# 4200K or 6000K?



## LOUSYGREATWALLGM (Jul 18, 2009)

Hi, I'm wondering why many people opted to have the 4200K over the higher Kelvins. Why not 5000K, 6000K or maybe 6500K? I see the 4200K is a bit yellowish white. My idea is the ones closer to the sun light will make the subject more visible to the human eyes. Any answer? :thinking:


----------



## Patriot (Jul 18, 2009)

4300K bulbs produce more lumen output and render most colors better. Beyond that, I think it's mostly personal preference. If I use a 6000K light for a while I become used to it but it's not something that I prefer if given the choice. Anywhere from 4200K to 5000K would be my ideal. I'd like to see some bulb options from Osram and GE in the 4500-5000 range. BVH's Locator is around 5000K and I think it has amazing color.


----------



## LOUSYGREATWALLGM (Jul 18, 2009)

Great to know that. Thanks!


----------



## ElectronGuru (Jul 18, 2009)

In my testing, 4300K is closest to pure white. But keep in mind that K is a measure of hot glowing metal and is inadequate for describing colors such as green.


----------



## LOUSYGREATWALLGM (Jul 18, 2009)

Will do :thumbsup:
If a 30W HID bulb rated for 4200k what would be the K when its overdriven to 50W?


----------



## Morepower! (Jul 18, 2009)

LOUSYGREATWALLGM said:


> Will do :thumbsup:
> If a 30W HID bulb rated for 4200k what would be the K when its overdriven to 50W?


 
HID are opposite to incans in that manner. When you overdrive a HID the colour temp. actually goes down. And I have seen this happen first hand.


----------



## Patriot (Jul 18, 2009)

Morepower! said:


> HID are opposite to incans in that manner. When you overdrive a HID the colour temp. actually goes down. And I have seen this happen first hand.




Same experience here. Higher watter = warmer temp.


----------



## Flashanator (Jul 18, 2009)

Morepower! said:


> HID are opposite to incans in that manner. When you overdrive a HID the colour temp. actually goes down. And I have seen this happen first hand.



So wonder what colour temp my VT is then? As the bulbs are 4300K.
They still look around 4000K+


----------



## LOUSYGREATWALLGM (Jul 18, 2009)

Morepower! said:


> HID are opposite to incans in that manner. When you overdrive a HID the colour temp. actually goes down. And I have seen this happen first hand.


Thanks for the great info! :thumbsup:


----------



## AlexGT (Jul 20, 2009)

I like the 5000K bulbs, they seem pretty white to my eyes, no hint of yellow or blue.

AlexGT


----------



## ampdude (Jul 21, 2009)

The 6000K bulbs don't provide as good contrast and 3 dimensional picture as the 4200K bulbs either.

I honestly don't know how people drive in the rain or fog with those 6000K+ headlights. And they provide a lot of glare to other drivers. 4200K doesn't reflect as much light back.


----------



## Patriot (Jul 21, 2009)

I see that the DS2 can be had in 5200K. :naughty: That could be an interesting bulb for those who don't like blue but find 4200K a bit to close to incan. 

If I owned a L50 that would be interesting to experiment with.


----------



## ampdude (Jul 22, 2009)

Patriot said:


> those who don't like blue but find 4200K a bit to close to incan.



I don't think those people exist in reality after they've done a Pepsi challenge next to a 4200K and 6000K HID head to head.

4200K is actually quite a bit above a super hard driven incan, which most people seem to think is where it's at once they've seen it at work. 

HID's tend to shift upwards in their lifespan, which is unfortunate. I think it is best to start low if you are installing HID's on your car!!!

The sweet spot in the visual range in my opinion, is actually below 4200K and probably close to 3800K, maybe even less.


----------



## BVH (Jul 22, 2009)

My sweet spot would be precisely at 4750K


----------



## ElectronGuru (Jul 22, 2009)

ampdude said:


> I honestly don't know how people drive in the rain or fog with those 6000K+ headlights. And they provide a lot of glare to other drivers. 4200K doesn't reflect as much light back.



With cars, fashion often takes a back seat to function. In this case, why spend $$$ if your headlights are going to look nearly like the other guys $ bulbs? Very blue looking bulbs are distinctive, not unlike the big trunk mounted wings.


----------



## Morepower! (Jul 22, 2009)

BVH said:


> My sweet spot would be precisely at 4750K


 
LOL, not 4751K, or 4749K, but 4750K.:naughty:


----------



## Patriot (Jul 22, 2009)

> *ampdude
> *I don't think those people exist in reality after they've done a Pepsi challenge next to a 4200K and 6000K HID head to head.



Very true, I just wonder if that's only because they haven't had a third choice that falls in the lower-middle of the others. 




> The sweet spot in the visual range in my opinion, is actually below 4200K and probably close to 3800K, maybe even less.






I'm more of BVH's opinion on this one. While like 4200K lights very much would slightly prefer something between 4200K and 5000K. BVH's Locator light for example is amazingly white and pure in color.


----------



## LOUSYGREATWALLGM (Jul 23, 2009)

The L50 uses a (replaceable) GE 4200K D2S bulb (High Intensity Discharge; Xenon metal halide). Does it mean if we switch to the higher mode (50W) the Kelvin will drop below 4000K? :sweat:
I'm also wondering on this (from batteryjunction): The 4200 Kelvin (4200K) bulb color temperature used in the L50 is much closer to natural sunlight than the 6000K -7000K bulbs many 'competitors' use which are very blue and leave colors looking washed out resulting in poor color separation and a low CRI (color rendering index).
because I really like the HID lamps on my car which is 6000K, producing a bright white light with a very little blue only (I guess its close to sun light). I'm also using a 10000K HID lamps on my wagon and the light seems to be have extra blue effect. :thinking:


----------



## Patriot (Jul 23, 2009)

LOUSYGREATWALLGM said:


> The L50 uses a (replaceable) GE 4200K D2S bulb (High Intensity Discharge; Xenon metal halide). Does it mean if we switch to the higher mode (50W) the Kelvin will drop below 4000K? :sweat:
> I'm also wondering on this (from batteryjunction): The 4200 Kelvin (4200K) bulb color temperature used in the L50 is much closer to natural sunlight than the 6000K -7000K bulbs many 'competitors' use which are very blue and leave colors looking washed out resulting in poor color separation and a low CRI (color rendering index).
> because I really like the HID lamps on my car which is 6000K, producing a bright white light with a very little blue only (I guess its close to sun light). I'm also using a 10000K HID lamps on my wagon and the light seems to be have extra blue effect. :thinking:




The color shift at 15W isn't that great that you'd even notice. The bulb is running to spec at 35W so overdriving it to 50W doesn't cause too much shift. When you underdrive a bulb its color changes a noticable amount when increasing the wattage to spec.

Yes, 4200K bulbs are better than 6000K. If the lights on your car are 6000K then they're not factory and they're not as bright as 4200K bulbs. HID can't even produce 10,000K unless artificially colored through a tinted glass envelope, which looks terrible and absorbs a lot of *light*.


----------



## LOUSYGREATWALLGM (Jul 23, 2009)

Patriot said:


> The color shift at 15W isn't that great that you'd even notice. The bulb is running to spec at 35W so overdriving it to 50W doesn't cause too much shift. When you underdrive a bulb its color changes a noticable amount when increasing the wattage to spec.
> 
> Yes, 4200K bulbs are better than 6000K. If the lights on your car are 6000K then they're not factory and they're not as bright as 4200K bulbs. HID can't even produce 10,000K unless artificially colored through a tinted glass envelope, which looks terrible and absorbs a lot of lot.


Thanks! I'll go for the L50 :thumbsup:


----------



## 2xTrinity (Jul 23, 2009)

> The sweet spot in the visual range in my opinion, is actually below 4200K and probably close to 3800K, maybe even less.


In my visual range based on light sources in general (not necessarily just HID) I would actually say my ideal is close to 4000K. Anywhere from 3800-4200 is close enough. For very low level indoor lighting, I like 3500K or lower. My solution to this at home is to actually have a mixture of 3500K (mixture of direct and indirect) and 5000K (strictly indirect/ceiling bounce), and run either the 3500K only (low lighting) or both simultaneously (averages to about 4200K ) when I want more light to do work etc.


----------

