In modern LED camping lanterns, you’ll be hard pressed to beat this GE at any price:
http://www.amazon.com/General-Electric-Bright-Latern-Technology/dp/B007IIYL5C
The emitter uses a remote phosphor technology like the high end LED household bulbs, so it produces a true flawless omnidirectional beam without reflectors and cones. Its also cool running and extremely efficient. The only thing that I dont like about it is that the low mode could stand to be a great deal lower. The switch is electronic with high/medium/low modes. If you dont mind the size, Im not aware of an offering that comes even close to matching its overall performance, efficiency and flawless beam pattern.
It can run from either 4 or 8 D cells:
With 4 batteries, it can run for 50 hours on the High setting and 100 hours on Low setting.
With 8 batteries, it can run for 100 hours on the High setting and 200 hours on Low setting.
I paid $20 for mine at Costco. The one I bought shows a 300 lumen rating on the box and I had absolutely no problems loading the batteries. I suspect the poor early amazon reviews were from the first generation release (260 lumens) and all the bugs have been worked out long ago on the new 300 lumen version. Its hard to believe what you get for your money with this well designed lantern. :bigsmile:
I gave away my Rayovac Sportsman Extreme lantern after comparing them side by side.
Still, nothing in LED comes even remotely close to providing the mega-high light output of a gas mantle lantern.