I've decided to put together this information so you can make an informed decision for yourself regarding your lighting upgrade path. In the end the choice is yours alone.

I want the HID look and performance
You can't have both out of a halogen bulb, period. You either go for the look of HIDs and sacrifice light output and longevity, or go with high performance halogen bulbs that look just like halogen bulbs and actually put out more light than stock.

What about a HID kit?
The only propper way to do this is to get HID-designed headlamps along with the HID kit. If you just get the HID kit and install it in the halogen-designed headlamps, you will have uneven beam spread, hotspots and glare. To use an analogy, it is like wearing someone else's prescription eye glasses. HID bulbs and halogen bulbs have different light patterns and as such the geometry and design of the headlamp is fundamentally different.

What if I just want the look of HIDs, period
Then go with whatever hid look-alike halogen bulb you desire: Hoen Xenonmatch, PIAA, Nokya, etc.

But the halogen bulbs have the same kelvin rating as some HIDs
Kelvin rating has nothing to do with light intensity. Sure they are "loud", but not brighter. The real measure of light output is lumens.
HIDs put out the most light at the 4300-4500 Kelvin rating, which is right around 3400 lumens. Look and see if ANY halogens come even close to that rating. The only halogen bulb in existance as of this writing that comes the closest to real HIDs is the OSRam Rallye 65+, which puts out around 2200 lumens. These will readily fit the H7 housing for both low-beams and high-beams.
These HID look-alike bulbs are overwattage and overdriven to look white. Your eye reacts to colors differently so you are fooled into thinking they are brighter, but in fact they put out less lumens than stock lights and just put out more glare AND also have a significantly shorter lifespan.
Fact: I have verified with HOEN, for example, and their Xenonmatch bulbs are rated at around 1450-1500 lumens. This also applies for Nokya, PIAA Polarg, etc. which are around 1300-1400 lumens and they last around 250 hours.

But I've seen pictures and these bulbs look brighter!
Pictures are useless unless you are a photographer and know what you are doing. 99.9% of users just use the "automatic" setting on their camera. To get a real and objective comparison, you have to take pictures using the same:
-ISO
-color temperature
-aperture
-exposure time
In other words, manual mode. I can use my professional camera and fool you into thinking that halogen bulbs are 4 times brighter than HIDs if I wanted to.

A word of warning about HIDs
If you do get HIDs, once again do not confuse their K-rating [kelvin rating, meaning color temperature] with their brightness, which, as I said before, is measured in lumens. Don't think the higher you go in kelvins, the more light for you. The higher you go in K-rating, the less light they put out: 5000k, 6000k, 8000k, 10000k, 12000k. Anything above 8000k is just askin' for a ticket, that's showroom material, not street use.

That sexy blue/purple cutoff?
The one which you see on BMWs, Audis and especially Acuras and that is the reason many people get HIDs? Keep in mind that's a function of projectors more than anything else. Don't be disappointed if you don't get it in your reflector housing. Many people think that if they just get a HID kit they automatically get it, but that's not the case. Yes, you will get some blue at the edge of lighting, but nothing close to what you see in factory-equipped HIDs with projector headlamps.

I strongly urge you to read the following link if you still want to get a HID kit. It will further explain why high kelvin rating HIDs are bad, etc.
HID Do's and Dont's
Here are 2 relevant snipets, but again, go see the site. It has comparison pictures, etc.
*OSRAM has a line of low-beam halogen bulbs, the Rallye 65w+ that are filled with the same xenon gas that HID bulbs are filled. These halogens retain their original light output for 90% of their lifetime and put out 2100 lumens. They are the best upgrade you can get.
So you see, you can have good halogens without having to go HID for lighting.

 

perfectly written! this thread needs a sticky!

btw, i have the osram rallye 65+ and they are the bee's knees.

 

good write up! But how about differentiating between capules and bulbs?

 

yaa! good post i bought phillps extreme bulbs . work just fine.

 

Sorry, I don't quite follow what you mean.

 

I believe it's worth adding to your excellent and informative thread that generic H7 HID "upgrade" kits have bulbs (capsules, or whatever they're actually called) that are about 1/4 inch longer than the H7 halogen bulbs, and even though the base is compatible, they will not physically fit inside the inner headlight housing reflector of the "facelift" MINI standard halogen headlight. Also, don't be fooled by sellers marketing kits claiming to be specific to your make/model car. A "200X MINI Cooper H7 HID kit" is really a generic H7 HID kit. You'll be on your own to modify/destroy your headlight housing reflectors to make them actually fit. And, I'm not even going to touch on their legality, or their effectiveness/ineffectiveness once you do get them to fit!

 

To add onto that, most kits out there are generic Chinese-built kits. The companies that sell them do not have actual manufacturing processes, they are just rebranding them. There are exceptions to this, of course, namely the Japanese kits like DDM, etc. which do have their own design, innovation and manufacturing process. This is not to say that the Chinese kits are crap, but you do get what you pay for. Sometimes you even run the risk of getting two bulbs of different color temperature. Quality control is either minimal or completely non-existent.

I, for one, wish I knew all this information way back when I first tried out a HID kit. In my mind I thought that reflector housing = halogens and if you had projector headlights that automatically meant HIDs were OK. I had NO idea about the different light pattern of halogen vs HID, etc. I had the kit about two weeks in my other car which I might add it has some of the best projectors there are, OEM. One night I caught myself squinting because the pool of light right in front of the car was so intense, with poor side-to-side and up ahead lighting. The following day I yanked the kit out and went with a pair of OSRAM Rallye 65+ and never looked back.
So that's what my motivation is for spreading this info. I try to not advocate one way or another when presenting it, I just want to make sure that people make an informed decision.
Yes, personally I am against HID kits in halogen headlamps but I'm not going to aggressively push my "agenda" on anyone. If somebody is going to read what I wrote and still opt for HIDs, anyone should be able to realize that no amount of arguing is going to change that person's mind.

 

Very informative and helpful thread. Thanks for posting it!

 

Thank you for this. I, for one, am sick of all the people thinking they can stuff in aftermarket HID kits that are an awful blinding blue and think they are now cool and have the attitude of "I don't care, I'm not driving against my car."

 

Thread bump.
Maybe the ops would consider making this thread a sticky.

 

Very informative. Thank you sir!

 

good write up.

My Camden MCS came with blacked out Bi-Xenons. I just wanna upgrade the light output without the scatter and change the color to a better/cleaner blue? any recommended set ups?

 

You can't upgrade to anything better if your car has the factory Bi-Xenons.

The blacked out reflector does not affect light output as the projector does all the work.

You need to read up on your lights. You see blue oncoming because of the "cut off", but your light is a white/yellow (daylight, 4300k). The higher kelvin you go, the worse the output, the more the blue. Also, aftermarket bulbs won't be as good as the factory manufacturers as usually it's a rebased bulb. The light source is not as perfectly placed on the bulb and will affect the performance.

Your factory setup is the best and I highly recommend you leave it alone.

 

thxs for sharing info

 

ya thats what Ive concluded to after all this reading