We have had a network camera system for the last 3 years. We have a camera next to our driveway and would like to be able to read license plates at night. We had a hikvision 2cd2232 bullet camera. It could read them during daylight, but not at night. FWIW we live in MN where it gets very cold in the winter. What would you recommend for an outdoor camera?
Driveway camera
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mat200
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Welcome @MNapple
Please see the LPR thread section, reading plates at night requires the camera to be tuned for that - and will mean you need to dedicate a camera for that function. Also note it is a bit of an art form so plan to take some time to test and adjust the settings.
beepsilver
Getting comfortable
But if you must have only one camera for all your driveway needs both during the day and night, then consider a 6mm or 12mm camera that does well at night (Dahua and Hikvision are both good options). Plan on forfeiting wide angle views for a more narrow field of view (especially at night) in order to read plates. You could opt for a motorized varifocal camera that you can set for a wider view during the day and a more narrow view at night.
bigredfish
Known around here
In order to capture plates at night, in most situations, you wont see a thing except tiny white dots where the headlights are and a plate reflected by IR light. A LPR camera will need to be fixed and dedicated to just that 99.99% of the time
Key things to consider:
- What is the angle of attack from camera to plate? More than 30 degrees gets very difficult
- Speed of vehicles at point of capture
- Ambient light
- Distance from camera to plate capture point
Most of the time you will need two cameras, one for LPR and one for Overview.
Example (change youtube player to 1080p)
Key things to consider:
- What is the angle of attack from camera to plate? More than 30 degrees gets very difficult
- Speed of vehicles at point of capture
- Ambient light
- Distance from camera to plate capture point
Most of the time you will need two cameras, one for LPR and one for Overview.
Example (change youtube player to 1080p)
Ok, read till I got a headache. Got this one:
HIKVISION DS-2CD2T46G1-4I/SL 8 m.m 4 MP IR Fixed Bullet Network Camera 8mm lens US Version. I've had a failure with varifocal in our extreme climate. Didn't find a hikvision USA night with 2MP and 8mm. maybe my google foo is lacking. I looked for USA hikvision cause they just plug right in to my hikvison NVR. I see experts know how to configure other cameras to work with this system.
Now I'm looking for a quality IR light.
Just an FYI, the camera will be located about fifteen feet away from the side of the driveway with a clear shot for 200'. Vehicle speed is under 20mph.
HIKVISION DS-2CD2T46G1-4I/SL 8 m.m 4 MP IR Fixed Bullet Network Camera 8mm lens US Version. I've had a failure with varifocal in our extreme climate. Didn't find a hikvision USA night with 2MP and 8mm. maybe my google foo is lacking. I looked for USA hikvision cause they just plug right in to my hikvison NVR. I see experts know how to configure other cameras to work with this system.
Now I'm looking for a quality IR light.
Just an FYI, the camera will be located about fifteen feet away from the side of the driveway with a clear shot for 200'. Vehicle speed is under 20mph.
8mm is not going to work. You either need this one 2 MP Ultra-Low Light Outdoor LPR Bullet Camera or this one 2 MP DeepinView Ultra-Low Light Outdoor LPR Bullet Camera. Personally I have the DeepinView and love it