online, as I know from having these smaller ones that the light colour will be exactly what I want.
Hopefully there's a picture below to illustrate the difference between standard cold LED lanterns and warm ones, these two lanterns side by side with those respective settings. Hard to tell in photos, but hopefully will give folk an idea of the difference.
So, just been and bought a 530 online. With these three, I should be good.
You may notice in the picture that the light dome appears fully illuminated, you can clearly see the shape of it. On the initial 300 lumen version, I read somewhere that as the dome is quite clear and the LEDs exposed, they can give off piercing light if you look anywhere near them. So the suggestion was to cut a small piece out of a thin, white plastic bag and place it over the dome. So I did this with the original 300 lumen cold white lantern and it diffused the light superbly. Not only did it do that and get rid of the white strip of light at the bottom of the globe, it vastly improved the light spread.
So done again with these two and the effect is outstanding, only with these I didn't need to try and put another yellowy clear cover over it to change the light colour, the LED does that for me now. I'll do the same with the 530 when that arrives
Yes, I knew there were plenty of 12 volt options, but you'd be surprised how few battery LED camping lanterns have them Caligula, they all seem to be that cold light. There was an Outwell one that was pretty expensive and took six D batteries, but I never bothered with that one.
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Topic: For those who hate bluey LED lights...
