Cooking, sorting gear and even just moving around a dark camp can be a difficult thing to do, having a headtorch makes these things easier but you can seriously annoy your camp mates by regularly blinding them so a decent lantern for general ambient light is vital. Lanterns can be bright but big, heavy and cumbersome or small and light but ineffective, it's tricky to find one that hits the sweet spot between the two but does the Apollo achieve that?
The Apollo ticks the light and small boxes straight away. It's 344g complete with batteries and is no bigger than a large coffee mug. It doesn't have any annoying sharp edges or angular bits to snag on gear when being dragged into and out of a pack and can be stuffed into the smallest and darkest of corners.
The tripod of legs fold out to make a simple and stable base, elevating the Apollo from its surface. The double hook hanging loop is large and versatile so you can't really fail to find somewhere suitable to put it.
The Apollo is the type of lantern you don't mind kicking about a bit, it feels solidly built and the curving structure lends itself well to camp abuse. It has an IPX4 rating so survives the wonderful British rain and the odd spillage without a problem.
Power comes from a 2600 mAh lithium ion battery which seems to last forever on a medium setting, we're talking days of being on all night long. As a backup and in a similar vein to other Black Diamond lighting the Apollo will also run off 3AA batteries, giving you a ridiculous maximum of 90 hours burn time. You can of course charge the lantern's internal battery from a powerbank, solar charger or standard socket if your adventure is due to last longer.
The frosted plastic creates a nice diffused light which isn't too startling. The maximum 250 lumens setting is enough for general lighting of a small camp and the dimming function allows you to dial in a pleasant ambient light for chilling out.
If you're stuck for charge on your phone and don't have a powerbank handy then you can use the Apollo for a quick blast but it's possibly a little counter intuitive as phone charging will seriously drain the battery power of the light itself.
Overall the Apollo is so easy to live with that it always ends up in our pack, whether to use as a night light for the kids or to light up a wild camp.
