Now that's the perfect comparison I've been waiting for! Side by side!
Depo Headlights vs OEM
- Thread starter Ebag333
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- #22
Too many times I've seen comparison's done where someone just takes a snapshot of the front of the vehicle lit up. Doesn't really show much.
A shot of the lights against a wall is better, but how many times do you drive with a wall 10 feet in front of you? Hopefully never.
OEM pics are with stock bulbs?
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- #24
Whoops! No, sorry, forgot to mention that.
I have the John Deere HIR bulbs in there, which are a noticeable upgrade from stock.
That makes a difference! I was curious how it would difer from my HIRs... now I know, thanks.
Really great comparison, as you are comparing optimized OEM lamps with the Depos as well as they will do by using the Osram bulbs. Any chance you could do a few more shots, specifically:
1) Low beam shots from 50 feet at a wall with the camera settings locked;
2) High beam shots from 50 feet at a wall with identical camera settings;
3) High beam shots going down the street with identical camera settings.
It would really give a full comparison.
Thanks
1) Low beam shots from 50 feet at a wall with the camera settings locked;
2) High beam shots from 50 feet at a wall with identical camera settings;
3) High beam shots going down the street with identical camera settings.
It would really give a full comparison.
Thanks
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- #27
Well, camera settings can't be identical otherwise you won't see much of anything with the OEM lights. They're that dark. But I can limit the settings to where only the exposure gets changed, and post the exposure time. That gives you a very good idea of the difference.
I'll see what I can do with 50 foot wall shots.
For high beam, kinda a moot point. Both setups really do light up the night, so both are about equally bright. I can do a comparison shot, but don't think there will be too much difference other than the Depo's will likely be brighter.
Neither one is really acceptable for driving down the road with any traffic on it, both have a very wide spread and are quite bright.
High beams were never an issue with the OEM setup, every time I used the highs I was always amazed at how much I could see. Even with cheap bulbs. Same thing in the Depo's running $6 bulbs. Don't see much point in dropping $25 per bulb to get an upgrade I'll rarely use and doesn't really need it to begin with.
I would think the camera would be able to handle the difference, even double the light output should only be one stop of difference. But you are correct, with the change in exposure we can figure out the light difference.
I was curious about the high beams for the exact reason you commented, the stock high beams work well. With the depos, I am curious how the light distribution is with the H4 on the low beam and the H1. I remember in the old days with quad light setups, the high beam pattern on the H4 was pretty weak. Life got better when the low beam pattern was maintained and supplemented with the high beams.
Thanks for doing this, incredibly helpful.
I was curious about the high beams for the exact reason you commented, the stock high beams work well. With the depos, I am curious how the light distribution is with the H4 on the low beam and the H1. I remember in the old days with quad light setups, the high beam pattern on the H4 was pretty weak. Life got better when the low beam pattern was maintained and supplemented with the high beams.
Thanks for doing this, incredibly helpful.
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- #29
Trust me, the photo would be extremely poor, even for my prosumer DSL. There's a reason why it was a half second exposure with the OEM lights!
The H4's do not switch to the high bulb when the brights come come on. Toyota wire's their harness in such a way that the low beams are always on, even when you hit the brights. It's part of the reason why the brights are so nice (only have to worry about flood light, not the primary forward light), but means that you don't get the dual functionality of the H4 bulb.
I'm contemplating rewiring it in such a way that I can run both of the functions of the H4 bulbs, but it'd have to be a completely custom harness, the Wiring Innovations harness doesn't lend itself to this. I believe it would also require at least one relay to shut off the low beam circuit, as I would guess that having both low and high powered in the same bulb would result in a huge amount of heat and shorten the life drastically.
If I did this, I'd probably run a whole new harness (ala Slee) powered straight off the battery and just using Toyota's wiring for switching the relays. I don't believe I'm getting any significant amount of loss from Toyota's harness, so it wouldn't be an upgrade from a power sense, but more of that it would require so many connections and relays that it would likely be simpler.
My other thought is to change the H1 to something else, maybe a projector, and leave the H4 as is. The idea being that the H4 would handle low and high, then the projector could be kicked on for driving situations where you want more light and don't have to worry about on coming traffic so much (EG: Freeway).
Dunno. Seems to me that it's almost a waste to have the ability of a high beam in two lights, and a low beam only in one, especially since you don't need more high beam, but more low might be useful.
The other question I do have is how well the cut off is with the high beam in the H4. If it's really good, I could wire the H4 low off the running lights setting, H4 high off normal headlight setting, and H4 high plus H1 off brights.
Anyway, because the H4's aren't switched, there's not much difference from the OEM high beams (with the exception of how the low beams look, since those are on all the time).
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- #30
Well, not quite 50', but close enough for rock and roll.
For the low beams, like the previous pictures, the settings did not change except for exposure time. On the high beams, the F stop did drop from 4.0 to 3.8 in one shot, interestingly enough in all three high beam shots the exposure time stayed the same (1/8th of a second).
Lights are adjusted the same as in the previous set of photos. Both vehicles are about the same distance from the wall, which I found interesting that the OEM setup was hitting the same point on the wall. You can clearly see in the previous photo set that the "hot spot" (or primary illuminated area) of the lights falls far shorter than that of the Depo's.
I think that this is one of the things I like about the Depo's, they are hitting objects much further away. At a guess, the Depo's are aimed out at nearly twice the distance of OEM. As previously mentioned, the OEM lights scatter a lot of light upwards which means you cannot adjust them up very high without blinding oncoming traffic.
The other thing I did notice that I hadn't previously is how much whiter the Depo's are. I'm attributing that heavily to the clear glass (vs frosted), but the OEM lights are noticeably towards the yellow side of the spectrum.
Due to the ambient light (sorry, not many places with a wide wall and no lights) the exposure time is much shorter all the way around, but it was never smaller than 1/8th of a second. As before, lower is better.
Exposure time (low beams)
OEM: .25 seconds
Depo: 0.2 seconds
OEM + Depo: 0.125 seconds
Exposure time (high beams)
OEM: 0.125 seconds
Depo: 0.125 seconds
OEM + Depo: 0.125 seconds
This isn't really as good of an indicator as the previous set due to two reasons. One is more ambient light. The other is that a lot more light than normal is being reflected off the wall, so it's kinda a bit of a false reading. Despite this, you can see that the Depo lights still out perform the OEM ones.
So without further comment, here are Low Beams On A Wall.
OEM
Depo
OEM + Depo
And here are High Beams On A Wall.
OEM
Depo
OEM + Depo
How did you get LC Depo lights to work w/ the LX grille? Did you put them on upside down? Just looking at the LC vs LX headlight shape, they look like they're close, but the LC lights would have to be mounted upside down to mate up with the LX grille.... Not only that, but it looks like the LC lights are actually a bit longer than the LX lights.
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- #32
How did you get LC Depo lights to work w/ the LX grille? Did you put them on upside down? Just looking at the LC vs LX headlight shape, they look like they're close, but the LC lights would have to be mounted upside down to mate up with the LX grille.... Not only that, but it looks like the LC lights are actually a bit longer than the LX lights.
I actually tried to mount one upside down. Not intentionally, just grabbed the wrong one for the side. No way is it going to work. (Well, you could make it work, but would require some significant modification)
The LX lights aren't actually upside down, it's a little deceptive. They have a portion of the glass that is actually stepped down a bit, basically shaped to fit behind the grill. So they're roughly the same size as the LC ones, just the grill is bigger (wider) and the glass is shaped to allow it to fit over it.
So the grill actually covers a portion of the lights. Not much, but a little. Enough so it doesn't work.
I have two LC grills that are on their way to me (or will be shortly), so will be converting both vehicles to the LC grills. Will also rebadge the grills, but that's another thread....
I prefer the shape of the LX grill, I wish they made a lens/light that fit. Anyone have any idea if anyone else got that grill besides US LX450s? Has anyone ever found a aftermarket headlight designed to fit it?
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- #34
I like the shape better myself as well.
I haven't seen any lights that fit it, they're all designed for LC's. At a guess, far too few LX's to begin with, and they're supposedly interchangeable with LC anyway.
I haven't seen any lights that fit it, they're all designed for LC's. At a guess, far too few LX's to begin with, and they're supposedly interchangeable with LC anyway.
My guess is the glass on the depos isn't as beefy as oem as mine have a one inch hole from some road rock. Can't say how big the stone may have and didn't notice till at the car wash.
I plan to buy another set but will add some headlight protection as well. Isn't there a mud member with 3M film for sale? Landtank?
I plan to buy another set but will add some headlight protection as well. Isn't there a mud member with 3M film for sale? Landtank?
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- #36
I know they aren't as good as OEM. OEM glass is definitely thicker, and I suspect a different formulation as well.
That being said, I have a decent sized chunk out of one of my OEM lights (fortunately on the edge, not in the beam area) so I think if the right rock hits the right spot at the right time, you're gonna have a busted headlight no matter what you do.
I'd still rather have glass than polycarb. And Depo lights aren't too bad to replace, assuming they stay around the $150 per set price.
lrowe_csp
Too many cruisers, not enough time
It was right on the corner of the lense and not repairable. It may have occurred while in for a motor swap, and Christo, cool guy/excellent businessman that he is, said he couldn't be sure it did not happen there, so he paid for one half of a set of depos, and the install of one projector by ChefJ. That is the difference between a shop you never return to, and a shop that you always go back to.
lrowe_csp
Too many cruisers, not enough time
I think IdahoDoug or somebody up in Idaho carries that 3M film already cut for the Depo's. I will put mine on when I get the truck back into my garage.
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- #39
That's awesome. Christo has a lot of respect from me, have had little occasion to purchase anything from him but I'd definitely recommend him!
The 3M film is a good idea, I'll have to find that......
Thanks for doing that. Not the best wall but I know how hard it is to find a good one, much less drag the
to sit there while you take pictures of headlights. I am really impressed with the depo's (never thought I would say that). The wall shots show a nicely defined beam with a good spread and no hot spots. As your camera settings show, they are putting out considerably more light, here are my estimates based on the efficiency of a parabolic reflector/ fluted lens (27% efficiency) v. Multipoint reflector clear lens (45% efficiency).
Stock Lamps with HIR bulbs - 1870 lumens x 27% = 504.9 out the front lumens.
Depo's with Osram Hyper 85/80 bulb- 1750 lumens x 45% = 787.5 out the front lumens.
Basically, it looks like a 50% increase in light on the road.
The high beams reflect a similar increase because of the different assembly. Standard 9005- 1700 lumens x 27% = 459 lumens; HIR 9011 - 2700 lumens x 27% = 729 lumens; Depo with H1 55 watt = 1550 lumens x 45% = 697 lumens; Depot with 100 watt H1 = 2500 lumens x 45% = 1125 lumens out the front. So the stock high beams with the HIR put out approximately the same output as the depo high beams with the standard H1 bulb.
The numbers coordinate well with your camera's changes in shutter speed.
Cary
