Lighting pet peeve.

SupraGuy · Sep 9, 2016

ryan s said:
that you don't understand how a projector's output looks or that 35w at 3200lm is brighter than 65w at 1100lm in spite of HIDs lower output wattage but continue to preach is confusing to me.

I never once said that more lumens isn't brighter. I say that it doesn't necessarily help you see better.

Go into a dimly lit room, wait for your eyes to adjust, and look around. You should be able to see. Not as well as if it were all brightly lit, but you can see. Now, take a high brightness flashlight and shine it on one spot. You can now see where the light is just fine, but you will lose the ability to see the rest of the room.

Yeah, I know what a projector light output looks like. Projectors is NOT what I'm talking about. I never even mentioned them. I'm not talking about "proper" conversion setups. I am complaining that it's getting difficult to buy a regular halogen lamp, as they've been displaced by the ones that are "whiter" often by use of putting a blue filter on the lamp glass, which people buy for looks and THINK that they're getting something safer and better and they aren't. The only actual HID lamps that I even mentioned are the ones that just drop into stock housings, and are by far the majority of retrofit HID setups out there.

Nam1911a1 · Sep 9, 2016

Actually go into a dark room and shine a 1000 lumen flashlight anywhere and there will be enough reflected light you can see everything just as if you turned a light on.

Don't stare into the hotspot as it will blind you.

trillobite · Oct 16, 2016

Somehow I missed this thread while researching HID's, and I wish I didn't miss it. I was having trouble seeing anything, as oncoming traffic was blinding me constantly, so I thought that I needed to get some brighter bulbs so that I can at least see. Most of the harsh glare that I am getting is actually from the more modern cars equipped with higher intensity headlights.

Needless to say, I was another one of those pathetic n00bs who thought that just purchasing brighter headlights will solve the problem. I have to say, a 35W 5000k HID setup DID solve my visibility problem, although, now with more knowledge, I realize that this isn't best for oncoming traffic.

At least in my defense, I was smart enough to look up the lumens, and out of respect for other drivers, I picked the lowest kelvin rating from the manufacturer that I purchased from. I also made sure that my beam was angled low enough, and stood in front of the car to ensure that I wouldn't blind anyone. Glare seems low, but definitely higher than regular halogens.

So now, because I don't want to rip my HID setup out, and have it sit on my shelf forever, I am looking for a good headlight assembly for HID's... and... that's not going so well. Cheap china quality EVERYWHERE!