IPC-HFW5231E-Z12 LPR from 137 feet

tibimakai

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In my opinion, we would need projector housings. If you check IR driving lights, those are what we would need, but they are very expensive.
 

blazin912

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Hope this isn't a derail.. I want to add this camera but my angle to the street would be pretty severe.. maybe 60-75 degrees, there's a big tree that would block my ability to get this down. My house is at the end of a dead-end circle but the set back is between 40-100 feet depending on the corner of the house. The angle of the house wrt to the road also limits the ability to get a clean head on shot. How likely is this to be an issue for LPR? I'm going to get a bullet to be able to see the cars coming into my cul-de-sac just want to know if LPR is out of the question, or what.

TLDR:
Distance to street 125ft, angle from license plate ~60-75 degrees, LPR challenging or just right out?
 

blazin912

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Very challenging in my experience. You’ll fight it constantly.
Any option on laying wire closer to the street and mounting on a tree or installing a birdhouse?
Birdhouse LPR with the HFW5241E-Z12E
Appreciate the honesty. Actually, if I pulled along side the local Telco in their pull pipe from the street I could mount near there, but I'd need to get into their box, and it'd be pretty out in the open.

Maybe car id alone is good enough and at that point drop down to the 5 vs 12
 

bigredfish

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I don’t want to suggest it’s impossible, but I manage 4 LPR cams and fought one that was 40+ degree angle of attack a lot. Sure I had times I’d get good plates, but between IR, speed of vehicle, sun glare etc, it was a constant struggle.

I’ve since moved that cam to a location with 25 degree offset and much better reliable captures.
 

blazin912

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I don’t want to suggest it’s impossible, but I manage 4 LPR cams and fought one that was 40+ degree angle of attack a lot. Sure I had times I’d get good plates, but between IR, speed of vehicle, sun glare etc, it was a constant struggle.

I’ve since moved that cam to a location with 25 degree offset and much better reliable captures.
This will probably be an impossible feat. Did I mention my house also sits about 10 feet above street level, and this would be 15 feet high? Maybe I'll get up there on a ladder and see if I can see over the tree I'm concerned about for a more direct angle. This will probably be ~ 150+ ft
 

wittaj

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@blazin912 - you would be surprised how much angle where you can still read a plate - see this thread! 150 feet if it would be a straighter shot is doable with the Z12.

 

bigredfish

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Again that angle is possible but its just not going to be consistent. There's a reason $12,000 toll booth and traffic LPR cameras are mounted straight on ... .. And agree with @wittaj that 150' is doable with a clear view and 64mm lens.
 
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Park a car in the position you hope to get a shot. Take a picture of the plate area with a DSLR from under your prospective position. That image will give you the foreshortened visualization of the plate. Send that image to Plate Recognizer and see if it can decode it. It is free to try. If you can't get a telephoto shot, then move closer but in the same path until you get a good amount of pixels but the same foreshortened view.

 

blazin912

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Park a car in the position you hope to get a shot. Take a picture of the plate area with a DSLR from under your prospective position. That image will give you the foreshortened visualization of the plate. Send that image to Plate Recognizer and see if it can decode it. It is free to try.

Good call.. the cams ordered as I'll want better visibility to cars coming/going but at least I can run a test
 

bigbadw

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My recommendation is to do what I ended up doing. I went to an LPC (license plate capture) method, and bypassed the LPR because of the challenges you commented on. Now, my cameras do capture a very readable picture (by a person, not the automated software).
The recommendation from "samplenhold" is the same way I tested mine out until I got it right. Get a lens with the distance you need.
 

gwminor48

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I installed my HFW5241E-Z12E and have been tweaking it for a few days - I love it. I get the occasional car with no front plate even though front and back are required in Texas, but this car came by twice the other night. I'm curious if you guys encounter this sometimes. This is the rear and ii looks black or blank. Could it be some sort of plastic over the plate or led lights around the plate defeating the IR? All the other plate captures were good.
LPR.20200904_234011603_1.jpg
 

Parley

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I installed my HFW5241E-Z12E and have been tweaking it for a few days - I love it. I get the occasional car with no front plate even though front and back are required in Texas, but this car came by twice the other night. I'm curious if you guys encounter this sometimes. This is the rear and ii looks black or blank. Could it be some sort of plastic over the plate or led lights around the plate defeating the IR? All the other plate captures were good.
View attachment 70015
Can't say that I have ran across that scenario. However I can have difficulty with older dirty plates. Sometimes I have to go frame by frame in order to get the whole plate number.
 

bigredfish

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FWIW to others, I've recently changed my setting on my primary HOA Entrance LPR cam. I was continually having problems with focus changing having tried quite a few tricks.
I've dropped back to 1/1000 vs 1/2000 and so far, two weeks, I'm getting much better reads and less focus issues.

YMMV
EntrTag3.jpg EntrTag2.jpg EntrTag1.jpg


Last few days examples (Approx 95ft and 25 degree angle)

HOA Entr_EntrTag_main_20200905223512_@3.jpg HOA Entr_EntrTag_main_20200905235656_@3.jpg HOA Entr_EntrTag_main_20200905021131_@3.jpg HOA Entr_EntrTag_main_20200905001957_@3.jpg HOA Entr_EntrTag_main_20200901231513_@3.jpg
 

bigredfish

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FWIW to others, I've recently changed my setting on my primary HOA Entrance LPR cam. I was continually having problems with focus changing having tried quite a few tricks.
I've dropped back to 1/1000 vs 1/2000 and so far, two weeks, I'm getting much better reads and less focus issues.

YMMV
View attachment 70017 View attachment 70018 View attachment 70019


Last few days examples (Approx 95ft and 25 degree angle)

View attachment 70020 View attachment 70021 View attachment 70022 View attachment 70023 View attachment 70024
Also note that it doesn’t get talked about much but the Iris setting can play a big part in brightness of the image. A little goes a long way, make small adjustments and confirm
 

gwminor48

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Also note that it doesn’t get talked about much but the Iris setting can play a big part in brightness of the image. A little goes a long way, make small adjustments and confirm
I've noticed that option and wondered about it. I've left it alone but I need to read about the iris setting. Here's one of mine from last night. I believe this is around 80 - 85 feet. I need to save screenshots of my options once I finalize things so I will have some sort of record in case I ever have to start from scratch.
LPR.20200905_210619728_1.jpg
 
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