I have been poking around at getting more light out of the headlights of my 07 Camry and I came across the H9 bulb conversion. People on other forums state that it is the next best thing to HID's. I have considered HID's but to do it right would mean doing a retrofit or dealing with squirrel spotters and I'm not quite willing to go to that extreme.
Here is a link to Toyota Nation discussing the conversion (which is really minimal)

Headlight H11 to H9 - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

You get almost double the lumins but not anything so powerful to blind other drivers. The power draw is 65 watts as opposed to the 55 of OEM but the increase is minimal and should not be too much for stock wiring (I haven't heard of any in my research across the web and at TN).
The conversion consists of shaving out a plastic tab in the bulb's socket and then trimming a metal tab on the bulb as well. You do not have to do anything to the headlight housing or wiring.
Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Done this? I plan to do the conversion next week and I will post pics of the results. Worst case scenario is that I put the stock bulbs back in.
Also, anyone have a trusted place to get their headlight bulbs? Believe it or not, finding low beam H9 bulbs that aren't tinted blue is not as easy as it sounds.
If this works, I will also do the conversion on the fog light kit that I am going to install.
I also found this conversion kit on Amazon:

 

There is some additional information that I should add. I recently learned that this conversion uses the H9 high beam bulb. These high beam bulbs do not have the painted/dipped tip on the bulb. The bulbs that I purchased for this conversion do have the painted/dipped tip and are rated at 55 watts not 65 watts like the high beams. This also might explain why it has been so hard to find H9 low beams as they are primarily used as high beams.
So, I might not experience the the same effect that others have done with their H9 conversion. But I would rather try this method of H9's with painted tip bulbs first to be safe and not blinding to people. I will also probably try the high beam H9 bulbs as well but one thing at a time.

 

Another update: I have purchased another set of H9 bulbs that do not have the tip covering. But these bulbs are tinted blue and claim 4300K for a whiter light. I am well aware that these blue bulbs do not give off as much light out put as the clear but these ones were cheap and I can't be dumping all kinds of money into bulbs, the wife doesn't appreciate it. I figure it also a good experiment for those who choose to use these types of bulbs for that HID look. I prefer more light myself but the price was right.
I will get some pics up to compare everything once I receive the bulbs in the mail.
Stay tuned!

 

Results Time! Last night I modified the bulbs according to what I have read and installed them. I do recommend using a Dremel or something like it because it makes the modification that much easier and quicker. It took me about 3 minutes to modify one bulb and it took that long because I didn't put the Dremel up to full speed because my family was all asleep at the time and it was my first time doing the mod.
The H9 modified bulbs fit perfectly into the stock halogen projectors with no fuss.
I drove home tonight at 11 p.m. in a light drizzle. With the stock H11 it would be like driving with just the parking lights on in these conditions. With the modified H9's it was a whole new experience! I could see!! I could see very well! I also did not get flashed by anyone and the headlight cutoff is still properly effective at keeping the brighter light out of people's eyes. People in front of me did not adjust their rear view mirrors either.
At this point, I highly recommend this conversion. I am really happy right now with my visibility at night.
If anyone is interested in doing this, please feel free to comment or PM me with any questions and I would be happy to help. Also, if there is some interest I can post some pics as well.
Also, in regards to the bulbs I purchased, the ones that I bought that I thought had the tip covered and were 55 watt, were indeed the real H9 format with no painted tip and stamped with a 65 watt rating on the bulb. The seller just did not relay the proper information regarding what he was selling. The bulbs are the proper H9 rating.

 

Hi,
I just bought an '07 Camry LE a couple of weeks to replace my '95 w/382k miles. It has 84K miles. My headlights are very dim. Pretty much to the point that it is dangerous driving on the streets that have no streetlights.
When I got the car, the previous owner had HIDs installed. I'm not sure if they were installed correctly. Since the original H11 pigtails were cutoff, I installed replacement pigtails and new H11 bulbs. I have 12V at the pigtails with the engine off and 14V with it running, so I assume the wiring is correct. This did not improve anything.
The headlight housings appear clear and not cloudy at all. I bought replacements off Amazon for about $140. Ill use them if needed, but this seems to work.
Did your headlights seem as bad as mine before your conversion? Any other info or pics you can provide?

Thx,
Chris