And running generators at 2 am… :mad:
As others have said, in every metric except for light quality, the LEDs are worlds better. But that exception is a huge one. I don’t understand why they can’t/won’t/don’t make an LED lantern with a warm light somewhere near the spectrum of firelight. I hate white/blue white light at my campsite.
I don’t camp where electricity is an option, so we rely on fuel or battery lanterns. I purchased the Coleman Quad Lantern this year. It has 4 removable light panels. It comes in handy when going to the restroom, you just take one of the panels with you. Or, hang one of the panels in the tent. It worked great and I was very pleased. Also, the batteries last for a long time.
I loves me a white gas lantern. The lighting ritual, the sound, the yellowish light…brings back the best of my childhood.
The LED lantern is to be used when you need to fill up the gas lantern in the dark.
Coleman lantern is / can be insanely bright. For group camping or outdoor events where you need or want that much light there is no substitute.
OTOH, on a small camping trip where everyone has their own LED headlamp, you really don’t need a lantern very much.
If you use them very rarely, electric requires batteries that have a finite shelf life (esp if rechargable) whereas Coleman fuel will last literally decades.
For actual camping, for me, the primary consideration is weight. The new LED lights are … incredibly light. That wins my vote.
I use a coleman brand fluorescent lantern, uses 4 d-cells, lasts forever it seems. I would use a propane lantern if I had one, since I use a propane camp stove. I remember the days of gas lanterns, with the fond nostalgia of childhood memories. When I camp, I have kids to wrangle and to me, having a can of gas around is just one more thing I have to be mindful of.
They aren’t as bright as they used to be, even. I bought a vintage '65 200A off the auction site and it had a pack of Thorium impregnated mantles included. I’ll probably die tomorrow, but that thing was unbelievably bright with those things. There was a wonderful period in our nations history when practically everything was irradiated. 
Yeah, of having to pump the things. That’s an old skill!
Another option is bringing along a charged 12V car battery. A standard lamp and a 12v bulb. like this We use a small garage sell lamp that we got for a couple bucks.
Quite handy on weekend fishing/camping trips. We always have one battery for our trolling motor and another for the light. A fully charged battery easily gets us through a weekend. My wife likes being comfortable camping and we can drive right up to the camp site in our pickup. Not a big deal to bring a few things.
almost forgot, you’ll need to cut off the lamp’s plug. install alligator clips that can clip onto a car battery. easy fix, but use a cheap lamp that you don’t need at home.
My experiences with electric haven’t gone great:
Coleman fluorescent: Bought a cheapie Coleman with a single fluorescent bulb. The (brand new) batteries didn’t last through a weekend of minimal usage. Once the light level started to fade, I used the high setting to try to compensate. I learned later that this combo of flat batteries and the high setting killed the bulb.
One weekend’s use, and now it collects dust because I figured a replacement bulb would be a waste if the lantern eats batteries. I see on Coleman’s website they no longer sell this style of lantern, basically everything is LED now.
Cheap LED from about 10 years ago: Purchased when LED lights really started to become popular for the average user. Pathetic light output, and the reflector made for random sprinkling of light rather than a continuous blanket of light in all directions.
I guess the takeaway is don’t buy your electric lantern in 2005, and spend a few dollars on a good one.
I use propane when car camping and am quite happy with it. Just something un-camping like to use LED. Now, for backpacking, I’m all LED all the time.
I can only conclude that when people here are talking about “camping”, they are doing it in ways where weight isn’t a big deal … usually, in my part of the world, in means ‘loading stuff into a canoe, and possibly carrying that stuff, and the canoe, over portages’. So anything requiring cans of gas are at a distinct disadvantage, because you end up carrying it a lot.