Coleman Tent Light

This is a really nice piece of camping kit, as it "clips" with the magnet to any part of your tent in seconds. (It's got a pretty strong magnet bar, which goes on the outside of your tent, and the metal bracket of the light anchors it on the inside.) At first I wondered if the tight contact of the light would cause the tent to leak, and so far the answer has been a very clear and dry no.

The light is incandescent, inside a more or less traditional sealed bulb. I have had no problem with the light or bulb in the 2+ years I've owned this light. The lens diffuses the light nicely, so if you put this light at the crown of your tent, you will have light throughout.

My only problem with this unit is that it's kind of big and bulky. It's not that heavy, even with the four AA batteries installed, but it's kind of large. In a camping world in which we've got wind-up LED systems and increasingly smaller lights which provide more and more light, I would think that an up-tech'd version of this light could be smaller and throw out more light. If you're doing backwoods trekking where every ounce counts, this is probably not the solution you need. But if you're doing family camping, car camping, or going to camps that have existing tents (summer camps, scout camps), then this is a really fantastic piece of gear.

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Update, 24 July 08
Now about a year on, here are additional comments on this piece:

It continues to function just fine, but I have one complaint. I do not store this unit with batteries in it, so each time I go camping I open the case to install and then later remove the batteries.

(The case opens by way of gently pinching the two sides together at the lamp's waist, between the on/off switch and the lower magnetic housing. There are no locks, springs or mechanical latches; the two parts of the lamp are kept together only by the flex of the upper lamp housing itself.)

After a year of easy and careful use the upper plastic housing around the pinch points has started to crack. The unit still works just fine (I just got back from a week in the woods), but it's only a matter of time now until the housing splits or a large chunk of the plastic comes off, preventing the unit from coming together and thereby ruining it.

We do a lot of offroading, not only is this light great for use in a tent it really comes in handy if you need to work on you vehicle on the trail. It will stick on any magnetic surface....under the hood, in fender wells, on the underside of a vehicle.
We keep quite a few of them on hand.

fortunately this light is inexpensive. The picture is very deceiving. Better off buying a lantern light

Coleman Tent Light
what a bargain. For just under $10, you have more than sufficient light to see inside a tent and as a bonus you can put it anywhere you want just by moving the magnetic holder. No more rigging up cords and bumping your head on a swinging lantern, no more lamps buried under sleeping bags. This is terrific!

Great for camping. Small tent ( 3 person) 1 unit will be fine. Bigger tent ( 4 to 6 person) might need 2. We only used 1 and was just fine. Magnetic plate helps secure it thoroughly. Quite easy to store. Also, comes with mounting screws if needed.