Shingles

ok, so "those blue headlights cool or those blue tinted headlight are cool"... well they really arn't... why?

In the light output spectrum of a halogen bulb, VERY little blue light exist. So when you put a coating or a tint on there to just show the whiter/bluer light, you are cutting out the majority of the actual light. But you say "I swear there's a brightness difference". There's a difference between the signal image and the emitted luminous flux. The signal image is what you see when you LOOK at the light. The emitted luminous flux is the output of the blub. There was a test done by DOT that used a standard-wattage 9004 blue bulb... this test showed that the road lighting abiliy of this bulb is reduced by about two third(or 67%) and that glare was increased by 1/3 or 33%.

You ask, glare? why would it increase glare, the housing didn't change?! Well blue light has the shortest wave length of all visible light. Because of this, it scatters the easiest, relative to the other color. That's why those blubs glare so much and because of the glare, it appears to be bright when look AT IT. But really, head lights weren't made so you can look AT them.. it's made so you can see.

Also another problem with bluer/whiter lights(including true HID) is that the higher the color temp, the worse the CRI, or color rendering index. What that means is it's harder for you to tell the difference in color. But this is not as bad becase it some what depends on the person looking out... the arguement for HID is that to give up a little color is ok becausee HIDs throws out more light, perid. For reference, HID has a CRI of around 60-70, regular halogen is in the 90s.

One last point... DON"T use your fog lights to assist in night lighting... why? because you eyes will adjust to the bright lights right in front of the car, your pupils will shrink and your distance vision will be reduced. So what does that mean? Use your fogs for when it's really foggy.

See many folks say DOT headlights are bad... well that's probably because US DOT regulated headlights generally puts the hotspot a bit further down the road than e-code headlights... probably beacuse we have more roads that are longer and straighter. Many folks feel that headlights are good when they put a lot in front of the car... this apparantly isn't true... because that just means that you won't be able to see as far down the road.

This is really intersting because I used to feel that 9004 suck... but I guess it's not "all that bad" after all. Yes it sucks because it puts out less lumens compared to other forms, but then it's not that bad because DOT realized the difference between foreground lighting (in front of your car) and distance sight. I guess if I had to pick at night, I'd want to see further down the road.

-Shing

mAdD MAX

hmm..interesting...thanks for an another interesting and informative post.

So i'm guessing the Philips BV 9004 are the best way to go?

98BlaximaSE

I had the BV's and I liked them a lot. But 1 of the bulbs burnt out in 3 weeks. So I returned them and got a refund, and now I'm back to stock. I was thinking of going back to them and getting another pair, incase it was just 1 bad bulb. But I'm going on recommendations by this board so I have a lot of options. So far people have said, BV's, cool blues, PIAA's, and Naxo's, were all good choices. I've only been able to try the BV's so far. Can't find a store that carries any of the other stuff.

mAdD MAX

I'm thinking of getting BVs for my other ride..a '91 Corolla. So far it has the stock lights..and well..it doesn't seem to bright..and there's lots of glare with those lights. I don't know if its the lightbulbs fault though.

Anyway I'm thinking of getting them. Only $10.97CDN for one bulb.

Str8Maxin

Always love informative lighting talk. BTW, I love the sig, Shingles..."My cars are slow, don't race me." Mine too.

Soulive

Interesting. What about those of us with the 100/80 bulbs and upgraded wiring harness? How does that combination compare to stock/BV/PIAA 9004. Are we actually increasing the visibility? Where does it fall in the CRI?

My experience has been that at times, with the stock 9004 my visibility was poor. When I upgraded to APC plasmas, my, it was even worse! Now, with the harness I believe my visibility has increased "a bit more than poor".

Maybe I just need some glasses. lol

costcowholesale

iTrader: (12)

where can I get them in GTA area?

Shingles

No actually one way to over come the tint is to go higher wattage... there are other risk factors, like melting housing etc... but "nothing is free". In general I believe over wattage is a solution if on coming traffic is not a concern. But since we share the road... sometimes I feel like we should think of the other driver. Having said that... if the other person chooses to stare at you headlights, there's nothing you can do about that.

As for the CRI, any move towards the blue will decrease it. So you will probably give some of that up, how much hard for me to say without doing tests.

-Shing

chottomax

Any suggestions for a good H3 fog light bulb? If the foglight should not be used for driving then shouldn't they actually be yellow/amber in color instead of white/amber?

mAdD MAX

Costcowholesale::: WalMart has the Philips BV for $10.97 each. I checked it out at the Walmart on Kennedy & Sheppard.

Hope that helps.