Interesting, any pics later on when it's darker?

That's the point; it's not really 'darker' this close to the Solstice!

I'll see what I can do...

Its dark now

Just to add my experience with HIDs, I have these fitted to my CRX, in JDM plastic lenses. The HID units are made by a german company (cant remember the name) and I got the kit for £50 on a group buy. I've had no problems with it since february, and can't recall ever getting flashed.
Got pulled by the police one night for a dodgy front numberplate (or lack of) and they didn't even comment. IMO it is definately a worthwhile mod, and one i intend to do with my lude also.
I also found the beam pattern is much sharper with these bulbs, when compared to the stock ones.

Pretty certain the CRX lenses are, well lensed, rather than pure reflectors like the Prelude. And therein lies the problem

All photos above taken on a Canon 400D with an 18-55 IS lens, in full manual mode, ISO100, f/8.0, 1"1/3 exposure.

So - in other words (for those not into their photography) - each picture was taken with the exact same settings, so will "allow" the same amount of light to be viewed, so is very representative of the actual differences.

The first couple of pictures are quite misleading due to the curvature of the lens picking up the glare from both. The VR4's is much more noticeable. The VR4 even has a LOT of glare off to the side - I originally had the Prelude parked next to the front passenger side corner of the VR4 prior to moving it - with the VR4 lights on, I was getting very bad glare sat in the driver's seat of the Prelude!


What you're wanting is a solid cut-off. Which the projector in the Prelude provides. The VR4, whilst it looks "brighter" - only appears that way due to the massive amount of light it's throwing up above the cut-off line - which is what is dazzling drivers in front of you or coming the other way.

You can also quite clearly see the colour difference - the Prelude has 4300k, the VR4 has 6000k - the bluer look of the 6000k makes driving at night quite fatiguing. Also, the excess light scatter also makes road signs VERY overpowering and distracting.

Both of these have been "MOT passed" - meaning at the very short distances between the lights and the testing machine at MOT, the light scatter in the VR4 isn't too noticeable and falls within the "tolerant" levels that most MOT testers will fall back onto - it does give somewhat of a softly defined "cut-off" - which falls in the correct area that for most testers is a "pass".


I've only not removed the HIDs from the VR4 so far for one reason - sheer laziness (and lack of a set of H7 halogen bulbs laying around in easy reach!) - but they WILL be going, and they'll be replaced with standard halogens, or I'll retrofit another set of projectors with HIDs, like I did with my Prelude.

its all about the cutoff,

going the right way of course for RHD

the hellas I have now have excellent cutoff and beam where as the chinese projectors before were quite scattered and lame