Headlamp 101 by Daniel Stern
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JeepSWAG
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 2,824
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From: Costa Mesa, Ca.
Headlamp 101 by Daniel Stern
The following is an email response from DS. He's earned my business...
Here is my original email to DS Hi there,
There’s been a bit of discussion on the JK-forums.com website, about headlight upgrades. This poses two questions;
For a 2007 Jeep JK, what would you use on your own Jeep if;
1. You decided to keep the factory lenses?
2. You decided to replace both the bulb and the lenses?
What would be the incremental benefits to each?
Is it okay, if I post your response to the JK forum?
Thanks,
Brett Woods
There are two parts to this posting, as I was only allowed to post up to 10,000 characters. The reader's digets version can be found in the 2nd paragraph of the second posting.
I do not have any affiliation with DS, other than I will most likely buy headlamps from him.
> There's been a bit of discussion on the JK-forums.com website, about
> headlight upgrades.
I'm sure!
> For a 2007 Jeep JK, what would you use on your own Jeep if;
> 1. You decided to keep the factory lenses?
N/A, if I had a JK, I would swap the headlamps before my first night
drive. The factory optics are pretty to look at and VERY poorly
engineered. Light distribution is a sick joke. Short reach, uneven
pattern, too much backglare in bad weather. And that's with the H13 bulbs
they're designed to take...things get deadly-bad when people who think the
laws of marketeering trump the laws of physics put in "HID kits".
> 2. You decided to replace both the bulb and the lenses?
Yep, now you're talking. I'd even drive with a carefully(!)-picked set of
sealed beams in preference to the factory lamps. But, fortunately, neither
of us is doomed to choose between pathetic factory lamps and
slightly-less-pathetic sealed beams.
Put in a pair of good E-code H4 headlamps. Lots of companies offer them.
Disregard the garbage from China, Taiwan, and India, and that knocks out
"Delta" (which is a rebrander of the Taiwanese Wesem lamps), Eaglite,
EuroLite, Eagle-Eye, Maxtel, Neolite, VPS, Autopal, and a bunch of other
no-name junk. Major brands are Hella, Cibie, Bosch, IPF. They are not all
functionally interchangeable.
If you're not familiar with isocandela diagrams, these will look like
random squiggles and lines. Think of it as a topographic or "contour" map
of the correctly-aimed beam pattern. Each differently-colored line
represents the threshold of a particular intensity level, with the color
legend located to the right of the isocandela diagram. The diagram is
plotted on a chart calibrated in degrees. Straight ahead is represented by
(0,0), that is, zero degrees up-down and zero degrees left-right.
To get a mental approximation of the units and amounts under discussion
here:
Parking lamp: About 60 to 100 candela
Front turn signal: About 500 candela
Glaring high-beam daytime running lamps (e.g. Saturn): 8000 candela
The parameters to pay attention to are the luminous flux (total amount of
light within the beam), the maximum intensity and its location within the
beam relative to the axial point (H,V) -- the less downward/rightward
offset, the longer the seeing distance -- stray light outside the beam
pattern and effective beam width (contained within the dark-turquoise 500
candela contour)
Things to notice about these two diagrams:
(1) The Cibie produces a much wider beam pattern than the Hella. The 1000
candela line of the Cibie's beam pattern extends from 25 degrees Left to
25 degrees right, while the 1000 candela line of the Hella extends from 18
degrees Left to 20 degrees Right. At a distance of 50 feet from the car,
this means the 1000 candela-and-brighter portion of the Hella's beam is
10.5 feet narrower than that of the Cibie. The 300 cd contour of the
Cibie's pattern is *far* wider, extending from 43 degrees Left to 50
degrees Right, compared to 26 Left to 25 Right for the Hella. This means
the overall useful width of the beam pattern at 25 feet from the car, as
perceived by the driver, will be 40.7 feet for the Cibie and 22.3 feet for
the Hella.
2) The total luminous flux (overall amount of light) within the beam
pattern is 695 lumens for the Cibie, 463 lumens for the Hella - the Cibie
is 50.1% more efficient. (the TLF data is listed as "Luminous Flux" in the
readings up above the isocandela diagram)
The high beams for these two lamps (isocandela diagrams not yet scanned
in) are very similar in overall performance and amount of light -- the
critical difference is that the Cibie's high beam hot spot is located
closer to (0,0) and closer to its low beam hot spot. The Hella's high beam
and low beam hot spots are separated by a fairly large vertical amount,
such that setting the lows where they belong results in most of the high
beam light going up in the trees, but pulling the high beams down so they
send light straight ahead puts the low beams 10 feet in front of the car.
IPF: Mixed bag. Their units with the optical cuts and facets in the lenses
are pretty decent, and I'd probably have them before I'd have a Hella,
even though the IPFs aren't real E-code lamps. But for awhile, IPF were
also selling a window-clear-lens lamp, promoted with much fanfare as a
"Multi-surface reflector" lamp. Junk! Nothing wrong with the concept, but
the implementation was lousy. These are the same Chinese lamps from
Nunseing Sirius that VPS are selling (both directly and via Truck-Lite).
Bosch: from a performance standpoint, I'd slot this one in above the Hella
and IPF...as long as we're looking at the Bosch car/truck headlamp, not
the motorcycle unit. There are a lot of vendors selling the Bosch
motorcycle 7" round H4 lamp at attractive low prices. They either don't
know or don't care that the motorcycle unit doesn't produce a proper beam
pattern for use in a 2-track vehicle. The optics are different, and the
motorcycle lamps don't produce safe or adequate beam performance when used
in a dual-track (car/truck) vehicle. Quick visual ID: Bosch car/truck 7"
round headlamps have a bulb shield (a metal cup blocking your view of the
H4 bulb hole as you look through the lens, or blocking your view out the
lens if you look through the bulb hole). No such bulb shield on their
motorcycle lamp. Further difference: The car/truck lamp has a
heat-compensating cast aluminum bulb seat, the motorcycle unit just has
the bulb seat carved out of the sheetmetal reflector.
With any H4 lamp, you're going to need a set of headlamp retainer rings
from an '06 or earlier vehicle. Not hard or expensive to get. You'll also
need a pair of H4 sockets, since the H13 bulb sockets presently on the
vehicle aren't the same. I keep a HD version of the socket, $8.50/ea.
Bulbs? Lots to talk about! I see the Sylvania marketeering machine is
working, as there are already people recommending the installation of
Sylvania Silverstar bulbs as an "upgrade". Let's disabuse ourselves of
that notion.
Here's manufacturer data, from internal engineering databases, for output
and lifespan at 13.2v for H1 bulbs. The numbers here are a composite of
values applicable to the products of the big three makers (Osram-Sylvania,
Philips-Narva, Tungsram-GE). Each manufacturer's product in each category
is slightly different but not significantly so. I picked H1-type bulbs
for this comparison, and while the absolute numbers differ with different
bulb types, the relative comparison patterns hold good for whatever bulb
type you consider. Lifespan is given as Tc, the hour figure at which 63.2
percent of the bulbs have failed.
H1 (regular normal):
1550 lumens, 650 hours
Long Life (or "HalogenPlus+")
1460 lumens, 1200 hours
Plus-30 High Efficacy (Osram Super, Sylvania Xtravision, Narva Rangepower,
Candlepower Bright Light, Tungsram High Output, Philips Premium):
1700 lumens, 350 hours
Plus-50 Ultra High Efficacy (Philips VisionPlus, Osram Silverstar, Narva
Rangepower+50, Tungsram Megalicht, but not Sylvania Silverstar):
1750 lumens, 350 hours
Blue coated 'extra white' (Osram CoolBlue, Narva Rangepower Blue, Philips
BlueVision or CrystalVision, Tungsram Super Blue or EuroBlue, Sylvania
Silverstar or Silverstar Ultra, which is just a rebrand of the
Silverstar product, also PIAA, Hoen, Nokya, Polarg, etc):
1380 lumens, 250 hours
Now, looking over these results, which one would you rather:
(a) Buy and drive with?
(b) Sell?
The answer to (a) depends on how well you want to see versus how often to
change the bulb. If you want the best possible seeing, you pick the
Plus-50. If you don't care as long as it works and you don't want to
hassle with it, you pick the long life.
The answer to (b) is determined by how rich your company's shareholders
want you to be, and is obvious: You want to sell the bulb with the
shortest lifespan, highest promotability and highest price. That'd be the
blue unit, e.g. Sylvania Silverstar.
Here is my original email to DS Hi there,
There’s been a bit of discussion on the JK-forums.com website, about headlight upgrades. This poses two questions;
For a 2007 Jeep JK, what would you use on your own Jeep if;
1. You decided to keep the factory lenses?
2. You decided to replace both the bulb and the lenses?
What would be the incremental benefits to each?
Is it okay, if I post your response to the JK forum?
Thanks,
Brett Woods
There are two parts to this posting, as I was only allowed to post up to 10,000 characters. The reader's digets version can be found in the 2nd paragraph of the second posting.
I do not have any affiliation with DS, other than I will most likely buy headlamps from him.
> There's been a bit of discussion on the JK-forums.com website, about
> headlight upgrades.
I'm sure!
> For a 2007 Jeep JK, what would you use on your own Jeep if;
> 1. You decided to keep the factory lenses?
N/A, if I had a JK, I would swap the headlamps before my first night
drive. The factory optics are pretty to look at and VERY poorly
engineered. Light distribution is a sick joke. Short reach, uneven
pattern, too much backglare in bad weather. And that's with the H13 bulbs
they're designed to take...things get deadly-bad when people who think the
laws of marketeering trump the laws of physics put in "HID kits".
> 2. You decided to replace both the bulb and the lenses?
Yep, now you're talking. I'd even drive with a carefully(!)-picked set of
sealed beams in preference to the factory lamps. But, fortunately, neither
of us is doomed to choose between pathetic factory lamps and
slightly-less-pathetic sealed beams.
Put in a pair of good E-code H4 headlamps. Lots of companies offer them.
Disregard the garbage from China, Taiwan, and India, and that knocks out
"Delta" (which is a rebrander of the Taiwanese Wesem lamps), Eaglite,
EuroLite, Eagle-Eye, Maxtel, Neolite, VPS, Autopal, and a bunch of other
no-name junk. Major brands are Hella, Cibie, Bosch, IPF. They are not all
functionally interchangeable.
If you're not familiar with isocandela diagrams, these will look like
random squiggles and lines. Think of it as a topographic or "contour" map
of the correctly-aimed beam pattern. Each differently-colored line
represents the threshold of a particular intensity level, with the color
legend located to the right of the isocandela diagram. The diagram is
plotted on a chart calibrated in degrees. Straight ahead is represented by
(0,0), that is, zero degrees up-down and zero degrees left-right.
To get a mental approximation of the units and amounts under discussion
here:
Parking lamp: About 60 to 100 candela
Front turn signal: About 500 candela
Glaring high-beam daytime running lamps (e.g. Saturn): 8000 candela
The parameters to pay attention to are the luminous flux (total amount of
light within the beam), the maximum intensity and its location within the
beam relative to the axial point (H,V) -- the less downward/rightward
offset, the longer the seeing distance -- stray light outside the beam
pattern and effective beam width (contained within the dark-turquoise 500
candela contour)
Things to notice about these two diagrams:
(1) The Cibie produces a much wider beam pattern than the Hella. The 1000
candela line of the Cibie's beam pattern extends from 25 degrees Left to
25 degrees right, while the 1000 candela line of the Hella extends from 18
degrees Left to 20 degrees Right. At a distance of 50 feet from the car,
this means the 1000 candela-and-brighter portion of the Hella's beam is
10.5 feet narrower than that of the Cibie. The 300 cd contour of the
Cibie's pattern is *far* wider, extending from 43 degrees Left to 50
degrees Right, compared to 26 Left to 25 Right for the Hella. This means
the overall useful width of the beam pattern at 25 feet from the car, as
perceived by the driver, will be 40.7 feet for the Cibie and 22.3 feet for
the Hella.
2) The total luminous flux (overall amount of light) within the beam
pattern is 695 lumens for the Cibie, 463 lumens for the Hella - the Cibie
is 50.1% more efficient. (the TLF data is listed as "Luminous Flux" in the
readings up above the isocandela diagram)
The high beams for these two lamps (isocandela diagrams not yet scanned
in) are very similar in overall performance and amount of light -- the
critical difference is that the Cibie's high beam hot spot is located
closer to (0,0) and closer to its low beam hot spot. The Hella's high beam
and low beam hot spots are separated by a fairly large vertical amount,
such that setting the lows where they belong results in most of the high
beam light going up in the trees, but pulling the high beams down so they
send light straight ahead puts the low beams 10 feet in front of the car.
IPF: Mixed bag. Their units with the optical cuts and facets in the lenses
are pretty decent, and I'd probably have them before I'd have a Hella,
even though the IPFs aren't real E-code lamps. But for awhile, IPF were
also selling a window-clear-lens lamp, promoted with much fanfare as a
"Multi-surface reflector" lamp. Junk! Nothing wrong with the concept, but
the implementation was lousy. These are the same Chinese lamps from
Nunseing Sirius that VPS are selling (both directly and via Truck-Lite).
Bosch: from a performance standpoint, I'd slot this one in above the Hella
and IPF...as long as we're looking at the Bosch car/truck headlamp, not
the motorcycle unit. There are a lot of vendors selling the Bosch
motorcycle 7" round H4 lamp at attractive low prices. They either don't
know or don't care that the motorcycle unit doesn't produce a proper beam
pattern for use in a 2-track vehicle. The optics are different, and the
motorcycle lamps don't produce safe or adequate beam performance when used
in a dual-track (car/truck) vehicle. Quick visual ID: Bosch car/truck 7"
round headlamps have a bulb shield (a metal cup blocking your view of the
H4 bulb hole as you look through the lens, or blocking your view out the
lens if you look through the bulb hole). No such bulb shield on their
motorcycle lamp. Further difference: The car/truck lamp has a
heat-compensating cast aluminum bulb seat, the motorcycle unit just has
the bulb seat carved out of the sheetmetal reflector.
With any H4 lamp, you're going to need a set of headlamp retainer rings
from an '06 or earlier vehicle. Not hard or expensive to get. You'll also
need a pair of H4 sockets, since the H13 bulb sockets presently on the
vehicle aren't the same. I keep a HD version of the socket, $8.50/ea.
Bulbs? Lots to talk about! I see the Sylvania marketeering machine is
working, as there are already people recommending the installation of
Sylvania Silverstar bulbs as an "upgrade". Let's disabuse ourselves of
that notion.
Here's manufacturer data, from internal engineering databases, for output
and lifespan at 13.2v for H1 bulbs. The numbers here are a composite of
values applicable to the products of the big three makers (Osram-Sylvania,
Philips-Narva, Tungsram-GE). Each manufacturer's product in each category
is slightly different but not significantly so. I picked H1-type bulbs
for this comparison, and while the absolute numbers differ with different
bulb types, the relative comparison patterns hold good for whatever bulb
type you consider. Lifespan is given as Tc, the hour figure at which 63.2
percent of the bulbs have failed.
H1 (regular normal):
1550 lumens, 650 hours
Long Life (or "HalogenPlus+")
1460 lumens, 1200 hours
Plus-30 High Efficacy (Osram Super, Sylvania Xtravision, Narva Rangepower,
Candlepower Bright Light, Tungsram High Output, Philips Premium):
1700 lumens, 350 hours
Plus-50 Ultra High Efficacy (Philips VisionPlus, Osram Silverstar, Narva
Rangepower+50, Tungsram Megalicht, but not Sylvania Silverstar):
1750 lumens, 350 hours
Blue coated 'extra white' (Osram CoolBlue, Narva Rangepower Blue, Philips
BlueVision or CrystalVision, Tungsram Super Blue or EuroBlue, Sylvania
Silverstar or Silverstar Ultra, which is just a rebrand of the
Silverstar product, also PIAA, Hoen, Nokya, Polarg, etc):
1380 lumens, 250 hours
Now, looking over these results, which one would you rather:
(a) Buy and drive with?
(b) Sell?
The answer to (a) depends on how well you want to see versus how often to
change the bulb. If you want the best possible seeing, you pick the
Plus-50. If you don't care as long as it works and you don't want to
hassle with it, you pick the long life.
The answer to (b) is determined by how rich your company's shareholders
want you to be, and is obvious: You want to sell the bulb with the
shortest lifespan, highest promotability and highest price. That'd be the
blue unit, e.g. Sylvania Silverstar.
Last edited by wayoflife; May 31, 2007 at 11:58 AM.
Thread Starter
JeepSWAG
Sponsoring Manufacturer
Sponsoring Manufacturer
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 2,824
Likes: 1
From: Costa Mesa, Ca.
Part two
So, how does this apply to the present (H13) headlamp bulbs? Well, the
only legitimate upgrade H13 presently manufactured is the Sylvania
Xtravision. Small improvement over stock, not a big one. Soon, Philips
VisionPlus will be available in H13. And sometime next year, Philips
Xtreme Power H13 will be available -- that'll be the one to buy. These
recommended bulbs all have colorless clear glass and will not "whiten"
the light, they will make _more_ light. "Color temperature" / "Kelvin
rating" (correct terminology: CCT) is a real phenomenon, but its use in
the advertisement of automotive lighting products is almost entirely
fraudulent. Higher-CCT light, contrary to misinformed and disinformed
advertising hype, is not "closer to natural daylight" and does _not_ help
you see better in any way, and it produces significantly worse seeing
performance in any kind of bad weather. All higher-CCT light does is
change the appearance of the operating headlamp and, outside of a very
small range created by different surface luminance characteristics of
different legitimate bulb designs, increase glare and reduce total and
usable light output.
OK, so what would I put in my own JK?
-Pair of Cibie H4 headlamps w/city lights, $62/ea.
-Pair of Osram ultra high efficacy 70/65w H4 bulbs, $19/ea.
Then I would aim them carefully and correctly per
danielsternlighting.com/tech/aim/aim.html
and drive happily off into the night.
> Is it okay, if I post your response to the JK forum?
Please feel free, and please don't feel obligated to buy good lights from
me (while I like to consider myself a good source, I'm not vain enough to
think I'm the only source!), but get ready for a flame war touched off by
True Believers in HID kits, blue "extra white" bulbs, and other such
dreck.
only legitimate upgrade H13 presently manufactured is the Sylvania
Xtravision. Small improvement over stock, not a big one. Soon, Philips
VisionPlus will be available in H13. And sometime next year, Philips
Xtreme Power H13 will be available -- that'll be the one to buy. These
recommended bulbs all have colorless clear glass and will not "whiten"
the light, they will make _more_ light. "Color temperature" / "Kelvin
rating" (correct terminology: CCT) is a real phenomenon, but its use in
the advertisement of automotive lighting products is almost entirely
fraudulent. Higher-CCT light, contrary to misinformed and disinformed
advertising hype, is not "closer to natural daylight" and does _not_ help
you see better in any way, and it produces significantly worse seeing
performance in any kind of bad weather. All higher-CCT light does is
change the appearance of the operating headlamp and, outside of a very
small range created by different surface luminance characteristics of
different legitimate bulb designs, increase glare and reduce total and
usable light output.
OK, so what would I put in my own JK?
-Pair of Cibie H4 headlamps w/city lights, $62/ea.
-Pair of Osram ultra high efficacy 70/65w H4 bulbs, $19/ea.
Then I would aim them carefully and correctly per
danielsternlighting.com/tech/aim/aim.html
and drive happily off into the night.
> Is it okay, if I post your response to the JK forum?
Please feel free, and please don't feel obligated to buy good lights from
me (while I like to consider myself a good source, I'm not vain enough to
think I'm the only source!), but get ready for a flame war touched off by
True Believers in HID kits, blue "extra white" bulbs, and other such
dreck.
Last edited by wayoflife; May 31, 2007 at 11:54 AM.
JK Super Freak
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 1,053
Likes: 0
From: Rockville, MD
no offense but as thorough as this daniel stern is with his reposnes..the least thing he could do is have a website with real products(more then cibie) and a legit ordering system..
no matter what product is, i am not going to send you my credit card number over email
and how exactly do we convert our h13 wiring to h4 wiring plug??
no matter what product is, i am not going to send you my credit card number over email
and how exactly do we convert our h13 wiring to h4 wiring plug??
Last edited by jeepik; Dec 30, 2006 at 08:02 PM.
JK Enthusiast
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 158
Likes: 0
From: Denver Colorado
damn, that guy knowns his lighting information...or at least convinced me he does. seems like accurate info though and people who have done his conversions have spoken highly of him and his recommendations.....I will be doing his mod...sometime soon.
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JK Enthusiast
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 135
Likes: 0
From: Daytona Beach
Good presentation - how much for everything?
Just finished the lighting information, many JK owners have complained, I don't have my JK year but "where there's smoke, there is fire"...just interested, If I ordered everything needed, what is the total cost and can I make the changes myself without any other alterations? Thanks for the info:confused:
