Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

At the outset let me say that I like this light very much. Because we found such an oddball way to use it, I wrote the review with a little humor. I hope you enjoy it and that it conveys our enjoyment of Mr Beams. I am a big fan of LED light because of its brightness to power ratio. However, most LED lights and light bulbs are not quite "up to standard" or are extremely expensive compared to other methods of producing light. I wanted lights to put into a wooded area by my house for aesthetic, safety and deer deterrent reasons. I selected this model based on good reviews and because it was inexpensive and had settings for sensing and for continuous light. The light turned out to be so bright in my wooded yard it looks like the police are out trying to find a burglar deer in my woods.I tried several angles and can say that these lights are too intense to use for aesthetic purposes even in a large area like the large forest I have. They are fantastic as a safety light. Installed by a door or at a distance from where you need to see such as your driveway they are excellent. Now, here is the kicker. We were going camping and I could not find enough lantern light to be practical for a long camping trip. Because I had one sitting there, I grabbed up my Mr Beams and took him camping. What an amazing thing! To use Mr Beams in the "camping mode" take the bottom stake off of the unit and attach a bungee cord to the base. A standard one fits snugly around base of the light. The ways to use Mr. Beams are myriad. We used him in our screen house for general light. I could not get it to sit pointing up so I grabbed a small plastic kitchen box and put it in there using a bandanna as a cushion. It does go off after a bit (you can adjust the length of time it stays on). When it went off, we would either enjoy the romantic low light from our other lantern or someone just waved a hand in the direction of Mr. Beam. I suppose it would have been hilarious to others to see us sitting there at the picnic table reading and every 3 or 4 minutes someone waved their hand in the air ;-). It did not bother us at all. After a few days it became automatic. Another way we used Mr Beams was to light to the "kitchen" area so that the poor soul who drew KP duty had brilliant light in which to perform their duties. We hung Mr Beams for this application. With the bungee cord hook you can hang it from multiple places like a tree or what have you. We also used Mr Beams to set up our tent when we arrived late into a campground after dark. If you use it like this, make sure to turn the beam away from your camping neighbors or they will think the sheriff has come looking for them. Another use I enjoyed was putting the light by my sleeping bag so that the motion sensor was pointed away from me. I balanced Mr Beams in the usual detritus that builds up on the corner of a tent. (This is very helpful if you need spousal points, remind them that your detritus is to hold Mr Beam, not just your bad housekeeping.) At any rate, if you need light in the middle of the night you just wave your hand. This made it much easier to attend to "the necessary" or some other mid-night adjustments like adding clothes since the temperature suddenly dropped 20 degrees. Mr Beam goes off automatically so you can just go back to sleep and not worry about it. A final use we thought of, which we were ever so thankful we did not need, was to help you see what was crashing down on you from the forest. While thankfully it did not happen, we often camp in Grizzly Bear country and I suspect it would be a big comfort to me if I could see whether that crashing about I head was a bear or a deer running. I suspect a bear would not being "Mr Beamed" while I grabbed my pepper spray--and prayed of course :-). So, all in all this is a wonderful thing. Mr Beams has become a member of the family--"Do you know where Mr Beams went?" "Mr Beams can help, let me get him....." He runs a long time on the batteries (3 D-cells). It runs a long time even when it is cold (we were camping in weathers in the 20s). It is very bright. I did not use it as planned but discovered it was the best thing since sliced bread when camping!