Every purple lamp out there is a non DOT approved light from the aftermarket - it's the enforcement that is the problem . I've talked to quite a few law enforcement agencies in this area - it's too easy for the offender to get out of a ticket , so they don't really enforce the regulations . It takes a high liability accident or lawsuit to generate any responsibility back to the owner of said lamps and the aftermarket is saturated with sellers that offer these things . Until policing agencies get a mandate from the DOT officials to get them off the road nothing will be done . I have nothing against more powerful lamps , the 55w standard to me is too low and it should be raised to 65w or so to keep up with Society's faster pace these days . If you look around , almost everyone that has stock fog lamps or driving lights on their vehicle uses them with the headlights - it's just easier and safer to see what's coming up ahead . Many car manufacturers are starting to use LED in their vehicles on the low beam side and all use a rear-projection setup instead of trying to control the light output from a front-facing led . I really wish DOT would drop the overhead/side sign projection requirement standard and adopt the Euro standards of cutoff , our light output under DOT regs is way too spread out to be efficient at lighting the actual road/ditches in our wide-open country .
Those pics are great , especially the twilight shot of those signs . It's tough to get a good perception shot from almost any digital camera - I've actually had great results using my Nokia phone (1020) with it's 41mb Carl Zeiss lens and some different settings away from default . What would make those led's look a lot better would be some tapered cone trim rings to hide that square edge that sticks out - I can't imagine changing the depth of the reflector housing would be beneficial to light output and focus , it's there for a reason .
What really gets me is how lackluster stock headlights are in most vehicles today - you'd think in this modern age they would be a lot better . There are some excellent ones and many OEM's are going the way of projectors which is about the most efficient means of controlling the pattern/output . When I'm out there working at night those are the least offensive to our eyes when I have to protect the crew working near the center of the lanes - and as I said before , sometimes pushing traffic over to the edge of the median . It's getting to be where night work is more of the norm - traffic volumes during the day are just too heavy and the resulting backups and accidents are too dangerous - night work traffic volume is a bit less at times , but almost the same now with the addition of the occasional drunk driver . Keeps us on our toes , to say the least .
Sarge
