What is the brightest lantern

[mrman]

What is the birghtest propane lantern, or lantern in general. I have a very large campground to light up. Currently I am thinking two coleman northstars and one coleman pinnacle should be enough. I do not think a generator plus spotlights would be optimal or cost effective. The camp site is about 100 feet by 175 feet, yea its big.

I have heard the orion 3 mantle is the "world's brightest" propane lantern, is there any truth to this? The thing costs more than any other propane lantern and the mantles are nowhere to be found. Also, it only gets 3.5 hours burn time.I do not care about fuel consumption as much as brightness, but if I am camping for five days I do not want to have to buy 10 to 15 canisters of propane to get the job done.

[camperator5]

I think you're on the right track as propane or fuel based mantle lanterns are hands down the brightest. The Northstar and Pinnacle lanterns are the brightest Coleman has. For multi-day camping during which bright light is needed, I'd opt for Coleman Power House dual fuel lanterns. The are really bright as well. The Powerhouse liquid dual fuel lantern can run for around 7 hours on high and 14 hours on low on 2 pints of fuel. So that's ~28 hours on high with a gallon of fuel or ~46 or so hours on low. The Coleman Powerhouse uses standard #21 lanterns which can be found in most camping stores. It is also a good deal cheaper than the Northstar (but around the same price as the Pinnacle). The Pinnacle lasts up to about 5 hours on one 16oz propane cylinder.

In terms of brightness, availability of mantels, cost, and run time, I think the Coleman Powerhouse is the way to go. (It can also burn gasoline as well as standard Coleman fuel). Hope this helps.

[campman]

Even though they have come a long way in battery powered LED lanterns, propane is definitely the way to go.  Coleman would be your best bet.  The dual fuel lantern is awesome, I own two.  If you run out of lantern fuel the lantern will run on gasoline.  Hope this helps and isn't too redundant.