It would seem HID is dead.

Pretty similar to the design often used for short arc lamps:

Compared to a lens+wavien collar of the same diameter it will have less lux though, since the lens won’t have the dead spot in the middle.
The lens will also give a tighter beam since all of the points on the surface will be at a longer distance from the LED.

Thanks but no thanks, I don’t really want to cosplay as Captain Toad.

Sure, but it would be fun (difficult fun) to try on the GT for example.
No more spill and a bit more beam.

Yup.

Wait…I must have missed that memo about hid’s getting phased out. :person_facepalming:

Hmm, what’s the “texture” on the front lens of the Polarion?

It’s a factory diffuser. It just clips in the grooves of the bezel ring. They work amazingly.
I call the diffused light from this a big ol ball of cotton beam, removes the hotspot completely.

Recently saw this Czech company, they make 4 models all HID, top one -> throw 4 kilometers…

hid has advantages on throw, but in many situation a sililar sized light like the BLF GT with LED is more useful

Awesome shot. HID not worth it anymore imho

Does the Title of this topic still hold true? Have LED tech advanced where HID is being forgotten?

I ask cause I don’t have any HID lights and would be interested to have one. what are the major brands out there?

Is this headlamp stable?

I doubt it. LEDs are nowhere close to the luminance for the size of the light source as HID, though LED is likely far better when a wider view of illumination is needed. A few marine large searchlight makers use both now for both spot and flood.

Just saw this thread and i had to stop by. They are less in use due to AWWW LED’s these days but i spoke with some high end torch makers they start thinking about drivers similar to AW and AlanB regulators. I don’t have any HID but i do have dozen incan mods from 1x16340 up to 8x18650 versions.
My latest build is CPF Fivemega Elephant II with 3” head and AlanB regulator which will run Osram 64657 bulb (250W - 11000lm).
Don’t have pictures but i’ll be happy to post after i get home from a trip.

Yes. Pictures.

Realistically HID was dead back in at least 2009. I know because at that time irrc the best thing going was the xevision 75W. Which could be blown away by a few hundred dollar diy mod.
Still to this day nothing goes over true 70-80watts handheld. From what i understand there are no quality high wattage long life bulbs and that is the main reason. All quality offroad hid lights max out at just 60-70watt by looks of it. HID is beyond dead because it is simply to expensive to make a quality reliable longlife high wattage monster for such a small demand, in a world full of mass produced leds. 800bucks for a reflector??
Military handheld lights are fine 70watts is plenty i would say, the lemax can throw 4km so that would be plenty for law enforcement, rescue etc. But flashaholics would like 200watts minimum.

When i think of hid, what comes to mind is old fashion awful things. Cheap slapped up large reflectors, massive body and ballast, useless pencil beams which are not even perfect. Long gone those days led is the only way.

I’m confused. My car has HID’s and I love them to death. Is this strictly a hand variant death wail I’m reading about?

I believe so.

The last two cars that I have bought 2015 Lincoln Navigator and 2015 Audi A3 both have HID. My daily driver is a Jetta TDI wagon with standard halogens, and they are barely passable. HID projectors are such a significant upgrade over regular halogen reflectors that they aren’t even comparable. When I bought the Audi LED was an option, but I wasn’t sold on automotive LED tech at the time. I feel that when you need multiple point sources to generate enough light for a headlight, then the technology wasn’t there yet. I know know with some of the matrix really cool things are possible. But I really like the ability to change tint in the HIDs with easy vs a lot more involvement with the LEDs. Also, most factory HIDs seem to be sold with the brightest HIDs in the NW range vs LEDs in the CW. I also don’t know if LEDs are going to melt ice from freezing rain or snow as well as HIDs, so that is another consideration.

HIDs still have their place in certain high performance flashlight applications. The Lemax lights are very, very good if you want continous performance. They have large batteries (with modern cells) and never overheat. There is no compareable LED light on the market.

Similarily the Maxabeam and Megaray still don’t have any rivals in stock form. Only the more compact, stamdard HIDs from companies like Polarion will be replaced in the near-term.