anyone have any interesting idea's for a PTZ that'll have a strong enough IR and zoom to vaguely get human readable plates at 540 foot?
I was thinking about your attempt to collect plates that far (super cool by the way!). I have a hikvision PTZ mounted on my house. I wanted to see if I could read plates down the block, just for fun since the cars are coming my direction anyway.
I could zoom out and read plates at about 450ft (read with the eye, not software). I can read see the plates in the daytime, no problem. HOWEVER, when you are zoomed out that far you get a lot of 'shaking' in the image. There is always vibration/movement in whatever you are mounting your camera on. It is not a big deal and can't even be seen when you are at normal distances.
When you zoom a PTZ way out like that you can see a small area but you will find there is movement in the image as the building/tree/pole you have it mounted to ever so slightly moves.
Just something to think about as you attempt long distance captures.