in spite of the fancy talk about light distribution angles or whatever...
all I can say is the red  'cluster' multi-LED tail light bulbs in my vanagon
are a nice cherry bright red, from all angles.
They're just like stock tail lights, but much brighter and a perfect red.

SDF

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Beierl" <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Sunday, December 19, 2010 5:55 PM
Subject: Re: tail lights

> At 07:27 PM 12/19/2010, John Reynolds wrote:
>>I was excited about the LED bulbs till I read this in the
>>SuperBrightLEDS.com website.
>>
>>"Brightness of LED Car Bulbs
>>LED bulbs are generally not as bright as standard incandescent
>>bulbs, they have many advantages over filament bulbs (longer life,
>>faster on/off times, lower power
>
> Another thing to be aware of is light distribution and the size of
> the light source vs how the reflector was designed.  Day before
> yesterday I was behind a young feller with rear turn signals which
> were very bright at 45 degrees off axis and practically invisible at
> every other angle.  And reflectors/lenses designed for incandescent
> bulbs generally expect something approximating a point source of
> light radiating into most of a sphere.  "Bulbs" using numbers of
> individual LEDs can't come even close to this.  Bulbs using
> combinations of forward and aft facing Luxeons and similar might do
> pretty well.  But I'd take a hard look at light distribution before I
> decided that an LED lamp in a fixture intended for incandescents was
> satisfactory.
>
> Yours,
> DAvid