not quite the same. The alleged "Umnitza headlights" have real hid projector shrouds. The halos are also much bigger and thinner. and no weird led eyebrow

 

Their new headlights will be using the projectors that Anzo used, but it will be built to their specification. They're not even sure if it will be HID capable or not. Even if they're HID capable, don't expect anything like retrofit quality.

 

It better be HID capable with the amount of people that chipped in to get the product rolling.

 

No, Anzo lights are made by a company called Eagle Eyes. Not usually the best projectors on the market. DEPO makes very good projectors - it's what we have been using for some time in our BMW products.
Driver's side is DEPO & HID, passenger side is US stock lighting. See anything?;)

 

sooooo... whats the deal with the headlights?

 

How many people chipped in? I heard each of you only chipped in $20. Depending on the amount of people chipped in, I don't think there is enough to request HID quality. Nevertheless, HID quality or not, it is entirely up to the business to decide its profitability in the future sales, and it is not at all about your 20 bucks. . Stick to reality, man. manufacturing is expensive. business needs to analyze their inventory and forcast their sales and what not. They can't just take in a high quantity and sink the ship in the long run, like Jevi and other tC projector headlights out there.

All and all, I hope you all would not be disappointed their quality.

 

100 or so people I believe.

 

Good comparison. The difference in lighting is dremendous. But, the HID (driver side) has no cutoff. Judging from the distance between the car and the house, you're not too far away from the house, but your HID light coverage reach the second floor window of the house. That's too much glare.

 

I knew it, I just knew it. As soon as I got a notification (which I usually don't get, hence the lack of updates) I would have 1 person commenting about "lack of cutoff".

How you can tell this by a picture showcasing total output, in pitch darkness, with a point and shoot digital, in the hands of an obviously minimally vibrating (note tach) person is beyond me.

Here's the same car with a better photo and pure cut off:

 

ummm looks a little funny...

 

is anyone else experiencing this? i drove to portland at night and back also. the front lighting is fine for forward viewing, but the right is shooting off into windows of other cars. is there a way to control this or do i have to do the custom cutoff thing? oh and i adjusted the dial. all it does is lower my front viewing angle.

 

Cutoff isn't everything. I'd like to see a nice, even, wide distribution of light, and a non-glaring cutoff. Seeing those from your BMW products, I think I'll cut my losses with my deposit on the Umnitza projectors and save for a retro. Hopefully I'm surprised by the final product...

 

Well, good luck to your production. I am certainly satisfy with my headlights, but I am still curious as to what quality will your produciton yield.

 

I don't think you can get rid of the light spreading so far to the right without taking the headlights apart, but if you set the light bulb in an angle (down) it will lower the "criss cross" pattern a bit as well as give you more light on the road.

 

hows the fittment of the anzo lights. it looks like from your completed pics on the first page, the driver side has a bit of a gap near the nose area.

 

there is a little gap on the driver side, like you noticed, otherwise they fit very well.

 

I don't know about the "criss-cross" pattern. my lights do this. both going at the same angle to the right. I'll post pics of it tomorrow.

 

yes please post some pics ....pics are helpful for all of us to understand and judge easier...rather than comments. what is that famous quote.." A picture is worth more than a thousand words" there you go!

 

cut off depends on the lense and the reflective shield, the distribution depends on the bowl design... halogen type projectors does not have a great bowl reflective design to yield a great distributive lighting output

hopes that helps

 

This cutoff is common on Euro cars...the angle upwards is to illuminate road signs while still retaining a lower cutoff on the main road surface. I've had experience with Umnitza's projectors for the BMW's...I've had both DEPO (aftermarket) and ZKW (OE BMW). Now note: OE = original equipment, i.e., what the manufacturer puts on the cars at the factory; not OEM which is a product that is merely manufactured by the same company that the manufacturer spec's, and may or may not be up to manufacturer spec. I've found that the DEPO projectors give about 90% of the performance of the OE ZKW projectors, for about 60% of the price. If Umnitza is using DEPO projectors for the tC headlight app, they will likely be better than the Anzo in terms of performance and build quality. The DEPO projectors for the BMW apps were also not designed IIRC for HID applications, but I ran HID's in DEPO projectors for over a year without problems. Waiting time and people's unhappiness at lack of results notwithstanding, Umnitza's product should be worth waiting for.

All I'm saying is that in my experience, Depo projectors are a quality product that are very comparable to OE applications. In my experience with Umnitza, their products, for BMW's at least, are top notch. However, seeing how their development for the tC is coming, even a convinced customer like myself is starting to have doubts that the company is taking the Scion market seriously. Bottom line, once these headlights come out, I expect they will bring 80-90% of the performance of an HID retro at a reasonable (read: cheaper than a retro but more expensive than the Anzo's) price point.