Fenix CL30R Camping lantern

DESCRIPTION: Camping Lantern
WEIGHT:14.5 oz
MSRP: $94.95

Fenix has long been a shining light in the world of personal illumination…see what I did there? Ha… OK back to business. We received the Fenix CL30R camping lantern in for review and while it may not be the backpacking size at just over 14 ounces, it is pretty legit as a car/van camping source of light. With 5 lumen settings (10, 50, 100, 350, and 650) and a nice soft yet still magically bright glow this light really knows how to party. Check out this chart of lumens vs. battery life, you know, so you can decide how long the after party will be lit.

I do have to say the the Turbo setting is almost ridiculous, but cool at the same time. If you pick one of these bad boys up I am almost certain that you will have the same sense of wonder as you click through the light settings, in fact the first time I ran through the levels I was sure I had hit the brightest and then BOOM one more level with 650 lumens of crazy light! And while the flashing setting is cool, it is just a big flashing light and not at a frequency that would evoke raves or disjointed dancing, so to me it was pretty much useless, but then again I am getting old and am self admittedly not as “hip” or “with it” as I once claimed to be. The last little bit of this feature rich light is that it does feature rechargeable batteries and you can run it off of 1, 2, or 3 of the included lithium batteries and has a handy dandy 4 light scale to let you know remaining battery life. I will say that I do wish the lantern had a blocking screen to allow light to be blocked in a direction if necessary, the reason for this is that when I used this in the van recently I could not look in the direction of the light with out feeling my retinas slowly frying! In all seriousness I was able to drop the lumens to a reasonable level…but there is a reason house lamps have shades…

In addition the ability to recharge other devices off of it’s built in DC out USB port which nests next to it’s own recharge port add to that the fact that Fenix has garnered an IPX-7 waterproof rating this thing is almost the Ferrari of camping lanterns.

On the base of the unit it also has a treaded female nut so you can easily attach it to a tripod if you’re so inclined. So all in all I was and remain impressed with this light and think that if you’re looking for the next level in illumination be sure and check out the Fenix CL30R.