CampLight Rechargeable LED Camping Lantern

Most camping lanterns solve the glare problem with a dimmer. Turn it down far enough and the bulb stops hurting, along with stopping being much use. Hoto took the other route and moved the light instead of weakening it.

The Hoto CampLight is three lamps inside one 135 gram tube, all run from a single button that also handles power and brightness. In camping mode the beam fires upward into a magnetic lampshade and bounces back down, so the light lands on the table rather than in the eyes of whoever is sitting under it. Lift the shade away and LED filaments in the middle of the body take over, throwing warm light in every direction, with a breathing mode that slowly rises and falls if you want something closer to a candle. A bulb at the front end does the third job: a concentrated forward beam for the walk to the toilet block at midnight. Output runs from 5 lumens up to 180, and where you sit in that range decides everything about how long the evening lasts.

Two details make it pack better than its shape suggests. The lampshade is magnetic and folds flat, so it travels beside the lamp rather than wrapped around it, and a handle hides inside the body and swings out to hang the lamp from a tent pole or a bag strap. IPX6 covers rain and a hosing down afterwards.