Has something happened to my eyes, or are they all insanely bright these days? And do some of them change colour slightly, like a prism? I find myself constantly dipping the rear view mirror now when I go out at night.
Yes, the blue tinted ones are a bloody nuisance.
And do some of them change colour slightly, like a prism? I find
I'm glad I have tinted glass in the rear windows, that does help, and sometimes I can manage without dipping. Badly adjusted headlights are another problem with oncoming cars.
Yes, I've had my cataracts done, and been rated 20/20 by my optometrist.
the prismatic effect of xenon light can sometimes make the xenon headlights look bright blue, and on a bumpy road they can, at least momentarily appear to be emergency vehicle lights. The latest trend is LED lights, which is all very well but the human eye does react well to direct view of LED and they can cause real eye ball pain and direct viewing is not advisable (same goes for xenon). So how either of these systems have been allowed to be put in to mass usage is questionable at best.
I've seen plenty of deliberately fitted blue LED side lights on non emergency cars. Plod don't seem to take any notice of it at all.
should say: does NOT react well to led and xenon
The legal position is that they are allowed as long as they don't flash. Xenon lights can and do give a flashing effect which can include blue.
Projector lights have been around for about 20 years, and Xenons for about 15. Even LEDs have been around for ~5 or so...
Projector lights have been around for about 20 years, and Xenons for about 15. Even LEDs have been around for ~5 or so...
That's how I read it, in context. ;-)
LED lighting is also being employed for street lighting, and in the home, I suppose the jury's still out on those applications...
I have a pure white led light in my office. It takes a bit of getting used to.
Street and home lighting is generally not a problem as the light sources are usually above the eyeline. I cannot see why there is such a rush to convert street lights, the old sodium ones put out more light per watt input and the light is more restful on the eye and gives better contrast, hence improved visibility in fog and movement shows up better.
Sodium lamps replaced white street lighting as it was cheaper. There is evidence that violence shot up when the yellow lamps were turned on in the 60s.
I can remember when car fog lamps were amber and I had to walk along the kerb whilst Dad followed my shadowy figure at tricky junctions...
Don't blame it on the sunshine Don't blame it on the moonlight Don't blame it on the street lamps Blame it on the Boogie.
I have only once encountered fog where it was practically speaking impossible to drive on an unlit B road, it was early 70's and I quite literally was leaning out of the window of an HB Viva trying to keep the opposite verge in sight while keeping a look out in case anything else was daft enough to be on the road, the nearside verge was impossible to see from the driver's seat, literally tick over in first was as fast as was vagualy safe. I was very pleased to reach street lighting at the edge of the village without going down a ditch or hitting anything.
I'm willing to bet it isn't pure white. That would be a mixture of all the visible colours of the rainbow - something LED isn't good at.
White LED's are indeed actually in the blue spectrum.
You could of course make up a variable colour light covering the full spectrum using just RGB LED's. This would give true white.
That'd give you red green & blue. If you shine it on orange then it'll probably look different which s why most white leds cheat & use a phosphor & a blue led to get something approaching a true white light. Of course then you need to decide what you mean by that.
I would go beyond and say they are dangerous and far to bright if they are behind or in front. I pass a push bike every morning and his front light is the most blinding I have seen. Most motorists these days have no idea, or don't care about the aim of their headlights.
On 20/04/2015 11:11, Etaoin Shrdlu wrote:
You have a number of different effects.
Projector headlamps. These put the light source at the focus of a elliptical parabola reflector and have a lens that looks like 1/2 a ball, typically less than 80mm diameter and can be 55mm. The light diffracts though the lens resulting in the blue part of the spectrum appearing at the edge, while the red/yellow part is in the beam. This is more noticeable with the dip beam as there is a blue fringe along the edge of dip beam cutoff line. As the offending car bounces it can pass up and down though your eye line. As the dip beam is produced by a fixed plate in the headlamp a separate main beam lamp is needed, usually a normal reflector and lens. Dip beam is common use, few cars have main beam projector lamps, Ford Puma being one that comes to mind. Hella have introduced a dipping projector lamp with a moving dip plate,.
High intensity discharge (HID) bulbs. These are typically 35W. They come in a range of "colours", the colour is measured by the temperature of a very hot black body that emits light of the same wavelength.
As you age your night vision deteriorates.
MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.