Night settings on the 5231E-Z12E

[biggen]

I downgraded from a 5442-Z4E to a Z12E because I needed a bit more zoom. But I'm having trouble getting it to perform as well at night as my Z4E did. I'm missing more plates that I think I should at night. Here are the settings I've dialed in so far that work "ok" as well as some night plate pics that OpenALP managed to read. The plates just don't "pop off" the car like they did with my Z4E. They seems dirty/dim/grainy for some reason.

Shooting out to 100' with this setup. IR Illuminators are turned up to 100%. Am I beyond the range of the emitters? Any thoughts?

 

[bigredfish]

Here's what Im using at about 100ft on my older 5231 Z12

You may want 1/2000 Im using 1/1/000
Play with Gain and increase Iris

I prefer a fixed exposure for night LPR

 

[biggen]

I'll try fixed shutter tonight and see how that goes!

 

[bigredfish]

Try 1/1000 too. Ive found its fine for 25mph +/- 5mph

 

[ajwitt]

Agree on using fixed shutter speed at night - on my 5231 it would result in it trying to refocus and then was a blur all night. Here are my settings on the 5231-Z12. I'm at 175 out and most plates pop off screen.

 

[biggen]

Agree on using fixed shutter speed at night - on my 5231 it would result in it trying to refocus and then was a blur all night. Here are my settings on the 5231-Z12. I'm at 175 out and most plates pop off screen.

View attachment 79233

View attachment 79234

Is that 175’ feet with no extra IR?

 

[ajwitt]

Correct - no extra IR - mine is set to manual at 100

 

[samplenhold]

While I can't really help with the 5231, I have the 5241 z12. I was getting really good night caps but when they came out with the new firmware that has the manual focus option, I upgraded to it. Well that has been a big problem for me. While my LPR-E cam has been fine, the LPR-W cam has been a bitch to get back to where I was. I have been fighting this for a week. At first it would not hold the manual focus and kept going offline for two minutes about every 90 minutes or so. I was using the experimental firmware (10/19/2020) that wildcat-1 tested. So I asked Andy for the latest official release and got the 22 version from 11/19/2020. Now it hold the manual focus and does not seem to be going offline at all, at least today.

But that firmware has a new option called 'Advanced 2D' and after dropping it to zero and making a few other changes, like setting the Shutter to 1/4000 and pumping up the Iris, I am getting much better caps.

Here are my settings


Old settings


Latest settings

 

[ajwitt]

I try not to upgrade unless it is to fix an issue I am having with the camera...but I upgraded my 5241-Z12 for that with that same firmware because of that manual focus setting and the quality went down for me as well. Mine isn't being used for LPR, but it was noticeable enough...

 

[biggen]

Interesting about the 2d filter. I did notice that I’d never seen that before. I’ve also had to crank up my Iris to 80.

Ill drop the 2d filter and see if that improves things.

 

[biggen]

I'm still missing quite a bit of plates at night. I'd say around 25%. Some look great like these two below:



But then I have dim plates roll through like these two:



So I'm not sure what the issue is . The plates also look grainy. I don't remember seeing so much grain when I used my 5442-Z4E. Maybe it's just dirty/poor plates at night. I was thinking about adding an IR illuminator but I'm not sure it would help.

 

[catcamstar]

From your original post, I see your FPS is 25, and your iFrame interval the double (which is an OOTB setting of the camera). Try to put the iFrame interval already at the same value of the FPS (hence 25), that will already avoid artefacts in the video stream.

All the other settings are trial & error. Time consuming yet rewarding

Good luck!
CC

 

[bigredfish]

my notes apply mostly to the 5231 but Ive used the same process for three 5241's Ive installed for buddies.

Nighttime LPR

• Stick with a fixed manual exposure of 1/1000 - 1/2000. Fixed because Custom Range allows the camera to search for a focus, and I've captured crystal clear plates on cars going 50mph at a 35 degree angle easily. No need to go faster
• I find DNR at 25-30 best. you need SOME DNR
• I've seen some use extremely low Sharpness settings?, I keep mine at all 40-50
• A little added Contrast helps but too much cam make the numbers on the plate messy
• Gain - between 0-35 and 0-50
• Iris- small changes here can make a very big difference. 45-60
• IR - Manual 100%
• I like 30FPS CBR and 8192 bitrate ( match FPS to Iframe)

 

[biggen]

Alright I'll keep playing with it. I just did up the iframe to match the fps. On my other 5442-Z4E, when I did this before, I got terrible pulsing so I always left the Iframe at the double the fps default. But I'm not getting that pulsing on the 5231 like I did for the 5442 so I'll give that a try.

I ran with a fixed 1/2000 exposure last night. Most of my settings are similar to what you just posted @bigredfish. Maybe I'm looking for perfection when its not possible. Some plates aren't very reflective for some reason. My own plate which isn't very dirty does not reflect hardly anything back to my cameras at night.

The picture below is the color scheme I wish all plates would use. Black on white is the most contrast you can ever get.

 

[bigredfish]

God Bless Texas!