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Baja Designs OnX LED bars have the distance of a HID. They use better diodes and have more invested in engineering the best possible light (reflector design, circuit board, housing design,etc.) than their competition.
I've seen and read about the Baja Designs lights. No doubt they are very well-assembled lights. However they use 5000°K CCT LEDs, which (though much better than many) is still a ways off from ideal.
Ok so you definitely know what you're talking about. Thanks for the science lesson :tup:I've seen and read about the Baja Designs lights. No doubt they are very well-assembled lights. However they use 5000°K CCT LEDs, which (though much better than many) is still a ways off from ideal.
The human eye responds best to light waves in a range of about 500-620nm. This spans most of the green region, through yellow, to about reddish-orange. Unfortunately phosphor-based white LEDs (the type used in nearly all types of LED lighting products) have a design limitation in that once you get up around 5000K & higher CCT, they end up with very little light output in this part of the spectrum. Instead they develop an extremely strong & narrow output peak at approx 450nm (the fundamental wavelength their chip operates at, which is deep within the blue region). This makes the light more glaring, along with having worse rendering of colors. Such wavelength is also affected more by atmospheric scattering (the phenomenon that causes the sky to appear blue), further affecting the beam's perceived throw distance.
The only good reason I can fathom why light companies choose such high-CCT LEDs is for the simple marketing of lumens. Such LEDs tend to be rated maybe 10% higher lumens by their manufacturers than equivalent ones say, around 3700°K. Problem is... Those extra lumens are a little useless if the output spectrum is so imbalanced that our eyeballs can't work as well with them.
I love truck nerds. lolI've seen and read about the Baja Designs lights. No doubt they are very well-assembled lights. However they use 5000°K CCT LEDs, which (though much better than many) is still a ways off from ideal.
The human eye responds best to light waves in a range of about 500-620nm. This spans most of the green region, through yellow, to about reddish-orange. Unfortunately phosphor-based white LEDs (the type used in nearly all types of LED lighting products) have a design limitation in that once you get up around 5000K & higher CCT, they end up with very little light output in this part of the spectrum. Instead they develop an extremely strong & narrow output peak at approx 450nm (the fundamental wavelength their chip operates at, which is deep within the blue region). This makes the light more glaring, along with having worse rendering of colors. Such wavelength is also affected more by atmospheric scattering (the phenomenon that causes the sky to appear blue), further affecting the beam's perceived throw distance.
The only good reason I can fathom why light companies choose such high-CCT LEDs is for the simple marketing of lumens. Such LEDs tend to be rated maybe 10% higher lumens by their manufacturers than equivalent ones say, around 3700°K. Problem is... Those extra lumens are a little useless if the output spectrum is so imbalanced that our eyeballs can't work as well with them.
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