Thread: Driving light options

BOOM, 2 clicks and this

55W HID Xenon Conversion KIT Single Beam Bulbs H1 H3 H7 H8 H9 H10 H11 6000K

Happy Days

Just stick under 6000k. 5000k is best. I don't know why but many have 4300K and 6000K but skip 5000k. I don't know why.

The color rating is not light output but the blue is a byproduct of making more light so the light output is limited on the lower colour ranges.

Happy Days.

Ok cool thanks will have a look after work. Network too slow here.

HID-Lightsdownunder - HID & LED. A better understanding

This covers it fairly well, and without knowing why , it looks like my Cibie Super Oscars with 75w 4300 HID's were a reasonable choice, every now and again you fluke it.

Originally Posted by AndyG

HID-Lightsdownunder - HID & LED. A better understanding

This covers it fairly well, and without knowing why , it looks like my Cibie Super Oscars with 75w 4300 HID's were a reasonable choice, every now and again you fluke it.

Some good info there but I'm not sure I completely agree with everything.


A couple of things "Roads and trees that are wet absorb light and do not reflect the light back to you"? Maybe they scatter the light which mean less is reflected directly back at you but I don't know about things that are wet absorbing light.

And: "6000k is not a good choice then as the blue hue in that spectrum is the first colour to be absorbed and the roads will look dim". Here (Daniel Stern Lighting Consultancy and Supply) it states that blue light is the easiest scattered light. Thats why the sky is blue. It's also the harder colour for our eyes to focus on due to the scattering of the light.

I copied the whole sentence and the link is provided so I'm not trying to take the information out of context but they are just a couple of things I pickup up on not agreeing with things I have read previously.

Blue light is one of the downsides, unavoidable byproducts of HID lights but I still believe the masses of extra light over Halogen and LED well outweight the downside of the blue light.

The Fyrlite crew on here will rave how their lights that use 5 times the power of HID lights are easier on the eyes but I have never struggled or suffered eye strain at all with HID lights. I'm not anti Fyrlite but they just seemed to get pushed pretty hard on here and they are pretty expensive when comparing with a $35 conversion of other driving lights.

Happy Days

The wet question, dunno maybe the tiny beads, wet layer refract similar to fog or cloud, your link affirms the point of staying away from 6000k and go for 5000k or in my case 4300k, but i have no opinion on either.

As per your link

Does the scattering tendency of blue light affect headlamp performance and road safety in other ways?

Yes, in two ways:

Because blue light scatters very readily in the human eye, casting a beam that's blue-tinted by any amount in a rainy, foggy or snowy environment causes increased perceived backglare for the driver of a car equipped with blue headlamp bulbs.

Also, blue light per secreates increased glare for oncoming traffic. That's because blue light does not trigger a strong pupil-closing response in human eyes. It is yellow light that stimulates the human eye most strongly to constrict the pupil. Due to the comparatively weak pupil response to blue light, the human eye is very glare-sensitive to a blue signal image. With the yellow light filtered out by the blue bulb and prevented from reaching the observer's eyes, the pupils remain wider open than they should, and the eyes are hit with a blast of difficult-to-process blue light.

The link is about the fools that fit halogen bulbs with blue tinted glass thinking the light is better and they are marketed as HID like (but not). The blue glass is just filtering out the red and yellow light to change the balance toward blue. It's Blue that you don't want. They actually filter out light and leave less but they have that "cool" blue look just like HIDs. On the other hand the less known science to HID is the blue is a bad byproduct that is unwanted light but they are so bright that we put up with it.

Interesting the part about the weak pupil response to the blue light. I hadn't pickup up on that before. I always though that was red light and the army used red filters on their torches so you didn't wreck you night vision.

Originally Posted by joel0407

The Fyrlite crew on here will rave how their lights that use 5 times the power of HID lights are easier on the eyes but I have never struggled or suffered eye strain at all with HID lights. I'm not anti Fyrlite but they just seemed to get pushed pretty hard on here and they are pretty expensive when comparing with a $35 conversion of other driving lights.

I am a convert from HID Hella Rallye 4000s to Fyrlyts. I used to think the same as you, until I tried the Fyrlyts. There is a reason we rave about them, and it is because they are really that good.
I also understand that they are not the cheapest option available, but for me (and I don't do a great deal of country night time driving anymore) they are worth the money.