7 Best LED Camping Lanterns

This LED lantern is going to light up your life. It’s insanely bright, with 30 LED bulbs per lantern. The lantern is weather resistant and the battery life is super long – lasting at least 12 hours. 

The Vont 2 Pack LED Camping Lantern is deceptively small and lightweight yet packs a punch. It is collapsible – making it perfect for travel and camping. The collapsible feature enables you to turn the lantern on and off without a power button, and also adjust the brightness levels. It does not come with batteries but takes double A which are easy to get. This lantern also comes with a nice foldable handle, making it extremely versatile. 

You’re getting two portable LED lanterns for $14.67 which is just about $7 per lantern.  These lanterns are durable, lightweight, and extremely bright – we’d say this is quite the steal. 

For those who want truly bright light, you won’t find brighter than this 500-lumen LED lantern. The bluish light will light up any campground easily, and will give you more than enough light to see no matter what you’re doing. Be warned: the light is very bright, but the radius of illumination isn’t too broad. The light tends to disperse as you move away from the lantern.

The build is beautifully sturdy, and it’s designed to be water-resistant and hardcore enough to keep up with any hiking or camping trip. It’s a bit more compact than you’d expect, but lightweight and easy to carry with you wherever you go. Thanks to the settings (low to bright), you get anywhere from 9 to 14 hours of continuous light. Definitely a lantern to have in the forest or on a moonless night.

The lantern comes with a slow-pulse SOS setting that will alert rescue teams to your presence in case of an emergency. It’s designed to be strung up from both the top or bottom, turning your lantern into a ground-focused light. Plus, you’ll find the convex reflector built into the lantern shines the light in all directions.

The button allows you to switch between the various light settings with ease—a bit too easily, according to some users. It has a tendency to switch on if it’s jostled, meaning you run out of battery life sooner than you’d like. However, you get 100,000 hours of operation from the LED light bulb, so you never need to worry about it burning out.

At $34, this is one of the pricier lanterns on our list. It’s not without its flaws, but the extra-bright 500 lumen light bulb makes it a truly excellent lantern to have with you on a very dark night.

This is the lantern with the longest-lasting battery on the market: on the low (29 lumens) setting, you get as much as 30 days of continuous run time from the AA batteries. Run time drops to 32 hours on the highest setting, but you get close to 60 hours on the medium setting. Few lanterns can compare to this run time, especially the low setting.

The lantern is water-resistant, built with solid materials, and feels durable in your hand. The top and bottom hooks offer the versatility you want in a lantern, and you’ll find that it’s ideal for indoor and outdoor use.

On the downside, you’re going to have a bloody hard time opening the battery lid in anything less than perfect lighting conditions.

The light settings range from VERY bright (300 lumens ) to dim (29 lumens), with a medium-light setting that is perfect for working around a tent or campsite. There is an SOS strobe setting, but the lantern lacks a locator light.

In case you need a very bright light, you can simply remove the globe from the rubberized housing. The lantern is easy to re-assemble, and you’ll find that it is as reliable as you could ask for.

At $35, this lantern is a bit on the pricier side. However, given its excellent battery life and brightness, it’s worth it if you plan to be out in nature for more than a weekend.

If you’re looking for a camping lantern that can handle anything—rain or shine, sleet or snow—this is the product for you. It’s fully water-resistant, designed to float, and can sustain a beating and lots of regular use without breaking down. The materials used for the lantern are durable, making it the rugged, outdoorsman lantern for you.

You get about 100,000 hours of use from the LED light bulbs before they need to be changed. The lantern runs on pricey D batteries, but you’ll get 40 (on high setting) to 90 (on low setting) hours of run time before they need to be changed.

The light is very bright (240 lumens), but the cover actually dims the light. Take off the cover and it’s very bright (but the bulbs are exposed and vulnerable).

The lantern comes with three settings: high, low, and strobe (for emergency situations). There is also a green blinking light in the on/off switch, so you can easily find and turn on the lantern in absolute darkness. With the hooks set in the top and bottom, you can use it as a lantern and a ground light. The top handle is very sturdy, though the design makes it a bit uncomfortable to carry.

At just under $20, this is one of the best-priced lanterns on our list. You’ll get many happy years of use from it thanks to its durable design, and you’ll find it’s a highly reliable LED camping lantern to take wherever you go.

If you want a lantern to go with you anywhere, this is the bad boy for you. It’s lightweight enough (0.35 pounds) that you can carry it without feeling the weight, and compact enough to fit into any bag or backpack. But don’t think its low weight makes it flimsy—it’s as durable as most of the other lanterns on our list. You’ll get many years of use from this lantern.

At 200 lumens, the lantern isn’t as bright as the others on our list. However, it’s good enough to use in your tent or small campsite. Be warned: you only get about 24 hours of run time from the AA batteries, so bring spares if you need to run it for longer.

The rubber-tipped tripod legs make it easier for you to use the lantern on the ground as well as hanging from the tree (on dual metal hooks in the top and bottom). The dual reflector system (globe) is constructed to maximize the light output of the QuadPower LED bulbs.

One of the best things about this lantern is that you can see how much battery life is left, thanks to the power meter. You’ll always know when it’s time to change the batteries before the light dies.

$43 is a bit of a high price to pay for this lantern, considering its flaws (low light, limited run time). However, if lightweight is the most important feature in your lantern (for long hikes), it’s a good option.

If you want to carry a back-up lantern just in case, this is the one for you. It doesn’t need batteries—it’s fully powered by the sun. It weighs just over 4 ounces, so you can carry it in your pack or bag without feeling the weight. All you have to do is set it out in the sun to charge it for 7 hours. You’ll get around 12 hours of light on a single charge.

Once you’ve inflated the lantern globe, it will shine brightly on your patio, campsite, or tent interior. The 10 built-in LED lights will give you enough light to read or cook a meal after dark. You get three light settings: super bright, bright, and flashing (for emergencies). There’s even a charge indicator built into the lantern so you know how much light you have left before it needs charging.

$16 is a very good price to pay for this back-up lantern. It’s highly reliable, waterproof, and even comes with a 1-year warranty. It’s the perfect lantern to have just in case!