Speedy Blackhole 3 Pop Up Tent

Great nice-weather tent

I've just taken this for a 2 night camp in Summer conditions.

The big plus of course is that it is so quick to pitch and take down (once you know how). With just 8 pegs (4 for the tent, 4 for the guys), you really can pitch it and pack it away in minutes. It packs into a large disk shape, so you're not going to be carrying this on the back of your bike or walking through the bush with it.

As with all 3-person tents, this fits two (tall) adults comfortably with room at the sides for your stuff. The dark fly was pretty good - it really did keep the interior darker than usual after sunrise. Oh, and the 'built in' LED lights were awesome.

I can think of three downsides:

- The tension of the poles is such that the front and rear of the tent wants to 'curl up'. Depending on the ground conditions, this means you need really good pegs to keep the tent pegged down properly.

- The inner is pretty much just a mossie net, and the fly on the sides of the tent doesn't reach down to the ground. The result is plenty of ventilation. Great for warm weather, but I'm pretty sure you'd freeze on a cold day.

- The roof is not sufficiently taut and curved to convince me that the rain would roll off it in wet weather. I can't confirm this but my guess is that the rain would pool on top of the fly.

Conclusion - this is a good value tent for a quick getaway for two in nice weather. I loved being able to pitch it in a a few minutes but wouldn't be confident that it'd stay dry in heavy rain.