An Essential Guide To Choosing A Camping Flashlight

Camping is a fun and enjoyable activity.

However, even if you’re in a camping site or a crowded camping area, you wouldn’t want to risk experiencing any accidents in the dark.

Because of that, before you set out for camp or plan your trip, you need to ensure that you have an excellent camping flashlight.

If you’re planning to buy one today, you may want to read this essential guide on choosing a good camping flashlight.

1. It Must Be Capable Of Producing Bright Light

On camping grounds and in the wilderness, you can expect that there will be no streetlights or other kinds of light.

So, you will be in total darkness.

And a regular flashlight won’t cut it if you want to see anything. Because of that, you need to have the worlds brightest flashlight.

You can bring different kinds of flashlights or lighting devices to your camp.

If you want something that produces a very bright light, you can opt to get headlamps, lanterns, or a camping or tactical flashlight.

Lanterns can be hand-held or hung somewhere.

They provide bright, cozy light in an area, and would be very convenient when you want to do something on the campsite during the dark.

Hand-held camping flashlights are the de-facto equipment you may want to bring.

They’re affordable and convenient to carry around while exploring or looking for something in the dark. 

Headlamps, on the other hand, can give you a hands-free experience.

You can just place them on your hat or head to allow you to illuminate the areas you’re directly facing.

This is basically an excellent camping hack you should follow.

When determining a flashlight’s brightness, you can check how many lumens it has.

Usually, a good flashlight for a camping trip should be capable of producing 1,000 lumens.

For you to have an idea of how powerful 1,000 lumens are, know that most lightbulbs in your home produce 450 lumens.

Meanwhile, flashlights with 3,000 lumens have a blinding light that can even become visible if pointed toward the sky.

2. It Must Be Lightweight

Camping has truly become one of the most popular holiday trends today, particularly among millennials.

But if you want to do it, you don’t want to walk around the wilderness encumbered.

So, it’d be great to get a camping flashlight that’s lightweight and easy to carry around.

Also, you may want to get one that even your kids can carry with them for a long time, just in case.

Of course, do expect that flashlights for camping will be larger than usual.

After all, they’d need big batteries, LEDs (or bulbs), and lenses to ensure you always have an intensely bright light in the dark.

You wouldn’t want to compromise the size over the functionality of your flashlights.

3. It Must Have A Long Battery Life

Nowadays, there are a lot of flashlights on the market.

And each of those flashlights will have batteries of every kind.

Of course, the best choice is to have flashlights with long battery lives that can sustain the flashlight’s ability to produce bright light.

If possible, get one that has removable rechargeable batteries.

After all, you can’t charge your flashlights on the camping grounds unless you’ll bring a generator with you.

Having removable batteries can allow you to bring extra batteries without worrying about recharging.

Aside from that, it’ll always be an economical choice to choose rechargeable batteries over disposable ones like lithium and alkaline batteries.

Nonetheless, there will be times that you may want to grab a few spare disposable batteries on your trip as they’re cheaper and easier to source or acquire.

Another option is to get a solar-powered flashlight.

A solar-powered flashlight can be recharged during the daytime and be used at nighttime.

Another popular type is the hand-crank one.

It virtually offers unlimited light as long as you can turn the crank to recharge the flashlight.

4. It Must Have The Right Reflector Design For The Purpose It’ll Serve

Camping flashlights often come in two types of lenses: convex and non-convex. 

Flashlights with convex lenses stick out of them, while flashlights with non-convex lenses have their lenses flush or flat.

Convex lens flashlights can shine a broad light covering a vast area, while non-convex lens flashlights can only direct intense bright light on a small spot. 

If possible, it’s a good idea to have both when camping; yet if you can’t afford having the two, you can opt to prioritize getting a convex lens flashlight.

5. It Must Be Water Resistant

When camping outdoors, you can’t perfectly predict the weather and the terrain type you’ll need to go through.

It could rain at any moment or you may suddenly need to cross a stream. And the last thing you want is water to ruin your camping flashlight.

Because of that, you may want to choose one that’s resistant to water.

To know how better your flashlight is at resisting water, you may want to check its IPX (Ingress Protection) rating.

The IPX rating is often denoted in IPXX format (like IPX4, IPX7, and others).

The higher the rating, the deeper you can submerge the flashlight underwater and resist water from getting in.

6. It Must Be Impact Resistant

Aside from water, one of the things that can ruin a good flashlight is when it hits the ground or anything when it falls.

The plastic body should be capable of withstanding impact and won’t break.

After all, you may accidentally let go of your flashlight in the dark.

And if your flashlight isn’t impact-resistant, it may easily break. 

7. It Must Be Cost-Effective

Flashlights are very invaluable in the wild.

So, you don’t need to be a miser when choosing a flashlight.

While it’s okay to save a couple of bucks, you don’t need to get cheap knockoffs.

Always make sure that you get genuine brands for flashlights that offer high-quality and long-lasting products.

Wrapping Up

You'll be good to go if you ensure that the flashlight you buy has all the qualities mentioned here.

Don’t compromise and ensure you only get the best you can afford.

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