tay
Enlightened
Hi folks,
This is crossposted by me on the Maxima forum that I'm a part of, but I figure that the information is relevant here as well.
There is a lot of buzz about the 9007 conversion.
Stock 89-99 Maximas use 9004 bulbs. The 9004 is a dual tranverse filament bulb with a 45w low beam and a 65w high beam. It's rated for a 700 lm lowbeam and a 1200 lm highbeam.
The 9007 is a dual axial filament bulb with a 55w low beam and a 65w high beam, rated for 1000 lm and 1350 lm, respectively.
There are plenty of threads with photos of this conversion, including a how-to. I will not attempt to replicate that. It's in the stickies already.
What is lacking is any detailed A/B tests of them. There's probably a hundred down-the-road camera shots showing how "bright" a 9007 is. Automotive lighting is very difficult to photograph, and really can only be accurately represented by a true photometric test. Since I don't have one of those sitting in my closet, this is probably the best that can be done.
My tests are done against a white wall. This removes any artificial coloring from the beam. They are all from the same headlight, a Nissan factory 99 left side headlight. The headlight is exactly 20 feet away from the wall. Ambient light has been minimized, and is consistent from photo to photo. The bulbs are powered off of a regulated 12v power supply, so there is no voltage fluctuations from picture to picture. The camera is at the exact same spot every time, and it is on manual settings at a very low exposure, so the beam is not washed out. All the light will look dimmer in this, but it allows you to see the hotspot more clearly.
Due to the design of my basement, I took two shots of each. One is the light pointed high up, so that you can see the width of the beam and the lower portion. The other is the light pointed level, so you can see the excess light above the hotspot (glare).
I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.
First, a control shot, to show ambient light levels:
9004 low
9004 high
9007 low
9007 high
This is crossposted by me on the Maxima forum that I'm a part of, but I figure that the information is relevant here as well.
There is a lot of buzz about the 9007 conversion.
Stock 89-99 Maximas use 9004 bulbs. The 9004 is a dual tranverse filament bulb with a 45w low beam and a 65w high beam. It's rated for a 700 lm lowbeam and a 1200 lm highbeam.
The 9007 is a dual axial filament bulb with a 55w low beam and a 65w high beam, rated for 1000 lm and 1350 lm, respectively.
There are plenty of threads with photos of this conversion, including a how-to. I will not attempt to replicate that. It's in the stickies already.
What is lacking is any detailed A/B tests of them. There's probably a hundred down-the-road camera shots showing how "bright" a 9007 is. Automotive lighting is very difficult to photograph, and really can only be accurately represented by a true photometric test. Since I don't have one of those sitting in my closet, this is probably the best that can be done.
My tests are done against a white wall. This removes any artificial coloring from the beam. They are all from the same headlight, a Nissan factory 99 left side headlight. The headlight is exactly 20 feet away from the wall. Ambient light has been minimized, and is consistent from photo to photo. The bulbs are powered off of a regulated 12v power supply, so there is no voltage fluctuations from picture to picture. The camera is at the exact same spot every time, and it is on manual settings at a very low exposure, so the beam is not washed out. All the light will look dimmer in this, but it allows you to see the hotspot more clearly.
Due to the design of my basement, I took two shots of each. One is the light pointed high up, so that you can see the width of the beam and the lower portion. The other is the light pointed level, so you can see the excess light above the hotspot (glare).
I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.
First, a control shot, to show ambient light levels:
9004 low
9004 high
9007 low
9007 high