Last year I replaced the 20 year old, cloudy headlamps on my 04 Camry with a new set of aftermarket headlamps. Then last week a friend borrowed my car and the first thing she said was “…Okay, your headlights are dim”. So I looked at reviews for new bulbs and saw the Philips VisionPlus were highly rated. Installed just 1 of the bulbs on only 1 side of the car. Now I’m trying to compare the headlight bulb brightness of the “Philips” to the other side. But it’s difficult for me to see a difference. Any ideas ?
All that matters is what you perceive by using them. Manufacturers sometimes use sensitive instrumentation to use in marketing materials to show how much brighter their lamps are compared to others. But what matters is only what you can see with your eyes. If they don’t look any different to you, then there is no difference between them- for your usage.
What may be helpful is to take a car she thinks is superior and park them both in front of a building or garage door- at the same distance. Now look at the beam intensity and dispersion. See any difference there?
Any possibility she’s been used to high intensity projector lamps and so thinks your filament lamps are weak in comparison?
Sometimes it just comes down to design. Some headlamp assemblies and their reflector designs are not as good as others.
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What is she comparing your headlights to??
Your 2004 Camry (standard 9006 bulb) are not going to be as bright as my 2004 Infinity with HID’s (OEM), so she may be comparing apples to pancakes… lol
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I like the idea of having her do the comparison since she’s accustomed to better/brighter lights. But she moved out West last week. The last couple nights I tried to find find some dark commercial buildings and pulled over to compare the two different bulbs. Only obvious thing I could see was the right beam higher than the left. But when I Googled that it seems that’s the design for all right hand side side beams.
If you’re willing to spend the money, you can use a lumen meter to compare the brightness of the two headlights.
Tester
Wow very cool meter.
If you’re happy with the brightness of the headlights, then go with that. Worry about something else. 
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If you are thinking of putting LED lights you might want find out if they will actually work in your vehicle. This site and others do get posts where putting LED in vehicles not designed for them has caused electrical problems . Not saying they won’t work but they might not.
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Not jumping on the LED bandwagon. I do have a harder time with night driving.
So just trying to make things a little bit easier at night. Tried this morning to look up the specs/lumens on the bulbs that came with my new headlight assembly but unable to find any info. on them.
I use the sylvania silver stars. About $50 for both sides. Unless you hav3 led or hid, that’s about the best you will get provided the lens and projector are good.
One idea, shine your headlights on a bright vertical surface, about 15 feet away. Garage door, side of a building that’s painted white, etc. The difference in the quality of reflected light might be easier to see. And you can get a sense if the right/left beams are aimed correctly. New headlight bulbs are often significantly brighter immediately after installation, so you might want to wait a couple of weeks before comparing the brightness.
I wonder if the aiming is off on the OP 's car. The bulbs may be plenty bright, but if the headlights are not aimed properly, it is hard to see at night.
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When you would buy a headlight in the old days, there used to be aiming instructions on the box. A little more complicated now so just have a dealer do a quick check.
Ok will scope out a white painted structure for testing. And thanks for the tip about waiting a couple weeks. Do you think an iPhone picture would be able to reproduce different levels of brightness…or not so much ? If so, I could post some pics on here…
As for aim, I did notice a nice difference in visibility when I replaced the 20 year old (halogen) headlamps with a new (halogen) headlamp set. The brand I purchased from Rock Auto is called “Eagle Eye” but can’t seem to find any specs on the bulbs inside of the Eagle Eyes.
Does your 04 Camry have “Daytime Running Lights” ?
Maybe your friend didn’t turn on the headlights.
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That’s a really good point
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Geez that IS a very good point. And yes, I do have daytime running lights.
It was so long ago I won’t be able to recall the details. But I picked up a set of aftermarket assys once and the reflectors were so bad I couldn’t even get them adjusted. They were returned.
In any case, reflector quality is also an important consideration.
