HID Lumen Rating

[Tamas]

Does anyone have/know the actual lumens rating, colour temperature and beam angle and of various HID lights?

I am trying to compile an easy to use chart that can help all of those looking at the lights.

10W HID
UK Cannon -- 450 lumes @ 6000k, 6 degrees
OMS Phantom -- 450 lumens @ ?? k, 6 degrees
DR -- ?? lumens @ 6000-6500k, 6 degrees
Greenforce -- ?? lumens @ 6200k, 13 degrees
Salvo -- ??
Halcyon -- ??

18W HID
Greenforce -- ??
Halcyon -- ??
Salvo -- 1300 lumen @ 7000k, focusable

21W/24W HID
DR -- 1100 lumens @ 6000k, focusable
Greenforce -- ?? @ 5500, 24 degrees
Halcyon -- ??
Salvo 21 -- 1500 lumen @ 6500k, focusable
Salvo 24 -- 1800 lumen @ 6000k, focusable
Metalsub -- 1500 lumen @ 6000k, ??

35W/50W
Metalsub -- 2800-5000 Lumen @ 4200k, ??

Please feel free to fill in the blanks or add more lights into the categories.

[PerroneFord]

The lumen ratings are pretty worthless if you don't know how they were derived. That's the only bad part. I wish we did have one source for all this stuff. It would be great.

[Tamas]

The lumen ratings are pretty worthless if you don't know how they were derived. That's the only bad part. I wish we did have one source for all this stuff. It would be great.

Perhaps, but at least it still gives some sort of guideline to compare lights at.

[oxyhacker]

There is no magic number that lets you compare lamp output since it depends so much on the beam pattern.

Lumens are used normally only for bare bulbs, and are rated by putting the bulb in a chamber that measures the total output all the way around. That's the closest thing you'll find to a true "horsepower" rating for bulbs. However reflector bulbs cannot be tested this way, so they are rated by candlepower, or more often, centerbeam candlepower. This is a function of the reflector design as much as anything, and tells you nothing about how much usable light the bulb produces - to know that you have to map out the beam and figure the intensity at many different points. And reflectors in redirecting the light can also waste a lot of output So there is no easy way to compare the actual output of bulbs.

However, just about all the lights you mention use the same several "burners", which is to say the actual bulb. So any of the 10W W-A reflector bulbs will put out, in theory, the same total light as the bare bulb version, as will other lights powered by different versions of the same bulb. However this does't really tell you much either, since the reflector will have so much to do with how much usable light the light puts where you want it - we've always found that the same bulb with a bigger reflector will produce much more usable light.

Also, the way bulbs are rated is really designed to find out how much light the put out in the visual spectrum in air, and many people feel that they perform differently in water so the air ratings are not totally reliable - a lot of divers find that a lower lumen but higher kelvin (color temperature) light will outperform a higher lumen but lower kelvin bulb underwater.

So there really is no substitute for side by side tests underwater. And even the results from those will be highly subjective, since they will be influenced by the observers preferences for light distribution.

[PerroneFord]

Exactly. Had this same dilemna when comparing automobile offroad lamps. But forunately, candlepower and beam pattern were all that was generally asked about.