![]() ![]() Can't compare this to my old 325i bmw, which while still "projecting' probably doesn't have the same effect. Say for example the new Ferraris 458 have ugly headlights my guess just so to take advantage of better 'projection' in fog etc. Besides, the worst fog I've ever driven in was in Virginia, which I believe is the Piedmont range, and the fog there is ridiculous, but I cut through that just fine with my old halogen equipped car. I don't know if it's the color of the light, or that the light was in such a focused beam, but the light was the difference, not the fog. This time, I had a car with HID projectors. There's no way that after a decade of doing this exact trip, all of a sudden today the fog was worse than it's ever been. I could only see the lines immediately in front of the car and I couldn't see the road signs until they were passing me. This is nothing new for me, this is how I always drive to NYC, and it's always foggy here - however this was my first time experiencing this in my new car equipped with HID projectors. Last Wednesday night (2/16-2/17) I spent 2.5 hours driving through dense fog in the Catskills overnight. Reflector headlights often have darker or dimmer patches of light that you wont find with projectors. the only thing that I do not understand then is why if a reflector is more effective, cars now come with projector halogen and HID projector, even led projectors.It's interesting you say your HID's are better for inclement weather. Projector headlights produce a noticeably brighter area. And that advantage is offset by the projector requiring greater depth for similar performance.It is good to know this, I've always thought that projector are better in every way, putting the light on the ground, putting the light further and wider. Comparing similar light sources (halogen vs halogen), many halogen projectors come with 9012 (~1700 lumens) bulbs to give the same effective performance of a 9006 (~1000 lumens) bulb based reflector due to the inefficiencies of the projector design.ĭo you know the ONLY advantage a projector has over a reflector? Smaller frontal area for similar performance. This means that they can provide better visibility on the road, making it easier to see. But the common internet mantra, for those who know no better, is that projectors are better than reflectors. Projector headlights offer more light output than reflector headlights. In what way are you thinking a projector outperforms a reflector? Because objectively they simply don't. ![]() ![]() Ī properly aimed good low beam projector will throw light no further than a good properly aimed low beam reflector. It may be great for bragging rights, or for those who think that seeing 800 lanes of traffic at once is a good thing, but. Once a certain width is attained, such as the width of a good reflector like the 8th Gen Accord, additional width is not helpful in most driving situations. The projector light is no better at distributing light than the reflector light. ^^^ this is exactly why alot of OEM headlight use a lowbeam only projector and a reflector high beam.Reflector headlights correctly distribute light too. A very good reflector light, for example the Cibie CSR, will use close to 90% of the available flux.Ī reflector is far more efficient at getting the light flux going in the forward direction then a projector, ( AKA a projector wastes more light flux) but remember, a projector can correctly distribute that light, so even tho your getting less light efficiency, you are getting much better light distribution that helps with night driving( wider/farther). The most efficient projector headlights use no more than 35-40% of the available flux of the light source. There are two focal points that light must pass through before being distributed by the lens. Projector headlights, by their very nature, are inefficient. Again, it's all in the design, not the type of headlight. There are older E-code reflector headlights from the 1970s and 1980s that were not only more efficient than projector headlights of today but had sharper cutoffs too. It's all in the design, not in the type of headlight. A good reflector light, for example the Cibie CSR, is very very efficient, has almost no glare (and far less glare than any projector I've come across, and provides more usable light than most, if not all projector based lights. Reflectors, by nature, do not waste light in an uncontrolled manner. ![]() I tried lowering the shield on the bosch minis and there is just about nothing left, even removing the shield yields a semi usable cutoff. While some I've seen (mini h3 Bosch) use just about all of it and really utilize the bowl to work around the shield. Ive seen many projectors with wasted light held back by the cutoff shield(hotspot). Projectors contain it and can generally re aim it.When properly designed that is! Reflectors waste light in an uncontrolled manner. ![]()
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