Getting best quality stills from IPC-HDW5442T-ZE?

[Zimberto]

If this isn't the best place for this question please let me know.

Recently a neighbor got their car stolen from the front of their house. The car the thieves arrived in was driven past my house and I recorded its front and back plates on my IPC-HDW5442T-ZE, but just not quite sharp enough to get a good read from any of the frames - almost but no. Can anyone recommend the best video settings to have the best still frame quality? Also, if it turns out that this camera isn't up to the job, are there any varifocal cams under $200 that would be?

BTW I am aware of LPR cams, and of PlateRecognizer.com

 

[Mike A.]

Will depend on the scene, lighting, distance, exposure, etc. Post a capture of the view and your current settings and you'll get some better advice. The 5442T-ZE is very capable of doing that well but it's limited in range.

 

[wittaj]

Agree - post the camera field of view and distance.

The 5241-Z12E is the common one used here but it is above $200. The ZE you have is good to maybe 35ish feet max. The Z12E can get shots in the 150-200 foot range depending on angle.

But keep in mind you need to dedicate the camera to plates, especially at night.

But whether it is the ZE or the Z12E, the initial settings in the LPR forum gets you started. It starts with making the plate as large as possible and 1/2000 shutter at night to start.

 

[Zimberto]

Agree - post the camera field of view and distance.

The 5241-Z12E is the common one used here but it is above $200. The ZE you have is good to maybe 35ish feet max. The Z12E can get shots in the 150-200 foot range depending on angle.

But keep in mind you need to dedicate the camera to plates, especially at night.

But whether it is the ZE or the Z12E, the initial settings in the LPR forum gets you started. It starts with making the plate as large as possible and 1/2000 shutter at night to start.

Zoom is set to 1500. (Sorry I know there a FOV calculator somewhere but it's been years since I used it). Distance is about 25m. Condition is daylight.

Like I said, it almost got it, so I'm wondering if higher bitrate, for instance, would help here (see current settings).

 

[Mike A.]

Yeah, a bit rate of 3072 is low. Try 8192.

Not sure how much of a crop that is so hard to tell but more zoom = more better. Maybe also post your exposure and image settings. Generally, faster exposure is better to freeze motion. Take sharpening down to 25-ish to reduce noise. If you want to do this at night, then that's another thing. You'll end up mostly only seeing a plate and lights. As @wittaj said, take a look at the LPR sub-forum.

 

[Zimberto]

Yeah, a bit rate of 3072 is low. Try 8192.

Not sure how much of a crop that is so hard to tell but more zoom = more better. Maybe also post your exposure and image settings. Generally, faster exposure is better to freeze motion. Take sharpening down to 25-ish to reduce noise. If you want to do this at night, then that's another thing. You'll end up mostly only seeing a plate and lights. As @wittaj said, take a look at the LPR sub-forum.

I'm just trying to make the best of what I got.

 

[Mike A.]

Understand. Still may give you some ideas as far as what you can reasonably expect from what you have and what's needed to do it better if you want at some point.

 

[tigerwillow1]

If you don't care about some parts of the camera's view, ROI gives a nice improvement while trashing the area outside of the ROI.

 

[XDRDX]

I also noticed your iframe doesn’t match your frame rate. Those should be equal, also change from h264 to h264h if available.

 

[wittaj]

Zoom is set to 1500. (Sorry I know there a FOV calculator somewhere but it's been years since I used it). Distance is about 25m. Condition is daylight.

Like I said, it almost got it (see attached), so I'm wondering if higher bitrate, for instance, would help here (see current settings).

I would consider 25m to be well beyond the capabilities of the ZE. If you have to digital zoom and start guessing, it just isn't the right camera.

Here is the Z12E at 40m - this is what you want to capture. No digital zoom needed.



You have to setup the camera to get plates, but at night that is all it will get.

This is a camera dedicated to plates and not an overview camera also. It is as much an art as it is a science. You will need two cameras. For LPR we need to OPTICALLY zoom in tight to make the plate as large as possible. For most of us, all you see is the not much more than a vehicle in the entire frame. Now maybe in the right location during the day it might be able to see some other things, but not at night.

At night, we have to run a very fast shutter speed (1/2,000) and in B/W with IR and the image will be black. We need the fast shutter to capture the plate and take advantage of the reflective properties of the plate. All you will see are head/tail lights and the plate. Some people can get away with color if they have enough street lights, but most of us cannot. Here is a representative sample of plates I get at night of vehicles traveling about 45MPH at 40m from my 2MP 5241-Z12E camera (that is all that is needed for plates):

At that shutter speed you will not pick up the outline of the car, people walking by, etc. Just like at a shutter speed to capture people at night, the plate will be all white due to the reflective properties of the plate.

 

[Ri22o]

This is my driveway 5442T-ZE at full zoom. The distance to the blue car across the street is about 33m. It just doesn't have the ability to read details from that far away.