How to choose a location for camera

[thlong]

Camera is B52IR-Z12E S2. The street is right in front of my house. Cars park on the street. I have one spot for rear plate. Because people park differently everyday, It's hard to find a spot for front plate capture. Do you have any tip? Should I return the cam and get this one IPC-T58IR-SE so I don't have to zoom in and would be more flexible?

TIA

 

[wittaj]

No the 8MP will be a poor choice at the speed the shutter needs to run.

Plus the wide angle would make it impossible to read plates.

The only way to reliably get plates is having the field of view be not much bigger than the size of a car and the only way the 58IR would stand a chance is if it is in the middle of the street lol, but even then that wide angle camera would struggle. People have tried 3.6mm cameras on a mailbox and couldn't get the plates reliably.

Is there a tree or 2nd story soffit you can put the z12e in to get above the parked cars?

 

[thlong]

No the 8MP will be a poor choice at the speed the shutter needs to run.

Plus the wide angle would make it impossible to read plates.

The only way to reliably get plates is having the field of view be not much bigger than the size of a car and the only way the 58IR would stand a chance is if it is in the middle of the street lol, but even then that wide angle camera would struggle. People have tried 3.6mm cameras on a mailbox and couldn't get the plates reliably.

Is there a tree or 2nd story soffit you can put the z12e in to get above the parked cars?

One story house, no tree at all ( or it died I think lol). There is my porch which I currently mount the cams, then about 10ft yard > small sidewalk ~ 2ft wide> some grass > the street. So it's pretty close to the street. I try to zoom out but the image is too blurry to identify the plate. That's why I think 4k would work using the same shutter setting. And the street has lots of light.

 

[wittaj]

Digital zoom only works in Hollywood.

We can assure you that a 2.8 or 3.6mm 4K camera on your house will not read a plate on the street, especially at night once you crank the shutter speed to 1/1000 or 1/2000.

For kicks I tried the 4K on the mailbox and it couldn't read it reliably and that is much closer and better angle than you would get from your porch.

Although you say it is only a small distance, you also need the angle, so your distance is larger than you think.

If you want reliable plate reads you need to make the field of view not much bigger than the size of a vehicle.

See the LPR subforum for more details.

 

[RJM_50]

If you don't have front plates you'll need dual cameras. Then it's a balance of wide enough to capture a vehicle driving around a parked vehicle in one direction, and high enough to capture a vehicle with a parked vehicle or cross traffic in the way on the other direction. Here is my camera locations that have worked very well for me: