NITEFIGHTER LED CAMPING LANTERN REVIEW
Article Written By; Tim Collins,
Good afternoon, today’s product review comes from our friends at Lumingear Lighting Company. It is the Nitefighter LED Camping Lantern. The Nitefighter LED Camping Lantern comes to us just in time for summer camping season.
The lantern is made out of hardened plastic with some rubberized housing making it not only durable but also more enhanced for impact resistance. I know some people think that because something that is made out of plastic that the product will not be that sturdy. I assure you that when you take the Nitefighter LED Camping Lantern out of the box you will be pleased with how solid and sturdy this lantern feels in your hands. I showed it to a friend at work and his immediate response when holding it was “Wow this really feels heavy duty”! Even though it is very solid and sturdy, it is still lightweight and easy to handle. Here are some of the technical details of the Nitefighter LED Camping Lantern:
Battery Type – (3) D-size batteries
Bulb Type – 12 x 0.5W Nichia White LED and 1 x 0.5W Nichia White LED
Operations – High, Low, SOS Flashing and Directional Flashlight
Colors – Black, White, Yellow, Orange, Blue, Red and Green
This lantern boasts that their light guide technology delivers smooth and irritation-free illumination. This may be why the 300 lumens on the high setting does not seem as bright as other 300-lumen lanterns. On the low setting has 50 lumens, the SOS flashing light provides 300 lumens and the directional flashlight provides 13 lumens. The Nitefighter LED Camping Lantern also claims that it is impact resistant up to 1 meter and it is weather resistant and comes with a free hanging hook. Remember, that is weather resistant and not waterproof.
All right, enough of the technical stuff, time to inform everyone on how the lantern performed according to “real-world” testing.
First, I would like to discuss the design of the battery compartment. I really like the base of the lantern (also the battery compartment) is rubberized keeping it from sliding around. This is a relatively unknown feature that goes unnoticed until a situation comes up where the lantern may slide off of something. Like I mentioned before, the lantern takes 3 D-size batteries. To put the batteries in you simply twist the base a quarter turn counter-clockwise and separate the base from the lantern to expose the battery compartment. The battery placement is clearly marked so you install the batteries correctly, however putting the base back on can be a challenge. You need to align the arrows, 1 on the base and 1 on the unit, and then rotate the base around while applying pressure until the base aligns correctly so is can be closed. Sounds easy enough until you rotate the base enough times without it aligning right and it becomes half closed and half open. It takes a few tries to get it aligned right to close. I did a similar review on a lantern that had the same design and I was not fond of it then and I still am not a fan of it. Perhaps if they included instructions with the lantern explaining the simplest way of performing this task then it would be easier. Getting the batteries installed is the only part of the Nitefighter LED Camping Lantern that I am not pleased with.
The light provides plenty of illumination to see what you are doing and the light is a softer light making it a little easier on the eyes. I used the Nitefighter LED Camping Lantern at a spot by a river at 4:50 am before I went to work to see how well I could see. This spot allows for people to put up a tent, have a campfire and use the river. The river is about 5 yards from the edge of the camping spot and has a trail on a hill that is about 10 feet high that leads to the river. The trail is sandy and has many tree and shrub roots sticking out of it that causes a challenge when walking if you can’t see what you are doing. I am happy to inform everyone that I was able to walk down the trail to the river and back up with no problems because of adequate enough light. I would like to point out that I use no flash or filters when taking night photos. What I really like about the light is that the company claims you can get 100,00 hours out of the bulb and it will never need replacing. I for one appreciate a product that can make this claim. The camping lantern has 3 settings for the lantern. The high setting is the first click of the button, the low setting is the second click of the button and the SOS flashing light is the third click of the button. What is interesting to point out about the SOS flashing light is that it actually flashes the light as S.O.S. in Morse code. It is a subtle difference that does not seem important until you need help and want to alert officials to you. The professionals will notice the difference and realize that those using it are actually in stress and need immediate help. I thought this was a pretty cool feature. To get the directional beam from the top of the lantern you just merely hold down the button for a few seconds from any one of the light settings. Now, you can’t see very far with the directional beam and to me, if you have enough power to use the lantern then you would be better off just using the lantern. I suppose if the batteries were dying and you need to use the lower power directional light as an emergency flashlight to find the replacement batteries before it goes completely dead then this could be useful. Otherwise, I don’t see this function as necessary.
The Nitefighter LED Camping Lantern comes with a free hook to use for hanging the lantern. It is a large hardened plastic hook that is very solid and large enough to hang on small tree branches if need. It is however not connected to the lantern and, like usual camping trips I can easily see how this hook can be lost. Not to worry though, if you do lose the hook the camping lantern comes with a built-in hook in the base of the lantern that you can use. It is important to note that this built-in hook is not as solid as the free hook and will not allow using larger objects to hang the lantern from as the larger hook does.
Overall, I am very pleased with the Nitefighter LED Camping Lantern despite the battery compartment difficulties. The lantern is very solid, sturdy, lightweight, affordable and produces more than adequate light for usability. I admit that I am “old school” and have a soft spot for the traditional propane lantern, but I feel the Nitefighter LED Camping Lantern is much safer and easier to use. No missing or torn mantles to deal with and no possibility of starting a fire or explosion. There are several uses for the camping lantern besides camping. Keep the lantern in your vehicle for emergencies, keep the lantern in your house for power outages, use the lantern on your boat or use the lantern in your yard when sitting around the fire bowl to walk back and forth to the house. I have mine in my truck for whatever I need to use it for. The use of a traditional propane lantern indoors is just plain crazy and dangerous and should not be done. I encourage everyone to get your Nitefighter LED Camping Lantern this summer camping season and see for yourself how convenient and useful they are. I have provided several links for everyone to use.
I would like to thank everyone for their time to read this review and I look forward to hearing any comments, critiques and questions. If you enjoyed the review, please feel free to share it with your friends on social media.
Thank you and enjoy the great outdoors,
Tim Collins.
