I’m an optometrist with extensive training in physics, optics, light and illumination, not to mention the human eye. The real reason amber lights “cut through” dust, fog, snow is because amber reduces/eliminates the shorter blue wavelengths from the output beam. The blue wavelengths scatter more than other colors when hitting particulates in the air and thus prevent the beam from penetrating through the fog, snow, dust, etc. It has nothing to do with “optical workload” (whatever that is). Also the reflected blue wavelengths scatter within the eye, degrading the image quality. Additionally, eliminating blue makes the light reflected back to you (allowing you to see the environment) more monochromatic, and thereby reduces the effects of chromatic aberration. And yes, having a better quality image is less tiring for the eyes.
Strange thing is that the old blue street lights (before LED that is now blue again) cut trough snow in the air like it was not even there, while the orange more modern (before LED) lights lit up the snow so you could not see anything. It is as you say completely opposite of what you would expect according to physics. It seems the new blue color street lights with LED`s is better then the orange ligths when it`s snowing but not as good as the old blue light.
@@MrBoomStick😂 What are your credentials? And what is your source for your statement? I imagine you are also afraid of 5G and have a firm belief that the earth is flat.
@@MrBoomStick😂 What are your credentials? And what is your source for your statement? I imagine you are also afraid of 5G and have a firm belief that the earth is flat.
@@MrBoomStick LED's are more tiring than incandescent because they have a discontinous spectrum, thus lower color reprodiction. There are High CRI (color reproduction index) LED lights, which are awesome if above 90 cri, but they are expensive. I do a lot of electronics soldering at work, so you can imagine that I deal with smoke and visual fatigue a lot, so I made myself a custom light setup: 12V system, 3x 30watt incandescent halogen lamp from headlights (front, left and right, not too close), 3800k color temperature (pretty impressive considering that it's slightly above the melting temperature of tungsten). It feels much more neutral white than leds rated at the same color, and color reproduction is perfect. Now, regarding what Randal said, he is correct, if a bit pedantic by assuming you believe stuff you clearly don't and are unrelated to the topic.
I'm starting to look at it this way: - Amber lights work great for fog, heavy snow and dust. They also work well enough when none of those conditions are present to light up necessary areas of the "path" with slightly diminished output. - White lights work great for lighting up areas when there is no fog, snow or dust, but don't work when those conditions are present. Amber/Yellow works for ALL conditions, some better than others. White ONLY works when conditions are clear. The obvious choice if you can only get one pair of lights would be Amber by process of elimination. If you can get more than one pair of lights, get a pair of each.
I had just got done watching videos talk about how bright the different lights were. But didn’t talk about why there are variations to brightness. Seemed odd the big companies didn’t make super bright. Thank you
I had just got done watching videos talk about how bright the different lights were. But didn’t talk about why there are variations to brightness. Seemed odd the big companies didn’t make super bright. Thank you
There are some companies that offer “switchback” bulbs that you can cycle by turning the light off and on and can cycle between amber and bright clear lights. Seems to be the best option for your average driver’s.
@@ArbitraryLifestyleit isn't better significantly though. The whole yellow is better by science is true, but that's on lab conditions, not in real life. Yellow being better than white is a perception. The whole reason people "perceive" better results is because it the the same effect as those driving or golf "HD" yellow glasses.
An old northern trick was to turn off your head lights but keep your amber running lights on when stuck in a night time heavy snow (white-out). Naturally you have to reduce speed but, you go from 10ft visibility to several 100ft. I've shown it people and who couldn't believe the hack. I always thought the vehicles sold with fog lights should be of a lower K so you had that choice. Thank you so much for the explanation; now I understand why it always worked!
We do that in commercial aviation too; the white LED lights on newer commercial jets actually cause unnecessary glow around the intended flight path. So in low-visibility landings' it's recommended to turn them off. We turn them on again when we're on ground. We don't have ambers on the big girls though! So yes; this "trick" actually helps.
Former Baja Design customer here (like 20 years ago) - it's important to know that Narrow-band Amber is better than filtered White as filtered white still has a ton of blue in it. Meaning you need a Amber emitter, not a phosphor converted Amber (Blue LED under a thick blue-blocking amber phosphor) or filtered Amber (Blue LED under a thin blue-passing yellow phosphor, then a yellow filter cutting out the blue). Counter/clarification to the point @1:25, the output is a matter of lighting design - it's not a failure of the color itself, it's the cost and component count required for a similar lumen output. But then you have to consider what you're doing with the light after it's created as a lighting engineer. If you take a 200lumen white LED and filter (absorb) 30% of the generated light out (Baja here quotes Amber filter loss at 15% @2:04, but remember they bastardized "amber" to really mean "selctive yellow" @1:33), you're not sending 200 lumens down the road anymore (more like 140-ish). To get that same 200 lumens with narrow-band amber however, you'd probably need 3x the LEDs than one would need with white from the same manufacturer product line. But that's not aples to apples is it? Because that filtered white is only sending out 70% useful light - so you probably only need 2x the Amber LEDs. This is where the actual design part comes in. You need to know how many lumens of what band of light you need, then you have to design a fixture that outputs that light. Contrast actually causes more eye strain than the total lumens, and eyes do better with contrast at longer wavelengths. Remember, at night, the total contrast includes the illuminated versus the non illuminated areas - so your pattern has a huge impact on eye strain. You want to have a fairly even illumination with hot-spots only where you expect longer throw distance (inverse-squre law for dispersed energy). I'm still waiting for some manufacturer to build-in a single beam LIDAR (or a vehicle's 3D radar for cruise-control/collision avoidance) to measure the hotspot distance and auto-dim the fixture to account for the actual illumination on-road - which is much more interesting when you expect dynamic terrain conditions at higher speeds and multiple beam spread types.
The "best" result is actually all the different colours run together, along with NOT pointing them all straight ahead on high beam, but having some up, some down and some to either side, in all colour configurations from amber (orange) through yellow to white, to a crystal white (a bluish white) to pure BLUE as well, because funnily enough, "reflective road signs" are best viewed at night, with a blue LED (pure blue) which doesn't do much as a general light, until a sign is seen in the approaching distance, when the BLUE comes into it's own lighting up the sign, long before you can read it correctly, if only seen using either amber/yellow or white. It has something to do with the way we see BLUE better when it returns from a GOOD reflective surface, than from being "not reflected" back from the likes of trees, dirt and anything else apart from, the reflective painted surface of "a sign".
I build custom flashlights as a hobby, and am glad to see someone that actually understands color temperature and it's correct application. Another common issue I see is the lumen crazy consumers. Many companies list blatantly false output numbers for wow factor. Others are pretty good about true numbers, but even then that is NOT the only factor to check. Beam pattern, lens clarity, and the correct combination for the intended use are far more important. I have 3 nearly "identical" lights I show people to explain this point. One 4500 lumen 5000K mixed beam, one 350ish lumen 5000K pencil beam, and a 4500 lumen 6500k mixed beam. In the end they usually go for the 5000K mixed beam or the pencil beam light if they are just after throw.
I have the starburst effect from eye surgery. Bright lights have starburst at night. However, yellow or amber lighting works best but did not know all the science behind it. I also wear shooting glasses at night or low light because it relaxes my eyes. I think they have an AR blue blocking coating.
Amber colored fog lights were popular add on to a vehicle in the '80s. We called them fog lights. Very few had clear lights on their cars, even less had both.
They even go back further than that. My dad had a set on the bumper of his '48 Chev. and uncle on his Dodge. We lived on the west coast where fog was really bad at times. It wasn't so much that you could see further it was more for oncoming vehicles been able to see you. cheers
Since the Kelvin temperature can be modified with just a lens cover, shouldn't the same result be achieved with amber glasses/goggles? Does the light have to be produced at that temp, or can it simply be received at that temp?
And there you've spotted the B.S. from the advertising dept. 3200K Tungsten Cinema lights produce 5600K with the right filter to absorb unwanted spectra, same as using a 'Minus Green' to get daylight out of some LED sources, or a "Lee 204 CTO" (Colour Temperature Orange) filter in front of a sun lit window to give the same White Balance as unfiltered Tungsten lights being used to create highlights in scenes shot indoors, and then set the colour temperature in the camera to match White as 3200K instead of 5600K,...
@@PiDsPagePrototypes 🤣 you've made me sound much smarter than I am, thank you! It just seemed like a simple solution to the possible problem. Thanks for the reply PiD!
Hadn't considered it was too much blue light but I always thought that a 5000K or amber light replicated the natural colors of the environment closer which is why it seems clearer, even if it might not be because of reduced output. Fascinating.
As a photographer and theatrical lighting designer, this is the best explanation of color temperature in road lights I have seen. I want to also add comment about the myth of a "fan" beam", which you might want to do a video on. Many, many fog lights rely on using the fan beam only. This is only good for distance. A good "fog" light must also flood light directly in front of the vehicle, since fog on the hiway means you are going slow. I noticed in your vids that you have good "frontal wash". This is a step ahead of most hiway lights out there.
Great video. I'm so glad somebody is talking about what a bad idea those "blue" (anything over 5000k) lights are in every way: more glare for oncoming drivers, less useful visibility, and more reflected glare as well, due to the fact that the shorter wavelengths of blue light refract and diffract more than longer wavelengths, and also that our eyes are not as good at processing them. I'm looking into amber lighting partly to become more visible to other drivers, especially for motorcycles. I notice how attention-getting they are when I see other vehicles with them.
Yes! When are the feds going to step in and regulate the "headlight wars" better? Passing people with these obnoxious lights is way more dangerous than other transportation laws we have. Lawmakers get your priorities straight!!!
my opinion is that a set of amber fog and driving lights below the hood are ideal for fog and driving lights (maybe even a spot/driving combo in the grill/bumper) with white for ditch and overhead offroad lights intended to give you more detail at longer range, but I do not do desert... I do what has become known as overlanding. (being a product of the 70s in the midwest I am more partial to callin it boondocking)
I really appreciate your "science of lighting" approach. In my experiences, for fog (Tx Gulf coast), amber or selective yellow mounted as low as possible works great. Your light zone charts really help with which products to use.
The only critique I have is that our eyes haven't really adapted to see best at noon on a sunny day. Under those conditions there is so much light available that we don't have to use every photon we can find. Where we do struggle is at night. We've never used the sun to see at night. But we have used fire. A million years of using the warm, yellow light of fire to see in the dark has caused us to be more sensitive to those wavelengths. There's also some evidence that our ancestors were crepuscular, operating more at dusk and/or dawn than midday. Again, more yellowish light. The science I've read shows us more acute in the 3,500-4,300k range than 5,000k. That quibble aside, the fact you even know what "selective yellow" is and that you aren't pushing for "superwhite" bulbs in the gigawatt range puts you at the top of the list of places I'll look next time I need lights.
I run a combo of a single row clear 20” and two amber squadron sports. I find on nice dry clear night my clear with my led headlights is fantastic. Only drawback to clear is sign reflection can be distracting. Rainy wet nights, snow or fog, I run the amber squadrons in conjunction with amber lamps. This ability to choose my desired kelvin weather permitting has improved my often very dark commute
Amber-led will always be the better option in terms of better visibility in all weather conditions. I prefer amber light for better visibility in all weather conditions and less fatigue for long driving trip.
As a Baja D dealer, the Amber is selling quite well, I feel like the demand is really high to at least one some Amber light on the from of your SxS, great vid!
Amber has somewhat become very popular and for good reason, it works very well and is easy on the eyes. But people do lose 15% performance on light output
I worked along the Dalton Highway and in Prudhoe Bay for many years in a job were I spent much of my time driving. This was many years ago and I used light Force lights on my company truck. I had two white and two blue. The blue worked the best in whiteout conditions.
Thanks for the breakdown. Would love to see more of the science behind the explanations you’ve given, just because I’m a nerd and love to see the tests that prove out these recommendations. I find it fascinating to understand how that stuff works, but this definitely answered some of the more nuanced questions that I’ve had.
@@Haulinbassracing No it's not, it's primarily white light. The actual color temperature of The Sun throughout most of the day is actually 5500K. It's 5000K during morning/afternoon due to the angle through which it's coming at you through the atmosphere which bends the light's frequencies slightly.
@@Haulinbassracing The sun emits wavelengths across the entire spectrum so it's light is white. If it were a yellow star, then images of the ISS in sunlight would make those illuminated sections appear yellow, but it clearly is white. In atmosphere it can appear more yellowish due to blue light scattering properties of the atmosphere.
In the video they glossed over the the biggest reason why yellow/amber light is better in dust/rain/snow conditions. They mentioned it, but I think they should have discussed more about the differences in refractive index of various wavelengths across the spectrum. Basically, most visible light has a refractive index that's mostly the same so our eyes are used to focusing sharply on objects illuminated with those wavelengths. However, blue light is quite different. If I'm going to look at a sign or light that's pure blue, I have to focus my eyes as if the object were much further away. This is because of the significantly different refractive index of those shorter wavelengths. If I were to try to focus on that blue light as I normally would with other wavelengths, the it would appear much larger because it would be out of focus and blurry. That is why dust and snow in white light has so much more glare, because white light, includes blue light. So your eye isn't able to focus the blue part of that light properly. Using yellow or amber lights cuts out that blue light!
For me the biggest advantage of amber lights is knowing that I'm not blinding others. When I had white lights people would often flash their high beams at me, even when I only had my low beams on. Now I have ambers (rated at the same lumens as my old white lights), I've noticed people don't flash their brights at me any more.
I drive for rideshare apps nearly everyday... I love having a pair of amber fog lights mounted in my bumper. Turn all others off and only that one on when its raining, snowing, foggy, dusty ... y'all got it.
Thank you for this video. Granted its 1 year old. listening to this helped me understand the difference in headlights. I just installed some Amber/Yellow Fog lights for my Subaru Forester Touring. Gotta say, The aesthetic is cool ~ As the OEM headlights are blue/white projected style. I will say after a long drive. It does make me a bit tired. As some one who is a bit new to wheeling. This video helped me understand what other light styles I should get next, and from what I hear I made a good choice with amber/yellow.
I recently ordered some Wagner night defense bulbs for my girls car. It's a mix of white and amber. The color is really good, the bulbs are not. They lasted about 6 months and both bulbs burned out. But the mix of colors is great
I ordered some yellow lenses tint from Amazon. I run my low beam and left floodlight yellow with high beam and right flood light white. It looks great at night.
General off-road use I think white is good. However with fog or haze, you get a reflection back with with a higher temp so a lower or yellower light would be perferable
i can tell you from my point of view having larger Fog lights on my truck. I can tell the biggest difference with my fog vs my white lights, the amber color tends to make my whole surrounding more visible with less blowback from what it is hitting with the beam. In the woods it makes the most difference allowing me to see a better angle from the sides of the truck. For me amber is better than blue or white.
For decades French cars had uellow fog lamps for the same reason and 'yellow' glasses are generally better when skiing if there isn't direct sunlight (so when it's overcast). These tend to allow a slightly better contrast or visible texture to the snow. Anyway, there seems to be something in this and it's not new.
I've been looking for the ideal set up for my TW200. What I find is that the aftermarket LED lights are indeed more blue, but they project much further, which I love, yet I still prefer the temperature of the stock lamp.. The problem is that they don't flood the ground near the front of the bike the way the stock lamp does, and at night on a rocky, slow hill climb, I have to remember what I saw 20 feet in front of me because it will be pitch black by the time I am actually rolling over or between the obstacle. This video tells me I need a small amber(or more natural color temp) flood bar to illuminate the terrain directly in front and beneath me. I think a combination of those colors with multiple lights might be the ticket. Thanks for the great video!!!
I LOVE your "white" light outputs. It's so frustrating trying to find a product that fits my needs/budget that has reasonable CRI and isn't BLUE. So silly to me that people run bright intense super blue lights and think that it will be better on road. Driving rural roads in fog/poor conditions regularly has made me DESPISE most modern headlights. HIDs still seem to be killer, especially in a lower temp color. You guys should do a CRI/temp comparison with the big names. CRI is more like "area under the curve" and for our eyes it is usually a lack of reds that our eyes are missing that makes things seem... off when viewed under an LED. They're getting better about it (I bought a cheap hyper-tough shop light that actually listed the CRI the other day, it was over 70 which is pretty good for generic OTS emitters in a $20 fixture) and I definitely notice. Even if the color of the bulb viewed directly looks really similar, the colors of everything else around and how it affects my eyes has become something I'm extremely aware of as I age. I find it really difficult to read or do finer tasks without the contrast provided by higher CRI stuff.
The reason for thinking on the reflection of dust comes from the purpose of fog lights being placed low on the vehicle. Placed further from your eyes, you will get less reflection on the fog or dust into your eyes. The selective yellow allows you to look past the reflections easier as well.
so true, try using some computer glasses with blue light filter and slightly yellow lenses to see the difference on how much better you can see at night
FINALLY!!!! Its taken be a long time to change from Halogen because of all these 6000k lights. I hate them to drive behind. The issue with blue light is even worse in high humidity as blue refracts sooner than yellow so you get even more glare. Thats why fog lights are yellow but you dont need fog to "see" the difference. 3200k is my fave allrounder.
I had a set of very nice amber lights with a true pencil beam years ago. They were the absolute best in poor conditions. I have never found another true pencil beam amber light set. Loved the explanations and comparisons in your video. Thanks for helping me see the light.
Years ago I had some white pencil beams from the 60s. In fog they looked like Star Trek phasers, but once I did find a straight enough road to light up a stop sign at 1.1 miles.
I remember years ago putting a set of sylvania silverstar bulbs in my car and initially they appear to be brighter than stock, after a while I put the orig back in because I found that I had better vision with the warmer color even though it appeared dimmer. with my first 4x4 I put a pair of 100w halogens and my current truck has a pair of little 2" square amber LED's(the ad said they were 3" but they fit so nice I decided to just keep em). they don't carry too far cuz they're really small, but still a huge improvement over stock headlights and I really feel the warmer color gives you better depth perception and doesn't kill your night vision as bad as the more blue lights that are so common
I love the amber - I use them frequently in very low visibility snow storm conditions and, in the worst conditions, will turn off my headlights and just run the low bumper mounted squadron pro combo lights. The beam pattern is also excellent for illuminating the shoulder and staying on the road.
In Australia where we are legally allowed to drive on our roads with driving lights, I have personally found Amber coloured driving lights are a lot easier on the roads especially driving past reflective road signs with 2 spotties, 1 double row 41" light bar and 2 12" light bars. When used in a work light/camp light scenario, Ive found Amber lights dont attract bugs as much as white lights do. Just get Amber
What I didn't hear among the many facets you addressed was the physics of viewing your lit space and what it takes to then change to glance at darkness/unlit space. Only guessing, but amber would seem to be the winner in that category. Red lights in dark rooms and submarines would seem to support that. Or is the sport such that all the attention is forward? Nice stuff. I appreciate having more science to understand what has made me so happy changing both my home and work to 5000K. And also having my opinion tempered so I don't go losing sight of where 3000K has its place. And the blue end science was a bonus. I was recently confused by an "expert" saying that blue filters for viewing computer monitors was just snake oil.....
Just FYI, blue light is bad if you want to sleep but not bad for your eyes. A study about sleeping was taken out of context and people ran with it. It would be quite the trick of evolution if it turned out that the entire sky was bad for our eyes.
We're most adapted to around 5500K-5700K light. That's the light at around noon and closer to the sun's natural color. It's why if you want to be the most productive, it's the color scale you want to set your lights to as it simulates midday or the most active time for most people.
Yellow is excellent for improved contrast (less glare). In the past, France had all headlights such a colour. Whilst less of an issue off-road, they are less dazzling to other road users.
Since the 80s, we’ve used the amber color to cut through those mountains in the Philippines in those thick fogs. Amber color cuts through the dense fogs and it’s much easier to the eyes mostly when driving on long windy road.
I have both amber fog lights and bright white aux lights. I did use the big clear white during a blizzard in the Sierra Neveda this past winter and it really lit up the road and made it way better to drive through. But, I never use them for very long, maybe five minutes at a stretch.
This was a great quick pitch for those who have come here for a fast answer. But Id like to see a more detailed breakdown of the "how's and whys", and why competitor companies DD.. make choices like using a 4100K diode behind an amber lens. vs not vs baja etc. I use amber HID and LED for fog and snow where I am and have for 17 years. And in Europe its been used since the auto light was invented practically. It has serious advantages at controlled powers. Which is why I liked in this video he makes that very clear. Not just a sales hit of more is better, buy lots, etc. for the ride in this clip at 4:36 id like to see it reversed, just to test it out. Try the 5k short range and proximity, and the amber in Long range up top. Reduce the overhead eyebrow glare and use the yellow to show that better contrast of terrain to come. Where obviously in poor weather I wan the amber low and down.
My old TRS projectors are 4300k. It’s lame that a lot of options nowadays are either 5000k+ or in the 3000 range. Why not in between like natural light!?
you didn’t touch on wet roads … i’ve always felt like amber is superior on rain soaked surfaces and ive attributed it to wavelength and refraction vs reflection …. would love to hear from @BajaDesigns ??
As a cinema photographer working in the dark, we use a red filtered small spot light to prevent blindness in the shadow. "night blindness". Seeing outside the light cone is most important.
Nice! Informative video. Based on your testing, I don't feel too bad about my array of old-school Koito quartz-halogen headlamps and KC Daylighters. They've got a warmer (referring to color scale) output, a bit yellowish, compared to many LED lamps I'm seeing. I'm sure they don't hold a candle to BD lights (see what I did there), but these lights are on my Scout II, which I don't drive super fast at night anyway. It's a camping vehicle I use in the deserts east of San Diego.
I miss my Scout II so much. I regret parting ways with it so much, we were broke and needed money. It was our only way to keep our heads above water. Now I am retired and have the time to play and can't find one ...
I’m going to add some lower output amber lights on my snow plow truck. High output white light is good to see sometimes but I think the lower output amber will give me a better 3D view on snow.
Maybe it's my eyes but I see so much better and feel more relaxed with the white light than I do with any yellow lights. Yellow seems to strain my eyes actually, so even though some out s are valid with fog, snow, dust etc I still prefer white. The key to white however is keeping it lower to the ground. A white light got me works better in bad conditions when it mounted at the bottom of the bumper vs over the top of the truck shining down.
I'm with you on that. Also, as far as I always understood, Amber light naturally makes you drowsy while blue light keeps you awake. For long drives I would be more inclined to stick to the more white colour temperature.
When I was a wildland fire fighter during the spring when it’s really dry in Florida driving your bulldozer down dirt roads and 2 trails stirs up a lot of dust the bright clear white lights make it hard to see with all that dust and smoke in the air .we would turn off the light bars and just use the lights in the grill 🤟
To be honest with you guys, I see a lot of people rocking these in Los Angeles during the day or at night. These are meant for off Roading better vision don’t turn them on just to show them off. It makes no sense.
You mention a dimmer and hi-low switching… are the BD lights Dimmable? I can’t wait for affordable selectable color LED’s to be in high quality lights like Baja Designs.
I have seen both in the dunes. If you aren't following someone and it's not blowing sand I believe clear is the best. I would say you get the most effective usable light. If you are back in the pack I would recommend amber. I like having my yellow and clear separate so I can use whatever is better for my situation at the time. I find having both on at the same time my clear wash out my yellow.
This is excellent, I have two yellow Baja design LP6 in the amber spread beam and they work great. They also help artificially lower the temperature of the other brands spot pattern dual row led light bar from 6000k to something more comfortable.
The best fog lights I’ve ever had on a vehicle where from a 1992 Mercedes Benz amber all the way. They were not very bright but cut through the fog and snow like nobody’s business.
In fog, and particularly with snow, proper placement of the lights is crucial. When facing heavy fog and snow, the splashback of light makes it really difficult to see. And when it is snowing heavy, in the dark the whole thing actually becomes hypnotic. So when you see people putting these lights high on the vehicle, they really have shot themselves in the foot. They need to be low, as low as you can go, like below the bumper. If you have them located properly there will be no flashback, as the driver is now looking down on the light. This is something like the semi truck driver, who can see down on the illumination, not into it. On my vehicle, the fog lights are mounted in the lower part of the bumper but they are white. Going to replace them with yellow ones. Been driving in Canadian winters safely for nearly 60 years so I have been there and got the T-shirt in winter know how.
Just out of curiosity here. I have 2 sets of pods, one Yellow & one white. A pillars & fogs. Which is the way to go? Yellow on top as spots and white as fogs or white on top as spots and Yellow as fogs?
Ive been running twin S1 WA ambers on my mountain bike for wooded songle track.I see so much better than any warm neutral or cool white light. Amber and selective yellow makes night riding on the single track look like a sunny day, whereas white likes make it seem like a flash light (unatural) I've also played with green light s2 pro with work light optic and green lens....makes it feel like moon light... Advantage for green over yellow in the snow..it reflects back at you less than yellow and obvious white.. How is that though if green is higher? On the kelvin scale?
I thought so, some local street lights have been changed out to almost a blue purple color. I thought it was harder to see people versus the old Amber colored streetlight.
Eye fatigue does play a part but from a photonics engineering perspective. It is actually the wave length of the light that makes a difference. Light at the higher end kelvin light scale has a shorter wave length and is more susceptible to dissipation from water vapour and atmospheric dust. Light at the lower end of the kelvin scale has a longer wave length and able to more efficiently pass through an atmosphere which has water vapour and dust in it
Thanks for the good info! I’m looking for some deer repelling lights… recently had a bad “interaction” when a deer jumped onto the road about 20’ ahead of our 50mph car!😣
What about for more rock crawling / slow trail use? Thinking overland crawler rig. Squadron sport - would you go clear or amber and work or driving / combo pattern?
Great info, thank you. A little off topic, but for use on road, yellow light is very good for conspicuity. I run yellow filters, lights aimed very low and am confident even the most distracted drivers see this color of light well before white (or any of the crapload of colors coming of the Walmart LEDs you on the road) It works great on 2 wheels also.
For headlight i like to use white or clear , For foglamp amber work the best for see through fog, and rain I have experience going mountain with white led and fog just block the view just like mirror
I’m an optometrist with extensive training in physics, optics, light and illumination, not to mention the human eye. The real reason amber lights “cut through” dust, fog, snow is because amber reduces/eliminates the shorter blue wavelengths from the output beam. The blue wavelengths scatter more than other colors when hitting particulates in the air and thus prevent the beam from penetrating through the fog, snow, dust, etc. It has nothing to do with “optical workload” (whatever that is). Also the reflected blue wavelengths scatter within the eye, degrading the image quality. Additionally, eliminating blue makes the light reflected back to you (allowing you to see the environment) more monochromatic, and thereby reduces the effects of chromatic aberration. And yes, having a better quality image is less tiring for the eyes.
Strange thing is that the old blue street lights (before LED that is now blue again) cut trough snow in the air like it was not even there, while the orange more modern (before LED) lights lit up the snow so you could not see anything. It is as you say completely opposite of what you would expect according to physics. It seems the new blue color street lights with LED`s is better then the orange ligths when it`s snowing but not as good as the old blue light.
All those credentials and you haven’t figured out led’s are bad for eyes and brains huh?
@@MrBoomStick😂 What are your credentials? And what is your source for your statement? I imagine you are also afraid of 5G and have a firm belief that the earth is flat.
@@MrBoomStick😂 What are your credentials? And what is your source for your statement? I imagine you are also afraid of 5G and have a firm belief that the earth is flat.
@@MrBoomStick LED's are more tiring than incandescent because they have a discontinous spectrum, thus lower color reprodiction. There are High CRI (color reproduction index) LED lights, which are awesome if above 90 cri, but they are expensive. I do a lot of electronics soldering at work, so you can imagine that I deal with smoke and visual fatigue a lot, so I made myself a custom light setup: 12V system, 3x 30watt incandescent halogen lamp from headlights (front, left and right, not too close), 3800k color temperature (pretty impressive considering that it's slightly above the melting temperature of tungsten). It feels much more neutral white than leds rated at the same color, and color reproduction is perfect.
Now, regarding what Randal said, he is correct, if a bit pedantic by assuming you believe stuff you clearly don't and are unrelated to the topic.
I'm starting to look at it this way:
- Amber lights work great for fog, heavy snow and dust. They also work well enough when none of those conditions are present to light up necessary areas of the "path" with slightly diminished output.
- White lights work great for lighting up areas when there is no fog, snow or dust, but don't work when those conditions are present.
Amber/Yellow works for ALL conditions, some better than others.
White ONLY works when conditions are clear.
The obvious choice if you can only get one pair of lights would be Amber by process of elimination.
If you can get more than one pair of lights, get a pair of each.
I thought this was common knowledge though. Never in my life have I met someone that thought white light was better in the elements.
I had just got done watching videos talk about how bright the different lights were. But didn’t talk about why there are variations to brightness. Seemed odd the big companies didn’t make super bright. Thank you
I had just got done watching videos talk about how bright the different lights were. But didn’t talk about why there are variations to brightness. Seemed odd the big companies didn’t make super bright. Thank you
There are some companies that offer “switchback” bulbs that you can cycle by turning the light off and on and can cycle between amber and bright clear lights. Seems to be the best option for your average driver’s.
@@ArbitraryLifestyleit isn't better significantly though. The whole yellow is better by science is true, but that's on lab conditions, not in real life. Yellow being better than white is a perception. The whole reason people "perceive" better results is because it the the same effect as those driving or golf "HD" yellow glasses.
An old northern trick was to turn off your head lights but keep your amber running lights on when stuck in a night time heavy snow (white-out). Naturally you have to reduce speed but, you go from 10ft visibility to several 100ft. I've shown it people and who couldn't believe the hack. I always thought the vehicles sold with fog lights should be of a lower K so you had that choice. Thank you so much for the explanation; now I understand why it always worked!
I've used that trick in Iowa winters
Too bad new vehicles don’t allow that.
We do that in commercial aviation too; the white LED lights on newer commercial jets actually cause unnecessary glow around the intended flight path. So in low-visibility landings' it's recommended to turn them off. We turn them on again when we're on ground. We don't have ambers on the big girls though! So yes; this "trick" actually helps.
@@danlux4954 True. The last car I had that let me use fogs without needing headlights on at the same time was from 2001.
@@danlux4954 takes 5 minute to add a wire that allows fogs anytime
Former Baja Design customer here (like 20 years ago) - it's important to know that Narrow-band Amber is better than filtered White as filtered white still has a ton of blue in it. Meaning you need a Amber emitter, not a phosphor converted Amber (Blue LED under a thick blue-blocking amber phosphor) or filtered Amber (Blue LED under a thin blue-passing yellow phosphor, then a yellow filter cutting out the blue).
Counter/clarification to the point @1:25, the output is a matter of lighting design - it's not a failure of the color itself, it's the cost and component count required for a similar lumen output. But then you have to consider what you're doing with the light after it's created as a lighting engineer. If you take a 200lumen white LED and filter (absorb) 30% of the generated light out (Baja here quotes Amber filter loss at 15% @2:04, but remember they bastardized "amber" to really mean "selctive yellow" @1:33), you're not sending 200 lumens down the road anymore (more like 140-ish). To get that same 200 lumens with narrow-band amber however, you'd probably need 3x the LEDs than one would need with white from the same manufacturer product line. But that's not aples to apples is it? Because that filtered white is only sending out 70% useful light - so you probably only need 2x the Amber LEDs. This is where the actual design part comes in. You need to know how many lumens of what band of light you need, then you have to design a fixture that outputs that light.
Contrast actually causes more eye strain than the total lumens, and eyes do better with contrast at longer wavelengths. Remember, at night, the total contrast includes the illuminated versus the non illuminated areas - so your pattern has a huge impact on eye strain. You want to have a fairly even illumination with hot-spots only where you expect longer throw distance (inverse-squre law for dispersed energy). I'm still waiting for some manufacturer to build-in a single beam LIDAR (or a vehicle's 3D radar for cruise-control/collision avoidance) to measure the hotspot distance and auto-dim the fixture to account for the actual illumination on-road - which is much more interesting when you expect dynamic terrain conditions at higher speeds and multiple beam spread types.
Nice breakdown....explained some additional points to research
Where can we find true frequency emitters?
Amber came to popularity originally from needing a better light for foggy weather
Also when snowing, amber is way better.
Snow flakes don’t reflect as much from amber light. You don’t see them as much.
I was about to comment on snow but you beat me!
SNOW for sure!!!
It's also an European thing
Just put a 20in amber light bar on my silverado. Can't wait to test it out in rain and snow
The "best" result is actually all the different colours run together, along with NOT pointing them all straight ahead on high beam, but having some up, some down and some to either side, in all colour configurations from amber (orange) through yellow to white, to a crystal white (a bluish white) to pure BLUE as well, because funnily enough, "reflective road signs" are best viewed at night, with a blue LED (pure blue) which doesn't do much as a general light, until a sign is seen in the approaching distance, when the BLUE comes into it's own lighting up the sign, long before you can read it correctly, if only seen using either amber/yellow or white.
It has something to do with the way we see BLUE better when it returns from a GOOD reflective surface, than from being "not reflected" back from the likes of trees, dirt and anything else apart from, the reflective painted surface of "a sign".
I build custom flashlights as a hobby, and am glad to see someone that actually understands color temperature and it's correct application. Another common issue I see is the lumen crazy consumers. Many companies list blatantly false output numbers for wow factor. Others are pretty good about true numbers, but even then that is NOT the only factor to check. Beam pattern, lens clarity, and the correct combination for the intended use are far more important. I have 3 nearly "identical" lights I show people to explain this point. One 4500 lumen 5000K mixed beam, one 350ish lumen 5000K pencil beam, and a 4500 lumen 6500k mixed beam. In the end they usually go for the 5000K mixed beam or the pencil beam light if they are just after throw.
I have the starburst effect from eye surgery. Bright lights have starburst at night. However, yellow or amber lighting works best but did not know all the science behind it. I also wear shooting glasses at night or low light because it relaxes my eyes. I think they have an AR blue blocking coating.
Amber colored fog lights were popular add on to a vehicle in the '80s. We called them fog lights. Very few had clear lights on their cars, even less had both.
They even go back further than that. My dad had a set on the bumper of his '48 Chev. and uncle on his Dodge. We lived on the west coast where fog was really bad at times. It wasn't so much that you could see further it was more for oncoming vehicles been able to see you. cheers
*fewer had both*, not "less".
Since the Kelvin temperature can be modified with just a lens cover, shouldn't the same result be achieved with amber glasses/goggles? Does the light have to be produced at that temp, or can it simply be received at that temp?
And there you've spotted the B.S. from the advertising dept.
3200K Tungsten Cinema lights produce 5600K with the right filter to absorb unwanted spectra, same as using a 'Minus Green' to get daylight out of some LED sources, or a "Lee 204 CTO" (Colour Temperature Orange) filter in front of a sun lit window to give the same White Balance as unfiltered Tungsten lights being used to create highlights in scenes shot indoors, and then set the colour temperature in the camera to match White as 3200K instead of 5600K,...
@@PiDsPagePrototypes 🤣 you've made me sound much smarter than I am, thank you! It just seemed like a simple solution to the possible problem. Thanks for the reply PiD!
Hadn't considered it was too much blue light but I always thought that a 5000K or amber light replicated the natural colors of the environment closer which is why it seems clearer, even if it might not be because of reduced output. Fascinating.
Would love to see a follow up short video in snow fall or fog. This video was great and I learned more about blue light fatigue
As a photographer and theatrical lighting designer, this is the best explanation of color temperature in road lights I have seen. I want to also add comment about the myth of a "fan" beam", which you might want to do a video on. Many, many fog lights rely on using the fan beam only. This is only good for distance. A good "fog" light must also flood light directly in front of the vehicle, since fog on the hiway means you are going slow. I noticed in your vids that you have good "frontal wash". This is a step ahead of most hiway lights out there.
Great video. I'm so glad somebody is talking about what a bad idea those "blue" (anything over 5000k) lights are in every way: more glare for oncoming drivers, less useful visibility, and more reflected glare as well, due to the fact that the shorter wavelengths of blue light refract and diffract more than longer wavelengths, and also that our eyes are not as good at processing them. I'm looking into amber lighting partly to become more visible to other drivers, especially for motorcycles. I notice how attention-getting they are when I see other vehicles with them.
That and blue lights on any vehicle other than police or fire in most states is completely illegal
Yes! When are the feds going to step in and regulate the "headlight wars" better? Passing people with these obnoxious lights is way more dangerous than other transportation laws we have. Lawmakers get your priorities straight!!!
Daniel Stern has an excellent writeup on selective yellow light!
my opinion is that a set of amber fog and driving lights below the hood are ideal for fog and driving lights (maybe even a spot/driving combo in the grill/bumper) with white for ditch and overhead offroad lights intended to give you more detail at longer range, but I do not do desert... I do what has become known as overlanding. (being a product of the 70s in the midwest I am more partial to callin it boondocking)
LP6 pillar lights in the yellow was one of my best decisions. And S-Pro 2s in the back bumper for backing up. Love them both.
I am currently running the Squadron Pro's on my Tacoma and Polaris RZR, super bright lights, no complaints whatsoever, highly recommend them!
If i will use it as daytime running light light? Which one would be better? I dont want it too bright to blind others. Would amber be better?
I really appreciate your "science of lighting" approach. In my experiences, for fog (Tx Gulf coast), amber or selective yellow mounted as low as possible works great. Your light zone charts really help with which products to use.
Do a test on fog, rain, or snow and see the difference from inside the car.
The only critique I have is that our eyes haven't really adapted to see best at noon on a sunny day. Under those conditions there is so much light available that we don't have to use every photon we can find. Where we do struggle is at night. We've never used the sun to see at night. But we have used fire. A million years of using the warm, yellow light of fire to see in the dark has caused us to be more sensitive to those wavelengths. There's also some evidence that our ancestors were crepuscular, operating more at dusk and/or dawn than midday. Again, more yellowish light. The science I've read shows us more acute in the 3,500-4,300k range than 5,000k.
That quibble aside, the fact you even know what "selective yellow" is and that you aren't pushing for "superwhite" bulbs in the gigawatt range puts you at the top of the list of places I'll look next time I need lights.
*I gotz both! Clear on the roof, Amber in the Bumper, separate switches*
What about using glasses with amber/ yellow lenses with clear lights?
I run a combo of a single row clear 20” and two amber squadron sports. I find on nice dry clear night my clear with my led headlights is fantastic. Only drawback to clear is sign reflection can be distracting. Rainy wet nights, snow or fog, I run the amber squadrons in conjunction with amber lamps. This ability to choose my desired kelvin weather permitting has improved my often very dark commute
Amber-led will always be the better option in terms of better visibility in all weather conditions. I prefer amber light for better visibility in all weather conditions and less fatigue for long driving trip.
As a Baja D dealer, the Amber is selling quite well, I feel like the demand is really high to at least one some Amber light on the from of your SxS, great vid!
Amber has somewhat become very popular and for good reason, it works very well and is easy on the eyes. But people do lose 15% performance on light output
I run amber lenses during the day on my bike so I am more visible. Also they look awesome
@@bajadesignsso put two lights on and gain 70% performance on light output.
I worked along the Dalton Highway and in Prudhoe Bay for many years in a job were I spent much of my time driving. This was many years ago and I used light Force lights on my company truck. I had two white and two blue. The blue worked the best in whiteout conditions.
Thanks for the breakdown. Would love to see more of the science behind the explanations you’ve given, just because I’m a nerd and love to see the tests that prove out these recommendations. I find it fascinating to understand how that stuff works, but this definitely answered some of the more nuanced questions that I’ve had.
The sun is a yellow light, we have evoled for eons with this as our primary light source
We went in depth on our website. www.bajadesigns.com/amber-vs-clear-what-is-the-difference/
@@Haulinbassracing No it's not, it's primarily white light. The actual color temperature of The Sun throughout most of the day is actually 5500K. It's 5000K during morning/afternoon due to the angle through which it's coming at you through the atmosphere which bends the light's frequencies slightly.
@@Haulinbassracing The sun emits wavelengths across the entire spectrum so it's light is white. If it were a yellow star, then images of the ISS in sunlight would make those illuminated sections appear yellow, but it clearly is white. In atmosphere it can appear more yellowish due to blue light scattering properties of the atmosphere.
In the video they glossed over the the biggest reason why yellow/amber light is better in dust/rain/snow conditions. They mentioned it, but I think they should have discussed more about the differences in refractive index of various wavelengths across the spectrum. Basically, most visible light has a refractive index that's mostly the same so our eyes are used to focusing sharply on objects illuminated with those wavelengths. However, blue light is quite different. If I'm going to look at a sign or light that's pure blue, I have to focus my eyes as if the object were much further away. This is because of the significantly different refractive index of those shorter wavelengths. If I were to try to focus on that blue light as I normally would with other wavelengths, the it would appear much larger because it would be out of focus and blurry. That is why dust and snow in white light has so much more glare, because white light, includes blue light. So your eye isn't able to focus the blue part of that light properly. Using yellow or amber lights cuts out that blue light!
For me the biggest advantage of amber lights is knowing that I'm not blinding others. When I had white lights people would often flash their high beams at me, even when I only had my low beams on. Now I have ambers (rated at the same lumens as my old white lights), I've noticed people don't flash their brights at me any more.
I drive for rideshare apps nearly everyday... I love having a pair of amber fog lights mounted in my bumper. Turn all others off and only that one on when its raining, snowing, foggy, dusty ... y'all got it.
Thank you for this video. Granted its 1 year old. listening to this helped me understand the difference in headlights.
I just installed some Amber/Yellow Fog lights for my Subaru Forester Touring. Gotta say, The aesthetic is cool ~ As the OEM headlights are blue/white projected style. I will say after a long drive. It does make me a bit tired.
As some one who is a bit new to wheeling. This video helped me understand what other light styles I should get next, and from what I hear I made a good choice with amber/yellow.
Do you make anything for the 3rd gen Nissan Frontiers?
I gotta try half amber lens & half clear
Try it, it is awesome!
Didn’t know that was an option
@@J.Young808 no they don’t I wish but I meant a left clear & right side amber
I recently ordered some Wagner night defense bulbs for my girls car. It's a mix of white and amber. The color is really good, the bulbs are not. They lasted about 6 months and both bulbs burned out. But the mix of colors is great
I ordered some yellow lenses tint from Amazon. I run my low beam and left floodlight yellow with high beam and right flood light white. It looks great at night.
General off-road use I think white is good. However with fog or haze, you get a reflection back with with a higher temp so a lower or yellower light would be perferable
i can tell you from my point of view having larger Fog lights on my truck. I can tell the biggest difference with my fog vs my white lights, the amber color tends to make my whole surrounding more visible with less blowback from what it is hitting with the beam. In the woods it makes the most difference allowing me to see a better angle from the sides of the truck. For me amber is better than blue or white.
Decades ago, my motto was amber to be seen and clear to actually see. Much has changed in the optics field since then.
For decades French cars had uellow fog lamps for the same reason and 'yellow' glasses are generally better when skiing if there isn't direct sunlight (so when it's overcast). These tend to allow a slightly better contrast or visible texture to the snow. Anyway, there seems to be something in this and it's not new.
I've been looking for the ideal set up for my TW200. What I find is that the aftermarket LED lights are indeed more blue, but they project much further, which I love, yet I still prefer the temperature of the stock lamp.. The problem is that they don't flood the ground near the front of the bike the way the stock lamp does, and at night on a rocky, slow hill climb, I have to remember what I saw 20 feet in front of me because it will be pitch black by the time I am actually rolling over or between the obstacle. This video tells me I need a small amber(or more natural color temp) flood bar to illuminate the terrain directly in front and beneath me. I think a combination of those colors with multiple lights might be the ticket. Thanks for the great video!!!
I LOVE your "white" light outputs. It's so frustrating trying to find a product that fits my needs/budget that has reasonable CRI and isn't BLUE. So silly to me that people run bright intense super blue lights and think that it will be better on road. Driving rural roads in fog/poor conditions regularly has made me DESPISE most modern headlights. HIDs still seem to be killer, especially in a lower temp color.
You guys should do a CRI/temp comparison with the big names. CRI is more like "area under the curve" and for our eyes it is usually a lack of reds that our eyes are missing that makes things seem... off when viewed under an LED. They're getting better about it (I bought a cheap hyper-tough shop light that actually listed the CRI the other day, it was over 70 which is pretty good for generic OTS emitters in a $20 fixture) and I definitely notice. Even if the color of the bulb viewed directly looks really similar, the colors of everything else around and how it affects my eyes has become something I'm extremely aware of as I age. I find it really difficult to read or do finer tasks without the contrast provided by higher CRI stuff.
The reason for thinking on the reflection of dust comes from the purpose of fog lights being placed low on the vehicle. Placed further from your eyes, you will get less reflection on the fog or dust into your eyes. The selective yellow allows you to look past the reflections easier as well.
Light has different reflective speeds or brightness reflection? Why is it better in some environments in fog, dust, and in darkness
I run amber for my fogs and ditch lights and white for my light bar. Plenty of both amber and white light for whatever it is I am doing
so true, try using some computer glasses with blue light filter
and slightly yellow lenses to see the difference on how much better you can see at night
*I'm glad he ended with the truth...A MIXTURE OF BOTH IS THE BEST OVERALL LIGHTING!*
FINALLY!!!! Its taken be a long time to change from Halogen because of all these 6000k lights. I hate them to drive behind. The issue with blue light is even worse in high humidity as blue refracts sooner than yellow so you get even more glare. Thats why fog lights are yellow but you dont need fog to "see" the difference. 3200k is my fave allrounder.
purchased your LP6 for my HD amber and white.... can't wait to see the performance of the combo light.
I had a set of very nice amber lights with a true pencil beam years ago.
They were the absolute best in poor conditions.
I have never found another true pencil beam amber light set.
Loved the explanations and comparisons in your video.
Thanks for helping me see the light.
Years ago I had some white pencil beams from the 60s. In fog they looked like Star Trek phasers, but once I did find a straight enough road to light up a stop sign at 1.1 miles.
I remember years ago putting a set of sylvania silverstar bulbs in my car and initially they appear to be brighter than stock, after a while I put the orig back in because I found that I had better vision with the warmer color even though it appeared dimmer. with my first 4x4 I put a pair of 100w halogens and my current truck has a pair of little 2" square amber LED's(the ad said they were 3" but they fit so nice I decided to just keep em). they don't carry too far cuz they're really small, but still a huge improvement over stock headlights and I really feel the warmer color gives you better depth perception and doesn't kill your night vision as bad as the more blue lights that are so common
4:17 that's lovely, i lived in the snowy mountains ❤❤
I love the amber - I use them frequently in very low visibility snow storm conditions and, in the worst conditions, will turn off my headlights and just run the low bumper mounted squadron pro combo lights. The beam pattern is also excellent for illuminating the shoulder and staying on the road.
In Australia where we are legally allowed to drive on our roads with driving lights, I have personally found Amber coloured driving lights are a lot easier on the roads especially driving past reflective road signs with 2 spotties, 1 double row 41" light bar and 2 12" light bars. When used in a work light/camp light scenario, Ive found Amber lights dont attract bugs as much as white lights do. Just get Amber
What I didn't hear among the many facets you addressed was the physics of viewing your lit space and what it takes to then change to glance at darkness/unlit space.
Only guessing, but amber would seem to be the winner in that category. Red lights in dark rooms and submarines would seem to support that.
Or is the sport such that all the attention is forward?
Nice stuff. I appreciate having more science to understand what has made me so happy changing both my home and work to 5000K. And also having my opinion tempered so I don't go losing sight of where 3000K has its place.
And the blue end science was a bonus. I was recently confused by an "expert" saying that blue filters for viewing computer monitors was just snake oil.....
Just FYI, blue light is bad if you want to sleep but not bad for your eyes. A study about sleeping was taken out of context and people ran with it. It would be quite the trick of evolution if it turned out that the entire sky was bad for our eyes.
We're most adapted to around 5500K-5700K light. That's the light at around noon and closer to the sun's natural color. It's why if you want to be the most productive, it's the color scale you want to set your lights to as it simulates midday or the most active time for most people.
Yellow is excellent for improved contrast (less glare). In the past, France had all headlights such a colour. Whilst less of an issue off-road, they are less dazzling to other road users.
Since the 80s, we’ve used the amber color to cut through those mountains in the Philippines in those thick fogs. Amber color cuts through the dense fogs and it’s much easier to the eyes mostly when driving on long windy road.
I have both amber fog lights and bright white aux lights. I did use the big clear white during a blizzard in the Sierra Neveda this past winter and it really lit up the road and made it way better to drive through. But, I never use them for very long, maybe five minutes at a stretch.
What light type will withstand the slamming of a hatchback lid in a 06 explorer Sir ??
I run 2 LP 6s on my road glide . 100 % nothing better safely travel through the darkest of nights 👍🏻 Thank You.
This was a great quick pitch for those who have come here for a fast answer. But Id like to see a more detailed breakdown of the "how's and whys", and why competitor companies DD.. make choices like using a 4100K diode behind an amber lens. vs not vs baja etc. I use amber HID and LED for fog and snow where I am and have for 17 years. And in Europe its been used since the auto light was invented practically. It has serious advantages at controlled powers. Which is why I liked in this video he makes that very clear. Not just a sales hit of more is better, buy lots, etc. for the ride in this clip at 4:36 id like to see it reversed, just to test it out. Try the 5k short range and proximity, and the amber in Long range up top. Reduce the overhead eyebrow glare and use the yellow to show that better contrast of terrain to come. Where obviously in poor weather I wan the amber low and down.
Any different between amber and clear in heavy rain on dark road ?
Amber would be most ideal for that.
My old TRS projectors are 4300k. It’s lame that a lot of options nowadays are either 5000k+ or in the 3000 range. Why not in between like natural light!?
you didn’t touch on wet roads … i’ve always felt like amber is superior on rain soaked surfaces and ive attributed it to wavelength and refraction vs reflection …. would love to hear from @BajaDesigns ??
I have a 22 X3 and Recently picked up an linkable, do you guys sell the ambre Lens for the linkable?
Brilliant video, now to find out if I can get these in Aus, failing that, lenses for my existing LED spots
As a cinema photographer working in the dark, we use a red filtered small spot light to prevent blindness in the shadow. "night blindness". Seeing outside the light cone is most important.
Nice! Informative video. Based on your testing, I don't feel too bad about my array of old-school Koito quartz-halogen headlamps and KC Daylighters. They've got a warmer (referring to color scale) output, a bit yellowish, compared to many LED lamps I'm seeing. I'm sure they don't hold a candle to BD lights (see what I did there), but these lights are on my Scout II, which I don't drive super fast at night anyway. It's a camping vehicle I use in the deserts east of San Diego.
I miss my Scout II so much. I regret parting ways with it so much, we were broke and needed money. It was our only way to keep our heads above water. Now I am retired and have the time to play and can't find one ...
I’m going to add some lower output amber lights on my snow plow truck. High output white light is good to see sometimes but I think the lower output amber will give me a better 3D view on snow.
Great Video, getting ready to purchase some extra lighting.
Do you guys sell a kit for 2023 pathfinder rock creek ? Would really like a pair for the hood
Maybe it's my eyes but I see so much better and feel more relaxed with the white light than I do with any yellow lights. Yellow seems to strain my eyes actually, so even though some out s are valid with fog, snow, dust etc I still prefer white. The key to white however is keeping it lower to the ground. A white light got me works better in bad conditions when it mounted at the bottom of the bumper vs over the top of the truck shining down.
I'm with you on that. Also, as far as I always understood, Amber light naturally makes you drowsy while blue light keeps you awake. For long drives I would be more inclined to stick to the more white colour temperature.
When I was a wildland fire fighter during the spring when it’s really dry in Florida driving your bulldozer down dirt roads and 2 trails stirs up a lot of dust the bright clear white lights make it hard to see with all that dust and smoke in the air .we would turn off the light bars and just use the lights in the grill 🤟
Also they are more safe for on coming traffic especially in fog etc when a white light can be construed as sunlight
On a low vis road
I run some ambers on the hood with some 6" halogens on the bumper for options
To be honest with you guys, I see a lot of people rocking these in Los Angeles during the day or at night. These are meant for off Roading better vision don’t turn them on just to show them off. It makes no sense.
You mention a dimmer and hi-low switching… are the BD lights Dimmable?
I can’t wait for affordable selectable color LED’s to be in high quality lights like Baja Designs.
I have seen both in the dunes. If you aren't following someone and it's not blowing sand I believe clear is the best. I would say you get the most effective usable light. If you are back in the pack I would recommend amber. I like having my yellow and clear separate so I can use whatever is better for my situation at the time. I find having both on at the same time my clear wash out my yellow.
This is excellent, I have two yellow Baja design LP6 in the amber spread beam and they work great.
They also help artificially lower the temperature of the other brands spot pattern dual row led light bar from 6000k to something more comfortable.
Would you prefer ambers in the down below in fog light positions or above on the hood like ditch lights ?
I run them low in my JKU bumper. In snow, dust and fog the lower the better - it really reduces reflection back..
I got Baja Designs lights on my truck. OMG... Love 'em. Very expensive! But when you spend money on QUALITY, you only cry ONCE.
My baja designs onx 2008 bar is still going strong. It out last the 3 trucks it was on
The best fog lights I’ve ever had on a vehicle where from a 1992 Mercedes Benz amber all the way. They were not very bright but cut through the fog and snow like nobody’s business.
In fog, and particularly with snow, proper placement of the lights is crucial. When facing heavy fog and snow, the splashback of light makes it really difficult to see. And when it is snowing heavy, in the dark the whole thing actually becomes hypnotic. So when you see people putting these lights high on the vehicle, they really have shot themselves in the foot. They need to be low, as low as you can go, like below the bumper. If you have them located properly there will be no flashback, as the driver is now looking down on the light. This is something like the semi truck driver, who can see down on the illumination, not into it. On my vehicle, the fog lights are mounted in the lower part of the bumper but they are white. Going to replace them with yellow ones. Been driving in Canadian winters safely for nearly 60 years so I have been there and got the T-shirt in winter know how.
Both are good and should be used depending on the weather or the elements outside! Great video!
That's what I was thinking. I think clear lights would suck for fog
So would Amber be more suitable mounted lower than white ?
Just out of curiosity here. I have 2 sets of pods, one Yellow & one white. A pillars & fogs. Which is the way to go? Yellow on top as spots and white as fogs or white on top as spots and Yellow as fogs?
Do you make a light that has the option of both an Amber low, with a white hi?
For highway use. Do the amber lights need to be covered?
Ive been running twin S1 WA ambers on my mountain bike for wooded songle track.I see so much better than any warm neutral or cool white light.
Amber and selective yellow makes night riding on the single track look like a sunny day, whereas white likes make it seem like a flash light (unatural)
I've also played with green light s2 pro with work light optic and green lens....makes it feel like moon light...
Advantage for green over yellow in the snow..it reflects back at you less than yellow and obvious white..
How is that though if green is higher? On the kelvin scale?
I thought so, some local street lights have been changed out to almost a blue purple color. I thought it was harder to see people versus the old Amber colored streetlight.
Eye fatigue does play a part but from a photonics engineering perspective. It is actually the wave length of the light that makes a difference. Light at the higher end kelvin light scale has a shorter wave length and is more susceptible to dissipation from water vapour and atmospheric dust. Light at the lower end of the kelvin scale has a longer wave length and able to more efficiently pass through an atmosphere which has water vapour and dust in it
I find amber light makes the green of the side of the road pop out against the black tarmac on heavy rain and fog making it easier to drive 👍
Thanks for the good info! I’m looking for some deer repelling lights… recently had a bad “interaction” when a deer jumped onto the road about 20’ ahead of our 50mph car!😣
You learn something new every day! Thank you!
Thanks for the clinical breakdown regarding the pros and cons of each color light. Very useful video!
Just yesterday someone came up to me and lied to me about lights.
What about for more rock crawling / slow trail use? Thinking overland crawler rig. Squadron sport - would you go clear or amber and work or driving / combo pattern?
Great info, thank you. A little off topic, but for use on road, yellow light is very good for conspicuity. I run yellow filters, lights aimed very low and am confident even the most distracted drivers see this color of light well before white (or any of the crapload of colors coming of the Walmart LEDs you on the road) It works great on 2 wheels also.
On a motorcycle would you recommend tinting the main light? Or adding a secondary one
Do they let you know they SEE you by flicking on their brights? 🤣🤣🤣
@@anythingwithwheels I use a secondary one
lllss dsdsd
I was behind a bike out side Knoxville Tn. in the mountains. I could see his Amber lights 500 yards in front of me at night.
thanks for the explanation. I love my BD lights and typically switch to amber in the winter but this makes me think I'll leave them like that all year
For headlight i like to use white or clear ,
For foglamp amber work the best for see through fog, and rain
I have experience going mountain with white led and fog just block the view just like mirror
What light bar is that red/amber/white on the back of The KRX?
Cool video didn’t know the difference’s.