Coleman Retro Rechargeable Battery Powered Lantern (Family Size)

This lamp is definitely not a backpacking light/lantern. It is rather large, which I attribute to the "retro" design - which I don't quite understand - and weighs about a ton. It's kind of like IBM selling a "retro" designed laptop - remember those three inch thick, half ton lap-boulders. Why would you look to the past for utilitarian design. What's next; a flashlight in the shape of a flaming torch?

Anyways, buy this lantern if you want something for when the lights go out during some sort of blackout or if you are camping where you can drive right up to the camp site. Because, trust me, you do not want to have to drag this thing farther than from your house to your car and then to the tent from your car.

Besides the weight, and volume of this lamp, the apparent high and low light setting is virtually the exactly same amount of light and will not at any point make you think; "Oh, this low light setting is really low in comparison to the high setting", but rather you will more likely think something like " What the heck, low? low? how is that low? somebody needs to look up the definition of low...because it doesn't mean 'same'".

I do have to admit though, if you were to need a night light at any point during a camping trip, it would come in handy, and seems to be more of a "low" light than the fluorescent low setting.

Just what I wanted in a rechargeable lantern. Provides plenty of light for occasional loss of power or otherwise. I have never been disappointed with Coleman's products. J.C.

This was just what I was looking for to give my mother in case of a power outage. She would not be at all comfortable using a fuel powered lantern and I did not want to give her something that required batteries. This way she only needs to recharge the lantern twice a year unless she has occasion to use it and it should be ready to go in case the power goes out. I was very please with the amount of light the lantern gave off. I'm seriously considering getting one for myself, although I already have 2 fuel lanterns.

The lantern is very bright and the charge holds for a long time. I would highly recommend this item and I may buy another lantern in the future.

We've used this several times since buying a couple of years ago. The amount of light it gives off is incredible, and it lasts pretty much as long as they say it will. It's not light though - the battery is fairly sizable and I think it may be lead-acid - not sure.