Product:  Kelty LumaTwist Lantern, LumaTrail, and FlashbackMini.

Link: Kelty

 

Summary:

Outstanding versatility for lighting in a very small light package.

 

The Good:

  • Very bright.
  • You can turn one side on or two of the LumaTwist.
  • The panels of the LumaTwist can flip around so you have both pointing one way, or have omni directional lighting, or place it on a surface and twist a panel to point at what ever you are working on.
  • The LumaTrail can hang from center of tent, and it has an odd bend in the handle so you can hang it on a nail.
  • They all pack easy.  Our Coleman lantern was retired because the LumaTrail is as bright, provides better light with a panel of LEDs, and is about 1/4 the pack volume.
  • The LumaTrail is slightly larger than a can of pop in height, and provided all the light we needed on our last camp outing. 
  • The FlashbackMini has a spotlight built into the base, and is about the size of a can of pop, or smaller.

 

The Bad:

  • It doesn't come in camo colors.  (There are really no negatives.)

 

Details:

We have been focusing on conserving volume of our camping pack, because we have a small truck and needed more gear like cots which take up lots of space, so to scale down the big traditional sized lantern and have better lighting were features that we took advantage of.

Kelty's website shows the lanterns in white, but ours are black which I prefer.  I don't like flashy colors out camping, I want earth tone.  I want to enjoy the colors out in the woods and not disturb it as much as possible. It's God's place, not mine. I am the guest and It's wrong to go mess up someone else's home... just my philosophy.

 

LumaTwist:

It's quite nice when the power goes out to use that LumaTwist because you can control where the light shines.  The old Coleman LED lantern we had to put on the floor cause it was so hard on our eyes.  That made it really hard on our eyes out camping cause it had to be up higher to be useful, but of course it was always shining in our eyes.  The LumaTwist we can point at other things to bounce light around and not blind us.  Plus it doesn't produce such sharp high contrast shadows, it's a little softer lighting so it's easier on your eyes in that regard too.  You'll notice less fatigue when reading.  The key use for this one will be to cover a larger area like around the campsite, or working on something in the dark where you need brighter light. The handle while being flat, does have a notch in it so you can hang it and it won't flop/slide to one side of the handle.

This uses 4 D batteries.  140 Lumens running for 150 hours.

 

LumaTrail:

If you are planning to pack very light, consider the small Kelty Lanterns.  This one is great for inside the tent.  We hang it low on a bungee cord so its easy to reach without getting out of our nice warm sleeping bags. :-)  It's bright enough to reflect in the white tent to find what you need without waking everyone up.  It is slightly taller than a can of pop and just slightly narrower. 

This uses 4 AA batteries and has settings for Low (15 lumens running 98 hours) and High (70 lumens at 14 hours).

 

Flashback Mini:

I don't have this one yet, but saw it in the store and regret not picking it up.  So I will have it and update this section to reflect the Mini soon.  This one has a spotlight built into it (you can never have too many types of lights when you need them!), which shines out the bottom so you can focus your light like a lamp or flashlight, or use the top part which is an omni directional lantern style light.  This is a little smaller than a can of pop and would be the one I'd recommend to back pack campers. 

This one uses 4 AAA batteries. As a lantern on Low (20 Lumens for 38 hours) and High (50 lumens for 13 hours).  As a spotlight Low (20 lumens) and High (70 lumens).

 

UPDATE:

I wanted this Flashback Mini pretty bad on the last camping trip where we needed downward spot lights on the sides of the tent to shine into the bags.  We could hang flashlights but only one had a strap for hanging, and then it wouldn't be in my pocket where I need it with me.  So this light is becoming a priority.

Theses smaller lights with a single LED that glows omni directional, are hard on my eyes.  I really hate how they are so bright from one little point that is always shining in my eyes giving me a headache. The LumaTwist Lantern is WAY better at providing light without the headache.