Black Diamond Orbit Lantern

I bought this on a whim, as I've pruchased "cheapy" mini-lanterns before, and thought it would be good for a laugh. Especially for the price. I have never been proven wrong by a lantern before, until I met the Black Diamond Orbit.

Now, I bought this as a back-up to the Apollo version, and I have to admit that I'm impressed with the lantern (Dare I say I like this one more than the Apollo?). For such a compact lantern, the light output (Especially for 45 lumens) is really bright.

Where I work, lighting is everything, especially when your generators decide to go down, or your last shift neglected to refill them. Even when they're running, I depend on my lights throughout the night.

As a stationary light, it does a decent job. It's not super bright, but I call it my "Hurricane lantern on 'roids." At an 8-10 foot height, I can see the light radius being 10-15 feet around, which is awesome for such a small lantern. What I really use it for is my "Go-to bathroom light." There's nothing worse than using a port-a-potty in the middle of nowhere, or even worse so, the "Older than you are" outhouse that no one has serviced in a million years. It's not fun trying to explain to your C/O why you discharged your weapon in the outhouse, trying to defend yourself from the sneaky raccoon that decided to crawl down into the pit (Don't worry, it was dark, and I missed the little stinker. I did manage to hit the wall, however. :)).

Guess what? That's not a problem anymore with the Orbit! For a confined area, the lighting is perfect and the lantern works wonderfully as a handheld lantern, so seeing the trails at night is a breeze. Even if you use the dimmer function, just turning it off and on again switches it back to it's highest setting. A great feature, just like the Apollo.

The only reason the Orbit is getting 4 stars is because of the "anti-glare" feature. The globe could have been frosted, just a touch more. At certain angles, there is a glare from the reflector, and it's a little annoying at times. Aside from that, I simply adore this lantern!

As a matter of fact, I may have to pick up about a half dozen more (The raccoons could use them, so they don't mistake the outhouse as a new home again)! P.S. The "usable" light, on a table (Or ground) is about a 3-4 foot radius due to the light casting downward at 30 degrees from the top, in case you're wondering. ;)

A wonderful product!

I looked online before I bought, & based on light output, I thought I'd be getting the Black Diamond Apollo. in the store I was able to try both the Apollo & the Orbit (an employee recommended I crawl under a cloth-draped table) & the Orbit light seemed ample, as well as a slightly warmer tone. I liked that, as the white LEDs can be a bit cold. I LOVED the tiny size of this lantern. Also I'm highly pleased with how it collapses, which reduces the size by about half, & protects the globe. I took this on a couple of late summer camping trips & in a dark tent - mine is 7'x14', it was more than sufficient. I immediately got another so my son could have one as his camp reading light & I could leave another outside, on low, as a beacon to help us find the tent upon late returns. As for battery power, I used it for a week long trip & was not shy about leaving it on, as I'd packed extra batteries, but I never had to replace them. I had another brand of LED lantern that died after 3 years. One change in this one I very much like is the globe is frosted. LEDs can be very harsh when you look into them, the frosted plastic helps sooo much with this, diffusing the light so you don't get blinded as you move it around. I've also found it's great just around the house. We have 2 now, & we use them outside around the table for BBQs that go into the dark, & my son keeps one by his bed for reading under the covers. Almost works as a flashlight. The small size, light weight, & long battery life make this a highly useful choice for travel. I put rechargeable AAAs in it. I'll definitely take these on my next big trip overseas. I learned the hard way many countries don't have our habit of bedside lamps. A small & reliable LED lantern is so useful. Finally, all the pros listed, along with a reasonable price ([$] less than the Apollo) makes this quite good as an emergency light, to stash somewhere in the house just in case.

I use it for 2-3 day camp outs. Had it for 3+ years. Some car camp, some hike-in. The little hooks on top are great b/c it can attach to just about anything if you work on it. Great in my tent at night for reading under all circumstances. Nice quality of light. Good light for backcountry. If you are in an area with a little more ambient light, say with a campfire, it doesn't add too much. But enough to play cards or something at a picnic table or something. But it's not super bright. It's pretty compact which is nice, as is the fact that you can't accidentally turn it on. I've had no problem with 2-3 night battery life.Cons - I've had it do that blinking thing some other reviewers have noted and also it just plain turns off when it's out of batteries. That sucks, especially knowing the batteries have some more juice. But the blinking thing is weird because it happens only intermittently. Then it works fine. I think it does have to do with colder temperatures. But it happened infrequently enough that it didn't ever pose a major problem, especially because I always have a headlamp anyway. I would never rely on one light source. That said, it's worked pretty consistently. Finally - it bit the dust one day when I opened it to use it camping. It doesn't open that easily, so it's easy to accidentally pull too hard. A plastic piece simply broke irreparably. Unfortunate, but I will buy another, being a little more careful opening it. I'm going backcountry in 2 weeks with 3 others, and it will be the perfect lantern for all 4 of us to sit around at night. For[$], I think it did its job pretty well for 3 years. But always carry a backup light!

Fantastic little lantern. Small and lightweight enough to justify bringing along on all but the most grueling backpacking trips, and I love the design of the hook/loop on the top -- this little guy can attach to anything.

Great light output that is very easy to adjust, and though I haven't had it long enough to attest to its run time its running like a champ for quite a while now on AA alkalines. Feels very durable and the little rubber feet on the bottom keep it in place on less-than-flat surfaces. Thoughtful design makes it impossible to turn on accidentally.

My only beef is the rechargeable system offered for it. Orbit is not rechargeable via USB; you need to buy Black Diamond's proprietary system, which only includes a wall charger. Car charger is separate and extra, and this still leaves no option for recharging the lantern while out and about. True, I'm happy to just rely on my rechargeable headlamp on long journeys, and on shorter ones I'll have other options if the lantern dies -- so, yeah, I'm being nit-picky. But still, I wish BD would join the times and make its batteries USB-rechargeable, so my little portable battery- and solar-chargers can feed the Orbit as well.

Admittedly, this one "beef" is quite negligible. Juice up the Orbit before you go and you should have no problems with this excellent little lantern.

This little baby does exactly what you need it do. At 45 lumens it is plenty bright enough to light up an entire room or tent. It has great battery life for a led light and has a wonderful non glare casing so u don't get blinded when you're looking at it. The compact design is a huge plus and makes for easy storage and the clips allow you to put it on anything. This light is also dimmable which is a great feature to save some battery life and also great because you don't always need the brightest light possible in certain situations. This light is bright enough for the whole camp to sit and play cards or to read a book. If you are planning on using this product in temperatures below 20 degrees then this probably wouldn't be your best option. The only other downside is that it is somewhat heavy for the minimalist. All in all though this product performs very well for what it's intended to do. I would highly recommend this product for the average camper and the non hardcore backpacker.

I goofed on this lantern at first and wrote it off as junk! Reason was, I put new batteries in because my old ones died and the light just started to be all goofy and turn off and wouldn't work right. I took it back and got a new one, which ended up being the new 2011 style one with the new features of dimming. Same problem! Ended up the batteries I had gotten were bad because when I tried other new batteries and it worked perfect!

Needless to say this lantern kicks butt! I use it in my jeep to see, in my tent to see and when I am setting up camp in the dark before the fire is started this lantern lights up my area great! The softness of the light doesn't kill your eyes but yet it is very luminescent. Great and compact, light, and durable little device.
More color options? I love my green color though!
Black Diamonds bigger lanterns if you want or need more light and are not doing backpacking like me.

We bought this lantern after a powerful snowstorm in late October left us without power for a week in Sturbridge MA. We had gone in to REI looking for a Coleman lantern but like all stores in the area they were sold out. The salesman recommended this product with great enthusiasm, So I bought it. It was worth it's weight in gold giving off an amazing amount of light for such a small product.

I almost gave it a "perfect" score, but my one complaint is it ate through batteries quickly. If you leave it on for hours, which we did, it needed batteries the next day. The good news is it uses small and light AA batteries which we had plenty of on hand. Due to the extended power outage all over the Northeast D batteries could not be purchased. But AA were plentiful. Obviously this is a "feature" that keeps the lantern light and ultra portable. It is just worth noting that extra batteries are needed.

This is a great lantern! I have purchased other backpacking lanterns from other top companies that had many issues. The main issue that I had with other lanterns was that it would blind you if you even glanced close to it. I also dealt with faulting wiring and sucking the battery juice. With this lantern, you don't have that, you have the frosted lens with the indirect light, but it still packs a punch when it comes to lighting up your camping quarters. I love simplistic gear and this is one of the top easiest to use pieces of gear that I own. Another reason why I gave this lantern 5 stars was it's ability to compact withn itself to make more room for extra gear. I've thought about just using a headlamp when adventuring, but it's nice to be able to use your periferal vision at night instead of having to direct your head wherever you're looking, like when using a headlamp. I love it!

I got 4 hours steady on high with 4 fully charged sanyo eneloop rechargable AA batteries. 7 hours steady on dim. in the top is a conical metalic reflector that creates an annoyingly bright "spot". I removed the reflector and now it casts a more pleasing illumination. with that in mind and that the lantern is not watetproof, or at least the instruction read not to submerge I would say by the construction that it is most likely very water resistant but I havnt used it in the rain yet. I give 4 stars. dimming feature is very nice. could use a more stable base. very durable. I intentionaly dropped the lantern from 4 feet on to a hard surface wood floor and it did not affect the performance. with the top off it makes a great flashlight casting a very bright beam. removing the top and removing the reflector may void any warrany but IMO makes the lantern better functional.