help tuning night LPR ?

A

Andrew F

Getting the hang of it
Mar 29, 2019
33
25
USA
Hey guys,

I have my IPC-HFW5231E-Z12 setup on a post in a bucket, Blue Iris is running, and all is going pretty well!

Thanks to my wife's help (she's a photographer & graphic designer), we have a pretty good view of license plates during the day:

day.jpg

We're having trouble at night, which is obviously the hard part. :) We get a plate every now and then:

plate - front.jpg plate - rear - dark.jpg plate - rear - fuzzy.jpg plate - rear.jpg

Here are the Night profile settings:

settings1.png settings2.png settings3.png settings4.png

We're shooting about 170 feet which probably isn't ideal, but we're trying to deal with obstructed views due to trees.

map [2].png

Does anyone have any tips of what we could do to improve this, especially at night?

Thanks!
 
Angle looks a bit challenging, Id zoom in a bit more along with adding more IR
 
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bigredfish said:
Angle looks a bit challenging, Id zoom in a bit more along with adding more IR
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, we're at max zoom.

We are planning to install a decorative lamp post near the road. But now that I've seen a bullet cam in person, I think it would look a bit CRAZY stuck to the side of a lamp post. :)
 
For my Dahua Z5, I have:

Contrast = 85
Sharpness = 85

Gain = 0 to 30
Iris = 100

[Backlight} Mode = HLC at 70
[WB] Mode = Auto
[Day & Night] Mode = B/W
[IR Light] Mode = SmartIR
 
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What happens when the neighbours park their cars in the driveway as pictured ?

I would try opening the shutter a little longer to 1/500. This may work for slower vehicles.
 
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Well it works quite well for me at 125’ with a Z12 but what do I know?
 
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I understand your point, a tighter FOV is theoretically preferrable, I just typically cut manufacturer specs by 1/2 on “useable” IR distance and that one he picked out that is 130ft is going to be weak at 170

I’d love to try one of the adjustable focus IR units which tighten FOV as you “zoom” but haven’t had my hands on one yet
 
Thanks for the illuminator tips! I figure that $20 unit off Amazon will let us test the rig, then we can worry about permanent placement later. I think we may need multiple illuminators to light up the whole area where we want to video.

The adjustable focus unit looks cool!
 
In the Amazon reviews of the product you had originally linked, one buyer pointed out how he added a plastic diffuse panel to the front, allowing a wider scatter of the UV. (err, other side of the near-visible spectrum: IR)
 
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Here's from the Amazon customer's screenshots of a before and after, using a diffusing plastic sheet on the IR screen to scatter the light. But if the need is to capture plates then a more focused beam would be better, I guess.
IR-2.png
 
DLONG2 said:
Here's from the Amazon customer's screenshots of a before and after, using a diffusing plastic sheet on the IR screen to scatter the light . . .
Click to expand...

One reason I bought that illuminator is because of that photo. It really looks like it's going to blast IR in a fairly focused area, which is what I'm wanting. I can mount the illuminator closer to the license plates if necessary (or get a more powerful illuminator).
 
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