Had a delay from Amazon on the camera so after 3 days of no tracking progress I ordered a second
IPC-HFW5241E-Z12E
Both arrived a few days ago and after setting up the one camera for LPR, I decided to keep the second one as well, even though it was obviously a returned unit. Messed up lens protective film and privacy masking set up in the camera, fingerprints on the lens. Not a big deal since Andy has been stellar in customer satisfaction. I am very happy with the results. At least now if someone comes through on a rampage and destroys something, I will at least have a plate number instead of " It was a white pickup truck."
So anyway, I will say that getting the settings just right for LPR is a challenge. When I say I made fine adjustments, I mean the smallest unit of adjustment. One tick on any setting makes a massive difference. Also, someone else's settings may very well not even be close to what will work on your system. After having things working well, I figured let me widen the FOV just a little because it seemed that the angle of the way the "Illuminator" hits the plate, straight on, the plate was a little washed out and as the plate started to change to a sharper angle, the plate was clear as day. It would seem an easy fix, just move the camera a little left. Problem is that a car parks right there every night so couldn't do that. Wham! waaay off, plates can't be read, amazing how the littlest thing makes such a difference. As someone mentioned on here, I used my own car and parked it in the FOV to make adjustments. Great idea! This 5241 is perfect for LPR as far as my needs. I don't have a use for populating data in regard to who came around my circle and how many times.
As others mentioned, when the camera switches from day to night and back, the focus and settings get screwed up. So I keep the focus set to manual and keep the camera on BW. It hasn't had the issue of going out of focus. Not sure why focus changes based on color mode but all I care about is a clear read.
Definitely a great camera so far. I am guesstimating the targets are roughly 90 to 100 feet away. Also, my street is almost pitch black.