Replacement camera questions - FOCUS on NIGHT TIME - looking for advise

[blainet]

First, appreciate the forums and all the good info. Sorry for the long post but I'm looking for the best advise I can get!

So currently I have 2, 3xLogic VX-4V-OD-RI-02 domes on a lamp post highlighted below and a 3rd further down on a private road. They have been in place for a few years and have needed some changes made and tested that I am not able to do. For example, I'm locked out of the true admin account and can not turn off the LEDs nor get them to play nice with Blue Iris. I have tried the tricks here to get the admin password and even contacted support and got the reply most get, not US, not a retail sale, etc. I contacted the installer and they don't want to support further as we didn't pay for maintenance - but happy to sell us upgrades and maintenance. As most of you are already guessing, the weakest part of these is vehicle capture in the dark. Sign posted says speed limit of 15 and those cars/trucks at that speed are 'clear enough'. Those are usually residents. What's more critical to capture are 'unwanted guests' that come through at 2, 3 or more times that speed or those looking to find that dark dead end or check out people's houses.

So here's the camera coverage area and the views I get. Below that are the distances. With placement along a curve, what initially sounded like a good idea is hampering getting good, clear images. There is a low to medium illumination coming from the lamp post but that plus the IR just washes everything away. With the shutter speed adjust up for clarity, it gets darker and darker and shutter speed down... the blur. I can post stills or video of anything if helpful.

Looking to replace both, budget range of say $600 each or less and probably add a license plate cam about 900' down the road where there would be a long view of someone driving away from the camera towards the dead end (no front plate state). Optional would be one at or near the dead end. Power, network and POE not an issue, a good 4 to 8 channel NVR recommendation would also be great, especially if it was something that interfaced with BI and I could somehow share with neighbors/select neighbors. Thank you for reading all this.

(Edit- I believe I can run BI as the NVR but haven't focused on that since I ran into the roadblock of the locked admin accounts about 2 years ago. If thats the best or most viable option, great. Forgot that until re-reading my own post.)



There is view overlap and the tree in the on the right side of this image (below) is the same as the tree on the left side in the next image.



Here are the distances.





I understand trying to capture video to the public road at 330 feet and still be usable as the object gets close to and passes the camera will be difficult. We do have people who pull in right there and do everything from 'relations' to the neighborhood kids finding a crack pipe later. But clear detail in that 135' range would be best. Detail to the 150' pond area is a plus but not the focus. And yes, before someone asks - insects/spiders are an issue and we get below freezing with snow and ice during winter.

I have read almost all the latest reviews here on 'best night time cams' and more ranging back maybe 2 years. Have also looked at EmpireTech Andy's posts and offering as well as many others but some of the fine details... I'm sure someone can come up with good suggestions or even confirmations to what I was seeing/thinking. Thanks again, appreciate all the feed back!

 

[wittaj]

Blue Iris/Computer is an NVR, so you don't need an NVR and Blue Iris, nor do they really "talk" to either. Blue Iris cannot be ran on an NVR. However, you can feed the video stream from an NVR into BI and many do that to have a redundant storage system.

Check out this thread that lists (with purchase links) the most commonly recommended cameras based on distance to IDENTIFY that we believe represent the best overall value in terms of price and performance day and night.

The Importance of Focal Length over MP in camera selection

At the urging of several folks here, I created a thread to show the importance of focal length and how focal length can be more important than megapixels (MP). I mentioned some of this in the post regarding The Hookup’s latest video demonstrating different cameras, including one sold from a...

ipcamtalk.com

And it sounds like you know this, but 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):

See the LPR subforum for more details.

 

[blainet]

Was writing that post for too long last night and I kept thinking of things like "oh yeah, BI handling the NVR role" and adding them. Appreciate the image from your plate reader. That is nice and clear. Currently I am thinking of mounting that dedicated camera under a mail box looking at traffic heading into the neighborhood (away from the cam in this role). Seems like the troublemakers come in slower than they leave so that's the best opportunity. I will add the 5241-Z12E to the list as "recommended LPR". Thanks!

 

[bradner]

Biggest thing that helped my video captures was adding extra lighting. Being able to have a faster shutter speed just makes videos/snapshots so much more clearer - especially at night. The biggest sensors help though - like the 1/1.2" Dahuas out recently but even they have limits when trying to capture moving targets in very low light.

 

[blainet]

Project update:

So after more research, I reached out to Empire Tech Andy, got some good input and ordered a few cameras. I am trying to move forward with a dome and bullet camera on one mount arm and made a quick 3d printed mount to join the two together. Waiting for the paint to fully dry on the arms and will assemble and post pictures.

Cameras. Went with 2 DH-IPC-HDBW7842E1-Z-X (Dahua link) domes and 1 DH-IPC-HFW5241E-Z12E (Dahua link) bullet in black. Was going to try and re-use the existing mounts/box but the new camera's mounts are larger and I couldn't see an easy way to retrofit so ordered the mounts also. Ordered in white and have painted black to match the light post.

The next question was how to mount the 2 cameras and arm together. Keeping it simple (will post more if people want the info), I scanned in the square mount of the bullet cam and the body of the mount arm, cleaned up the images and pulled them into Tinkercad.

So this scan


Into this image


Into this 3d shape


I then did the same for the Z12E mount.


Took me a try or two to get the scale right for each half and then merged them together at a slight angle. I also needed to add a relief notch (belt sander) and a little clearance. This is part number 1 of 2. Angle of the picture makes the inserted nuts look off but they are square to the through holes. The top and left of the mount (below) are square/aligned with the arm mount and the bullet cam mount is slightly rotated 'forward' to get 2 bolts from the bullet cam into the aluminum arm.


Good view of the angle.


Two bolts go from the bullet mount, through the plastic "spacer" into the aluminum arm diagonally and are threaded in. Two bolts using almost all the plastic's thickness attach the printed mount to the arm and two bolts go through the plastic mount to nuts heat melted into the backside plastic.

Will post more as I test assemble.