Improve night time captures on 5442 cam

[IAmATeaf]

Been pretty happy with my pair of 5442 cams, have set them up for day and night time as per the posts by @wittaj but am wondering if there’s anyway to improve them any further for night time?

Specifically I want to try and also get number plates, currently all I see is a white rectangle for the plate at night. Or is this asking too much of the cam?

Here’s a night time clip as an example and the plate is not readable at all.

Video 15-08-2021, 17 40 52.mp4

Shared with Dropbox

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[Parley]

The angle is not correct and I am not sure what zoom you are using. For license plates I would use nothing less than a 5442E-Z4. I have 3 of them for reading license plates and they work just fine where I have them located.

 

[wittaj]

In addition to the above, the camera can't be overview and for plates. You need an even faster shutter to get plates. Try 1/2000 and the image will be black except for the plate and head/tail light's.

 

[TVille]

How does it do during the day? If it is not crystal clear, idiot proof during the day, no matter what equipment, it won't work at night. From that angle and distance, I'm guessing you would be lucky to get it to work at night. And, if you did, the rest of the view will be essentially black. While it appears to be a very slow street, and fast shutter speeds may not be required for that, I still think you will struggle. Try parking a car as far left in the scene as you can, and play with the camera one night and see what you can get.

 

[IAmATeaf]

I was hoping to improve the night time footage but now that I’ve read the above makes perfect sense and I’m probably wishing for too much from a single cam

The clip is from a 3.6mm fixed so couldn’t zoom in even if I wanted to

 

[TVille]

I was hoping to improve the night time footage but now that I’ve read the above makes perfect sense and I’m probably wishing for too much from a single cam

The clip is from a 3.6mm fixed so couldn’t zoom in even if I wanted to

Try it!

I have a 5442 LED ( I screwed up when I ordered it) that I use street side under a street light. Works great for what I use it for. I recently added it to my OpenALPR setup as a second camera. It is at a sharp angle and does work during the day. I was surprised it works given the distance and small size of the plates in the picture. But it works. Without IR, no chance of it working at night though.

 

[EMPIRETECANDY]

Try it!

I have a 5442 LED ( I screwed up when I ordered it) that I use street side under a street light. Works great for what I use it for. I recently added it to my OpenALPR setup as a second camera. It is at a sharp angle and does work during the day. I was surprised it works given the distance and small size of the plates in the picture. But it works. Without IR, no chance of it working at night though.

wooo, you doing great job, can share us some pics?
This one is by IPC-B5442E-Z4E at 100ft, 100-150ft, use IPC-HFW5241E-Z12E would be better.

 

[TVille]

wooo, you doing great job, can share us some pics?
This one is by IPC-B5442E-Z4E at 100ft, 100-150ft, use IPC-HFW5241E-Z12E would be better.

Here are two pics, one day one night. I installed the camera to watch a blind spot created by the garage, with no intention of it doing license plates. But during daylight, it gets probably 90% of them with OpenALPR. I can work on the night time picture and get it better, but just haven't taken the time yet.

 

[wittaj]

To get nighttime plates, that camera won't then be an overview camera LOL.

You would need a faster shutter to the point that the entire image would be black.

Is that on default settings at night? Night picture seems kinda washed out and not much contrast.

 

[TVille]

To get nighttime plates, that camera won't then be an overview camera LOL.

You would need a faster shutter to the point that the entire image would be black.

Is that on default settings at night? Night picture seems kinda washed out and not much contrast.

It is not default, but it the LED version, no IR. Yeah, it is washed out, I need to work on it. I'm surprised it works as LPR during the day!

Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk

 

[wittaj]

Oh that explains it. So it looks better in B/W than color at night? I take it you do not run with the LED light on?

 

[EMPIRETECANDY]

Daytime always good.