Hi,

Here is a comparison photo for an LED headlight vs a stock Halogen.
The LED is in the passenger side while the Halogen remained in the drivers side lamp enclosure.
This means the right side of the photo is due to the LED while the left side is due to the stock Halogen.
The pic was taken with the camera flash turned off.

See what you think.

 

It's close but the right side looks brighter to me. The color temperature seems very close if not identical.

 

It's close but the right side looks brighter to me. The color temperature seems very close if not identical.

Hi and thanks for the reply,

Yeah that's what i think too. Not blinding but somewhat brighter.

I was going to hold a color chart in front of each light and take a snapshot to compare, but i dont have a color chart anymore so maybe i'll just hold a white piece of paper in front of each light and photograph those.

Too bad the garage doors are not white that would show us any yellowing from the halogen. It might be very similar though anyway.

One VERY noticeable effect i forgot to photograph is the lit up lights themselves with the camera directed directly at the front of the car. The halogen looks yucky orange. The LED looks very very white with slight blue tint, but very slight tint hardly at all. If i dont put the drivers side LED in today i'll film it tonight.

 

Note that a camera does not necessarily have an identical color response as the eye.
For example, a camera is usually responsive down to near IR wavelengths, such as from a remote control emitter, that the eye can't see.
This could affect how the camera sees a halogen which has significant IR content.
Also most modern cameras have automatic white-level adjustment, so that should be turned off for your measurements.

 

Hi and thanks for the reply,

Yeah that's what i think too. Not blinding but somewhat brighter.

I was going to hold a color chart in front of each light and take a snapshot to compare, but i dont have a color chart anymore so maybe i'll just hold a white piece of paper in front of each light and photograph those.

Too bad the garage doors are not white that would show us any yellowing from the halogen. It might be very similar though anyway.

One VERY noticeable effect i forgot to photograph is the lit up lights themselves with the camera directed directly at the front of the car. The halogen looks yucky orange. The LED looks very very white with slight blue tint, but very slight tint hardly at all. If i dont put the drivers side LED in today i'll film it tonight.

The camera's auto WB will use the brightest part of the image as white. So, if it sees the LED as brighter, it will set the WB for that, which will certainly make the other lamp look yellow.

 

Note that a camera does not necessarily have an identical color response as the eye.
For example, a camera is usually responsive down to near IR wavelengths, such as from a remote control emitter, that the eye can't see.
This could affect how the camera sees a halogen which has significant IR content.
Also most modern cameras have automatic white-level adjustment, so that should be turned off for your measurements.

Hi there,

Yes i agree 100 percent but i can also observe with the eye and then decide if the camera pic matches real life or not and possibly compensate the pic by tinting it as needed. That's what i actually did with the last pic in this series but that's the only one i had to do it with. So except for the next to last pic they all look the same as i saw with my naked eye. The last pic clearly has a block of orange tint over the drivers side headlight (right side of pic) but the next to last does not and it does not represent real life for that right headlight.
The first four are identical to what i saw out there in real life about an hour ago.
I'll post them next after i make one more reply.

 

The camera's auto WB will use the brightest part of the image as white. So, if it sees the LED as brighter, it will set the WB for that, which will certainly make the other lamp look yellow.

Hi again,

Well what actually happened was it saw both bulbs as being bright white or almost so. I think that is because the white balance looks more at the average than a single spot. I can change it to spot sensing, but then it will only focus on that one bulb i think.

In any case, the first four pics in this next series are true to life with no mod. Those are the white paper tests. The front direct on pic comes next, then the modified pic which sort of shows what it looks like it real life but even that is too bright. The bulb has a definite orange tint while the LED is pure white.

I also need far zone pics but didnt do that yet. The garage doors are colored so it's hard to tell so i am using nearly brand new white lined paper. It's very white so it renders colors well.

In the next reply i'll post the pics.

 

Here are the pics.
It is all too easy to see which of the four white paper tests are the halogen because they are a nasty orange color while the LED ones are pure white with a slight tint of blue, but very slight.
I think later i will make a pic with all four white paper tests in one shot.

Here is the set all in one. These colors represent what i actually see in real life at least on my computer monitor and on my camera's monitor.