Catching license plates in this scenario (pics included)

Dave88LX

Dave88LX

Getting the hang of it
Jul 13, 2016
141
63
York, PA
Would like to be able to capture plates during the daytime and at night. Being that I'm on a curve, I have access to some straighter lines in both directions. I am not really sure what best practices are in regards to camera angle both horizontally and vertically. I can mount cams under eaves on some parts at about 10' high, the rest are more like 20' high. No front plates, rear plates only in PA.

I am looking for Dahua model cameras.

There are no street lights, so current lighting I would be relying on moonlight, porch lights, and lamp posts. Here's the way I'm set up, I'm hoping those of you with more experience can guide me to the proper cameras and positions.

upload_2017-9-5_21-31-52.png


Possibly this camera? IPC-HFW5231E-Z5 , 7-35mm
Dahua Starlight Varifocal Bullet Z5 7-35mm (IPC-HFW5231E-Z5)

Aliexpress.com : Buy 2017 Latest New Arrival 2MP WDR IR Bullet Network Camera IPC HFW5231E Z5 , free DHL shipping from Reliable network camera suppliers on Empire Technology Co., Ltd



In the screenshots below, the black "PPF" is where the mouse cursor was. What does the dark zone in the triangle denote? Majority of people drive down the middle of the road, not along the correct side.

I would love to hear some thoughts or answer more questions to help out. Thank you!

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This one was confusing to try and get because that is a hill going up around the left side. So I don't know if I should mount low or mount high.

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Here's the front/sides of the house for ideas on attachment areas. I will be looking to cover the driveway and front door at another time.



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I'm not an expert but have some good experience with tag capture for our little HOA and 3 dedicated tag cameras.

The Z5 may work on paper, but I'd look at the Z12. I have a 60mm lens capturing at 125 ft
Angle means a lot, so the more straight-on the better. You seem to have some great angles and an open FOV.
Same with height but allow for the occasional vehicle parking right where you dont want it to. Mine are 12-15ft up
Cars will be slowing from both directions for the curve- ideal!
Daytime should be easy, you have a perfect straight-on view.
Nightime will require balancing the IR and fast shutter speed. You should be able to use the "schedule" feature and dial in both day and night settings
 
bigredfish said:
I'm not an expert but have some good experience with tag capture for our little HOA and 3 dedicated tag cameras.

The Z5 may work on paper, but I'd look at the Z12. I have a 60mm lens capturing at 125 ft
Angle means a lot, so the more straight-on the better. You seem to have some great angles and an open FOV.
Same with height but allow for the occasional vehicle parking right where you dont want it to. Mine are 12-15ft up
Cars will be slowing from both directions for the curve- ideal!
Daytime should be easy, you have a perfect straight-on view.
Nightime will require balancing the IR and fast shutter speed. You should be able to use the "schedule" feature and dial in both day and night settings
Click to expand...

Wow, 5.3 - 64mm!
Do you have any shots from your cam?
I can always temp mount it w/ a stick/bucket or something to see what truly works the best.

@nbstl68, I will check out those cameras. In plain English, what do they do extra?
 
This is at 120ft with a 1MP 720P Axis camera with a 60mm lens. I didnt cherry pick them, just snagged 3 from today. You;ll see in the last video from the the overview cam next to it, the tag cam is focused just barely to the left of the 25mph sign where the trailer is. The angle sucks but it is what I have to work with for now. More straight-on would get better results.

I'll eventually go to one of the Dahua ANPR cams that @nbstl68 mentioned above. Likely this one.
ITC237-PU1B-IR | Dahua Technology - Dahua Technology

Set tag cams to 720p in Youtube






1080p Dahua 52A1EN - change to 1080p in youtube
 
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@nbstl68, I will check out those cameras. In plain English, what do they do extra?
Click to expand...
From what I can tell they have a more powerful IR setup but the big win and I assume part of the reason for the extra cost is all the LPR capture software is built into the camera. So it will auto capture the plate numbers and OCR them to a database then you can white list against them and such. Seems pretty cool. I do not have one personally but would like one.
 
I have been playing around with plate capture with my 5321R-Z turret trying to identify a neighborhood speeder. Not an optimal camera for this by any means. It does fine during the day as most cameras probably would do and is getting a fair amount of night captures OK after tweaking the shutter to 1/2000.
Here is a cherry picked sample. Many others were not as good or readable at all but if I inspected and zoomed the still frames I could just make out most plate numbers going by. But it shows you can use almost any camera for this in a pinch. If you need high accuracy and consistency, this is def not the right camera for the job.
In contrast to what someone else mentioned, night plates only appeared when the car was at an angle to the camera just before passing. My straight on view earlier in my clips would be overwhelmed by the headlights and no plate was visible.
Capture03LPR.JPG
 
Thx
Is it better to run a high PFS or low FPS for LPR and why?
I was initially running max FPS thinking more frames = more chances to capture the plate but I see a lot of the articles people are using 10 or 20 FPS max.
 
I'm running max fps on all 3 tag cameras. The installer who originally mounted the primarty Axis for LPR had it set to 7fps and said that was all anyone needed. Bullshit. There is a huge difference between how many frames and thus chances I get at 30 fps vs 7 and the results were clear to anyone who bothered to spend more than 5 minutes reviewing actual footage.

The average car traveling through the FOV on my primary tag cam passes in anywhere from 1/2 to 1 second. When set to a low 5-7 fps I was lucky to get 2-3 frames. With it set to 25-30 fps, I'm getting more like 7-10 frames
 
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nbstl68 said:
From what I can tell they have a more powerful IR setup but the big win and I assume part of the reason for the extra cost is all the LPR capture software is built into the camera. So it will auto capture the plate numbers and OCR them to a database then you can white list against them and such. Seems pretty cool. I do not have one personally but would like one.
Click to expand...

I notice the LPR cameras state an IR range of 40m, and the IPC-HFW5231E-Z12 has an IR range of 200m. Anyone have thoughts on that?

Maybe I'll get one of each and see what I like the best.:idk:
 
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