Which would be brighter?

[klavender1]

Currently have a set of Ellipsoids, the car came with freeforms. I was running DDM HID's for a while but they seemed to be getting dimmer and hard to see. So I went with halogen Philips 9012:

http://www.amazon.com/Philips-HIR2-Standard-Halogen-Headlight/dp/B00480N18G

Supposed to be 1875 lumens and very bright for non HID's. Question is would these be brighter in the ellipsoids or freeforms?

[K Fox]

Currently have a set of Ellipsoids, the car came with freeforms. I was running DDM HID's for a while but they seemed to be getting dimmer and hard to see. So I went with halogen Philips 9012:

http://www.amazon.com/Philips-HIR2-Standard-Halogen-Headlight/dp/B00480N18G

Supposed to be 1875 lumens and very bright for non HID's. Question is would these be brighter in the ellipsoids or freeforms?

Considering that the free-forms don't have the required shield inside to keep the bulb hidden, you'd glare the hell out of everybody if your used these bulbs with them. So point for ellipsoids.

Also, the ellipsoids are known to be better optics anyway, though not as good as E-code lights, like the smilies. So, another point for ellipsoids. Ellip's also don't need the inner glare shield like the free-forms do, because of the way they function. Another point for ellip's.

Final opinion - burn the free-forms. They're worthless.

Fox

[klavender1]

Thanks. I'm trying to see at night on a budget. Haha. I knew about the cutoff but since the light has more glass to travel through on the ellipsoids, didn't know if that would effect light output. These bulbs state 1875 lumens but don't seem that much brighter to me than the standard bulbs (supposed to be 1000 lumens) that were in it. I kept trying to find OSRAM (not Sylvania) Silverstars with not much luck.

[K Fox]

Thanks. I'm trying to see at night on a budget. Haha. I knew about the cutoff but since the light has more glass to travel through on the ellipsoids, didn't know if that would effect light output. These bulbs state 1875 lumens but don't seem that much brighter to me than the standard bulbs (supposed to be 1000 lumens) that were in it. I kept trying to find OSRAM (not Sylvania) Silverstars with not much luck.

The bulbs you linked will work fine in the ellipsoids - projectors are better about not glaring in general (when the outside glass is clean). For instance, smilies use non-shaded bulbs normally. The only reason the us ellips don't use the same bulb was likely the laws at the time - which is also why we didn't get smilies in the first place. Had to meet DOT spec, and they wouldn't accept the Euro specs...But you'll be fine with the ellips - free-forms are junk.

Fox

[klavender1]

Thanks for the info. I may run these for a while till I break down and buy a nice HID kit from retrofit.