3rd Gen HID vs LED vs Halogen H11 projector headlights

as I’ve mentioned in an earlier post, in my experience these are terrific lights. They are indeed not as intense in hotspot nor cutoff but it is very bright, whiter than stock but without any filter blocking out parts of the spectrum. It’s all personal preference but if give them a shot. Depending on where you bought them most retailers will take a return if you give them a ride and decide you want to try another option.

These in the low beams and fogs is perfect for my eyes and they’ll last most folks at least a couple of years

 

I’m loving my Philips H9 low beams. I have a question and I apologize if it’s been asked before. On dips in the road and downhill grades I’ve noticed a pretty decent blind spot a few car lengths ahead. I’m guessing it’s due to the sharp cutoff of our low beams. Should I raise the low beams up a little to compensate or will that just reduce visibility directly ahead?

I tried to capture what I’m talking about.

 

I’d worry about dazzling other drivers if you bump them up at all. Even more so if you are carrying a load in the back.

 

Here’s my GE130’s with my Philips LED fogs (with yellow laminX). It’s a 4runner, so not apples to apples. But wanted to share the beam pattern with you guys.

 

I was thinking that as well. I mean, the lights are leveled how they are for a reason. I guess I’m wondering more if it’s normal. If so, I’ll leave them alone.

 

I think the cutoff is just more pronounced due to the added brightness.

 

I thinking you’re right. Thanks

 

I just put my H9’s in tonight and noticed the exact same thing. WOWZERS. Not sure I’m gonna keep them in. I’d love the brighter light but man, I find it hard to believe this isn’t gonna bother oncoming drivers. Especially on dark 2 lane Hiway.

The amount of increased light is remarkable. They’re like spotlights on buildings far off in the distance.

 

Swapped my GE +130's with these tonight. Nothing wrong with the +130's and I haven't had them for too long. Just couldn't wait to swap em with the H9's because who doesn't want a better light right? The 3rd one is a spare in case one burns out and I need to replace asap. Since they are so cheap I may just stock up on a bunch lol.

 

Your headlights must be properly aligned regardless of whether you have an high performance bulb or not. Misaligned lights, too high or too low are dangerous to both you and everyone else on the road with you. Unfortunately most people don't know how to align and most shops don't have the right equipment. The right equipment is NOT a line in a wall. It's a specialized alignment device like this Symtech DVA 6: https://www.tooldiscounter.com/prod...MI4cTwiZOp5gIVBtlkCh12WAW2EAQYBSABEgLnZfD_BwE Most Toyota dealers will not have anything like this but VW and Porsche dealers usually will.

 

I've been shooting things like this for decades, so it's really not that hard but it is complicated. It's a matter of approaching the object as if it were a mirror and controlling all the reflections. Conceptually easy but all but impossible if you've never done it. In this case, it was two soft boxes plus one large white reflector and a couple of black reflectors and then a series of secondary exposure using a black reflector over the central part of the white reflector, layered in afterward to control the highlight in the lens. In addition there were about a dozen shots that comprised slices or focus that were blended together in Helicon Focus software for the overall product photo. The entire background except for the reflections were generated by me using Photoshop.

As for Morimoto, they don't exactly have a great track record. I did find some sort of SAE cert for their Ford f-150 replacements but it's hard to know if that's legit or not. Just the fact that they advertise on their website that their Tacoma versions have both vertical and horizontal aim adjuster make the lights not legal in the U.S. (remember that one of the big German makers was busted for just that and forced into a recall) But they also claim that their lights are DOT approved, and the DOT does not approve anything. I'll post a question for Virgil over at Candlepower Forums and see what he has to say about that. Maybe pop off an email to Stern as well.

 

I'm definitely not a pro photographer, though I have taken photography classes from the days when people still used film and dark rooms, but the biggest challenge I have photographing lights is the the light source. I don't have anywhere with good diffused ambient lighting which then always seems to cause reflections off of one surface or another. Granted I wasn't using any image post processing.

Agreed on Morimoto. I don't recall when I had the Morimoto units if the horizontal aim had the required cap on the back or not, it wasn't something I looked for at the time. The 'DOT Approved' labeling is a very common mistake, obviously it should be 'SAE compliant'. Sometimes I think the lexicon gets lost in translation with the marketing dept, so it isn't clear if it is something that was never tested or mis-marketed.

I'd be really curious if you hear back from Stern, I've been trying to return some of his stuff and he has been MIA.

 

In addition, many of those early Morimoto HID units played havoc with electronic systems, but hopefully those are a thing of the past. I've had a lot of email correspondence with Stern, but not in the last couple of years. We were on a quest to upgrade the lights on my '88 911 when my father died and that sort of changed my direction for the last three years. More estate work today and tomorrow. Yay. Dan is an amateur photographer and his husband is a graphic designer and photographer - quite good by the way, so maybe that commonality opened a door between us.

 

Thanks for the link, I'll check into that.

 

Crashnburn, you are the man! Read the first few pages and they were extremely informative, thank you for posting your knowledge here. Based on what I've read, I am fairly set on the Hikaris, as I don't care much about high beam performance (have a lightbar if I really need to reach out) and simply want a better low-beam daily use option and do prefer the LED color tones to the warmer from an aesthetic standpoint. My last question which I didn't see covered in depth (apologies if it is covered, I skimmed after the first few pages) do you have any predictions or knowledge as to durability of these aftermarket solutions? In my case, specifically referring to the HIKARI-H11.

Side note, are you also a flashlight geek by chance?

 

I don't have high confidence in the Hikari longevity, though I haven't seen anyone say they have had them fail on the forum either. There are a handful of reviews on Amazon claiming early product failure though, but that is also a handful out of 1000+ reviews. As far as aftermarket solutions go there is a wide spectrum of product build quality, I'd have much high confidence in mainstream lighting brands like Philips. I have their latest H11 to test out, but I do not anticipate the performance being on par with the Hikaris.

As to flashlights, I've toyed with it some. I always keep one in the door pocket of the truck, along with work gloves for when whatever need arises. But the real use I get out of flashlights is camping in the remote mountains after a day of 4wheeling to get out there. While ultra high power models seem nice, in a very dark camping environment they actually seem more harmful than helpful by being so bright it constricts your pupils, limiting your vision to only what is within the beam pattern. Then when you turn the light off you end up night blind. When camping I run mine on low power with the beam set to widely disbursed to try and reduce that effect. Ideally I'd like to try a yellow filter on the flashlight to have a warmer light source for camping. I run a pair of yellow KC Cylones off the RTT on a remote switch and really like the color for that environment. I don't have a camping picture of them at hand, but here was a driveway test shot.

 

Are you willing to share where you purchased the

$40 Philips H11 CrystalVision Ultra Upgraded Bright White Headlight Bulb, 2 Pack

Philips H11 LED (low beam, not fog).

 

The easiest place to get international products of course, shipping from Japan:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/PHILIPS-LE...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

I've ordered a lot internationally off of different regions Amazon sites as well, uk, france, germany ect. You can stumble through it based on familiarity with Amazon. Amazon changes the currency to USD for the transaction to process for you so you don't get hit with foreign currency transaction fees by your banking institution. They are also available on Amazon.jp:
https://www.amazon.co.jp/PHILIPS-フィ...uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl

 

While I realize they aren’t sae compliant, are they still in the same boat as all the other drop in LED’s like the hikari’s, for example?

 

In what way? In a projector housing the light cut off is maintained by the projector so you won't get glare issues like a reflector. With glare not an issue, it is about maintaining an even light distribution and hot spot focus while keeping good intensity. Focus and intensity are more challenging in smaller assemblies like projectors as the wider LEDs change the lighting geometry relatively more in relation to the internal reflector, which negatively affects the focus.