Besides aesthetics, what does one color offer over the other? Is one more effective/brighter or disperse better? My previous second-hand set of metal housing auxiliary lamps corroded after one season. Do plastic lamps not warp from extreme heat form general use to frigid cold elements? Which one is more durable/practical in extreme temps? cheers.
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clear vs amber and plastic vs metal
- Thread starter djc4
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Gotcha. I'm only rocking OEM on my '99.
OEM's are a safe bet.
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There's much more extensive reading on the subject available online, but for the most part, the difference is in quality.
Plastic bodies and plastic lenses are cheap to produce. Not all plastics are the same either, there's plastic and there's stuff like polycarbonate, which is stronger. Plastics are lighter than glass though, which is part of the reason most headlamps are polycarbonate.
Glass lenses usually give the best optics, but are heavy and also prone to breakage, but so is plastic to some degree. A good budget option for decent lights is to use glass lenses with a nylon/plastic housing to hold it.
Glass lenses with metal housings are usually regarded as the high end option. They also handle the heat of high-wattage halogen bulbs for more light. The disadvantage would be the metal housings usually rust if not well protected.
As for light color, the only REAL options would be white and yellow. Not all yellow is the same either, there are cheap yellows and there is what is known as "selective yellow", found in real European fog lights. There are amber lights (Ford even put factory amber fog lamps on the Ironman Explorer), but they are pretty dumb and almost useless for extra visibility.
It's thought that the yellow color increases contrast and helps visibility in certain conditions. This might be true to some degree, but there is also the theory that what helps visibility is the slightly reduced light output from the yellow lens compared to a clear one. It's up to you what you like, if you like yellow fog lights, get yellow fog lights. If you won't be using them for inclement weather like heavy rain/fog/snow, you can just get clear for the most light output. Generaly for driving lights you want clear.
If you want a suggestion for lamps, it's hard to go wrong with a brand name, usually something like Hella. They make a lot of good lamps that are high quality but reasonably priced. Something like the Hella 500 or 500FF is good if you want round lamps, something like the 450 or 550 is good if you want rectangular lamps. You can get so-so lamps from companies like Pilot at auto parts stores, and they are decent if you get them cheap enough, but many times you can spend just a little more and get much better brand name lamps like Hellas that will perform better and last much, much longer.
Plastic bodies and plastic lenses are cheap to produce. Not all plastics are the same either, there's plastic and there's stuff like polycarbonate, which is stronger. Plastics are lighter than glass though, which is part of the reason most headlamps are polycarbonate.
Glass lenses usually give the best optics, but are heavy and also prone to breakage, but so is plastic to some degree. A good budget option for decent lights is to use glass lenses with a nylon/plastic housing to hold it.
Glass lenses with metal housings are usually regarded as the high end option. They also handle the heat of high-wattage halogen bulbs for more light. The disadvantage would be the metal housings usually rust if not well protected.
As for light color, the only REAL options would be white and yellow. Not all yellow is the same either, there are cheap yellows and there is what is known as "selective yellow", found in real European fog lights. There are amber lights (Ford even put factory amber fog lamps on the Ironman Explorer), but they are pretty dumb and almost useless for extra visibility.
It's thought that the yellow color increases contrast and helps visibility in certain conditions. This might be true to some degree, but there is also the theory that what helps visibility is the slightly reduced light output from the yellow lens compared to a clear one. It's up to you what you like, if you like yellow fog lights, get yellow fog lights. If you won't be using them for inclement weather like heavy rain/fog/snow, you can just get clear for the most light output. Generaly for driving lights you want clear.
If you want a suggestion for lamps, it's hard to go wrong with a brand name, usually something like Hella. They make a lot of good lamps that are high quality but reasonably priced. Something like the Hella 500 or 500FF is good if you want round lamps, something like the 450 or 550 is good if you want rectangular lamps. You can get so-so lamps from companies like Pilot at auto parts stores, and they are decent if you get them cheap enough, but many times you can spend just a little more and get much better brand name lamps like Hellas that will perform better and last much, much longer.
muzzymaniac
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A little personal experience. I live in the snow belt of NY and prefer the yellow lights over white. I used to work nights and had a set of white and a set of yellow lights on my car. Long story short - white lights on= zero visibility, Yellow only = 100% visibility. No this isn't scientific in any way but these were the same brand and size. Yellow lights lit up the road and got me to work like champs. Been a fan of them ever since. If you want yellow - make sure you go with a fog pattern so the beam is lower and wide.
FIND
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Technically speaking, since the eyes are in scotopic vision in the light levels you usually have in low light with headlights (probably closer to mesoscopic), your eyes are more sensitive to light closer to the red end of the spectrum, therefore it takes less of that light to see more detail. Since you have less ability to discriminate colors in low light anyways (since your cone cells are non-functional in low light) you don't need full-spectrum light. Higher wavelength light that is reflected will get your cones working more and your rods less, so your night vision is reduced. Coincidentally, this is why it is stupid to put HIDs (even yellow ones) in fog lights.
Of course, this yellow color and the effects on your eyes from reflection are only important in high glare conditions such as bad weather or fog. Under clear conditions, very little light will be reflected back against you, so full-spectrum light is better, since you will be able to see contrasts between different color objects easier, even if you cannot see the colors. If you aren't throwing off light in a certain wavelength, an object (such as a deer) can easily become invisible against certain colors. This coincidentally is why I hate HIDs. They don't give you full spectrum, only selected bits of the spectrum to simulate full spectrum.
There is also some thought that selective yellow light will glare less when refracted in fog or through moisture in the air, but, I am starting to lean towards the school of thought that that is untrue.
Any other color of light is useless for you if you want them so you can see. They are only useful so others can see you, which is why we have red taillights on cars, since our eyes are most sensitive to that color under low light, so we can see other cars from a long way away without them having to produce a lot of red light. Think about it, your tails are visible from as far away as your headlights, but they have 1/20th the lumen output. Lights higher on the color spectrum, like blues and purples, while pretty, are almost always useless from a visibility point of view. Under low light, it takes more lumens of blue light to see that blue light than it does something like red.
Of course, this yellow color and the effects on your eyes from reflection are only important in high glare conditions such as bad weather or fog. Under clear conditions, very little light will be reflected back against you, so full-spectrum light is better, since you will be able to see contrasts between different color objects easier, even if you cannot see the colors. If you aren't throwing off light in a certain wavelength, an object (such as a deer) can easily become invisible against certain colors. This coincidentally is why I hate HIDs. They don't give you full spectrum, only selected bits of the spectrum to simulate full spectrum.
There is also some thought that selective yellow light will glare less when refracted in fog or through moisture in the air, but, I am starting to lean towards the school of thought that that is untrue.
Any other color of light is useless for you if you want them so you can see. They are only useful so others can see you, which is why we have red taillights on cars, since our eyes are most sensitive to that color under low light, so we can see other cars from a long way away without them having to produce a lot of red light. Think about it, your tails are visible from as far away as your headlights, but they have 1/20th the lumen output. Lights higher on the color spectrum, like blues and purples, while pretty, are almost always useless from a visibility point of view. Under low light, it takes more lumens of blue light to see that blue light than it does something like red.
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From what I have read the yellow fogs are only more effective in heavy snow. For fog either white or yellow is the same. Seems that 100W yellow fogs are just a little brighter than 55W white fogs. (Determined by me in a set of Catz MSR Fogs.)
FIND
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That is probably true. To produce an equal number of lumens through a filter, you need to make more lumens before the filter, since you are basically producing a full sprectrum light from the filament, then removing some of that light with the filter.
But.... theoretically speaking, fewer lumens should provide the same amount of visibility in low light if they are produced in the right color.
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Perhaps it's the way my old eyes see things. I'm told that the older you are your eyes loose some of the color spectrum.
Whatever, the yellow just doesnt seem to illuminate as much/far as the white does. Maby it has something to do with reflecting light back. IDK....
Whatever, the yellow just doesnt seem to illuminate as much/far as the white does. Maby it has something to do with reflecting light back. IDK....
djc4
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Wow.....
Cool. Not that I want to discourage the ongoing debates regarding color theory, illumination studies and the spectral power distribution for light sources with supporting research such as the Hawthorne effect. I find these discussions quite enlightening.
BUT….metal or polycarbonate housing? What seems to be more durable....especially for the oscillating temps from below freezing to the extreme heat from general use?
Cool. Not that I want to discourage the ongoing debates regarding color theory, illumination studies and the spectral power distribution for light sources with supporting research such as the Hawthorne effect. I find these discussions quite enlightening.
BUT….metal or polycarbonate housing? What seems to be more durable....especially for the oscillating temps from below freezing to the extreme heat from general use?
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Even cheap all-plastic lights are fine in terms of useage temps, rarely will one ever heat up so fast it will crack a lens, unless maybe it's a really really hot-running bulb.
They are each durable in their own way for certain conditions. Good nylon/plastic will take a beating if thick enough, but can still crack/break under stress. Metal would of course bend instead, but will deform permanently where plastic will just go back to it's former shape if it doesn't break.
Metal is preferable for big off-road lights if you want to use 100W bulbs in them, due to the heat a metal housing can take, along with a glass lens for the bulb.
Keep in mind that most light sets under ~$100 either use cheap, cheap pot metal that is some sort of steel alloy and bond them to a glass lens, or you're just getting cheap lenses that have the cheap metal housing as a holder.
Really when looking at lamps it's more of a brand/model thing. Some of the best lights out there are high-end glass lenses in a nylon housing with metal hardware. There are even very expensive lights that have glass lenses and metal housings that are just horrible. Just because one is metal and one is plastic or something else doesn't mean as much as whether it's a quality material and whether it's a suitable design.
If you just want lamps to use regularly, glass lenses with plastic housings are fine for 55W bulbs. Lamps like the Hellas I mentioned previously fit the bill without breaking the bank. Unless you want/need very bright off-road lights or something, and don't mind spending the money, there's probably no need to bother with all-metal housings unless you find a brand/style you like that has them.
They are each durable in their own way for certain conditions. Good nylon/plastic will take a beating if thick enough, but can still crack/break under stress. Metal would of course bend instead, but will deform permanently where plastic will just go back to it's former shape if it doesn't break.
Metal is preferable for big off-road lights if you want to use 100W bulbs in them, due to the heat a metal housing can take, along with a glass lens for the bulb.
Keep in mind that most light sets under ~$100 either use cheap, cheap pot metal that is some sort of steel alloy and bond them to a glass lens, or you're just getting cheap lenses that have the cheap metal housing as a holder.
Really when looking at lamps it's more of a brand/model thing. Some of the best lights out there are high-end glass lenses in a nylon housing with metal hardware. There are even very expensive lights that have glass lenses and metal housings that are just horrible. Just because one is metal and one is plastic or something else doesn't mean as much as whether it's a quality material and whether it's a suitable design.
If you just want lamps to use regularly, glass lenses with plastic housings are fine for 55W bulbs. Lamps like the Hellas I mentioned previously fit the bill without breaking the bank. Unless you want/need very bright off-road lights or something, and don't mind spending the money, there's probably no need to bother with all-metal housings unless you find a brand/style you like that has them.
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