Recommendation on LPC cam

[subterminal]

What do you guys recommend for a LPC camera for both day and night?

Details:
The camera will face our driveway, which is a gravel road where cars drive slowly (like 5-10mph). The camera will be mounted on the corner of my house and will have a straight-on shot as vehicles come around a 90* bend. The distance from where I'll mount to the middle of the bend is 35m/115ft. See poorly drawn map below.

The bend in the road is very dark with no illumination.

The LPR will be offloaded to AI via BlueIris, so I don't need any fancy AI in the camera.

 

[Nunofya]

Look on Forums LPR.

 

[wittaj]

That is a perfect candidate for the 5241-Z12E.

Regarding plates, keep in mind that this is a camera dedicated to plates and not an overview camera also. It is as much an art as it is a science. You will need two cameras. For LPR we need to OPTICALLY zoom in tight to make the plate as large as possible. For most of us, all you see is the not much more than a vehicle in the entire frame. Now maybe in the right location during the day it might be able to see some other things, but not at night.

At night, we have to run a very fast shutter speed (1/2,000) and in B/W with IR and the image will be black. All you will see are head/tail lights and the plate. Some people can get away with color if they have enough street lights, but most of us cannot. Here is a representative sample of plates I get at night of vehicles traveling about 45MPH at 175 feet from my 2MP 5241-Z12E camera (that is all that is needed for plates):

https://www.amazon.com/Loryta-IPC-HFW5241E-Z12E-Starlight-Network-English/dp/B07RJQT9NB/ref=sr_1_5?m=A329YQ83EBQGJF&qid=1693446594&s=merchant-items&sr=1-5

 

[subterminal]

That is a perfect candidate for the 5241-Z12E.

Thanks for the recommendation! To clarify: I only need a single 5241-Z12E for both day and night, correct? I assume that I can use profiles to change settings?

 

[wittaj]

That would be correct - one camera and set up a day profile and a night profile.

I have had this camera for years and just bought the newest one:

Mini-Review - 5241-Z12E-S2 - Replacement for the 5241-Z12E

Because we have had so many incidents over the years, I had finally convinced the neighbor at the beginning of the subdivision to allow me to put my LPR camera on their house so we could get everything coming in and out as they have a better angle and shorter distance than I do. I think many of...

ipcamtalk.com

 

[samplenhold]

See these posts:

New to LPR? Considerations Before You Begin

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...

ipcamtalk.com

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

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...

ipcamtalk.com

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

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...

ipcamtalk.com

 

[subterminal]

See these posts:

Nice job chronicling your progress.

One question: I've seen a few posts now where people place their LPR cameras on the ground. You post makes it sound like you didn't want them super visible on your house, and other posts don't mention much about placement. Is there better reflection of the license plate if the camera is on the ground as opposed to mounted 12-15' high on a building or tree? Or is that negligible?

 

[samplenhold]

One question: I've seen a few posts now where people place their LPR cameras on the ground. You post makes it sound like you didn't want them super visible on your house, and other posts don't mention much about placement. Is there better reflection of the license plate if the camera is on the ground as opposed to mounted 12-15' high on a building or tree? Or is that negligible?

I considered several positions. I was apprehensive to place so many obvious, large cams pointing out into the street. They are much more obvious than the turrets that I have elsewhere, where you really can't tell what they are viewing. But those bullets are obviously not looking at my property but are looking at the street. So putting them in a box in the garden hides them fairly well. Most people are oblivious and never notice them.

Many folks here place them on their soffits with no problems at all.

I really advise to think about your positioning and then test out the placement BEFORE you run cable and mountings. Have alternate plans just in case your primary position does not work out.