I just went on "test" survival camping trip (2 day, 1 night). I had the bare equipment. Major stuff included:

REI Lookout Pack
Doug Ritter/Adventure Medical Survival Kit
Plexiglas Fire Piston
Brigade Quartermaster IMPS net (hammock)
North Face Rock 22 tent

The main point of this trip was fire starting, I had about 5 different methods available that I brought along to try out and test.

I'll start with the hardest method and finish up with the easiest.

First, I tried a magnesium fire starter. You know, the type where you shave the magnesium and then use the spark insert to light the pile of shavings. This was really the hardest and most time consuming. Mind you, the weather was great, however hot but no wind or rain. I couldn't imagine trying to use this method with wind or freezing cold hands. I had ideal conditions and it was still hard. The hardest part was making the shaving pile. I first just started shaving them onto a foliage-clear dirt area I made. The shavings went everywhere into nooks and crannies into the dirt. Then the magnesium block just stopped producing shavings lol. I had a nice sharp Kershaw knife. I tried using my buddies knife with serrations but that didnt do as well either. Finally after about 30-45 mins of try to shave, collect, and pile up the shavings i had enough to light. This is also taking place in North Carolina woods. I sparked it a few times in the air to make sure i could get a decent spark. Then aimed it at the magnesium shavings and sparked it. Two things happened: the spark insert decided to not spark as well and the shavings went everywhere because I shaved too hard and my knife hit the pile. You can't shave with a lesser stroke than I gave to get good sparks. So I sighed, got the shavings back together with my tender by it. I shot sparks all over the shavings but they didnt light...I tried this for about 10 more mins before they flared up. My tender caught by the grace of God. (I didn't see this happening if there was wind or dampness). And after an hour+, I had a fire. This was very time and energy consuming, also with luck involved. I don't recommend this method at all. But the magnesium starter is better than nothing at all.

Next, the fire piston. It's a device that uses air compression to heat up a small bit of tender in the device enough to form a small coal. The trick is getting the coal into something that will burn. I made a bird's nest of pine needles and bits of leaves to dump the coal in. It's a tiny coal this thing produces. The plus side with the fire piston is as long as you have tender around you, you can use it. The fire piston never runs out. Again, I suggest you google the term to learn all about it. This wasn't a bad method but still hard. It takes a while ( plus blowing ) to get a flame but it'll work. Calming down, and using patience will get you a fire. Prepare what you'll dump the coal in before you start slamming the fire piston. It will 99% of the time produce a coal on the first attempt. After that, it's up to you. I give it a 6.5 out of 10 for ease. A 9.5 for reliability.

Next I tried the Spark-Lite. I have never even attempted to use this method before. Other than flicking the spark wheel a few times to make sure it sparked, I've never used this before. I followed the instructions supplied with the Doug Ritter kit. It suggested fraying the cotton peice a bit then flicking the sparks into the fray. So I make a A-Frame fire (I dont know how many people are familier with this setup). A nice, dry dead tree was right near by to supply the wood I used in all my experiments. It was perfect for a fire. Anyway, I mushed up the wood into sawdust, Added a few small dry "snappy" sticks to the sawdust pile and built an A shape around the pile. The triangle of the A is where the kindling goes for those not familier. The open end of the A goes downhill or towards the wind. The "cross" stick of the A sits on the two that form the upside-down V to allow air to pass underneath. There is your A-Frame fire description. Anyway, I had this setup all ready to go. I have my frayed wax-impregnated cotton ready to go and my spark-lite in hand. I hold the cotton near the spark-lite and give it a flick. It ignites on the first flash. The cotton doesn't all go up at once. Instead it has a nice, hot glow. It's slow burning too, so it allows me to place the cotton where I want to. It goes under the "cross" stick and into the tender. That catches easily like I predicted and from there on it just gets better.

I was VERY impressed with the spark-lite system. So easy. I could see this working in wind and rain. The only downside is the cotton tabs. There's not an endless supply of them in the woods. So camping, go with a lighter. Survival, go with the spark-lite.