m0t03

Im getting some HID's when my rotary extreme sleek lights come in. I was thinking about goin with purple color, since you don't see it too often. Problem is I haven't really ever seen them up close. Ive just seen some lexus's drivin with them. If anyone has any pics post em, or any other colors. Suggestions too

Mike

RX7Elmo

I hope you realize that the higher temp lights actually decrease your visilibity. YOu would want it as white as possible. but if you are going for looks, then whateverz cleverz!

Danny

tookwik

I've got some 7000k Phillips HID's in my 7. As soon as I get it back from the Body Shop, i gotta take some pictures for a couple of people. might as well take some for you huh? How about a normal bulb comparison as well. I'll put in a normal bulb too.

Nathan Kwok

I thought higher temps ARE whiter. High temp HIDs only look purple from the sides, the direct light is supposed to be very white. Either way, if you're getting real HIDs (which is what Rotary Extreme sells), you can't go wrong, just don't do anything stupid to them to make them look more purple.

RX7Elmo

as far as i know, the HIDs on most factory cars nowadays is in the area of 4000K.

When you consider temperture rating, consider the visible light spectrum. Blue and Purple have the shortest wavelength as well having higher energy than say Red.

Thus the higher temp lights will emmit purple light on the road.

Eventhough a purple HID is unique, i'd rather go for regular white.

Danny

m0t03

I am getting real HID's not some cheap knock off ****. A friend of mine has the super whites. I like them ( bright as hell ) I just thought I would go with something dif, even purple is supposed to be really bright. I just wanted to see some pics. Or do you guys think i should go with blue???

Mike

Tomco78

Stupid question here...
What are HID's?
I'm from Europe and I've never heard about HID before..
Is it what we call Xenon-lights?

sheepdin

yes xenon = HID

m0t03,
why don't u just get the rotary extreme sleek light kit with HID option???

tookwik

You could do it cheaper if done seperately. BTW: most cars that come with HID's now come with 7000k HID's. I know the S2000, bmw, acura, and lexus use 7000k generally.

pomanferrari

iTrader: (1)

How do you know? Did you measure the light temperature or you guessed b/c they look purple?

There was a post about HID in the Group Buy section a few weeks back where there was a link to a lexus HID website. In it, the author who seems to know alot about HID stated that HID light temperature on original equip does not go higher than 5600K b/c the bulbs are either made by Osram or Phillips. OEMs use either of these two b/c they last b/w 2000-3000 hours. The purplish **** is made in Asia and lasts a few hundred hours.

The purple comes from the projector optics which act like a prism. If you look at the light head on, it's not purple.

eitan

A good site I found on HIDs: http://www.intellexual.net/hid.htm

m0t03

color wise would you guys go with purple over blue, i dono. I think it would look dif, then again its just a slight tint. pomanfarrari, so the purple only lasts a few hundred miles, then it wears off? does blue do that?

Mike

dclin

iTrader: (4)

Nice site eitan. Here is another for bedtime reading:

http://faq.auto.light.tripod.com/headlight-menu1.htm

The 'purple' artifacts in most Lexus, Audis, and S2000 (among others) is a product of light refraction from the design of the lenses/reflector assembly of each car. Think of a prism, and how it splits up light into it's different component colors. Purple just is more prevalent in these assemblies then others.

With the 'purple tinted' bulbs, you will not get that 'pure', sharp purple artifacts - it'll just be another cheesy colored/tinted bulb, albeit more expensive and still brighter (then any halogen bulb). If you're not picky, don't worry about it.

*edit* Opps, did not see po's post. What poman said.

tookwik

I know for a fact that honda, which falls under the asian ****, has 7000k lights, and i know for a fact that the is300 and toyota altezza have 7000k lights, atleast as an option. I am also positive that acura has 7500k lights which is still purple. I believe that the only companies the "author" was talking about were german and whatever country audi is from.
But... it does seem as though these HID's above 5600k are far eastern. I do believe the lower temps give off a purer light, but the higher temps are not much different and it would seem smarter to create a color using lower temp. with a prism like effect. But... for us... we dont have the pleasure of these nice headlamp assemblies (have you seen the 350z's???, its crazy) so we settle for the looks because to a normal eye, we probably wont see the difference.
Oh, by the way, the higher the temp. the better it cuts through fog, 7000k being the best.
There is also a new "kit" out for a 12000k light.

tookwik

Also, as far as I know, the temps of HID's are too high to color the lense of the bulb. Here is a great site for those of you who are looking to buy. www.misterjung.com
I had a bulb actually bust because of the rough ride after having it for a year and a half and the guy replaced the bulb for free. Great guy to talk to. A little hard to get a hold of.

dclin

iTrader: (4)

An excerpt from the FAQ from the link in my post:

http://faq.auto.light.tripod.com/headlamp-faq.htm

6000K, 7000K, 15000K HID bulb scam
Many people said, "oh no, not another blue bulb!", and thought that the blue low quality bulb "scam" finally spread over to hit the real HID market in late 2001. Philips Ultinons made in Germany have equal quality, like the OEM Philips bulb, so you cant really call that product a scam.
There are other blue HID bulbs made other places in the world that can be scam products. They maybe even have the Philips or Osram name on the box, or the base, but bulbs are made or modified by someone else. Equal bulbs can also be markeded to have different color temperature. Most customers would never know if color temp was was off, as long as they are matched as a pair. Some kit and bulb suppliers advertise with 7000K and higher. This can be suspective because a lower than OEM quality bulb can have been used. No bulb OEM manufacturer makes any versions with more than ~6000K. So either it is 6000K, or the bulb might have been painted. Painting bulbs decreases brightness and in most cases decreases life. So be aware what you are buying.
As an example, look at table below, and see how blue a 9000K bulb will be! Would you honestly want it to be as blue as the sky?

Yellow:
1500 k Candlelight
2700-2900 k Yellow painted fog halogen bulbs
-------------------------------
Yellowish white:
3200 k Sunrise/sunset
3200 k Premium H7 non painted halogen bulb
3400 k 1 hour from dusk/dawn
-------------------------------
White:
4100 k Philips/Osram OEM HID D2S
5500 k Bright sunny daylight around noon
----------------
Blueish white
5500-5600 k Electronic photo flash
6000 k Philips Ultinon HID D2S
6500-7500 k Overcast sky
-----------------
Blue:
9000-12000 k Blue sky
-----------------
Purple:
28000 Northern sky
12000-30000 k Ultra Violet light (black light)
---------------------------------

Above table is based on the ancient Kelvin (K) colortemp defined along time ago. Before we knew that was electro magnetic waves. At that time we only knew the temperature something had when burning. As an example, a candle light burns at around 1500K (see table above) or 2100F (Fahrenheit) or 1200C (Celsius).

Interesting! So what is actually white light?
Now that you know that light is electro magnetic waves, imagine that each base color (blue, green, yellow and red) has each wave length. White light is a balanced mix of all of them. Here is the window that are visible with human eyes:

720nm infra red - heat radiation (invisible)
660nm red
610nm yellow
550nm green
460nm blue
420nm black light
400nm ultra violet (invisible)

1nm = 0.000000001 meter

What are the results of using 6000K, 7000K, 15000K HID bulbs?
Stage 1 refers to 4100K and stage 2 normally refers to something higher value K.
As an example, a 6000K bulb in some headlamps might not show much difference at all, others will look more blue. These are observations when standing in front of the car looking into the headlights from above. After getting over the initial thrill of cooler light, many drivers have noticed that important traffic information are not as appearant as with OEM standard bulb. White traffic signs is being lit too much and can feel glaring.
During winter 2002, exponensional use of Kelvin (K) rating is used as brightness improving advertisement. Its all just big empty words. Do a search for "kelvin color temperature" on a search engine (ie: yahoo.com) and you will see that it has nothing to do with brightness and all to do with color. Going upwards from 4100K means that your light turns blue at the expense of total brightness and yellow color. Theoretically, if the same brightness were to be kept, you would have to increase the wattage of the bulb from 35 to maybe 40W, and redesign the ballast. This would be a very costly solution, so thats pretty much why all automotive HID bulbs are 35W.

dclin

iTrader: (4)

The purple artifacts in the S2000, Lexus, etc are not intentional. As poman pointed out, the manufacturers are interested in directing light in a correct pattern in front of the car. The purple artifacts are a biproduct (when viewed at an angle other then directly in front of the car - basically where the light pattern is suppose to hit), which some find very attractive.

twiztedjeckel

this is a great thread with tons of info for potential buyers who could be possibly ripped off. how this isn't a sticky?

i myself am currently looking around at several different HID kits and seem to be leaning towards the CATZ high/low dual beam set.

how come more companies don't make dual beam high/low setups. most of the ones that are around only go with lows.

yellowbird

The reason HID sustems are not Low/Hi is there is only one capsule that emits light. Conventional high/low filament based systems use 2 filaments with different focal lenghs. The only way to accomplish the same thing with a HID capsule is to move the capsule forward and back relative to the reflector/lens assy. The capsule's position must be very accurate in both positions(high/low) and very riged. This makes for a complex expensive solution.

twiztedjeckel

perhaps this is why the CATZ system is like $800?

the_glass_man

iTrader: (2)

APC blues work pretty nice.

BATMAN

I have HID in my car.

The best one is supposed to be the ones from CATZ.

http://www.fet-usa.com/news_reviews.asp

m0t03

Thanks for all the info, im leanin towards the super whites now. It seems like they will last the longest if Im readin this right ? ;-)

Mike

Bill B

iTrader: (1)

Dclin the only thing to ad to your post is as humans we (our eyes) like 5600k light.

twiztedjeckel, $800 for proper lighting is NOT expensive.

tookwik

To each their own.