Soon the nights will be drawing in and that means that I need some good lighting if I want to camp well into the autumn. I know lighting can be a divisive subject, but... !
I have seen a couple fo great looking lanterns, but even with the best, they are still a small source of light and when bright can be quite harsh. A larger light source is almost always preferable, this is easily achieved at home with large shades, or lots of smaller light sources. 'Fairy lights' are an option, but I haven't seen any that are bright or durable enough. Nor have I seen anything that can be used as a large shade. I was surprised that there were no large collapsible shades for camping use, I imagined either a sturdy collapsible paper type shade or a 'blow-up' shade. Now it could be that I have gone crazy and these are stupid ideas....
What outdoor lighting have you seen that will give a nice soft light?
PS, the best lantern I have seen is this one. It has a really long run time, can dim to almost nothing, and can provide a really warm light or a bright 'white' light if needed.
I used to use IP rated work lamps in the kitchen area under the canopy outside, and an non IP rated one inside the tent.
Attached above is a pic of my work lamps and the one without a glass jar is the non-IP rated one.
I used low energy warm white bulbs with them, no more than 40W equivalent to old type of bulbs.
DK
------------- Apple The Campervan - A Van For Work, Rest & Play!
- 2027: ? NL+DE+FR
- 2026: FR+DE
- 2025: 17/77
'24: 10/49; '23: 9/47;'22: 8/46; '21: 9/34
* Ex-tenter
* Treat life events like a dog: if you can't eat it, play with it or hump it, p1$$ on it and walk away!
We rather like using a gas latern when sitting down relaxing. It feels very nostalgic and warming. We also find the 'big light' is a head torch inserted into a defuser like this one:
Quote: Originally posted by CreakyDoor on 06/9/2021
Hi Dk. I assume those need mains power? I have managed so far without needing an ehu as that gives a lot of flexibility with location.
Yes they are mains powered.
Sorry, however I did not realise you were asking about non-mains powered ones from your post.
DK
------------- Apple The Campervan - A Van For Work, Rest & Play!
- 2027: ? NL+DE+FR
- 2026: FR+DE
- 2025: 17/77
'24: 10/49; '23: 9/47;'22: 8/46; '21: 9/34
* Ex-tenter
* Treat life events like a dog: if you can't eat it, play with it or hump it, p1$$ on it and walk away!
Got a few ideas for you, first one is these. I got a couple a few days ago and they are ace, you can put a coloured paper lampshade on them and they're ideal soft lighting. They're USB and at 3 watts, they run for ages on a decent power bank. Smooth dimming and unlike a lot of LED lamps, these go right down to almost nothing and heavily resemble an old school tungsten filament bulb. At full brightness, they're actually not bad. Really impressed, 2700k light colour so none of the bluey LED effect, totally soft and yellowish light:
The second is the BLF LT1 lantern you linked to, I have one. And it is a great piece of kit. Some may find the interface a little confusing, but as long as I know on/off, dimming and changing the light colour, I'm happy. Again, a nice warm 2700k LED light. Worth the money you've linked to, cost me 70 quid from an Amazon warehouse in the UK. It's very bright and uses 18650 batteries, I like it a lot.
Third idea is maybe a non-starter as I can't find this lantern for sale anywhere at the moment, but this has happened before and it comes back into stock sometimes:
But I modded it, to make it less harsh as it has by default a clear glass and bare LEDs. Had the manufacturer done this and fitted diffusers like I did, I reckon they'd have sold a lot more of them. Because when it's lit, this one now resembles a mantle gas lantern. And this also has soft, yellowy 2700k light, but it's incredibly powerful for an LED lantern, on natural white at full chat it lights my living room to light you could easily read in even when not sat near the lantern. Runs forever on 4 x Amazon Basics D cell rechargeables, I have a couple of sets of those.
I did two mods. Firstly, I took a white plastic bag, it was the old school white Tesco bag if I remember and cut a section of that and used it along an elastic band to secure it in order to cover the globe. This alone made it much better. Secondly, I worked out the shape of the inside of the big lamp cover and used a paper template first to work out what shape I'd need, which was way easier than I thought it would be. Once I had my shape, I bought a plastic document wallet from the supermarket that had clear but opaque plastic used for the dividers. Using my paper template, I curt the shape and it slipped inside the lamp cover almost perfectly. Because you're bending but not creasing the opaque plastic, it holds itself in place. This is what seemed to give the 'gas mantle' effect and combined with the first mod, has turned this into a very nice LED lantern that doesn't burn out your retina when you look anywhere near it. If it does come back in stock, you could try modding it. I'll link some pictures, they should be pretty self explanatory and you have a few ideas there
For some reason, I can't embed photos on here anymore, so you may need to copy these into your browser address bar to work. I can't seem to make them public on there either so they may not work. If they don't, I might try a different way.
Amazing family weekend with old steam engines, classic car displays, market stalls, and full catering and bar. And camping on site - Save £25 by booking in advance.
Topic: Lighting
via mobile 06/9/2021 at 4:39pm
