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Thread: What Colour, Kelvin, Choose Wrong Could kill Ya

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    What Colour, Kelvin, Choose Wrong Could kill Ya

    I have read a few post on here talking about which globe Colour or Kelvin rating to use.

    Past experience has led me to believe that the wrong choice WILL KILL PEOPLE.
    I work and drive nights and see all these different colours and have formed an opinion on this.
    My job also takes me to accidents.
    Its not nice looking at someone's Family, Mum, Dad ,kids in a wreck.
    So I'm going to have m2cw here and now.
    Trying to keep it in plain and simple

    The area of the light spectrum of white around 6000k has all the colours we can see.
    That is, can reflect back to us the most information it's simply how our eyes work.
    But this is also how glare comes into play, proberly to much of the light spectrum.
    The area of most light (all the colours) is approx 6000k.

    Start going up, plus 6000k and you are heading towards the darker area of spectrum.
    So that is self explanatory, dark equals less light reflected back to us, ya follow me.

    Go down the scale, minus 6000k and we enter the area of yellow to gold and we can still see.
    It simply reflects better back to us, and we can still see as a result.
    Also without the glare as less white light is present.

    The exact colour is always a personal choice.
    My ideas.

    5500 to 6000k good for head lights and spotties.
    5500k better for spotties less glare.
    5000k
    4500k driving lights. "adverse conditions"
    3500 to 4000k fog lights only.

    Above 6000k entering the darker area put lives at risk, and waste of time and money.
    7000-8000k light blue to blue, might look cool on a dry rd, but again useless.
    excuse the expression, bugger looking cool, we need to be able to see properly.

    most output , white 6000k
    less glare, yellow tinge 5500k
    less again, yellow 5000k.
    even less yellow to gold 4500k
    least gold 3500k.

    Here's a link if you want to look further but it can get confusing kelvin light and kelvin temp and are 2 different things but sorta interelated.

    http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=...FORM=IGRE#x0y0

    Hopes this helps and keeps you all safe.
    Cheers Robo
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    Last edited by Robo; 10th November 2012 at 10:24 AM.
    IF IT'S NOT A NISSAN.
    THEN IT'S A COMPROMISE

  2. The Following 7 Users Say Thank You to Robo For This Useful Post:

    AB (9th November 2012), Conradk (21st November 2012), growler2058 (9th November 2012), Lonicus (9th November 2012), MudRunnerTD (9th November 2012), NissanGQ4.2 (9th November 2012), Old Wal (20th November 2012)

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    Patrol God threedogs's Avatar
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    4000k headlights 6000k driving lights, not point going higher only get that crappy blue looking colour
    Last edited by threedogs; 15th November 2012 at 08:20 AM.
    04 ST 3lt auto, not enough Mods to keep me happy, but getting there

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    4300K put's out the most lumen's and 5000K is the cleanest whited light of them all. 6000K is starting to go bluer. I've actually got a lumens metre which confirmed 4300k being the brighest too.

    I recommend 4300K as it's what is used in most OEM HID lighting and has the highest lumen's ratings. 6000K is getting bluer and is can cause fatigue. I've now got 5000K in my patrol and it's really growing on me. I forgot to mention that Land Rover and Merc are now fitting Osram CBI 5000k to there new vehicles

    I'm got pages and pages of info on it from Osram and philips sites but what I mentioned above is the really short version.lol

    Cheers Mick.
    Last edited by mick.; 9th November 2012 at 05:05 PM.

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    I think 6000k is even too high personally, I wouldn't go above 5000k for headlights, I see it as a good in between of light output and glare reduction. Perhaps 6000k for driving lights because they will never be on against oncoming traffic but I would need to be sold on the improved lumen output and light penetration, they are the only arguments I could see for having them. Maybe a combo of 2 x 4000k and 2 x 6000k for all round performance?

    From my high school science memory white light has a 'wider' (for lack of a better word) wavelength and therefore when it travels through the air it gets dispersed easily because effectively it's to fat to pass through things e.g.fog/mist
    Yellow light has a narrower wavelength and therefore has a better chance of getting through the gaps in the fog and also refracts less off the fog/mist and therefore has less chance of blinding you by reflecting back.

    How's that for two cents worth?
    1990 Ford Maverick, 4.2 Carby, 2" SL, 2" BL, Dual Batts, 33" Maxxis Big Horns

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    I had 4150K in my headlights and 6000K in my spotlights and I'm changing everything to 5000K. I fited some 5000K in my headlights and I'm finding there is really minimum glare compared to my 6000K spottes. I still love 4150K but I'm about to remove my old lightbar and fit one in 5000K and wanted everything the same.

    Cheers Mick.

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    I agree with Mick on this, 5000k to me is the sweet spot of output and colour, there is a reason that the major manufacturers chose 4300k as the oem globes and they probably spent a quid or two on research so my gut feeling is to stick around that mark.

    At the end of the day we should be installing what we like and feel comfortable with as long as it doesn't put other drivers at risk, it's not so much the colour that distracts other drivers it's poorly aligned lights and or incorrectly installed globes, just ask Mick, he's in the HID game and I'm sure he's forever defending his projector lamps because of people doing bodgy installs of HIDs in reflectors.

    Sent from my GT-I9300T using Tapatalk 2
    1990 Ford Maverick, 4.2 Carby, 2" SL, 2" BL, Dual Batts, 33" Maxxis Big Horns

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    Patrol Guru Lonicus's Avatar
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    I read an interesting article the other day about lights and the effects different light combos can have.

    A question was asked about what driving lights to install, HID or Halogen. The basic gist of the answer was that if you have halogen headlights, stick with halogen driving lights not HID. The reason being that once your eyes become accustomed to the bright light of HID when you dip them for traffic your eyes take much longer to adjust to the relatively low light of halogen, in effect making you somewhat blind for just a little bit. Like walking inside on a bright sunny day.

    Seems obvious when you read it but I hadn't thought of it that way until I read the article.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Irvs View Post
    I agree with Mick on this, 5000k to me is the sweet spot of output and colour, there is a reason that the major manufacturers chose 4300k as the oem globes and they probably spent a quid or two on research so my gut feeling is to stick around that mark.

    At the end of the day we should be installing what we like and feel comfortable with as long as it doesn't put other drivers at risk, it's not so much the colour that distracts other drivers it's poorly aligned lights and or incorrectly installed globes, just ask Mick, he's in the HID game and I'm sure he's forever defending his projector lamps because of people doing bodgy installs of HIDs in reflectors.

    Sent from my GT-I9300T using Tapatalk 2
    Your spot on mate. I get a lot of calls with guys asking how I can justify charging nearly double for a kit of the ones on ebay. Most of the time I can help them and explain the differences but then other times I give up. lol

    It's surprising how many people have actually had just the HID bulb and ballast and when they went to my kit they didn't realise how little light they had on the road prior.

    Quote Originally Posted by Lonicus View Post
    I read an interesting article the other day about lights and the effects different light combos can have.

    A question was asked about what driving lights to install, HID or Halogen. The basic gist of the answer was that if you have halogen headlights, stick with halogen driving lights not HID. The reason being that once your eyes become accustomed to the bright light of HID when you dip them for traffic your eyes take much longer to adjust to the relatively low light of halogen, in effect making you somewhat blind for just a little bit. Like walking inside on a bright sunny day.

    Seems obvious when you read it but I hadn't thought of it that way until I read the article.
    I'd never thought of that before but it makes perfect sense and you right. When I had halogen lights and HID spot lights when I dimmed my lights I couldn't see anything. Although once I fitted the projectors I barely use my spot lights or even my highbeams.

    Cheers Mick.

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    Quote Originally Posted by mick. View Post
    4300K put's out the most lumen's and 5000K is the cleanest whited light of them all. 6000K is starting to go bluer. I've actually got a lumens metre which confirmed 4300k being the brighest too.

    I recommend 4300K as it's what is used in most OEM HID lighting and has the highest lumen's ratings. 6000K is getting bluer and is can cause fatigue. I've now got 5000K in my patrol and it's really growing on me. I forgot to mention that Land Rover and Merc are now fitting Osram CBI 5000k to there new vehicles

    I'm got pages and pages of info on it from Osram and philips sites but what I mentioned above is the really short version.lol

    Cheers Mick.
    Just remember there is a difference between lumens and lux.

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    please correct me if im wrong , but i believe 4500k is the highest legal for headlights in qld.. i think its the best compromize between contrast and distance.. the yellow light is high contrast giving you greater ability to distiguish(bad spelling yea)between objects . blue goes miles but everything blends together, the exact reason y things on the horizon,eg mountains, all look blue..

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