LPR - Night time

[samplenhold]

Post the link of the $206 version. We can tell you if it is worth the risk.

Realize that you do not NEED to get both cams at the same time. Buy one of the Z4E or Z12E and try it out in both positions. Then decide from there what cam you should get for the other side.

You need to zoom in more on the 'Mail-Right' cam. You will get better caps. You do not need all of that wasted space.

 

[jeremycolvin]

I decided to go with the IPC-HFW5241E-Z12E - and after speaking with Andy @EMPIRETECANDY I decided to get the 2 cams from him. I trust all of your recommendations and Andy clearly comes highly recommended.

Thank you to each of you who took the time to participate in this thread. I appreciate your input, advice, and time.

Looking forward to getting the new cameras and seeing how they do!

 

[jeremycolvin]

Got the cameras from Andy (Thank you Empire!) - got them installed... it's CRAZY how much light these things pick up... right now it's 9pm, is pretty dark outside to the eye... and this is what my 2 new cams are seeing (I'm impressed):



It just auto-switched to night b&w as I was typing this... at 9:10 -- Here's what it looks like in night vision now:



Now to try to find the best settings for capturing the plates at night... any suggestions?

 

[wittaj]

Keep in mind auto settings are horrible for motion at night.

So while that static image is impressive, motion will be a complete blur.

For LPR, you need a 1/2000 shutter and then the image will be completely black and all you will see are the head and tail lights and plate.



See the LPR subforum for recommended settings

LPR

Licence Plate Reader cameras

ipcamtalk.com

These are my settings.

 

[jeremycolvin]

Thanks! With your settings I'm getting great reads... only 1 problem... on the right (cam2) side, it pics up the motion just fine and triggers the recording... on the left side, with the same trigger settings and zone type config, etc, it's not triggering the recording... but is picking up the plates great on a still shot.

Any thoughts on making the motion more trigger happy? I've already got it set to the lowest change... (using blue iris)


This one was in motion @ about 25 mph


still shot going left - didn't auto-trigger record

 

[wittaj]

And your best bet after you get the settings input is to then have someone stop a car in the middle of the field of view and get the focus number.

Because the camera cannot see anything, it will hunt all night for focus if on autofocus and everything will be blurry.

So you have to manually set it and run a daytime profile and night time profile.

Or run it 24/7 black and white.

 

[jeremycolvin]

And your best bet after you get the settings input is to then have someone stop a car in the middle of the field of view and get the focus number.

Because the camera cannot see anything, it will hunt all night for focus if on autofocus and everything will be blurry.

So you have to manually set it and run a daytime profile and night time profile.

Or run it 24/7 black and white.

Yea, I did that earlier, it's set to manual focus on the # that we got earlier from sitting in place.

 

[wittaj]

Those are some great captures!

OK you have to turn off the object detection where it moves X number of pixels and turn off having it reset after x% of the size because that is problematic for LPR.

Change the algorithm to simple.

Any chance you can move it to get the stop sign out of the image?

 

[jeremycolvin]

Those are some great captures!

OK you have to turn off the object detection where it moves X number of pixels and turn off having it reset after x% of the size because that is problematic for LPR.

Change the algorithm to simple.

Any chance you can move it to get the stop sign out of the image?

Very good... have those settings turned off now... now just to wait for another car to drive by! lol Thank you for the help! On the stop sign, unfortunately, no, I need that in the frame for the second duty of this cam... people running the stop during the day. I do have it excluded from the zone trigger though.

 

[wittaj]

I also have my make time at 0.0 but they are not in the frame as long as yours. That would be the next thing to try if it doesn't trigger.

Just for reference, which state are you or was that plate? A lot of states have gone to 3M printed plates that make LPR very difficult.

That plate looks like it is probably the raised plate versus printed.

But many of us are experiencing difficulty with the new plates coming out in many states.

Poor IR contrast in new Tennessee license plates

I've noticed an issue with nighttime capture of new 2022 Tennessee license plates. The white lettering on a blue background washes out almost completely in IR light, making the plates barely readable. Has anyone encountered similar issues with other plates? I'm wondering if additional IR...

ipcamtalk.com

 

[jeremycolvin]

I also have my make time at 0.0 but they are not in the frame as long as yours. That would be the next thing to try if it doesn't trigger.

Just for reference, which state are you or was that plate? A lot of states have gone to 3M printed plates that make LPR very difficult.

That plate looks like it is probably the raised plate versus printed.

But many of us are experiencing difficulty with the new plates coming out in many states.

Poor IR contrast in new Tennessee license plates

I've noticed an issue with nighttime capture of new 2022 Tennessee license plates. The white lettering on a blue background washes out almost completely in IR light, making the plates barely readable. Has anyone encountered similar issues with other plates? I'm wondering if additional IR...

ipcamtalk.com

I'm in Ohio. I'm making my wife go drive the loop again! lol got tired of waiting for a car to come! lol

 

[jeremycolvin]

GOT IT! Turns out I must have had my zone cutting out too much, I zoned the whole frame and it captured it... I'll redo the zone tomorrow during daylight... but we are in business now both directions!

Thanks for your help dialing it in!!!

Here is a freeze frame from in motion to the left @ about 25mph



View attachment License-Left-22.20230805_221347_1.mp4


















View attachment License-Right-21.20230805_220903_1.mp4

 

[wittaj]

That's awesome!

Ohio is one of the states moving to the new 3M printed plates.

Fortunately in my testing of these plates, the closer the camera is to the plate, the better the chance one has of getting plates.

I had to move my camera closer as this is what mine looked like at 175 feet with the new 3M printed plates, whereas the older stamped plates were perfect.



It will be interesting to see what you get for the new printed plate at night! Please post an example when you get one.

 

[Flintstone61]

Thanks! With your settings I'm getting great reads... only 1 problem... on the right (cam2) side, it pics up the motion just fine and triggers the recording... on the left side, with the same trigger settings and zone type config, etc, it's not triggering the recording... but is picking up the plates great on a still shot.

Any thoughts on making the motion more trigger happy? I've already got it set to the lowest change... (using blue iris)


This one was in motion @ about 25 mph
View attachment 169429

still shot going left - didn't auto-trigger record
View attachment 169431

View attachment 169432

You could adjust the Pre-record timing in BI to collect about 6-8 seconds of video, If it's triggering late.
Then you can easily watch the plate go by in alerts...just have a few more seconds of video to watch, but also gives you lots of frames to pick from for plate logging.

 

[Nunofya]

Just got my first Z12E from Andy. First night testing. I know I'm pushing the limits,
about 185'. Using two Tendelux D120s for extra IR (kind of far away and not aimed very well yet) no street or porch lights out here.

 

[Nunofya]

This thing got the new interface
Don't know what "smooth stream" is under encoding. It's set at 50%, I assume I should set it to "0"?

 

[Nunofya]

I see where you're supposed to use 2000ms at night but some during the day is it 0.001 to 4ms?

 

[Nunofya]

Also, manual focus at night, is that true for daytime or is auto fine?

 

[wittaj]

Personally I run fixed shutter and manual focus day and night.

In my field of view I found that the focus would be off with a shutter range if a car came thru as clouds passed and the shutter speed was changing. I think it does a quick focus adjustment as shutter changes.

And since the car is in the field of view for such a short time, I want to increase the chances of a clean capture by using fixed settings whenever possible.

 

[Nunofya]

Personally I run fixed shutter and manual focus day and night.

In my field of view I found that the focus would be off with a shutter range if a car came thru as clouds passed and the shutter speed was changing. I think it does a quick focus adjustment as shutter changes.

And since the car is in the field of view for such a short time, I want to increase the chances of a clean capture by using fixed settings whenever possible.

Cool, I have it that way too. Any advice on the extra ir lights? They're at different positions than the camera. Thought I might have seen somewhere here that they should be positioned right next to the camera with same line of sight? Is that true?

What do you think of smooth stream? I'm on this new 5.0 web gui crap.