Originally Posted by Dave_Mark
Originally Posted by JHZR2
Yeah, I was going to say... this is kind of a sory set of vehicles, and only one retrofit.
Retrofits are known to have an issue, because the "hot spot" is different and with a different gradient than a halogen filament. This often will result in more foregropund illumination, which falsely gives a sense of better sight, at a cost.
But some do exist where there is a better job of matching the hot spot to better use the design of the light. Projectors help with cutoff which are also more amenable as a result to retrofits.
What I take from this is that overall, one data point for one retrofit seems to be middle of the pack in terms of performance of lighting systems on the road.
This is hard to understand. You say that this is a "sory" set of vehicles. I'm assuming that you mean the lights on most of the vehicles here are poor. The retrofit tested here ranks dead last in 2 of the 3 hotspot intensity comparisons, and mid-pack in the third hotspot intensity comparison. But you conclude that the retrofit is "middle of the pack" compared to all of the vehicles on the road, which would include vehicles with presumably less sorry lighting systems.
It should be noted that the retrofit tested here not only ranks last in 2 of 3 hotspot intensity comparisons, but its hotspot intensity is actually less than legal requirements. In other words, less than a sealed beam, since sealed beams are required by law to meet all minimum legal photometric standards.
At 0.6D, 1.3R, the measured hotspot intensity of the bare retrofit projector (before it loses light from being stuffed behind a plastic lens) is 9390 candela, while the minimum legal requirement is 10,000 cd. At 0.9D, V, the measured hotspot intensity is 4024 cd, while the minimum legal requirement is 4500 cd.
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But some do exist where there is a better job of matching the hot spot to better use the design of the light.
The hotspot on this projector is a joke. Its "peak" intensity (peak intensity is found by searching the entire beam pattern for the maximum candela value) is a bad joke. The beauty of a 9007 headlamp on the right has a higher peak intensity. The headlamp on the right is, if you're curious, from a 1995 Ford Explorer. Uses 9007 bulbs.
But the Mini H1 7.0 is known for having bulb alignment issues. If they just slapped a bulb in and measured it, of course it will be terrible.
And yeah, these videos showed them shined against a wall which I know is useless. The point is to show how much the beam pattern changes, which does correlate to how they perform on the road and will change the measurements in any actual testing.