IReallyLikePizza2
Known around here
Maybe completely turn off sub steams on that cam, its not grabbing the second stream for the LPR images somehow is it?
LPR: Blurry Images During Day Time
- Thread starter rfj
- Start date
Interesting. I do not have sub streams turned on for my LPR cams either.
Here are my current settings:
IReallyLikePizza2
Known around here
Based on all this input I did a bit more tweaking. I got pretty noisy pictures for my day setting unless I reduced the sharpness to something like 5 (default is 50). It appears the camera didn't get enough light. Initially, I had the shutter fixed at 0.25ms (1/4000s). With sharpness set at 40 this gave me the image in ShutterFixed0.25ms.png.
I then set the shutter to variable from 0 to 2ms (1/500s). The 1/500s is a bit low based on recommendations from here which are more in the 1/1000 to 1/4000 range for day time. I am not sure why I had to allow up to 1/500s but this now give the image shown in Shutter0to2ms.png which is a big improvement.
I then played with the bitrate. I know I am not supposed to use VBR because by the time the bit allocation has changed for where a car passes it will be too late. But I tried it anyways just for reference. So here is the same non-moving car with VBR quality 6 at up to 8192kb/s.
And here at CBR with 8192kb/s. It's slightly better but not much. But again, this is for a non-moving car.
I then changed it to CBR 12288kb/s. This did yield some significant improvement. If I make this change to all my cams it will reduce the hours I can save by 1/3 which isn't great. I thought most people use 8192kb/s so maybe I am still doing something wrong that I get this washed out area at 8192kb/s.
Things are getting worse when it rains as all those raindrops add a lot of movement. The image below is also at CBR 12288kb/s and those washed areas came back again. Not that it rains much in our area but this suggests I should increase the bitrate even more, unless again, I have other settings that could help improve the image.
I then set the shutter to variable from 0 to 2ms (1/500s). The 1/500s is a bit low based on recommendations from here which are more in the 1/1000 to 1/4000 range for day time. I am not sure why I had to allow up to 1/500s but this now give the image shown in Shutter0to2ms.png which is a big improvement.
I then played with the bitrate. I know I am not supposed to use VBR because by the time the bit allocation has changed for where a car passes it will be too late. But I tried it anyways just for reference. So here is the same non-moving car with VBR quality 6 at up to 8192kb/s.
And here at CBR with 8192kb/s. It's slightly better but not much. But again, this is for a non-moving car.
I then changed it to CBR 12288kb/s. This did yield some significant improvement. If I make this change to all my cams it will reduce the hours I can save by 1/3 which isn't great. I thought most people use 8192kb/s so maybe I am still doing something wrong that I get this washed out area at 8192kb/s.
Things are getting worse when it rains as all those raindrops add a lot of movement. The image below is also at CBR 12288kb/s and those washed areas came back again. Not that it rains much in our area but this suggests I should increase the bitrate even more, unless again, I have other settings that could help improve the image.
IReallyLikePizza2
Known around here
For what its worth, I could never get clear shots at lower bitrates. Not sure if other people have more favorable conditions, or maybe the cars are going slower? Often times I will get 45-50mph going past which really is blurry at lower bitrates
VBR on a nonmoving car is much different than VBR on a moving car.
What time of the day are you doing these images? Dusk and Dawn will be problematic, but if you are getting that much noise at noon, then I would suggest a factory reset as something is wonky.
Plus remember you are also essentially digital zooming these crop shots and that will introduce noise as well no matter how good the camera is. Is the noise still there in full frame?
What time of the day are you doing these images? Dusk and Dawn will be problematic, but if you are getting that much noise at noon, then I would suggest a factory reset as something is wonky.
Plus remember you are also essentially digital zooming these crop shots and that will introduce noise as well no matter how good the camera is. Is the noise still there in full frame?
@rfj
Under Camera>Conditions>Day & Night do you have the Day profile's Mode set to Color and the Night profile's Mode set to B/W?
I had some focus issues with my camera after the DahuaSunriseSunset utility switched the camera to Day mode. I discovered that the Day profile had somehow gotten the Day & Night mode set to Auto and what appeared to be happening was the utility would set the profile to Day, and adjust zoom and focus, but it was still dark enough that the camera stayed initially in B/W. About 30 min later the camera switched to Color, and then the focus was off.
Since setting the Day Mode to Color I haven't had any more focus issues.
Under Camera>Conditions>Day & Night do you have the Day profile's Mode set to Color and the Night profile's Mode set to B/W?
I had some focus issues with my camera after the DahuaSunriseSunset utility switched the camera to Day mode. I discovered that the Day profile had somehow gotten the Day & Night mode set to Auto and what appeared to be happening was the utility would set the profile to Day, and adjust zoom and focus, but it was still dark enough that the camera stayed initially in B/W. About 30 min later the camera switched to Color, and then the focus was off.
Since setting the Day Mode to Color I haven't had any more focus issues.
@digger11 I have set Day & Night to Auto for Day and B/W for Night.
@wittaj I ended up doing a factory reset and then reapplying the changes one by one. There was one setting that also introduced noise, i.e. Backlight WDR = 50. I reduced it to 20. This got rid of most of the extra noise compared to Backlight being off. I am not sure much more can be improved at this time but I am always open to suggestions. As for the time of day, those previous images were taken a bit past 10am. It's pretty overcast with dark clouds here, though.
@wittaj I ended up doing a factory reset and then reapplying the changes one by one. There was one setting that also introduced noise, i.e. Backlight WDR = 50. I reduced it to 20. This got rid of most of the extra noise compared to Backlight being off. I am not sure much more can be improved at this time but I am always open to suggestions. As for the time of day, those previous images were taken a bit past 10am. It's pretty overcast with dark clouds here, though.
Yeah backlight introduces noise and should only be used at the lowest levels, if at all.
bigredfish
Known around here
bigredfish
Known around here
Also FWIW, I don’t run the sunset/sunrise utility or BI thus from a caveman’s perspective I’ll tell you the focus issue usually revolves around the camera switching from color to B&W or vice versa due to the IR shift and not enough light to properly focus at the time of change.
What I do is run a “schedule” profile and fix the changeover from day to night at a point approx 30-45 min BEFORE sunset and again from night to day approx 30-45 min AFTER sunrise.
This insures there is enough light for the camera to properly focus. I get great captures at 90 and 120ft on two 5241/5231 Z 12s this way. Yes I have to change the times 3x per year.
The other method is to simply leave it in B&W 24/7. Thus the focus shift is negated.
What I do is run a “schedule” profile and fix the changeover from day to night at a point approx 30-45 min BEFORE sunset and again from night to day approx 30-45 min AFTER sunrise.
This insures there is enough light for the camera to properly focus. I get great captures at 90 and 120ft on two 5241/5231 Z 12s this way. Yes I have to change the times 3x per year.
The other method is to simply leave it in B&W 24/7. Thus the focus shift is negated.
remember that you are interested in the plate only. Do not spend time trying to fix fuzzy pavement or anything that is not plate related.
If higher bit rates help on your LPR, then use them. But that is no reason to run very high on every cam. Make that adjustment on a cam-by-cam basis to solve a problem, not to just have it high.
If higher bit rates help on your LPR, then use them. But that is no reason to run very high on every cam. Make that adjustment on a cam-by-cam basis to solve a problem, not to just have it high.
IReallyLikePizza2
Known around here
I still think you need more zoom, but something is still wrong. That image is way too blurry. I think your focus may be off, the right side of the image is crisp but the left is not
IReallyLikePizza2
Known around here
I did zoom in some more and put the Day profile to B/W so there is no focus difference between Day and Night (B/W vs color). However, while the plates are readable I am still getting pretty blurry images. I did go into the settings and with zoom at 1100 focus was at 1200. If I adjust it 20 up or 20 down it gets completely blurry. So I did fine adjustment to 1207. I concentrated on that dry grass (marked in red in the image) and the crack to the right of it. But still I have very blurry images. Either I am still missing something or I start to think if this camera is a dud.
I can increase the Sharpness to 50% which makes the image sharper but then I introduce a significant amount of noise.
I can increase the Sharpness to 50% which makes the image sharper but then I introduce a significant amount of noise.
bigredfish
Known around here
Im beginning to agree with @IReallyLikePizza2 that the lens may be catywompus (technical term) and need manually adjusted. Its as if the left side of the image isnt foused well.
How would I manually adjust the focus? Does it involve opening the housing of this bullet camera? This camera is kind of hard to remove because it's located close to the street and close to the ground so I mounted it that you can't just walk up and rip it out...
IReallyLikePizza2
Known around here
I think the camera is fine, I think its the the focus.
Maybe I'm crazy, but I connect my laptop to hotspot, VPN back home and then park in the middle of the road where the LPR cam is, and I autofocus on the plate (My focus zone is WAY too far for WiFi)
Can you do that?
Maybe I'm crazy, but I connect my laptop to hotspot, VPN back home and then park in the middle of the road where the LPR cam is, and I autofocus on the plate (My focus zone is WAY too far for WiFi)
Can you do that?