This product is bright. We lit campfires, cooked, played board games, had parties, and even chopped wood on moonless nights with this lantern. It's warm, too. During one of our parties we put the Northstar near Grandma when she was chilly. It was quite effective. The COLEMAN LANTERN does make a bit of a hissing sound when it is lit, and when the fuel is about to run out it makes a rather loud whistling noise.
Brightness
The Northstar was the brightest of all the lanterns that we tested. It is really, really bright, putting out 1540 lumens on the highest setting. On its brightest setting it does consume a lot of fuel. One 16 oz canister of propane lasts about four to five hours on high and and about eight hours on medium to low. It is fully adjustable and can be set on lower settings that don't use up as much propane, but on the lowest setting, especially if the propane canister is getting low, it occasionally makes a rather loud whistling noise.
Ease of Use
The Northstar has an InstaStart ignition that is awesome. It failed to light immediately only rarely during our seven-month-long testing period where we used it nearly every single night. Just turn the fuel knob and press the red button and it lights instantly. It was easy to initially assemble and installing the mantle wasn't too much trouble, but does take a bit of patience. The mantle does smoke a lot at first, but then it burns off and shines very brightly. After the initial installation of the mantle it doesn't smoke anymore when you relight it. During this testing period we only had to change the mantle once.
