Kia Optima Forums banner

Pure White HIDs - Colour vs Brightness

3.6K views 11 replies 9 participants last post by  homebrwd  
#1 ·
Had a debate with a couple friends regarding what temperature of HIDs would produce the closest to a pure white output. My thoughts were always that 4300K had the whitest output. However is it true that 6000K bulbs are significantly brighter? Furthermore, I feel that 6000K had a slight blue tint - something I wanted to avoid. So now I'm thinking 4300K is the whitest but dimmer and 6000K is brighter but bluer.

Anyone have some input on this?
 
#8 · (Edited)
The higher the kelvin is a number that reflects nothing but the color. I just installed my kit today and got 5000k. Will see how they look tonight. 4500k is OEM though. IMO anything above 5000k your just going for looks, but because the amount of usable light is low.

Try 6k but do not go any higher than that. You will get the brightest light between 4000k to 5000k.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using AutoGuide.Com Free App
 
#9 ·
5K is what will best match LED switchbacks and LED DRL's. We did a side by side comparo with 6K on one side and 5K on the other. 6K is blue. 4300 is still yellow compared to the pure white of LED's.
 
#11 ·
3000K = Pure Yellow
5000K = Pure white
6000K = White with blue tint
8000K = Blue with white tint
10,000K = Pure blue

I believe there are some higher and they tend to be pink. OEM HIDs are typically around 4000K which in my opinion is yellow with a white tint. Looks a lot like halogens.

The human eye sees the color yellow the best in the dark so the closer to 3000K, the better you can see. Still 5000K and 6000K are the most commonly bought. You've probably seen 3000K in fog lights in Honda Civics n stuff. It's a JDM look.
 
#12 ·
As you move higher than 4300K you will be losing light output, its starts slow but will increase exponentially. 5000K is the highest I would go in color temperature because A) is just barely starting to go blue and B) its output is very close to 4300K in power. I run 5000K bulbs in the OEM xenon headlights to match the upgraded LEDs in my DRLs, otherwise the DRLs make the xenons look yellow. Its all relative though.