The Best Camping Lanterns of 2024: Tested

One lantern made it to our tester/first responder’s list of favorites: the  Lighthouse 600 from Goal Zero. A top scorer in every metric that matters, the Lighthouse 600 has specs that belie its compact dimensions. It’s roughly the size of a coffee mug when its collapsible legs are folded, yet it emits a whopping 600 lumens. That’s enough to illuminate most tent sites, the front of a car being jumped back to life or a family room during an unexpected blackout.  One tester set up the Lighthouse 600 at their cook station while car camping at Gross Reservoir outside Boulder, Colorado, and it provided enough ambient light for her pal to pitch their tent 50 feet away without a headlamp.

The simplicity and battery-longevity of the Lighthouse 600 is another hallmark. From its single dial, you can fire up both sides of the lantern for 360-degree light or just one for more directional light (like if you wanted to illuminate your tent repair without waking up your neighbors), as well as adjust brightness. The lantern also has a USB port for plugging in and juicing up other devices like a phone, headlamp or portable battery pack from its power stores. Its own integrated USB charger wraps around its middle, so you never have to dig for the cord at the bottom of your pack.

Its three charging methods—including one that doesn’t require anything more than a little muscle power—are what make this lantern a top pick for emergency situations. One of our testers deployed the Lighthouse 600 on a winter blackout in northern New England during which she lost power for more than a week. This lantern kept shining for three full winter days before petering out—and it only took a dedicated arm workout to power it back on. That’s right: Pop the lever out of the top of the lantern and start cranking for a mechanical boost to the battery. (Goal Zero calls it a 10-to-1 ratio: 10 minutes of its lowest-level light for every 1 minute of cranking.) It’s a great insurance policy against a dead battery, making this lantern a versatile choice for emergency kits or bug-out bags. The Lighthouse 600 also pairs neatly with Goal Zero’s suite of solar panels, so it can recharge via UV rays if connected.

Physical features are a rarity at this weight, but the Lighthouse 600 does have a metal, swinging handle, which makes it easy to carry or pop on a sturdy tree branch or tarp line. Buy here.

OK, backpackers, hear us out. We know weight and space are of the essence, so a lantern may seem like overkill when you already have a headlamp in your kit. But the upgraded LuminAID Max Quick Inflate Solar Lantern with Phone Charger (previously called the LuminAID PackLite Max 2-in-1 Phone Charger) will convince you otherwise—and it saves you the weight of a battery pack too.

As a lantern, the waterproof Max Quick Inflate delivers up to 200 lumens via five modes. Hang the tissue box-size lamp from a tree to illuminate small campsites or affix it to the tent ceiling for visibility when changing, reading or producing epic night photography. The Max Quick Inflate can run for up to 50 hours on the “low” setting, which is why our testers love it for multiday hikes and hut trips. Best part? The lantern has a built-in solar panel, so you have a backup if your batts die.

Or harness the sunshine and use the Max Quick Inflate as a charging station. A built-in USB port allows you to plug in and juice up a phone, headlamp or camera. One tester appreciated the versatility when his phone died on a backcountry ski adventure around New Hampshire’s Tuckerman Ravine on Mount Washington. “Even after powering up my phone, the Max Quick Inflate had enough in the tank for a little lantern-light après in the parking lot,” he says.

Back to weight and space: If we haven’t convinced you yet, consider that the versatile Max Quick Inflate weighs less than a pound and collapses to about the size of a Rite-in-the-Rain notebook, stowing easily in a pack’s top lid. Did we mention that this lantern self-inflates, requiring no huffing and puffing to blow up your light? One Alaska-based guide, who brought it on a two-week ski-mountaineering trip, called it “the best weight I could carry.” Buy here.

Looking for a simple lantern that you can clip onto a backpack, toss in a gear hammock or keep handy on your way to the outhouse? Look no further. The Moji R+—a rechargeable version of the popular Moji from Black Diamond, and the newest iteration of the ReMoji—is a little baseball of a lantern with a couple of D-rings for easy lashing. Compared to a previous version, Black Diamond slashed the Moji R+ 's weight nearly in half, doubled the lumens, and increased the run time by dozens of hours. (We lasted 30 hours on high and low.)

The compact Moji R+ sports many of the same settings of a headlamp—maximum brightness, dimmable light, strobe—but with a couple of key differences. For starters, the globe is frosted, which creates soft, ambient light—a pleasant departure from the harsh spotlight effect campers get when hanging a headlamp from the tent ceiling. It also has a rainbow cycle, so you can let it flow through the spectrum like hot tub lighting or stop it on the solid color of your choice (including red light).

The Moji R+ has collapsible hooks, which allow you to string it on anything without a carabiner, while four magnetic dots let you snap it to a fridge or car door when you’re out of the field. It fully charges via USB in less than three hours, and it’s waterproof. Buy here.

You want the portability of a lantern with the luminosity of a campfire. The good news: You don’t have to choose between the two. When it comes to car camping, you can have it all—with lots of light, a long battery life, and the cozy aesthetic of an old- school lantern. This camp lantern is one of the brightest we tested at 800 lumens, and it withstood the harshest of New England winter blackouts. During a December rainstorm that flooded several New England towns along with Maine’s Sunday River ski resort, widespread power outages threw our testers into on-and-off darkness. On a full charge, this lantern lasted for two full evenings of illumination and recharged quickly from a battery pack on the third night. It even served as a power bank when phone batteries ran low.

Another tester brought this lantern on a long weekend car-camping trip in Moab, Utah, and lit up his campsite each night with ease. “It was the farthest-extending lantern I’ve ever used and extremely handy to clip on a tent pole and play cards under on a snowy night,” he says. Four settings give you the ability to turn it down to create soft mood lighting or dial it up for maximum brightness. A strobe setting can be used to signal help in an emergency.

This lantern packs a punch for its weight (it’s lighter than a can of soup), though it’s not as compact as other lanterns we tested. For its brightness and its stamina, however, we think it’s earned a spot in the car. Buy here.

A strand of lights might not be an obvious choice for camping, but it should be. Instead of pooling the light in one spot like a traditional lantern, string lights let you spread it out or even encircle an area you want to brighten. Our favorite for the occasion is the MPOWERD Luci Solar String Lights + Detachable Power Hub, an 44-foot-long strand decorated with 20 nodes. This updated version also has a detachable power hub, so you can juice it up over a multi-day camping trip without removing your string lights from tree limbs. The effect is A+ ambiance with a lot less work.

Testers noted the durable nylon cord rarely tangles, easily wrapping up around the plastic base and telescoping in when not in use. That base holds a small solar panel, which can power the lights for more twinkling when the battery runs out. MPOWERD claims 16 hours in direct sun can fully charge the device. Testers had no problem after a day or two (this varied based on the amount of direct sunlight) of the lights sitting on a vehicle dashboard in New England. A built-in USB port means you can also power up other gadgets with the hub, making you the campsite superstar.

The Luci Solar String Lights + Detachable Power Hub is a slam dunk for car camping: string it around a picnic table or tent vestibule. Though a little bulky for ounce-counting backpackers, it can fit in a pack if you want to up the ambience of your backcountry site. It’s less than two pounds and about the size of a Tupperware container, so you can easily slide it in the brain of a backpack or lash it to the top lid for on-the-go solar charging.

Our testers also lauded its versatility in more casual pursuits. One tester brightened up her tailgate for a season of post-adventure hangs and sunset missions. “Best night: Hot drinks and an apple crumble were enjoyed on the Maine—New Hampshire state line under the glow of these lights,” she wrote on her feedback form. She couldn’t have been happier at the ability to Pinterest-out her truck. Buy here.

Light up your backcountry hut, ice-fishing shed or backyard picnic the old-fashioned way with the Powerhouse Dual Fuel Lantern from Coleman. Why a gas-powered lantern, you ask? For starters, it will be your best friend in extreme-cold conditions, which can drain batteries in other lanterns faster than you can say “nor’easter.” (Just ask the Maine-based testers who relied on it during a weeklong power outage—thankfully, it would have to be pretty darn cold for your gas to freeze.) Plus, weather is less likely to affect this lantern compared to other gas-powered options thanks to glass that protects the flame from strong winds, snow and rain.

Top off the attached fuel canister with white gas or car-grade unleaded gasoline, then enjoy the warm glow of the flame and the nostalgia of gas-powered light. An adjustable dial lets you soften the intensity to reading-light levels or fire it up to illuminate your whole campsite.

Of course, there are a few reasons the ol’ Coleman is a classic. Most obviously, some may find the hissing sound of the gas to be too loud (others may find it nostalgic). And, as you’d expect from gear originally developed in 1914, it’s heavy and less intuitive than others on this list. To use it, screw the lantern atop the fuel canister, tie on the mantles, ignite the gas flow, lower the glass and attach the lid. (Don’t worry, instructions are included.) Buy here.

If we were in the business of writing children’s stories instead of gear reviews, we might select our tester’s MPOWERD Luci lantern as a protagonist. This small-but-mighty inflatable, waterproof light has accompanied this tester on long hikes through Alaska and rafting expeditions around the West. It’s floated with her in backcountry hot springs and served as the backup light in her vehicle on cross-continent road trips. “It’s simple, efficient and darn near bulletproof,” she says. Blow up the Luci Outdoor 2.0 with two breaths, and its 75-lumen light will easily brighten up the cook tent or provide the perfect strobe lighting for a beachside dance party. Deflate it and squish it down to the size of a CD case (remember those?), then pop it in direct sunlight to recharge. (MPOWERD says seven hours should do the trick —pro move if you drive with it on your dashboard during daytime hours.) It lacks the bells and whistles of the LuminAID Max Quick Inflate, but if simplicity is what you’re after, this is your lantern." Buy here.

If you want something that goes and goes and goes, the Nite Ize Radiant 400 may be for you. This thing runs for 26 hours on maximum settings and a ridiculous 795 hours (or nearly five weeks; not a typo) on its lowest power—easily the longest single run time in our test. It can spit out 400 lumens of light (enough to illuminate small campsites), and its three brightness settings are just basic enough to be functional—high, medium, low. Our testers praised the intuitive single button and the carabiner clip on the top handle of the Radiant 400, easily snapping the lantern to a line, tree limb or gear loop. So, what are the drawbacks? Well, this lantern isn't rechargeable and more power to you if you keep D-cell batteries on hand. It's also a bit heavy and bulky (the size of an ice cream pint) for backpacking—when the obscene run time would be a boon. Buy here.

Versatility is the name of the game for the Luci Site Lights from MPOWERD. Six individual lights, weighing an ounce each, can be strung along a guy line or attached to the top of an included stake, giving you the flexibility to light up the tent or campsite, or avoid tripping on that late-night bathroom break. Each light twists to activate and is individually controlled, so you can use as many or as few as you want. These little lights charge in the included USB-C and solar-sustained power hub that can double as a charger for other devices. Stake out the way to the outhouse, or use one as a night-time reading light, as one tester did on an airplane. Our testers’ only gripe: Each light isn’t very bright, making it hard to light up camp. But they’re great for creating ambiance or using as an outdoor nightlight. Buy here.