I searched back on "Halogen' and "Xenon" and was looking for a thread on bulb upgrades. It has been awhile since I did my research, as I recall the sports car and tuner folk have discussed this in several driving forums.
HID= High Intensity Discharge -These lights are the true Xenon high dollar HID bulbs that come in high-end luxury type vehicles like Mercedes etc.
The output color is given a "k"value Kelvin as I recall, but this is color, NOT temperature.
The HIDs are upwards of 4000K are blue/white and halogens are typically below 4000K and more yellow/white output color.
Xenon is the gas used in the HID arc type lamps.
Halogen is another gas used in filament type bulbs like our Savage/40s use.
Now the rub; some companies are using partial xenon to alter the color of the output light of their halogen bulbs. don't confuse them w/ HID bulbs, no free lunch there.
Late model (if not all) Savage/40s use the H4 aka 9003 bulb.
The EU bulb makers offer +30 ,+50 and now +80s.
Here's what I read and confirmed, the excellent European Osram Silverstar (+50) H4s are high output bulbs preferred by most of the cager groups I read. Sylvania purchased Osram fairly recently.
The EU made (German?) Silverstar bulbs are transparent.
USA made Silverstar bulbs are/were tinted a light blue.
The EU SSs have a more normal halogen output color, and higher output as per EU rules.
The US made SSs are, it was speculated, were tinted to give them
a. the Blue/white HID-like output color and
b. REDUCE the output to US specs.
Now I can confirm this; "the light bulb came on", (sorry for the pun) because I was going to order some more Osrams SSs for my 1999 GMC. When I pulled one out,the previous owner already had the US blue tinted SSs in it, so I left them in.
It also explains why on several occaisions while driving home thru the Tennessee river valley in rain & fog, I found that the whiter output bulbs tend to obscure vision.
Yup they
look great, but they don't work as well. ???
Remember fog lamps are yellow? I had read some complaints about the blue tinted halogens doing this, the high "k" tinted halogen light reflects back off the precip, where the more yellow normal bulbs will like transmit further out in fog/bad weather.
Fog is the worst and this explained why I was so blinded in the fog that night.
I would agree w/ those comments made that ANY tinting on the bulb would have to reduce the output, even if the whiter light tricks your eyes that it is "brighter", it couldn't be.
Also there must be a trade off in bulb life to get higher outputs. I think I read some 80+ users were only getting a year in their cages... and they have 2 of them.
From Powerbulbs UK;
http://www.powerbulbs.co.uk/"The flagship bulb in Osram's range, the Silverstar's 75m figure was only a fraction better than that of arch-rival Philips (right), but it performed significantly better at 50m. Add a price advantage, and the Osram's plus 50 per cent competitor is our Best Buy." - 5 star award."