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      12-30-2019, 10:46 AM   #4
2020g20
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Drives: 2020 330i
Join Date: Jul 2019
Location: USA

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All of the testimony you are looking for is already in this original thread, but it's mostly inconclusive. A couple of reasons for that IMO:
  1. Some people live in much sunnier locations than others, and that is enough to tip the scales and make this a problem for some and not others, even with the same exact tint. So just because someone says 35% ceramic didn't cause them any problems, YMMV.

  2. A report of "I'm having no issues" is highly subjective. First of all, testing with a light meter reveals there are around 10 discrete levels of daytime brightness on the G20 screens. Without sunglasses, the dimmest levels of 1-2 aren't a "problem" from the perspective of safety as you can still see them okay, they just look horrible aesthetically. After tinting, my car was only able to get up to around level 3 or 4, which looks better. However if you add dark polarized sunglasses to the mix, which some people like me wear religiously when driving, levels 1-5 are way too dim IMO (levels 1-2 almost being unsafe). So it first comes down to what a given individual deems as acceptable brightness, dark glasses vs. no glasses, etc. (Example: the guy that lives in Canada and has 5% tint all around and says "no issues". I guarantee he is not getting anything over level 3 brightness on his screens, but it's not a problem for him apparently.)

    Secondly, it can be hard to notice any issues when you can't compare side-by-side. If after tinting your car will only give you up to level 4 or 5 brightness, this difference could easily not be noticable by some people when you can't compare that side-by-side to the level 7 or 8 that you were previously getting. Our eyes and brains aren't very good at distinguishing 50 lumens from 70 lumens when we can't compare them right next to each other (why we invented metering devices). I had this same discussion with BMW service techs lately when I demonstrated for them on their loaner 330i (with no tint whatsoever) how the screens were maxxing out at half brightness in the Georgia winter sun. When I turned on the IR blaster that I built and adjusted the brightness on the screens all the way up, they went from saying "What problem?" to "Oh, wow. Look at that."

Last edited by 2020g20; 12-30-2019 at 11:14 AM..
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