Optimal height of camera for animal, pedestrian, driver & plate-vehicle ID

[kd4e]

The attached image is at about 6 feet above grade.

I plan to mount an IPC-B5442E-Z4E camera there.

Is that an acceptable height?

(I get that higher is better, to limit vandal-access, but it seems higher means a more difficult angle of view. WDYT?)

NOTE: There's also another camera looking straight at the driveway opening.

Thanks!

 

[wittaj]

You will find most here don't prescribe to the "higher is better to limit vandal access".

You need it low enough to get faces, not tops of heads.

If it is low enough that they mess with it, you usually get a good image of them doing so.

But keep in mind, one camera shouldn't serve all those duties if you expect to have good results! Especially when it comes to plates.

 

[kd4e]

You will find most here don't prescribe to the "higher is better to limit vandal access".

You need it low enough to get faces, not tops of heads.

If it is low enough that they mess with it, you usually get a good image of them doing so.

But keep in mind, one camera shouldn't serve all those duties if you expect to have good results! Especially when it comes to plates.

So, should 6 feet be OK or do I want to be even lower?

 

[bigredfish]

I do mostly 6-8 ft

 

[Ri22o]

Seeing where the road is, I think the treeline is the bigger concern, and not height.

 

[kd4e]

Seeing where the road is, I think the treeline is the bigger concern, and not height.

I'm not sure what you mean.

I'm only interested in the open yard area - between the camera and the white PVC-fenced driveway entry.

Nothing past that (there will be other cams for the street).

 

[andrewy]

Usually 6ft-9ft is recommended for being able to read license plates clearly (basically close to eye level with plates), in my experience less than a 35 degree angle from the front/back of vehicles (too sharp of an angle results in blurrier plates), and a minimum of 20fps-30fps the better. This is applicable no matter if it has license plate recognition or not, if it does doing these things only improves your results. In some cases a PTZ camera with auto-tracking can be really effective as well even if it doesn't have license plate recognition.

 

[samplenhold]

Not sure how far away the LPR area is from the cam in that picture. As @wittaj stated, one cam to do all of your listed items is not going to work. LPR must have a dedicated cam to get plates both day and night. It needs to be focused on the path of the vehicle. A diagram/map view of this area may help in giving you recommendations. Without distances, the Z4E may not have enough zoom/FOV to get plates there.

If you want info on driver/vehicle id you will need a second cam that is tuned for that job. That cam may be able to give you info on animals and pedestrians.

See the LPR section of this forum.

My LPR cams are 3 feet off the ground. My overview cam is 7 feet off the ground. See these threads.

Thread 'New to LPR? Considerations Before You Begin'

Nov 12, 2020

Thought I would throw together a post on my experiences so far with LPR in an effort to help others that are considering running down that rabbit hole. There are some practical considerations you should know about LPR. I am approaching this from the position of using Blue Iris and Plate Recognizer Snapshot as that is what I have done so far. If you are using an NVR or some other plate OCR, then some of the discussion may not apply to you.


Plate Recognizer (PR) is very easy to set up in Blue Iris (BI). It uses the Alert image from the trigger alert in BI. BI sends that Alert image to PR...

• samplenhold
• Replies: 160
• Forum: LPR

• 
• 
• 

Thread 'LPR Case Study: Scoping, Planning, Proof of Concept, Installation, & Results'

Jan 1, 2021

Introduction

This thread is about my journey into LPR (License Plate Recognition) after having about 18 months of experience with IP cams and having quite a bit of my system finished. I am not an expert on LPR, or IP cameras either. But I have spent a lot of time working with my system and interacting on IPCAMTALK.

Some things to realize as you read this. I am retired so I have time to not rush the work and I do it all myself. This took almost a year from inception to working cams. Part of the reason is that both my wife and I had some medical issues and both had surgeries during...

• samplenhold
• Replies: 26
• Forum: LPR

• 
• 

Thread 'Use of Overview and LPR Cams to Document Midnight Vehicle Distributing Offensive Flyers on Lawns'

Sep 3, 2021

We were out of town and I was checking my cams remotely one morning and noticed one of the Deputies that regularly patrol my subdivision had been at my front door. She has come to me a few times requesting video as she knows I have fairly good coverage of the streets at my corner. I noticed that as she walked down my walkway, she stopped and picked up something on my lawn. Since I knew her, I sent an email asking what was up. She replied later in the day that there had been an incident in the neighborhood and wanted to know if I had video from the night before.

I answered her that I was...

• samplenhold
• Replies: 8
• Forum: Camera Captures

• 
• 

Thread 'The Trouble with Getting Into LPR'

Oct 30, 2020

I have been into cams as a hobby now for a little over two years. I originally had hoped to do LPR, but as time went by I thought it would never happen, mostly due to where could I put cams and how to get cable to them.

But then COVID hit and I found I had a lot of time on my hands just sitting around on my ass on the front porch. Which got me to thinking about LPR again. So I made a plan and tested multiple ideas. Finally bought the cams, built the box and installed them. Got everything hooked up this past Tuesday. Thanks to all of the folks that came before me and did the hard lifting...

• samplenhold
• Replies: 6
• Forum: LPR

• 
• 

 

[kd4e]

Not sure how far away the LPR area is from the cam in that picture. As @wittaj stated, one cam to do all of your listed items is not going to work. LPR must have a dedicated cam to get plates both day and night. It needs to be focused on the path of the vehicle. A diagram/map view of this area may help in giving you recommendations. Without distances, the Z4E may not have enough zoom/FOV to get plates there.

If you want info on driver/vehicle id you will need a second cam that is tuned for that job. That cam may be able to give you info on animals and pedestrians.

See the LPR section of this forum.

My LPR cams are 3 feet off the ground. My overview cam is 7 feet off the ground. See these threads.

Thread 'New to LPR? Considerations Before You Begin'

Nov 12, 2020

Thought I would throw together a post on my experiences so far with LPR in an effort to help others that are considering running down that rabbit hole. There are some practical considerations you should know about LPR. I am approaching this from the position of using Blue Iris and Plate Recognizer Snapshot as that is what I have done so far. If you are using an NVR or some other plate OCR, then some of the discussion may not apply to you.


Plate Recognizer (PR) is very easy to set up in Blue Iris (BI). It uses the Alert image from the trigger alert in BI. BI sends that Alert image to PR...

• samplenhold
• Replies: 160
• Forum: LPR

• 
• 
• 

Thread 'LPR Case Study: Scoping, Planning, Proof of Concept, Installation, & Results'

Jan 1, 2021

Introduction

This thread is about my journey into LPR (License Plate Recognition) after having about 18 months of experience with IP cams and having quite a bit of my system finished. I am not an expert on LPR, or IP cameras either. But I have spent a lot of time working with my system and interacting on IPCAMTALK.

Some things to realize as you read this. I am retired so I have time to not rush the work and I do it all myself. This took almost a year from inception to working cams. Part of the reason is that both my wife and I had some medical issues and both had surgeries during...

• samplenhold
• Replies: 26
• Forum: LPR

• 
• 

Thread 'Use of Overview and LPR Cams to Document Midnight Vehicle Distributing Offensive Flyers on Lawns'

Sep 3, 2021

We were out of town and I was checking my cams remotely one morning and noticed one of the Deputies that regularly patrol my subdivision had been at my front door. She has come to me a few times requesting video as she knows I have fairly good coverage of the streets at my corner. I noticed that as she walked down my walkway, she stopped and picked up something on my lawn. Since I knew her, I sent an email asking what was up. She replied later in the day that there had been an incident in the neighborhood and wanted to know if I had video from the night before.

I answered her that I was...

• samplenhold
• Replies: 8
• Forum: Camera Captures

• 
• 

Thread 'The Trouble with Getting Into LPR'

Oct 30, 2020

I have been into cams as a hobby now for a little over two years. I originally had hoped to do LPR, but as time went by I thought it would never happen, mostly due to where could I put cams and how to get cable to them.

But then COVID hit and I found I had a lot of time on my hands just sitting around on my ass on the front porch. Which got me to thinking about LPR again. So I made a plan and tested multiple ideas. Finally bought the cams, built the box and installed them. Got everything hooked up this past Tuesday. Thanks to all of the folks that came before me and did the hard lifting...

• samplenhold
• Replies: 6
• Forum: LPR

• 
• 

Thanks for the links - I'll sure have a look.

The white PVC driveway entrance fence is less than 150' from the point at which I took the photo.

There's another high resolution camera looking straight out the driveway and into the street.

The idea is that these two give me the best chance to record identifiable images of an animal, person, or vehicle as it enters and leaves the property.

I can add additional cameras, looking at that area, if necessary.

The plan is to add two cameras to look up and down the street.

We do have several other cameras, around the house perimeter, and a video doorbell (Reolink).

 

[samplenhold]

The white PVC driveway entrance fence is less than 150' from the point at which I took the photo.

A Z4E will not get you enough zoom to get consistent caps of plates at 150' A Z12E will do fine at those distances.

 

[Ri22o]

I'm not sure what you mean.

I'm only interested in the open yard area - between the camera and the white PVC-fenced driveway entry.

Nothing past that (there will be other cams for the street).

I guess more context/a better description would have been helpful. The only place, in the provided photo, that makes sense for cars to be driving is on the road beyond the treeline.

You will also, likely, need separate cameras for all of the items you are looking to cover. (animals, pedestrians, driver, plate number)

 

[kd4e]

I'm having trouble with mechanical alignment.

Is the camera supposed to be able to rotate left or right within the white vertical section - or only up and down - in line with the slotted cutout? @EMPIRETECANDY

 

[samplenhold]

The chrome shaft will go up and down in the slot. The chrome ball can move within the limited area of the slot. The camera can rotate separate from the ball.

But that white tube that the ball is in can rotate within the base to allow the slot to have any orientation.

 

[wittaj]

Sometimes you have to really loosen it, and if the rotation is big enough, it might be easier and faster to dismount it and loosen the screws from behind and rotate the camera to the general alignment and use the screw on the front for final alignment.