I'm after a light for lighting the tent (4 man tunnel, reasonably large 'living' area)…

have seen this on alpkit, but wondering what the real world usage of 125 lumens dispersed around a tent & outside might be like??

any other reccomends? Pref. something that runs on either AA's or solar…

aldi today!

get 2?

nearly in the right forum too, but not quite!!

indeed as per RR, aldi have camping kit on sale today, including a remote control lantern.. cool! (or normal laterns with LED's).. might be worth a punt.

good call RR – what good timing to be asking the q! Will amble down at lunch time today and take a look at them 🙂 The remote control one only has an output of 40 lumens, and uses D type batteries. I know not all lumens are the same etc… but prob a bit on the low side! Will check out the others too 🙂

What you really need is one of those lantern things if you're going camping. Makes the evenings a bit less long. 🙂

What do you mean not that kind of recommendation…

Wilkinsons do an LED light that looks like a UFO – it is white about 150mm diameter with 2 circles of LED lights in it. It's a bit of a pain to hang up, but if you have somewhere to hang it, it it great. Takes 3AA's which last a fair while and puts out a lot of light.
Only costs £5 or so.

I prefer a flame/mantle lantern for non lightweight camping. Either gas or Coleman. The light is completely different. When I go camping in groups we always choose one of these among all the other lights in the group to put in the communal area.
Obviously there are safety issues with the heat and flame. But I find it's worth the care.

AlexSimon – do they not cost quite a bit to run in gas?
We considered one, but the run times per canister looked like we'd need to bring a supply of canisters to keep it going.

I agree though that the LED lights aren't particularly pleasant and the gas ones do give off a more pleasant glow.

Alpkit Bulb 2

I've tried a few over the years and always gone back to campingaz lanterns. The quality of the light is just so much more pleasant – it really does make a huge difference to be sitting in a warm glowing light as opposed to the surgical white light of LEDs.

IME you get two whole nights (perhaps 8-10 hours) of light out of a cheap (£1.50) canister.

user-removed – that's good to know. I thought the canisters were more like £4.

Still a bit pricey though when you consider that the batteries in our Black's lantern are still going strong after 3 yrs & numerous trips and the UFO light I mention above from Wilkinson is over a yr old and gets used if I'm in the shed, camping, in the car during the winter for packing/unpacking the bike stuff so those batteries have lasted ages.

I agree about the warm glow preferable to the cold-harsh light from an LED source. Perhaps it is worth the extra expense….hmmmmmmm.