A PR rep for Coughlan’s, the Canadian company that makes a bunch of little camping accessories you always see at the outdoor stores, has been trying to get me to post something about this gadget from their new spring lineup: an LED lantern. It works on the same principle as those little LED keyring spotlights, but instead of sending a spot of light, it broadcasts a sphere of it, supposedly about six feet wide. Weighs about an ounce, costs under $10 bucks.
Might be handy for reading, cooking after dark, attracting your favorite stinging insects.
(Coughlin’s has a remarkable product catalog, it’s like an object lesson in the potential of niche manufacturing and marketing.)
I think it’s cute, does it do a good job? does REI carry it?
Ann: I haven’t actually tried it out. But I will say that a single LED does not put out all that much light so I wouldn’t expect to replace a regular camp lantern, but it might put out enough to keep the area around a backpacking stove lit.
Doesn’t look like it’s in REI’s online inventory yet, nor Campmor.
Hopefully it puts out enough lumens to cut veggies at the camp table, play cards, or read in the tent. For that price, I might have to check it out.
Cute. However, it looks like a solution in search of a problem. Seems to me that a headlamp with variable brightness settings would do the job better. Or even a Photon Freedom microlight clipped to a hat brim.
Phil: perhaps but what if you wanted a stationary light for some reason? All those ones you mentioned project a beam of light, but you don’t always need your light directed like that.
For $10.00 and a six feet aura?! Sounds incredible! This requires hardcore scientific testing!