Coleman Exponent 4AA Pack-Away Lantern - 2008 BCS

This is a great tent lantern and can be hung using a carabiner. It has a low and high setting and is very bright although it does cast some shadows. Good battery life as well. Takes up very little space when it is closed.

The amount of lighting artifact that this little Coleman collapsible lantern produces makes it much less useful than it should be given the awesome 3w XR-E Cree LED it is equipped with. The extra shadows and hot spots are distracting at best. I rated it as adequate for the job, because that is ALL it is. Just adequate. It is too bad because it really does put out a lot of light for a battery powered lantern and the compactness and weight of the lantern is decent as well. Not as good as some others that I have used, but good enough.

All is not completely lost however. I was able to correct the artifact to a large degree by simply taking some number 180 sandpaper to the plastic lens to scuff it up. Effectively I created enough lens diffusion so that the light spread is much smoother, but this does cut down on the light output slightly. Still, by doing this the lantern is far more useful.

I have two other 3w Cree lanterns that are far superior and produce a smooth, warm light with no shadows or glare. They are my lanterns of choice. This one gets left at home. I have a feeling that the 5 star reviewers may not have had much experience with other LED lantern choices. For other accurate lantern reviews you can visit www.candlepowerforums.com.

Great lantern using a 3 watts cree led. Should receive a prize for the design, it is really extremely compact and practical. would like to compare to others of the same class.

I bought this little lantern a while ago, and since then it has seen lots of abuse. It is very small and light, and I like carrying it and a pillow as luxuries. It really is very bright, enough to light up a cabin room adequately or a tent very well. The handle on the top is nice, although the open/close is a little stiff. The beam has a little too many shadows, but all in all I'm very satisfied with this little lantern. It is strong, compact, lightweight, bright, and has a long battery life.

I got this for my toddler's playhouse but we got much more. The lantern has 2 levels of brightness plus a strobe function, we used it for trick-or-treating this Halloween (it was pitch black), we had it on strobe, it was so bright that neighbors said we could be seen from a great distance. Now we use it whenever we take the kids out for evening strolls, strobe when we are in motion and constant (very bright) when we need light. The lantern is very compact, when compressed it is about the size of a pack of cards and fits into any jacket pocket. A lot of light for such a small size. Very versatile, highly recommended.

Great for lighting up a campsite. The battery life works great on the low setting. If you are looking for a light weight backpacking light, this one is perfect.

It is compact and bright.