This light is honestly way too bright... like not "light up the room/area" bright but like "blind you if you look anywhere near it" bright. The light is extremely white and blaring and doesn't do a good job of lighting up the space. I ended up buying another lantern (Black Diamond Apollo) so that I could actually use it in my campsite and not feel like I was damaging my retinas. Do yourself a favor and spend just a bit more on a quality lantern. Your eyeballs will thank you.

EDIT: Added a star for customer service, reluctantly. The company partially refunded me for my lack of satisfaction, which I appreciate; however, they also requested I make my review a 4-5 star review (which I refuse to do). +1 star for responsiveness, but I still can't recommend this product to anybody until the product itself is improved.

First of all, this thing is incredibly bright for its size. But fortunately it has a half power setting. I cut a small tube of parchment paper that fits inside the plastic globe perfectly; it really helps to diffuse the bright light from the LED's nicely. The hook on the bottom of the base is a little hard to pry out, but I doubt I'll be hanging it upside down anyways. The rubber bottom helps it to sit solidly in place on hard surfaces. This was a great buy!

First off I really like the concept of this lantern. Lightweight, durable, waterproof, and it FLOATS. Great for anyone who does nighttime fishing on boats.
The Goods: It really does all that it claims. It is small enough to put in your pocket. Just think of it as a 12oz Coke can. It is rubberized all around so you feel like you can bang it around. Excellent fit and finish. There is no rattle or loose part (except the rubber handle a smidge). The handle also serves another purpose (besides hanging and lugging the lantern around) but I don't know if it is intentional. If you need to shine the lantern upward, you can flip the handle to the opposite end of the resting position. You can now lay the lantern on the side and it will stay surefooted because the handle is actually holding the lantern in position. The power button is really well thought out as it also serves as a battery level indicator.

The Bads: For 500 lumens this lantern seems very dim. I am guessing that they probably measure the lumen output with the diffuser off. With the diffuser off the lantern is actually quite bright but unfortunately it also means the lantern is no longer waterpoof. The second problem with this lantern is the battery life is pretty bad. I try 3 sets of fresh batteries on 3 test and none of them made it past 3 hours on high. The batteries were completely drained by the 3 hour mark (flashing battery indicator red light on button with no light ouput at all on the light itself). I didn't try medium and low light because as I mention earlier the light is already too dim for me even on high. But the box indicated 7+ hours on high output. I am not even getting half of that.

I bought two of these after spending a lovely few days in pitch black darkness. Never again! I had candles, flashlights and even those dippy-looking but great 'headlights' (highly recommended, BTW). But it still was just impossible to navigate around with ease. Thus: lanterns.

These are 'small but mighty' little lights!

BRIGHT--is the best description.
You wouldn't want to look directly at them. In fact, they come with handles you can use as hooks, and I thought they worked best when hung above eye level, lighting up the whole room.

I also like that there's a little indicator light on the front, which will tell you if they've run down.

I bought a couple of these, and plan on buying two more. Their primary use is as lights for my closets. (Why is it no one puts lights in closets any more??) Instead of all the mess and expense of installing light fixtures in the closet ceilings, I thought I would try these. I have tried other numerous battery operated/LED "stick on" lights over the years, but they were worthless. So this time I thought I'd give these a shot. They are terrific! Give out wonderful light for a standard closet (but you probably need more than one for a walk-in closet). I can move them to where I need more light, if necessary, or just hang them from a hook. Their secondary use will be for electrical outages (common here in FL) and camping...when I get time! They are well protected around the base so if they fall, they shouldn't break (at least on the bottom).