A few months ago my aunt and uncle came from the USA to tour the island a bit. On their tour they stopped through Cabarete to spend a couple of days with us. They had plans on seeing us before they left the states, so they got us some goodies. In there was a set of lights called the Coleman 4-in-1 Microburst Mini-Lantern. They got it for us because they know that we love being outdoors and since then we’ve put it through some good use.

I’m not going to go through too much detail on the light system itself as it could be better and personally, as a flash light, I wouldn’t recommend it. For an area light though it does serve its purpose. This review is mainly for the photographers out there who are looking for a way to add some color to their light painting using a nice compact system.

The great thing about this lantern for light painting is that it has four detachable lights and four different colored clips that can go over the lights. This gives you a total of five colors to play with. You can make so many different things with the lights you’ll spend a few nights letting your imagination loose before you run out of ideas.

One thing I would note about these though is that once you un-clip them from their main unit they do dim significantly. Also, the back piece that holds the small battery in place tends to fall off pretty easily. I fixed this problem by taping them shut, that way I can throw them in the air and handle them on the beach without worrying that the batteries will fall out.

So, you have the lights, now how do you get shots like the ones below? That’s easy, but you’ll need a DSLR camera and a friend, or a remote if you want to spend more than 30 seconds on your drawings.  All you have to do is leave your camera shutter pressed using either a remote, a friend or bulb mode (max 30 seconds), grab some lights, make cool scribbles and designs, release the shutter button and TAH DAH! Everything that you just drew now shows up in one picture as seen below. You can play with how thick and bright the lines are by changing the aperture you’re using. If you’re still a little lost as to how to do this I’ll be making a little tutorial soon to go more into detail on how to light paint.

Our overall Coleman Mini Lantern Review FOR LIGHT PAINTING:

Pros:

– Small
– Has 4 detachable lights
– Total of 5 different colors
– Long battery life
– Awesome for light painting

Cons:

– Lose battery holder will open frequently
– Doesn’t light up very far

All in all:

The Coleman Mini Lantern in itself is just ok. For the purpose of light painting though, it’s pretty awesome. Going camping and need a small area light? This is a good buy. Are you an epic light painter or an aspiring one? This is an amazing buy.