One of the most useful equipment you can have while in the outdoors is a camping lantern. Camping lanterns often provide a 360 degree of light. This is great for cooking foods, eating foods cleaning up, going to the bathroom, finding the trail, and so on. A lantern is just a great way to light up your camp site so that you can freely move even at night. With new advances and innovations on the LED bulbs, camping lanterns have evolved into many different forms. It is important to understand and know how to choose the lantern that will be suitable for your needs.
Types Of Lantern
Battery Powered Table Lanterns
Most of the lanterns that are available are battery powered and meant to be placed on a table. This is the most normal and most traditional way to use a lantern which is to place is on a table and let it light up the place. There are a lot of table lanterns to choose from. Some are meant for indoor use, some are meant for outdoor use and some are meant for emergencies. If you don’t know anything about camping or backpacking or you are a beginner, then getting a cheap table lantern would be ideal.
Hanging Lanterns
One Bulb
One bulb hanging lanterns are often used on top of a table. People usually tie a string on the top of a table and put the lantern there. The lantern is meant to illuminate food ingredients, and foods that are cooking on the table. Since table lanterns do not light up the foods inside the pot because the wall of the pot blocks the light, a hanging lantern will not have this problem. This type of lantern can be used to illuminate the inside of a tent as well.
String
This is just a string of lights or a string of bulbs. This is meant to illuminate the inside of a tent. Hanging string lights are also often used on top of hammocks. They can be hanged on top of a table also but the lights have to generate a lot of lumens or it has to be very bright or else, it is not going to light up the stuff on the table. String lights are very beautiful and they make the tent or hammock very beautiful. An example of this is the luminoodle which is very portable and very beautiful.
Gas Powered Lanterns
Gas powered lanterns are also pretty good. There are a lot of portable gas canisters available for camping and backpacking. There are lanterns that are made where you use those canisters for fuel. There are different types of gases available such as propane, butane, white gas, isobutane/propane, and so on. Make sure that the lantern that you are getting works well with the type of gas that you are going to use.
Oil Lanterns
This is not really that popular. I still see some but this is mostly for show. There are some that are meant for emergencies that are very durable as well. If you bring one of these in car camping, it does look unique and cool in a way but it is just not practical anymore.
Candle Lanterns
Traditionally, this is what we used to light up everything. However, we now have electricity so we don’t use candle lanterns anymore. However, there are some candle lanterns that are very beautiful. Candle lanterns are now used for decorative and for aesthetic purposes. A good example of is this candle lantern. It is not practical to bring a candle lantern in the outdoors anymore. There are some that are used for survival purposes though.
Main Features I Look For
Lumens
This is usually a good indication on how powerful your lantern is going to be. This is the measurement of total light energy being emitted from your lantern in any direction. Unfortunately, there are also other factors like beam intensity, distance, and so on that play vital roles on how powerful the lantern is going to be. Usually, if the lantern is made by a reputable company then lumens is a good indication of how powerful your lantern is going to be. But if the lantern is made by a no-name company and the price is very cheap, lumens most likely won’t tell you anything about how good that lantern is going to be.
Waterproof
A good feature to look for is water resistance or waterproof. When you are camping or backpacking, there is a big chance that the weather will turn on you. The weather is often unpredictable. One day maybe sunny, the next day maybe rainy. It is important that your lantern to be waterproof. This will make sure that the item will not break if the weather suddenly changes. This feature will prolong the life of your lantern and one of the most useful characteristics or feature to have.
Battery Life
You have to make sure that the lantern will last for the whole camping trip especially if you are backpacking in the wilderness. You have to check the battery life. You have to make sure that the item that you are getting can at least survive one weekend. If you are backpacking for days or even weeks, make sure that you budget the battery life of your camping lantern as well.
USB Rechargeable
There are lanterns that have a very long battery life and they can be used as power banks as well. There are lanterns that are very compact, and very small that they also do not have a very long battery life. For these lanterns, I try to make sure that they can be charged using a USB. I often carry a power bank with me. I often make sure that all my gadgets that use electricity can be recharged using a power bank.
Lantern Features That I Also Like
Durable
Durability is something that we all want in our lanterns. We have to make sure that the item that we are getting is somewhat impact resistant. Accidents tend to happen while in the outdoors. Lanterns can fall down the table, can be bumped off or you can fall down while holding a lantern. We have to make sure that the lantern that we are going to get can handle accidents and have some sort of impact or shock resistance.
Solar Powered Lanterns
There are some pretty good solar powered lanterns for backpacking. I like usb rechargeable lanterns more though but solar powered is pretty nice as well. For example, MPOWERED Luci is a pretty good backpacking lantern that is solar powered. It lasts for 18 hours and very light. They charge themselves in the daylight as well. A pretty good lantern for camping, backpacking and hiking.
Flashlight Lanterns
There are a lot of battery powered table lanterns that can convert to a flashlight these days. This is good if you are car camping. If you need to go to the bathroom then you can transform your lantern to become a flashlight. Illuminating your path is a lot easier with a flashlight rather than a lantern. This is a nice feature to have and pretty useful as well. It is good for lighting up the trail or lighting up a path so that you can get back to your tent.
Detachable Lanterns
I love the detachable lanterns. This is great if you have a big group. You can put the lantern on a table and if one of your group members need a light, they can just detach one from the main lantern. This can save some time, and give people who did not bring any light, to have their own portable lantern. This is great for kids and young adults who often do not bring anything to the camp site. So a good example of this is the Coleman Quad LED Lantern. This is great for kids, teenagers and people new to camping.
Backpacking Features To Think About
Weight
Whenever I am backpacking, the weight of my backpack is very important. I will often take out equipment from my backpack and not bring it because I will be carrying too much weight. The more weight that I carry, the more fatigue I am going to be. The less weight I carry, the more miles I am going to be able to hike. So my backpack weight is very important. So the weight of all my gear including the lantern has to be light. If you are going to get a lantern for backpacking, make sure that it is very light.
Dimensions
Since all backpacks have a limited amount of room, we cannot carry everything we want as well. We have to budget that space wisely. One of the ways to budget that space wisely is by getting compact or small items. A very compact or small lantern will not take up much space in a backpack which will allow us to use that space for other equipment. So whenever you are going to be getting a lantern for backpacking, make sure that it can be folded, can drop in size or that it is very small already.
Batteries
You also have to think about the batteries. I often get the rechargeable ones. One thing to keep in mind with this is that batteries have a weight also. A couple of D cell batteries can weigh a pound or more. Sometimes the manufacturer does not include the weight of the batteries with the lantern. So you may end up with a lantern that is 1-2 pounds heavier than you thought it would be. This is something you need to check also.
Power Bank
I love to bring a power bank whenever I am backpacking. A power bank is a great way to charge up my devices rather easily. So I often make sure that the lantern can be recharged using the USB. Not all lanterns can do this. I am just putting this out there because a power bank does provide a lot of peace of mind. There are lots of lightweight power banks that provide lots of power these days also.
References:
- https://www.backcountry.com/explore/how-to-choose-a-camp-lantern
- https://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice/lantern.html
- https://www.outdooreyes.com/choosecampinglantern.php3
- https://www.outdoorgearlab.com/topics/camping-and-hiking/best-lantern/buying-advice