Originally Posted by phreaktor

+1 for my 8000K

Originally Posted by SOLO-350Z

A lot of people are confused because they are misinformed. A lot of people are using the color temperature as a marketing gimmick. Now, I'll state it very clearly:

The color temperature is measured in Kelvin(K)
The brightness is measured in lumens
The intensity is measured in Candela

Now, a lot of mechanics suggest an 8000K HID, claiming that it is brighter. Theoretically, they are trying to get you to think that the higher the K, the brighter the HID. WRONG! Kelvin is used to measure color temperature, NOT brightness.

The 4300K HID which is used in OEM vehicles is slightly yellowish. The 6000K HID produces a brilliant white color with a slight hair of blue. The light produced is brilliant white. The 8000K HID is bluish color. The 10000K HID is greenish blue and the 12000K HID is purplish. So bear in mind, KELVIN = COLOR. The color temperature also in NO WAY indicates how hot the HID is operating at.

Now, some people might ask, then, which HID is brighter? Research and development has shown that the 4300K produces the best light output which is about 3200 lumens. That is why OEM cars utilize the 4300K HIDs. The 6000K HID produces about 2800 lumens of light. As you can see, all factors remaining constant, the higher the color temperature, the lower the brightness.

There really are only 2 good HID brands out there, namely, Philips and Osram. Hella and Bosch ballasts are not bad as well. The bulbs are basically by Philips or Osram. Philips is the pioneer of the HID technology. The bulbs are produced with state of the art machine and meant for long durability. Some sellers claim to be selling 8000K Philips HID, but that's a FAKE. For your information, Philips HID is only rated up to 5800K which is marketed as the Philips 6000K Ultinon.

Why is it that they don't produce bulbs with higher Kelvin? It defeats the purpose of HIDs because anything higher would require a blue coat filter to achieve the color effect. By doing that, brightness will be reduced dramatically and we might as well just stay on with the conventional halogen, as there is not much improvement.

As for people who has a 6000K HID coated with blue coating, they probably bought some cheap HID where the manufacturer does not have the technology to produce proper HIDs. By right, 6000K should still be achievable without coating.

Another thing to consider is, get a high quality HID bulb as the bulbs retrofitted into your headlights must have the same point as your halogens so that the lights will reflect off the reflectors at the same point as the original halogens. Screw this part up and you will get uneven light distribution which oncoming traffic will then consider as glare.

For those who use the Halogen bulbs with HID looks, a.k.a "blue bulbs". NO, THOSE ARE NOT HID. A lot of people are under the impression that those bulbs are HID. So I am going to say it again, those are just normal halogen bulbs which are just coated blue to filter off the yellow spectrum and thereby giving you the whitish bluish effect. Yes, you might get the looks but definitely not the brightness and the intensity.

I hope this post of mine here will help many of you out there in answering you questions and clearing your doubts. I love HID, and I am never going back to halogens. Some people might say HID is blinding. The fact is they don't know the benefits of HID and also their perception came from those who were irresponsible enough to not adjust their headlamps to ensure the beam shines the road and NOT oncoming traffic. The same goes to those halogen users who changed their bulbs but screwed up the reflected beam.

Those who have yet to adjust their headlamps, please go out, lower yourself to a seating level and look at your headlights. If you think they are a sore to your eyes, do humanity a favor, and please readjust your headlamps.

Originally Posted by Ziggyrama

Yes, blue bulbs are worthless. They are unsafe and I can't believe people put them on their cars. ANY bulb that is blue coated is not worth any kind of monay you pay for it. Heck, I would not want it for free

If anybody actually has a retrofit kit in the H7 projector housing, I'd love to see the picture of the beam pattern. I'd love to see how bad the hot spots get and if the foreground light is overbearing.

BTW, for those of you that do not know what foreground light is, it's the light that is produced right in front of the car. Having a lot of bright light immediately in front of the car is actually bad for visibility. It produces a lot of light close to your eyes which makes your pupils close up to compensate. This actually causes you to see worse when driving at night as you can't see far ahead. Best light pattern is thrown far ahead with a good cutoff beam and minimal foregroud light immediately in front of the car.

Originally Posted by Ziggyrama

Yes, blue bulbs are worthless. They are unsafe and I can't believe people put them on their cars. ANY bulb that is blue coated is not worth any kind of monay you pay for it. Heck, I would not want it for free

If anybody actually has a retrofit kit in the H7 projector housing, I'd love to see the picture of the beam pattern. I'd love to see how bad the hot spots get and if the foreground light is overbearing.

Originally Posted by phreaktor

WHo said anything about blue coated bulbs? We're talking about 8000K HID's

Originally Posted by phreaktor

WHo said anything about blue coated bulbs? We're talking about 8000K HID's

Originally Posted by quiksilver38

We put Klight brand HID's in my friends C5 vette, they are the brightest headlights i have ever seen they are 10000k or 12000k hes gotten tickets already. peopel always move out of the way on the freeway got them on craigslist for $170

Originally Posted by Acree

That's completely STUPID. The reason people move out of the way is because your friend's C5 has massive glare from the HIDs. Tell him to stop being an idiot and take them out.

-Acree

Originally Posted by gNaRKiLL

Being that I have sold hundreds of 8000K sets I can personally tell you I have yet to see a coated HID bulb. Now a regular halogen bulb yes.

I would never advise anyone to run anything over an 8k because the light output is too far diminished after that.

While 4300K is best many prefer a nice blue tint. I personally run 8000K lights and they work great, no complaints and no problems.

Originally Posted by redlude97

Blue tint is achieved from a proper cutoff, not with bulbs, thats the ghetto way to do it.

Originally Posted by gNaRKiLL

I just think its so funny that when it comes to HID's people like you get so defensive about them. Some of you guys are way too defensive about headlights. The majority just want better than stock halogen and to have an exotic look which any aftermarket HID kit will do. If you think thats ghetto then send me a check for 1200 to pay for some 06+ headlights so I can get true projectors, and while your at it throw in some philips 4300k bulbs.