Rpal – fantastic and tiny 300lum LED

At almost 5oz and $130, it's definitely too heavy and pricey for my purposes. Knock $120 off and I'd consider it for car camping; it'd make a nice lantern or addition to my emergency kit.

For sure, too heavy.

–B.G.–

It is heavy, but I've never seen a more compact and powerful lantern at 3000K. I use a Zebralight that's around 1.4oz but it's 5000K – typical harsh blue light that doesn't make for a cozy camp. As a photographer, I'd happily add a few ounces for a great camp vibe.

I'd love to know If anyone knows of a lighter 3000K led.

maybe this will help :

Different Zebralights have different color temperatures.

–B.G.–

Right, but the lowest Kelvin temp on Zebralights is only 4400K… More importantly, Zebra burns only 20-30min at 200+lum. Specs say 45min, but it's half that when outside. Compared to 3 hours with Rpal… That's why I posted it here.

I'm far from a guru on lighting/LEDs, but color temperature also depends (visibly) on power/wattage. For example, a 10W bulb at 3500K is going to look significantly yellower than a 35w bulb at 3500K. This is part of the reason really cool (10000K) headlights on a Lamborgini look way better than cheap autozone 10000K mega purple lights do on a civic. Thus, this has to be factored into the equation when comparing light temp.

/digression

Neat gadget. May not find another outdoor light in that range. Most manufacturers opt for led's higher in the Kelvin scale since those look brighter to the eye at the same amperage.

Ryan

"Right, but the lowest Kelvin temp on Zebralights is only 4400K… More importantly, Zebra burns only 20-30min at 200+lum. Specs say 45min, but it's half that when outside."

There are quite a number of different Zebralight models and you may be overlooking some. Every one of them that I have purchased as performed almost exactly as claimed by Zebralight… as long as the specific battery is perfect. As soon as the battery gets a little sloppy, the Zebralight performance gets a little sloppy, and that is to be expected.

Besides, how in the hell is the Zebralight supposed to know if it is outside or not? I suspect that cooler outside temperatures are fooling with the battery.

–B.G.–

As with any LED light product (flashlight, bike light, head lamp, etc.) — not just this one — I’d be very skeptical about advertised Lumens and run times. There are standardized tests for these (Fenix uses ANSI NEMA FL1), but many vendors just take the optimum luminous output rating of the hosted LED emitter(s) and state that number alone, without subtracting out losses due to inefficiencies in drivers, power sources, optics, etc. Also, for the advertised run times, what is the criteria for acceptable output as the battery discharges?

For this specific product, I suspect the luminous output being advertised is the total output, distributed more or less evenly across the 3 or 4 emitters encircling the housing. That’s probably fine for close-in uses but not so much further away. Then again, you’re not trying to land aircraft with it ;)

Good point, Frank. Never thought about the standardization of the lumen run tests. The guy who makes these seems quite legit. Besides providing a veery detailed product sheet he goes way out to create detailed spec videos that test and compare his lantern with a whole lot lanterns out there.

I'll give an update on this once I get it, pretty curious if it's right.

Got the light in the mail today. First impressions:

This thing can light up a basketball court!

I feel like I finally found the right LED to work as an ultralight camp lantern. I modified the lantern a bit by installing a soft orange plastic gel to warm up the light even more. Now the temperature looks like an old oil lamp or a candle, which softens the photos quite a bit at night. Additionally, I added a soft yellow cuben stuff sack with a paper towel inside to make it look like a japanese hanging lantern. In the photos I have it on the low setting – 50lumens.