Thread: Lighting Upgrade Questions

Originally Posted by karlz

LED Headlights
So for my main headlights I now am considering LED's, but I dont want the distraction LED's cause when I'm out in the bush and using the fyrlts.

Any chance I could see yours function at night?
I'm in Melb as well, SE suburbs.

Cheers

Yep, I think we should be able to sort that - I'm inner SE suburbs. Will send a PM.

Originally Posted by karlz

.....

Finally was the fog or smoke on the road, they just didnt cut it for me, so I took them off (I still have them if anyones interested) and replaced them with some halogen fyrlts (150w).
I'm really happy with the halogen driving lights. Yes, they dont seem as powerful as the led's but you can see further with them. Things in the bush are now noticeable.
So, in my opinion halogens are superior.

....

Without knowing the exact situation of your lights, I reckon the glare you experienced was more to do with the wider spread of the LED .. or more accurately the inability to concentrate the LED beam more precisely.
If the brighter light is spread out at a wider angle, and it reflects back at you off highly reflective items, then the feeling is that they produce more glare.

When I got my D1, it came with a pair of IPF(I think, I'll have to check) driving lights. a previous owner had 100w H3 globes. They had a hybrid spread/spot lens type.
Driving on a deserted freeway with them on, was mostly an exercise in futility as the glare they produced on most signs was more of an annoyance. So they were mainly kept off.
Not long after that, I removed them and got my LED light bar, but I tried to choose a light bar that had a lot more spot to it, than spread.
Mine is still not as ideal as I'd like it to be, but it's useful on the whole.
I've never felt compelled to turn it off on a deserted freeway due to glare back off signs.

I've had ideas to attempt to install a pair of H3 LEDs into the IPFs(now in the shed), but most LED bulbs use a heatsink of some description, and there's not really enough room behind the H3 globe to the rear of the metal body of the light for many heatsink designs.

More importantly I'm probably going to put my money into a proper pair of LED pencil beams of some description.
Hopefully some Great Whites, but I'll wait and see if any decent looking cheap Chinese knock offs come to market any time soon tho.

Originally Posted by AK83

Without knowing the exact situation of your lights, I reckon the glare you experienced was more to do with the wider spread of the LED .. or more accurately the inability to concentrate the LED beam more precisely.
If the brighter light is spread out at a wider angle, and it reflects back at you off highly reflective items, then the feeling is that they produce more glare.

When I got my D1, it came with a pair of IPF(I think, I'll have to check) driving lights. a previous owner had 100w H3 globes. They had a hybrid spread/spot lens type.
Driving on a deserted freeway with them on, was mostly an exercise in futility as the glare they produced on most signs was more of an annoyance. So they were mainly kept off.
Not long after that, I removed them and got my LED light bar, but I tried to choose a light bar that had a lot more spot to it, than spread.
Mine is still not as ideal as I'd like it to be, but it's useful on the whole.
I've never felt compelled to turn it off on a deserted freeway due to glare back off signs.

I've had ideas to attempt to install a pair of H3 LEDs into the IPFs(now in the shed), but most LED bulbs use a heatsink of some description, and there's not really enough room behind the H3 globe to the rear of the metal body of the light for many heatsink designs.

More importantly I'm probably going to put my money into a proper pair of LED pencil beams of some description.
Hopefully some Great Whites, but I'll wait and see if any decent looking cheap Chinese knock offs come to market any time soon tho.

7 Blue Light Facts: How Blue Light Is Both Bad and Good For You read especially point 5.
While the method of illumination is not much of an issue the colour temp and CRI of the light is. Blue light scatters more easily than warmer tones , creates eye strain and when its from a LED usually has a low CRI. (especially the cheap ones) If you dont agree then thats fine but google "night driving glasses " and ask your self why they are all yellow?

Originally Posted by timax

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While the method of illumination is not much of an issue the colour temp and CRI of the light is. ....

LOL on the night driving !
I also got fooled into getting a pair, wore them for about an hour and chucked them in the bin! ..
How many people do you see out there at night wearing them?

You gotta luv marketing hype huh?

And again with the CRI 'propaganda'.
I think the main issue with CRI coming in to any equation with respect to car lighting has been propagated by a company in dire need of a marketing strategy, and folks just soak it up without understanding what it actually is(and means).

A color rendering index (CRI) is a quantitative measure of the ability of a light source to reveal the colors of various objects faithfully in comparison with an ideal or natural light source. Light sources with a high CRI are desirable in color-critical applications such as neonatal care, photography and cinematography.

and ..

... CRI is not a good indicator for use in visual assessment, especially for sources below 5000 kelvin (K) ....

Those two important quotes comes directly from the opening paragraphs in the wiki page on the topic of CRI!

As for blue light. I think most folks have a dislike for it, myself included. But white light is not blue light. White light is just bluer than yellowy halogen type light. That doesn't have the same meaning as blue light.
We all have particular preferences, yours may be warmer/yellower light, mine is whiter bluer light.
This really has no effect on glare tho.

ps. the term blue light is taken here to mean the modern method that many manufacturers seem to be keen to take for the headlights. I've noticed really new Merc, BMWs, and Volvos seem to have really blue headlights nowadays.
Not particularly appealing IMO.

But, back to glare ... point a 100w halogen spottie at a large road sign at the end of a T-junction, and you still get glare. Turn on your yellowy 100w spotties on in the fog, and you can't tell me you don't get glare in those conditions.
It'll be the same glare effect as you get with a pair of more efficient 15w LED globes .. it's just that the LEDs need less power to produce that glare.
In foggy conditions, I tilt my LED bar downwards if I want to attempt to use it without any glare coming back at me.

An interesting side note about CRI to be mindful of.
In the old days, CRI(created back in the 1930s when tungsten/incandescent globes were the norm) the colour temperature reference point was <5000K.
In the modern world tho with modern understanding of how to qualitatively measure light colour, they use D65 illuminant as the standard reference.
D65 has a colour rendering approximating midday sunlight hours, and it's kelvin value is 6500K (more accurately 6504K).
So, those folks that make it a point to highlight the importance of colour accuracy, mostly seem to have a preference for the warmer light colours(<5000K), yet the colour temperature reference point for modern colour accuracy measurements is the one they hate!

You have to love the conundrum there!

Color originates in the mind of the observer; “objectively”, there is only the spectral power distribution of the light that meets the eye. In this sense, any color perception is subjective.

Hence we come back to the conclusion that we each have our own preferences for light colour. Light colour is not CRI(as explained in the CRI wiki)
As described above, CRI is important mainly to photographers/cinematographers, but in reality only because it was once used a a reference point(by photographers) and that tradition has been maintained.

If you use your car headlights to photograph or video colour critical subjects(alternatively for neonatal care! ), bonus to have access to high CRI lighting at the front of your vehicle ... otherwise meaningless.

I fitted a set of H7 globes to my D2 in both high and low beam lamps and the improvement over the standard globes is quite significant.
I have No idea what sort of light they produce, All I do know is that I can see significantly more and further down the road with the H7 globes.
As for lightbars, I had a little 22" unit bolted to the small grill under the bumper because I don't have a Bull bar fitted at the moment and it was the only place I could fit one without mucking about with various mounting options.
Even when the lightbar was fitted this low on the truck the improvement in the amount of road and sides of the road I could see was fantastic.
I get my ARB winch bar fitted next week and I will be adding 2x 9 inch 370w LED driving lightsand a 28 inch 420w light bar to it, I am not that concerned with what "colour" the light is as long as I can see ALL the road and more importantly what livestock/wildlife is on it I will be a happy camper.
The argument that the halogen lights are easier on the eyes is probably a valid one But the LED options are Way tougher and far more reliable, This is probably why most trailers, vans and trucks use led's for their tail lights.

FYRLYT Driving Lights superior to any HID or LED regardless of price.

The biggest baddest headlights are pointless when your on the side of the road with a burnt out switch.Do the loom first,worry about lights later. Pat

Originally Posted by Vern

FYRLYT Driving Lights superior to any HID or LED regardless of price.

OTOH!

avoid daylight hours at all costs due to the presence of this so called harmful blue light!