Get it shed some light, was that a pun? The difference in patterns is that a driving light will give you a similar patteren to your stock headlights just brighter (distance with some dispersion of width). A cornering light has a wide disperson with a short distance (kinda opposite the driving pattern, thats why these two compliment eachother). A fog pattern is pretty similar to the cornering pattern but with even less distance (basically light right off the front bumper). A pencil or spot or long range patteren is just that, it is a narrow very bright pattern that has the greatest distance (needed for faster rate of speeds were there is a possiblity of out running your lights) These also pair up nicely with either cornering or driving patterns. Hope this helps, you can also check out Hella's web site and look at beam patterns. Hella also has another beam they call a Eurobeam that is pretty cool. I think it is a cross between a driving and pencil beam.

 

Would it seem odd if I told you that spot and cornering seem to fit my needs the best......? Spot to see far in advance, and cornering to see what's in the ditch.