Poor HID set ups and lights
The following information is provided to help you understand the process of HID lights and HID conversions
Following is some information and pictures on poor HID lights. This is to help you understand "what is what" in the world of HID.
It is written with the EMPHASIS being on spotlights used for Hunting / Spotlighting NOT driving / headlights although most of the information applies to both.
It can best be summed up by saying "you get what you pay for" !!!
A lot of unsubstantiated claims are made re HID's such as the brightest, the best etc etc. What is important is everything has to be set up correctly for the best light output to be obtained. Below are some comments on the various components used in HID Lights.
REFLECTORS
What we have found is one of the main things to affect the quality of output of the light is the parabolic reflector used in the light itself (see picture of a parabolic reflector below). The objective is to have the smallest possible beam divergence thus producing the most parallel light beams possible (of course with Lightforce Spotlights, the beam can be adjusted from a tight spot to a flood by rotating the lens, however at the start when setting up the light, you need to start with as tightly focused, parallel beam as possible).
A badly made, poor quality reflector is not smooth, not even all over (if it's not even all over, then the light is not reflected evenly so you don't get a nice, tight, parallel spotlight beam). They can also have "bubbles" or dimples in the finish (sometimes caused by dust getting in during the manufacturing process). All of these blemishes affect the quality of the light beam because the light is reflected in different directions.
From my personal experience over 25 years, Lightforce Spotlights and Reflectors are EXCELLENT quality.
FOCAL Point / HID Bulbs
PLEASE NOTE - The Focal point of OUR HID Kits and Converted to HID Lightforce spotlights are optimized to suit the Lightforce parabolic reflectors and we take great care in setting these up.
Below are some photos which we have taken to give you a visual picture of what we are talking about.
PLEASE NOTE
To get these photos, we use HID Spotlights that we have tested (and that we DON'T sell because they are rubbish) OR
we specifically set up a spotlight so that these photos could be taken.
It is vitally important that the HID bulb is set at the correct distance out from the housing to that the light falls correctly
on the reflector, which in turn means all the light is reflected where we want it for spotlighting. Use of the wrong bulbs, poor quality HID Lights or incorrectly set up HID conversions often give:-
- a "STAR" pattern which is NOT conducive to a good light for spotlighting - we refer to this as "The Star of Death".
- have a dark component on one side (often referred to as a shadow “V” line) and / or
(the photo below also shows the start of a "STAR" pattern)
- have dark patches in the beam. The photo below is not focused and the focal point is out of alignment.
How do we (and you) avoid these when converting Lightforce Hand Held spotlights ?
We use a system to adjust the HID Bulbs focal point to the correct location in the housing. If you are thinking of buying our HID conversion kit to do the conversion yourself, we include the items required in our HID conversion kits so that you may do the same.
This product was added to our catalog on Sunday 04 July, 2010.
