I need that small lantern most for tent use - hanging from the ceiling. Small, to not bother me, only ramping and maybe beacon 1Hz to attach to my backpack when travelling next to the road.
So something between LT1 and that 18650 size light would be useless for me.
And that universal lantern diffusors are just…meh
If only my 4AA Sylvania lantern can take a 18650 or 22650… that would be nice… It’s compact and quite bright.
Anyone know if that’s possible if it fits 18650/22650? It’s currently running a 4 AA in a carrier.
Why don’t use guys buy a plastic/ rubber thing is for like $4 that can be pulled over the end of a regular small flashlight to make it into a lantern ? They sell bigger pieces for larger lights too. Then you won’t need a lantern. Like this for example:
Pretty obvious: since the beam is directed upwards, the diffuser will make lots of glare, and doesn’t have any good firmware.
Maybe get a Lumintop EDC18. It comes with a handy diffuser.
And if you don’t like how with the diffuser too much light comes out the top, no problem…. just get some aluminum foil, fold it into a cone and stick it in the top of the diffuser. Fold the foil to reflect the light output into the sides of the diffuser.
The beam will go upwards and to the sides. Mostly upwards. So just elevate it and lay your light on something so it’s directed where you need or better yet hang a rope above and tie the by lanyard to shine down - best kind of lantern light - from the top down. If you have a magnet tail in the light ( or willing to glue one on) that’s another way to mount it and have the light directed where you want. Also like the poster above said. Put the foil behind where you don’t want to light to go either inside or outside of the diffuser….
I mean, before I was into flashlights I was into lanterns for like half a year, I have about 30 different lanterns, even nodded / combined them. There is a lot I can recommend but right now. A diffuser in a regular flashlight especially if the light is Dimmable seems like the simplest 2 in one solution.,
really, for backpacking camping/travelling even the Zanflare T1 was too bulky. You probably have a flashlight or two with you anyway. I just use a regular flashlight with a hard plastic or silicone diffusor or anything I find around the house and hang it inside the tent. A piece of paper or tissue and a rubber band will work fine. Or a plastic cup in a nice color when standing upright on the light.
To minimize glare but reflect the light back down, just get something opaque but reflective and put it on top of your diffusor.
The Nitecore LR50 is not too big, there was a code on BLF to lower it at a decent price, not sure if the code is still available.
I prefer to use a diffuser on a flashlight.
But sofirn does think about use polymer battery on the botton of LT1 to make it light weight and shorter.
Interesting idea Barry, as in a smaller (lower capacity) battery pack than can thread into the base of the LT1 to shorten it? I remember someone mentioning in the LT1 main thread about an idea of a short, 18350 cell size battery tube.
Here…. a single 18650
@Barry, I think it would be better to just make an 1865/21700 lantern.
Looks pretty naughty! 
That’s a part of the reason why I like Naturehike diffuser. They reflect a lot of light to the sides thanks to having a downward directed cone at the top. They never quite keep a perfect shape and take a few seconds to get them in a fair shape. And the beam is never perfectly smooth. But they still work better than regular silicone / plastic diffusers while being very universal (my S-sized works on BLF Q8 (though barely) and on AAA light), smaller and lighter. I complained a few times that for a piece of cloth they were quite expensive. But really - if I had to buy a diffuser for every of my lights that I wanted to have it I would pay more.
These work well:
There are likely multiple sellers with essentially the same design. Look carefully as there are also ones that are two 18650s long as well.
It is a ?polycarbonate tube with caps on each end. As you screw the cap down it pinches an o ring that seals it to make it waterproof. I am not really a modder, but these things are completely simple to take apart and mod.
I bought a couple and they came with a 2000 mah 18650 which is soldered in place. I bought a couple of Panasonic 3400 mah 18650s with tabs soldered on and replaced the oricginal battery. They work well.
The don’t give 360 degree illumination, maybe a little more than 180 degree as the battery is on the back side, but are light, waterproof, and compact.
This one has better pictures to see what you are getting and comes with a 2600 mah battery for quite a bit more:
On mine one press comes on low white then it cycles through high white red and I think blinking modes but at any time a long press turns it off without going through all the modes.
Here are the batteries I put in them:
I use this setup. It's a 35mm film canister. These are really cheap , in bulk, online. These fit all of my 18650 Zebralights, plus some of my other lights.
My kids use these when we go trick or treating. I just put a little bit of electrical tape around the bottom, so the canister doesn't get knocked off.
It makes a nice , inexpensive lantern, with great run times and slides on and off easily.
At 99 dollars, I am not sure if it qualifies as a “budget” light.
It uses a 26650 battery.
It is made by a company called Lantern. Seems like a really bad idea for a product name.
It is basically a flashlight with a diffuser on it. The tint looks kind of blue.
They sell the diffuser separately for $12.50. Opening is listed as 33mm or 1.3”.
Could maybe fit on a cheaper flashlight with a better tint and the same diameter bezel.
Anyone know of an 18650 or 26650 flashlight with good tint like Nichia 219C 5k for cheap with a 33mm or 1.3” bezel diameter?
I guess something a little bigger could be turned down, and smaller could be shimmed. I am not sure how much being wider on the top would negatively effect carrying and packing. I know for me it would always be falling over onto that wide part of the diffuser, so it would need to be sturdy.
Anyone heard of these and know about them, such as who manufactures them ?
i have bought many variants of that over the years, if they would only build one without the blue-tint Latticebright XPE knockoff LED, remove the blinky modes, and not use a horrible PWM on the low mode, they would be a good pocket light micro lantern for emergency uses.