Neighborhood vandalize from street - need some input on camera setting to get better image of car

[hotwheels498]

I have a Dahua IPC_HDW2231R starlight i have re directioned to the street out in front of my house to try to catch a image of a car that has been going around the hood trowing eggs. I have temporarily pointed the camera at the street and zoomed in as far as it can go (usually its aimed at my driveway and has worked well for this). The images i am getting are not good with the motion of a cars, lost of ghosting?
. Can anyone make some recommendations on how to adjust the camera to make these better ?
Currently at H264, 15 FPS, VBR quality 6 with 8192 Kb/S bit rate.

 

[beepsilver]

A faster shutter speed will stop that image in its tracks (try an exposure of 1/250 and go from there), but you'll need to balance that with your available light. You also MIGHT get a bit more clarity on an image of a moving object if you match the iframe interval to the fps (15-15 or 1 iframe per second). I've also read where you can clean up an image slightly by increasing the fps....but there's varying opinions on this.

 

[beepsilver]

Would like to see your images after you make changes

 

[mech]

Those are OK pictures considering it is twilight and you have a 2MP camera at a long distance. You won't get license plates at that range with that camera/lens combo, but if you want better shots of the vehicles for other details, try going to the camera's menu and try setting it to Shutter Priority like the example below. Keep reducing the maximum shutter speed until you reach the point that it is counterproductive. 4ms is 1/250th-second, enough to ID some vehicle characteristics, but if you can go faster, it may help. Reduce 3D NR to the lowest level you can get away with.

In your examples, the red truck is already an easy one to find in your neighborhood due to its overhead rack, and a silver Tahoe with a sunroof and no roof crossbars would probably be an easy find too.

 

[mech]

It may also help to switch the camera to forced black-and-white mode if one of your other cameras can identify the color for you. In B/W mode, the camera may be able to hit faster shutter speeds without noise overwhelming the details, since there won't be color noise.

 

[hotwheels498]

Thanks for the pointers, i am forcing color mode as my other camera that catches the street is not a starlight has a wide lens. Main thing i want is to get a good match on color make and model of the car. My house sits back from road and has side load garage so i have not been a target of the pranksters with the eggs. But the neighbors that have been getting hit have nest or ring door bell cams, so this project is just for fun for me. Maybe ill take a camera out to the mailbox and lay the cable in the grass for a few days see what i can get.

This pic is with 1/250 shutter, 60 for NR. Backlight mode is off as that seems to give a better picture when adjusting on a static seen?? There is a street lamp just to the left of the frame.

 

[bigredfish]

Thats DNR blur. Dial down DNR

 

[beepsilver]

Good job...wonder what you'd get with 1/500. FWIW you can tweak the mpegs in VLC to refine your images/videos.

 

[hotwheels498]

I think im getting closer, not as fast as car motion but got zero blur with these 2 guys walking by and while no face id, can make out color of the cloths.

What the opinions on backlight setting, i have always used WDR around 35-40 before and it seemed to work?

 

[beepsilver]

If WDR gets you the best quality then use it
I don't use WDR at night; if I need extra light I either use BLC in backlighting or I up the gamma in the picture settings.

 

[bigredfish]

They're moving slower than the car so the shutter speed is better for the slower object, still have NR blur..

FWIW I don't use WDR at night it also helps cause blur...

 

[hotwheels498]

getting better ? Can read the words on the truck, but did have to change to BW mode as too much noise when in color mode

 

[mech]

That's great for the conditions. I also try not to use WDR at night. Sometimes "less is more." From here, try experimenting with your WDR turned off, and play with the Gamma and Contrast to see their effects. You may be able to further increase the definition without resorting to WDR.

 

[hotwheels498]

Thanks for all the help,
If i wanted to get a real good image of a car from this position what camera would be recommended ?

 

[mech]

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The super-long lens on the Z12E would allow you to focus on the cars at quite a distance, and is a popular model for actual license-plate recognition if you want to do a "sting" operation.

 

[bigredfish]

How much more do you need? I ask because as you zoom in tighter on the car, you’ll narrow the field of view.

Agree with @mech the newer 5442 series VF would probably be an improvement, and the Z12 is used a lot here for LPR. But getting one camera to do it all is often a futile exercise.

Think about two cameras, one with a wider fov for Overview and one like the Z12 for tighter shots and maybe LPR. Tough angle there for LPR though ..

 

[mech]

agree with @bigredfish , if LPR is of interest, I would aim as far down the road as practical, so the angle of approach is as shallow as you can manage, while still getting a usable plate size of like 120-160 pixels wide in your images.

 

[hotwheels498]

How much more do you need? I ask because as you zoom in tighter on the car, you’ll narrow the field of view.

Agree with @mech the newer 5442 series VF would probably be an improvement, and the Z12 is used a lot here for LPR. But getting one camera to do it all is often a futile exercise.

Think about two cameras, one with a wider fov for Overview and one like the Z12 for tighter shots and maybe LPR. Tough angle there for LPR though ..

Until now i haven't really needed a close up on the street, i have 2 other overview camera's that catch the street. This camera is normally zoomed on my front porch/sidewalk. So might try one of 5442 as a addition for this project.

 

[hotwheels498]

agree with @bigredfish , if LPR is of interest, I would aim as far down the road as practical, so the angle of approach is as shallow as you can manage, while still getting a usable plate size of like 120-160 pixels wide in your images.

i could mount LPR camera in this location, zoom inbetween the 2 porch post down by the mailbox ?

 

[mech]

That angle would be LPR'able. Would you be able to put the camera actually up high on that first post, so it's higher up and gets less glare from oncoming low-beam headlights?

One benefit of aiming for the intersection is that you don't come home to find a neighbor parked a vehicle where it partly obstructs your cam's intended view.