H4 bulb output?

[Vikas]

You have nailed it! But it is very difficult to convince lay person (aka somebody who does not have scientific mind i.e. 99% of the BITOG participants that so much light right in front of him is NOT good. Who he is going to listen? You or his own eyes?

 

[Hokiefyd]

Originally Posted By: Vikas
Who he is going to listen? You or his own eyes?


Therein lies the problem. It's so easy and natural to trust our eyes, yet our brain and eyes play tricks on us all the time. You can scream, "look at the empirical data" all you want...that rarely wins out to, "oh, but my lights are so bright now!"

 

[HerrStig]

Originally Posted By: Vikas
Still going through and trying to find more A/B shots

I would NOT call this success :-(
Nor would I.

 

[JHZR2]

Originally Posted By: HerrStig
Originally Posted By: Vikas
Still going through and trying to find more A/B shots

I would NOT call this success :-(
Nor would I.


That picture is scary.

But what about the rebased bulbs that are "laser aligned" from more reputable sources, so there is a hair more chance of having the hot spot in the right location?

Ive also heard of bulbs that actively move when switched (which I think is how the OE HIDs in my BMW work), so the hot spot is correctly (at least somewhat) lined up between settings.

No need to facepalm, it would just be interesting to see what the practical differences are side by side.

I do sort of wish they made some sort of low-draw HID, like a 15 or 25W version, which had a smaller arc length and could be suitable for backfit... Id think that a lower power version would put out less light via a shorter arc. Maybe not?

 

[Hokiefyd]

I don't think an LED is ever going to be effective here, "laser aligned" (a marketing term) or not. A halogen reflector housing relies on what is essentially a point source of light -- that halogen filament at the center of the axis. An LED lamp has, at best, a clustered group of diodes on a post that tries really hard to approximate a 360 degree emitting halogen filament. The photographs above demonstrate that you just can't have anything resembling good beam focus in a situation like that. For halogen reflector housings, we know that the smaller the light source, the closer it gets to being an actual "point", the better the beam focus is. Moving to an LED goes in the opposite direction.

Movable bulbs are pretty rare in OE applications because they're incredibly hard to control. Filament placement is ~critically~ important in a reflector housing, and you're never going to get any consistency out of a moving bulb. Most lamps with "switchable" single source lights (perhaps like your BMW) move a glare shade out of the way to create the high beam instead of moving the light source itself.

 

[JHZR2]

I meant HID really, not LED. Single LEDs need to get a good deal brighter, after which they could become a point source of light, but I wonder if the market would support it at that point, in the wake of everything seemingly moving to projectors...

An optimized HID filament could probably have a short enough arc to look a lot like a filament "point" (actually the length of the filament, its just that HID has the hot spots at either electrode while halogen is a balanced burn along the length) and put out slightly better lumens than the better halogen bulbs, with much less power draw and much longer life...