Comparing BD Squadron Pros vs DD SS3 Pros - Any requests?

Wonder how good the DD stage series light bars are compared to BD? Me thinks OP needs to do a comparison.

 

They are not really comparable products.

The Stage series is an SAE Driving pattern bar. The bars larger than 12” are too high intensity for a legal SAE designation, but the pattern is the same.

Baja offers bars in spot/wide/scene patterns, or combinations there of, but not an actual Driving pattern. It is a little confusing how they refer to ‘wide’ as ‘driving’, but that is not in-line with the industry standard meaning of the term. It isn’t the same as what Diode Dynamics specifies as Driving, which is using the industry standard.

The Stage Series bars are 6000k in white, Baja is a much better 5000k. I'm personally not a fan of the high color temp 6000k. In the SS3s you can get the selective yellow lights which use 4000k emitters and swap the yellow lens for clear to get a 4000k white light, which is amazing. The same is not true for the stage series bars, they all use 6000k emitters, which will appear a bit blue.

You should choose a light bar pattern based on your lighting needs and then look at products to match that need. The Diode Dynamics and Baja bars are really not competing as they don't offer the same patterns to serve the same needs. An SAE driving light pattern is going to be best for street use, where you want a long distance wider beam to give full coverage illuminating the road far ahead broadly without near field light spill. For off road, you will likely want short range wide area for situational awareness and better distance light which is far more suited to Baja.

 

Diode Dynamics specs the 6000k and 4000k emitters to be the same other than color temperature. Using a clear lens with 4000k emitters, my testing shows them to be within 1% of each other in output intensity. Given there is some variance in LED production I’d say the statement is accurate. But the 4000k emitters are only available in the pods.

Using the selective yellow lens does cause about a 9% output intensity loss over clear, which is the lowest loss among those offering selective yellow. The efficiency is better because the emitter color temp is optimized to be closer to the desired output color temp.

 

Great review. Seems like diodes flood may be a better comparison than their spot to bajas in your video in terms of beam pattern.

 

You wouldn’t get the same center intensity or distance projection with the Diode Dynamics floods, which are a very evenly distributed true flood light. All Baja's lights are going to have significantly more light scatter loss due to the open bucket reflector optic design creating that semi-flood effect vs Diode Dynamics TIR optics are going to place all the light in the designed beam pattern without the scatter loss. So the two brands will not have lights that behave the same way.

 

Interesting. Thanks for your input.

 

Do you know what reflectors that Rigid D-series Pro use? I'm assuming legacy, given their price point.

Currently looking to buy amber pods in spot.

 

Well, after watching this again, it's clear to me the SS3's are the ones to get, so thanks for making the video. Just ordered a pair of ambers from them.

 

should have ordered from OP

 

I went to the website but there was nothing there....??

 

The PM function on here still works

 

Correct, they use the inefficient legacy style reflector.

The highest performing optic is a reflector, where all the light is bounced off a reflector to direct all the light to the designed beam pattern, minimizing waste. And the larger the reflector the more performant. KC utilizes reverse faced LEDs into large reflectors in their Gravity series lights. Diode Dynamics uses an innovative TIR (Total internal reflector) which is more compact, but provides larger reflective surfaces than other pods while still capturing all the light to focus it into the desired pattern. If you can clearly see the LED emitter in the light, then you are looking at an open bucket reflector, which is the lowest performing form of LED projection technology.

 

Please lock your camera setting for shutter/frame rate, Aperture, ISO, and white balance at 5600 degrees/daylight. This will ensure the camera does not bias your video in any way. Otherwise what we see may not be what occurred.

Such as the S2 Pro should have been much brighter than what your video showed, in part due to the wider dispersion of light.

Setting the white balance at 5600k or daylight, ensures color difference from daylight are accurately recorded.

I really like to see the light pattern, intensity as will as the color temperature on an apples to apples comparison.

Really nice comparison video and looking forward to see more.