I have seen a nice lantern style lamp powered with one D cell at countycomm.
I suppose that's why I love my wand. I have it on a 460 lumen flashlight, so it's nice and bright. The way it disperses light is what has me sold; it's like what you'd expect out of a soft white incandescent light bulb. I wish I had it a couple years ago when I spent a couple months in the Sierras doing trail maintenance. All I had was the lantern and diffuser attachments for my Fenix, and it wasn't nice at all. The same light with a wand is so much better, especially for reading maps on my own or in a group.
I'm sure the type of wand can make a big difference. The Xeno wand has a thicker plastic that seems to help disperse the light. Some people have recommended using a film canister, and I didn't have one, so I tried using an Airborne canister with a different flashlight. The output isn't as nice. That could be because the canister plastic isn't well suited to use as a lantern, or because the flashlight is too throwy and it certainly has fewer lumens, or maybe it's because I haven't wiped the labeling off the canister.
I absolutely agree with you about a 26650 version. I'd love a wand for my BLF A8. There are some wands out there, and I'd love it if they came in more sizes. They're cheap enough that I'd get one for all my lights, even my bike lights. :) I think a wand wouldn't be good on a throwy light though, as it probably wouldn't get enough light on the sides of the wand.
I really like the two I show in this thread. The Cyba-Lite is a bit heavy with 3 D-cells but the build quality, output and even light profile makes it a winner in my book.
That is a nice mod. That is certainly the RayOVac shell. I will have to look for that online. What are you getting for run time? You are using alkaline or rechargeables? Have you run into any heat issues?
What sort of driver are you running (probably in your thread?)?
Any further mod plans?
“I wish I had it a couple years ago when I spent a couple months in the Sierras doing trail maintenance. All I had was the lantern and diffuser attachments for my Fenix, and it wasn’t nice at all. ”_
Funny - Spending two+ weeks in a river ecanyon one fall (that lost light early in the evening) in the Sierra NF was why I gave up my smaller AA lights and lanterns…
There are so many opportunities with the HO emitters that weren’t there even two years ago.
Neat little design and I was interested at first. Durable and 1 D cell could be awesome. XR-E seems like a bad emitter choice though. It’s less efficient, higher Vf makes the extra boost harder on the cell, and it’s throwiness is actually counterproductive. As to the claimed 150 lumens for up to 100 hours on 1 D cell boosting… suuuurrrreeee it does…
At 44.50 it’s an expensive mod host. Neat though. Thanks for sharing.
I started to ask in the subject header - what are you looking to do with this? Home blackouts, other emergencies, camping, backpacking, etc?
Having gone through 3 weeks of no power in the last year, I have had plenty of time to try out lots of choices.
Yep, rebranded RayOVac. I’ve even seen one with the name Varta. Either was it’s a good, solid, host to start with.
At the moment I’m running it on the first set of alkalines so I can’t tell you how much runtime I get out of it. But I’ve owned it for about 2 years and used it during a couple of blackouts and as an extra lightsource when we redid the kitchen, so it has seen some good use. When the alkalines die though I’m going to use 6 AA batteries instead (GP Recyko), should make it a bit lighter.
At the moment all I’ve done to it is an emitter swap but I’m planing to replace that emitter with REALLY warm XPG and a 3-mode 7135 driver. By doing this I hope I get a good general mode and that the high mode should work more as a turbo mode.
The reason I’m going for yet another, warmer, emitter is that the one I use looks cooler in the lantern then it does in my C8 style flashlight with the same emitter. No clue why though since the led doesn’t overheat, I guess there is something about perceived warmth when in comes to lanterns compared to flashlights. So I’m going to change it to an 8A emitter, about 2800K.
I am getting itchy fingers, thought I was DONE w orders for this month (Chinese New Years and all)…
As far as the CRI/perceived color - could that be whatever properties of the small frosted dome and the outer frosted cover? Alone or in combination?
Still, sounds like a good upgrade to do.
I am currently playing w the 12v bulbs in my lanterns (goal zero), clip on fixtures and regular socket fixtures. What looks good - as your noted - isn’t necessarily the hot ticket inside (or outside).
Yeah, it might be as you say that the frosted dome is the culprit. I think I’m going to disassemble the lantern and try it without the dome, not tonight though. 
Didn’t order the Yezl yet so I’ll check out and see if I can if I can locate the coleman. Thanks garrybunk
Anyone tried to make a wand diffuser wider? Perhaps with some heat?
I have ordered a fenix diffuser and hoped it would fit my A8 but there are little tongues in it. I could grind or cut these tongues but I guess the result would be a rough surface….
Hi Southland,
I am interested in your lantern if you still sell one of them.
Are they coming with the base ??
Let me known .
Thanks
i posted a topic here with a number of photos of some og my lantern collection. ( i have a ton of different ones, most of them modded now