HID pics

[riverdale21]

They look blueish when you look at the bulb but the light it throws on the road is white.

From the thread you started about DDM carrying only 3 colors I guess these would actually be 4700k.

I'll update pictures once the sun goes down to show color and cutoff beam. Only have the cell camera so it wont be 100% true to life.

[george graves]

I find most people don't have a very good eye for spotting colors.

It will be really hard to tell at night what color it is in a picture. The camera will auto-white balance to the headlights making it appear white. You'll want to take it on a sunny day from a distance way for best comparison. Sun light is always the same color, and you're camera will adjust to that rather than the headlights, thus showing the true color of the headlights.

They actually sell 4 colors, yellow, white, blue and purple.

Also, they claim they are getting out of the HID business and switching to LED(I assume they mean headlights). I didn't think LED technology was ready for prime-time, but they claim they are going to sell LED's for cheap.

[riverdale21]

ROY G BIV, George. Not too hard.

[riverdale21]

US ellips cutoff. The light is similar in color to my high-beams, just focused on the road.

[george graves]

Yep - that shows nothing.

ROY G BIV, George. Not too hard.

Yea. My point exactly.

[freeride53]

2000k 35w H3 Ellipsoid Fog-Coversion
Lows/Highs= Halogen.

[iwantspeed]

5000k 55 watt low beam
us ellipsoid with smiley retrofit
3000k 35 watt fogs
stock fogs

[bmwman91]

APexcone/DDM 4500K bulb on left, Osram H1 Halogen on right. Bosch Euro ellipsoid lights (non-smiley).



Here are some things that you should be made aware of.

1) DDM bulbs are shit, and all 4500K, 5000K & 6000K bulbs are the exact same parts with different stickers on them. They are all the same ~5500K bulb. That's what you get for $15.

2) Any color above 5000K makes you a ricer. End of story. Yeah, they look "neat" with higher color temps, but you are a damn ricer.

3) Yeah, you are still a ricer if you use a bulb of more than 5000K color temperature. The human eye is pretty sensitive to blue light, which would seem to be good. However, the cones in your eyes that are sensitive to blue light also have lousy response time, and make it harder for your eye to focus on & track moving objects. You should now start to see why blue ricer bulbs are a stupid thing to put in a car. OEM bulbs are 4300K for a reason, and that reason is that they produce the best compromise of light that your eye is sensitive to, and that your eye can still quickly focus & track the road with.

4) Don't buy cheap-o or eBay xenon bulbs, even if they are claimed to be 4500K. Cheap bulbs have super questionable quality controls and crappy salt mixtures (the crusty stuff you see in the arc chamber is specially formulated salts that are vaporized into the plasma that makes the light, and the mixture determines the bulb's color, and to some extent lifetime). I used some $15 DDM "4500K" ones for a year. They started out really blue (see #1), and after 12 months they seemed like 50% dimmer and much bluer since the cheap-ass electrodes were eroded in the arc chamber (electrode erosion makes bulbs turn bluer over time, and cheap bulbs have crappy electrode design & material). I bought some $40 Morimoto 4500K bulbs from www.theretrofitsource.com (no affiliation) and these suckers look almost exactly OEM. The light output is far superior to the cheap shit that was in there before.

5) Oh yeah, running bulbs that are above a 5000K color temperature makes you a dirty ricer. I am ashamed that I had the DDM "4500K" bulbs (5500K) for even one year!

[scottinAZ]

here is my setup:

Us Ellipsoids
Xentec Ballasts
Xentec 5000K (allegedly) bulbs

Seems a bit blue to me, more like what 6000K+ would be. Really does show blue at night.
Due to this, I have some 4300K Morimoto bulbs in route.

I am getting a nice sharp cutoff, similar to what I had with halogens. Proper adjustment has me getting decent range at night as well.

[bmwman91]

here is my setup:

Us Ellipsoids
Xentec Ballasts
Xentec 5000K (allegedly) bulbs

Seems a bit blue to me, more like what 6000K+ would be. Really does show blue at night.
Due to this, I have some 4300K Morimoto bulbs in route.

I am getting a nice sharp cutoff, similar to what I had with halogens. Proper adjustment has me getting decent range at night as well.

Good man! The 4300K bulbs are pretty legit, although coming from ~6000K ones you'll feel like they are a little yellow at first (they aren't).

Maybe the white balance is off in your camera. If not, those look like 7000K ricer-special bulbs!

[Killacortes]

^^ looks like your passenger side beam is brighter than your drivers side. i have us ellips aswell and it looks like mine is brighter too. or am i just trippin?

[scottinAZ]

Good man! The 4300K bulbs are pretty legit, although coming from ~6000K ones you'll feel like they are a little yellow at first (they aren't).

Maybe the white balance is off in your camera. If not, those look like 7000K ricer-special bulbs!

I set the white balance to "daylight" they are fuckin BLUE...
I dont mind the yellow, hell the halogens were, I just want more light output.

^^ looks like your passenger side beam is brighter than your drivers side. i have us ellips aswell and it looks like mine is brighter too. or am i just trippin?

Might be, could also be just the angle of the camera, I dont notice a difference at night. I also just replaced pass side low beam housing, so its probably a bit cleaner as well

[bmwman91]

I set the white balance to "daylight" they are fuckin BLUE...
I dont mind the yellow, hell the halogens were, I just want more light output.



Might be, could also be just the angle of the camera, I dont notice a difference at night. I also just replaced pass side low beam housing, so its probably a bit cleaner as well

You will be much happier with the Morimoto bulbs. The light output is good, and people won't confuse you for a Civic. They have that OEM blue/violet look when you look at the car from 20ft away at night, and the light they they put onto the road is nice & white (you really will feel like it is yellow after having your current bulbs, but it is much whiter than the light from Halogens).

The difference in brightness could be two things. One, if these are cheap re-based Xenon bulbs, they are probably cheaply assembled & the arc chamber position differs between them. Two, the reflector dishes in your light housings might be unevenly oxidized from decades of use, with one being less reflective than the other.

[scottinAZ]

The difference in brightness could be two things. One, if these are cheap re-based Xenon bulbs, they are probably cheaply assembled & the arc chamber position differs between them. Two, the reflector dishes in your light housings might be unevenly oxidized from decades of use, with one being less reflective than the other.

third option, the bulb is not tight in the housing. I tightened the tabs on the pass side, so the bulb does not move around at all. there is some slight wiggle in the drivers side, so the bulb is not accurately positioned. Ill be fixing that when I install the morimotos.

[Turf1600]

I just bought 2 sets of 35w xentec ballasts with 9005 and 9006 bulbs; both in 5000k. I hope I didn't make a mistake.