DDM "4500K" vs. VVME 4300K - A Comparison

[nrubenstein]

OK, so now that I have something to benchmark against, I thought it would be interesting to do a little looking and to see if I could ballpark the actual color temperature of these bullshit bulbs that DDM claims are 4500K.

The following are two version of the same picture. The ONLY alterations that I have made are 1) resizing, and two, setting the white balance so that one set appears roughly white.

In the first, I set to 4500K. As we can see, the VVMEs are about where they should be. Maybe a little warmer than 4500K, but I'm not going to claim that running the white balance slider around is good enough for anything past ballparking. What we can also see here is that the DDMs are seriously blue. Absolutely nowhere even in the vicinity of 4500K.

In case you're wondering, I picked 4500K as it is the claimed temperature of the DDM bulbs. I wanted to give them the best chance possible to appear, well, white. As we can see, they fail miserably.

OK, fine. So we know the DDMs are off. This leaves us with the question of "how far off are the DDMs?" In this picture, I set the white balance to 8000K. Even now, the DDMs are still showing some blue, but frankly I'm not going to go nuts here. Let's just say that the DDM "4500K" bulbs are actually at least 8000K. I wouldn't disagree with 10,000K plus or minus.



So yeah. For the $50 shipped that you can get the VVME kit for (in 55W), I would have to recommend that over the $40 + shipping for a DDM 55W kit. FWIW, I bought on eBay from "obdmart" which appears to be VVME directly. I then bought a couple sets of bulbs to replace all the DDM ones that I'm currently using directly. They are cheaper if you e-mail for a quote.

[Van Westervelt]

I disagree with your methods entirely. I have a 2 or 3 year old 4500 55w kit from ddm and its white. Their newer stuff, maybe tits up (blue-er), but your methods are piss poor for comparison.

[nrubenstein]

I disagree with your methods entirely. I have a 2 or 3 year old 4500 55w kit from ddm and its white. Their newer stuff, maybe tits up (blue-er), but your methods are piss poor for comparison.

I have four sets of DDM bulbs. D2S, H1, 9006 (x2). They range from 6 months to three years old. The H1s and the 9006es are roughly the same color. The D2S bulbs are bluer.

Since you disagree with my methodology, why don't you suggest one? Remember that the color temperature of the bulbs is the same as the white point when you set color balance. Would you prefer to see an untampered picture? I can give you that too. This is pretty close to how they look to me in reality:



Any way you slice it, I have not yet seen a DDM bulb that looks anything like the 4500K that I've ordered from them. While I won't claim that a sample size of four is conclusive, I do believe that it is significant.

[Jean]

Sucks .. I won't be buying another DDM kit. I bought their 4300 or 4500 as I wanted whitest possible and it's not even close.

[nrubenstein]

Sucks .. I won't be buying another DDM kit. I bought their 4300 or 4500 as I wanted whitest possible and it's not even close.

Yeah. I don't know why it's so hard for them to put out a bulb that's in the vicinity of advertised temperature. I mean, I get that they don't want to ship too many different types of bulbs, but the 4500K crowd is the one that is looking for something specific. I suspect that most people can't readily tell the difference between 6-12K without good examples.

[Bishop]

Really glad I found this thread because I'm selling my 35w 6000k DDM kit and was about to replace it with a 55w 4500k (or whatever it is) in hopes to get closer to white... Do you have any complaints about the VVME kit? Ease of install? I'll do some poking around on ebay and see if I can't find em.

[straight6pwr]

not sure how your camera shots actually compare to what the human eye sees, but my 55w 4500k ddm lights are WHITE. i hate blue headlights, and they are not blue, i would have changed them long ago.

[StereoInstaller1]

My 35W DDM 5000K cheapies have a damn near purple haze around them.

EDIT: Mine look like that first shot.

I am gonna do VVME on the next couple cars, see how they old up.

[Bishop]

I'm trying to brighten up the road and go toward white here... The 35w 6000k do an OK job, but I feel like it could be better... It's kind of scary at times driving at night, and if it rains, all bets are off....

[straight6pwr]

I'm trying to brighten up the road and go toward white here... The 35w 6000k do an OK job, but I feel like it could be better... It's kind of scary at times driving at night, and if it rains, all bets are off....

yeah, you'll love the 35w/55w 4500k bulbs, tons of light! i dont know how i drove at all at night with sealed beams, cant see crap compared to good HIDs.'

Here are my DDM 55w 4500k bulbs at night:

[Bishop]

Thx for the pics, they look good but I'm hesitant to order because I don't want blue at all

[nrubenstein]

not sure how your camera shots actually compare to what the human eye sees, but my 55w 4500k ddm lights are WHITE. i hate blue headlights, and they are not blue, i would have changed them long ago.

The camera shots are pretty close to dead on. The DDMs are fucking blue.

[Bishop]

So, do you think it'd be wiser to take my chances on the VVME unit? Or order some DDM 55w 4500s and hope for the best.

[straight6pwr]

So, do you think it'd be wiser to take my chances on the VVME unit? Or order some DDM 55w 4500s and hope for the best.

seems like DDM has been on a downhill slope, and i have no reason to think that the guys in here are bullshitting, so better safe (go with VVME) than sorry.

[Bishop]

Yeah that's what I'm thinking too... DDM seemed like a good company at the start, but it's been slowly going downhill and I've heard a lot of negatives lately.