Outdoor reading lights

[Shadow Catcher]

Got into a discussion with Nancy Saturday about her retirement and our plans for camping. Teardrops kind of enforce out door living much of the time, a good thing, but we like to read and lights from the galley really are not adequate. Our experience with book lights is they illuminate one page, sort of. There may well be better ones out there, but...
I have spent much of the day searching and pondering, and so far the possibilities are all LED but with varying voltage. Many "desk" led lights have a wall wart some putting out 12VDC cut the cord... some plug into a USB, again cut the cord and use a buck converter or USB outlet.
Some have a clip/clamp that could be clipped/clamped to the chair (0 gravity perfect for napping). Something hanging from the galley hatch, my concern too much light spreading out/light pollution...
If all else fails I can make adapt and Oh ya she wants a warm color 3500K temperature and most of the book lights I see are 5000K or so.
Any one come up with a solution?

[halfdome, Danny]

We hang a Coleman LED lantern on a bungee chord from the canopy frame.
Works well for Jane to read her music & play her harp, so might work for book reading too.
A simple solution with a regular piece of camping gear.
Danny

[Shadow Catcher]

We have a similar LED lantern that was not quite enough to read comfortably.

[tony.latham]

Shadow:

The wife and I read every night. Especially when we're teardropping. We both have Kindle Paperwhites and really like them. They have an adjustable backlight that works great. No booklight needed. And of course the size of the print is adjustable. The battery last for weeks.

I'm to the point if someone gives me a book as a gift, I'll buy it as an ebook and read it on my Kindle. I like it that much better.

Christmas is in what, five weeks?



Tony

[S. Heisley]

I'm to the point if someone gives me a book as a gift, I'll buy it as an ebook and read it on my Kindle. I like it that much better.

Tony

I'm with you, Tony. Even though I have an older version, I love my Kindle. It's good to know about the lighting of the paperwhite one. Thanks for your review.

[Shadow Catcher]

I and Nancy tend to agree with Captain Picard and prefer paper books.

[Dale M.]

My wife and I also prefer paper books although she has a Kindle and I have Samsung tablet.... A question I have is there a spectrum of LED light one can read by but that does NOT attract bugs?

Dale

[Shadow Catcher]

I am going to try two different possibilities, Costco had a pair of Hug Lights for $14 http://www.amazon.com/MyLight-HL000001-HUGlight-Hands-Free-Flexible/dp/B007R6NL3S do not yet know the color temperature, I also ordered a LED clamp light from China that is a 3200K color temp.
I would think you would want as warm a color temp as you can stand, but ...

[felixx]

I use a tilley lamp.

[H.A.]

I use a tilley lamp.

Me too. An FL6, on a tripod no less...

[kludge]

My favorite thing to use when camping is one of the baseball caps with LED lights built in. Or a headband flashlight.

Light where you want it and hands free.

[daveesl77]

For the outside, I have a string of the 12v LED lights. I took a 1 gallon gatorade jug, the rectangular one, and sprayed the inside with frosted window paint. I have a remote control dimmer on the light string. If I want just a singular light, then I stuff the 15' long strand inside the jug and hang it from the ezup canopy. If I want a lot of light, I pull out the strand and string it along the scissor action of the ez up. I put on quick disconnects on the power side, so it can either run off of a 12v direct plug or from a wall wart. The dimmer allows me to adjust the light level from really bright to a nice dim to off. This is for the outside. Also, under the "wings" is a strip of RGB leds that allow me to control both brightness and color. Normally I'll keep it at a slight orange level. Bugs, like mosquitos and moths, prefer the blue end of the spectrum. But if I need to light up the sides, I can adjust to white and bright. Or I can make it wacky and go all carnival with the controller.

On the inside, next to the bed on each side, I have a small, yellow square 12v LED, about 1 inch square. With these, I put them inside the miniature mason jars that I frosted and each side has a switch. The lights reflect up off of the ceiling and are hidden by the foam mattress. Each has it's own control switch on each side of the bed. This gives plenty of subtle lighting to read by, but doesn't disturb the other person.

dave

[Shadow Catcher]

The Outcome more or less.
We now have two new Nooks and a pair of lights that hang around the neck, and an LED clamp light. We will see what works.

[tony.latham]

The Outcome more or less.
We now have two new Nooks and a pair of lights that hang around the neck, and an LED clamp light. We will see what works.

Are those backlit with the "Glowlight?" If so, I'm guessing you'll need no external light.

Tony

[Shadow Catcher]

Yes the Nooks have the light and are waterproof. But both of us tend toward paper books.
The big advantage is that with the Verizon Jetpack (hot spot) we can down load/borrow digital books from the Toledo library.