Amber vs Selective Yellow

I haven’t been able to find a lot on google, for those that use Amber and/or Selective yellow for fog/off road lights, is there any difference performance wise between them?

I’m adding some driving lights to my motorcycle and I’m trying to decide between selective yellow and Amber, the selective yellow looks better to me but if I got the Amber lens I could set it up as a turn signal, so the deciding factor to me is visibility in fog/rain/dust.

 

M9nochromatic amber will perform slightly better in heavy airborne dust/snow/rain, however it offers much less useful information for you to interpret what you're able to see than selective yellow.

Selective yellow is a legal fog color, amber is not federally speaking, unless your state regs (state mv codes can regulate passenger vehicle fog/aux.driving lights) allow it or have no standard for some reason.

Both will result in significantly less glare from retroreflecrive signage or blue-metallic based reflective paint. In my experience you'll still clearly illuminate such signage/markings with SY, but its dimmer and much easier on the eyes. "The glow that illuminates vs the glare that obscures" kinda thing. Amber should be even less reflective, as its monochromatic.

Some light manufacturers offer yellow/selective yellow but call it "amber," so that makes comparisons a bit more difficult between offerings.

Neither amber nor selective yellow is legal as an auxiliary highbeam color, federally, so if you are looking at actual driving lamps in either color, be prepared for potential for LE interactions. Check your local/state/province regs.

 

Thanks for the info @Toy_Runner i went ahead and ordered the selective yellow lenses.

Local LE doesn’t care about lights, in my state laws are very vague and there aren’t many on the books.
I did find this little tidbit:
“(4) Any lamps illuminated when the vehicle is in motion, other than those expressly required or permitted by the provisions of this chapter or other law, shall, if visible from the front, display only a white or amber light;  if visible from either side, display an amber light;  and if visible from the rear, display a red light.”

 

Which state? I can poke around and see if I find anything

 

Mississippi

 

Selective yellow is the correct choice. The minor gains in poor weather performance for lower wavelength amber are easily negated by the monochromatic color interpretation, so selective yellow will be higher performing. There are also very few products available in actual amber, vs a significant growing number in selective yellow.

Examples:
Amber: KC Amber
Selective yellow included here: Diode Dynamics SS3

 

Daniel Stern - Selective Yellow Light

 

I have selective yellow DD fog lights and would like to add a DD 30 inch light bar. The light bar as per DD is available in amber or white. Is there less of an advantage for selective yellow in a bar vs pods?

 

I believe the form factor doesn’t really matter, I have the selective yellow lenses for my D3’s and then I ordered some Amber D3 fog lights that I’ll be using as additional blinkers and fill light. I’ll be able to compare Amber and selective yellow a bit better.