Hi! New to this forum, but joined to ask advice on some LED lanterns discussed here.
Basically I’m looking for a lantern that can light a small room (~10 m²). It doesn’t have to be very bright. I don’t have many points of reference for lumens - I’m not a flashlight enthusiast, not yet anyway - but my Petzl Actik Core headlamp’s medium level seems to be good enough when held against the ceiling. According to the manufacturer, it’s 100 lm. It’s bright enough to not bump into the furniture and to easily see the items you’ve left on the surfaces, but not bright enough to comfortably read a book.
What I’m looking for:
8+ hours continuous runtime at the bright-enough level.
Warm light. It needs to be cozy. Do not have a good reference number here
Lantern like form factor: hookable from the ceiling but should stand on a table as well
Nice to have: 15+ hours runtime, USB-C charging, replaceable battery, smooth ramping, weight with battery under 500 g.
Here are a few options I’ve looked at. Is there anything else I should look at?
Sofirn LT1 (heavy)
Sofirn LT1S
Sofirn LT1 Mini
Fenix CL30R (unclear about the color temperature; expensive)
Nitecore LR60 (color temperature 4000-4500K, so not exactly warm?)
Olight Olantern Classic (not a fan of the retro design)
Wuben F5 (not really the ideal form factor)
Gauging from various reviews LT1S would hit the runtime target at 100 lm and it ticks the other boxes, so it’s the top contender right now. I’m a bit concerned about Sofirn quality control though. Looks like a lot of people love their Sofirn lights, but there are also a bunch of posts where people seem to have received units with small defects.
About secondary use cases: I might occassionally use the lantern outside when it’s below freezing, for maybe half an hour. I’m thinking the outside temperature is not a big issue when the lantern/battery is otherwise stored inside, but not sure?
My lantern of choice is the Sofirn LT1S, but it doesn’t have smooth ramping.
(I have four of them and I didn’t notice any defects with any of them.)
The more expensive Sofirn LT1S Pro does have smooth ramping, however.
Thanks for joining the gang, Grok!
I’ve only used 3 from your list, the LT1, LT1S and Wuben F5.
The F5 is a neat little light and I’ve seen it on BuyOneGetOneFree sale in the past. The form factor makes it not quite a lantern and the internal battery means it probably won’t become a treasured heirloom. I checked out a buddy’s, was close to picking up a couple during the sale but I knew they’d sit there and not get used. Instead of them I would’ve grabbed the LT1, but even THAT gets left on the shelf now that I’ve got an LT1S! Yes, I miss some of the Anduril features, but the size, weight, adjustable tint, and being able to turn half the emitters off make it easy to like. With a replaceable 21700 you could have light for quite a while if you keep extra cells on hand. ZeroAir has a review here.
I’ve looked at the others on your list, any of them would be steps above the blue-light lanterns people get when they just type something in the amazon search bar. Those Blue Light Specials are more than enough for plenty of folks who haven’t been infected by the flashoholic mind virus, based on your 1st post I’d say it’s too late for you. Welcome aboard!
There are not many 2700K LED tests I could find, so I’m going to assume that total efficiency is about 50lm/w (others can correct me if this is way out).
To produce 100lm, this takes 2W.
A single 21700 cell has 5000mah, which equates to 18.5Wh. So, theoretically, you could get 9 hours out of this arrangement.
18650 is only c.12Wh which would give only c.6H.
The above means you need to look at 21700 lights or multi 18650/21700 lights to get the runtime you need.
About 2700K is cosy.
Really? The zeroair review here suggests that 100lm only lasts 2h before it gets to 50% brightness.
Perhaps my calculation above about using a 21700 is wrong…
LT1S Pro will give you the best bet imo. The Nichia 519A LEDs it ships with are 2700K to 5000K. If it turns out 2700K isn’t warm enough, you can dedomed the LEDs (very easy, especially with this light) to take them to ~2200K which is much cozier temperature imo. For reference, I end most of my nights using a mix of lights ranging from 1850K to 2700K. They’re more “usable” on the cooler side (higher K), but cozier on the warmer side. Imo 2200K is still quite useful while still being quite cozy. 2700K is what most warm incandescent bulbs put out, for reference. ~1800-2000K is about what a candle flame puts out.
The only caveat is, due to the 3 channel nature of the LT1S Pro (warm, cool, monochromatic red), I would describe the UI as an enthusiast UI (aka fiddly). It’s fine imo, but might be a bit much for folks who don’t want to have to program a light or learn a lot of click sequences. That said, the UI this light uses (Anduril 2, a common UI that many manufacturers use) has the best electric candle emulation mode in the game. Combined with the timer off utility (which allows you to set a timed off countdown in increments of 5min, slowly dimming to off in the last 1-2min), the light is such a pleasure to use late at night.
Yeah I bet the legend is wrong. He normally measures lumens and maybe forgot to change the legend. I didn’t read the full review. Perhaps he measured it as “percent of full output” because the lantern, being 360 degrees, didn’t really work in his lumen tube.
I have the LT1S and like it a lot. Can be nice and warm with good tint. The powerbank function has already been useful. And I didn’t look until this post but the regulation seems good.
Have you considered a regular light with a diffuser?
I have the 4000K TS10 with the Wurkkos diffuser and its LEDs are warm enough for me. And at 140lm (40% more than the 100lm you stated) it has been clocked at almost 3h runtime, so I estimate that at 100lm it should last almost 5h.
If you need more runtime/brightness, I would give the Wurkkos TS21 serious consideration – it’s also available with 4000K LEDs and Wurkkos also sells a diffuser for it, and since it eats 21700 batteries I would bet that at 100lm it would easily last a day or more.
When I want to go for nice long soaks and channel my inner monkey, I use my trusty Zanflare lantern, and routinely get 6hrs+ before charging it, and not because I have to but just to top off.
When a tree took out powerlines a few Christmases ago, the same lantern kept decent light overnight when tree go boom, and the next night until power came back on, maybe 9hrs total. And I hadn’t charged it in probably a year just sitting around.
Zanflare’s long gone, but I’ve seen similar lights under different brands floating around.
Touch-control, brightness- and tint-ramping, magnetic battery-cap for sticking to metal, extendable hook for hanging, pretty much does it all.
The Wuben F5 is great for the money and gives you the warm option you’re after. You can stand it on a table using built in hook loop - like shown here. Wuben F5 - The Best Rechargeable LED Camping & Tent Light It’s got a tripod mount on it too.
I did consider a diffuser, but I don’t actually use regular flashlights much (I’m more of a headlamp person) so might as well go for a lantern.
The Zanflare looks good but haven’t bumped into anything too similar right now. Also found out about Klarus CL2 - that industrial design is pretty funky, but not for me.
I think I’ll order a LT1S. No point in over-thinking this, need to try something in practice to see if it works. (Non-Pro version: it warms my heart to see the open-source firmware but I’m looking to keep things simple this time )
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