Using IR illuminator with street light and ambient light

[Bitslizer]

Agree, post your settings and the camera being used.

Here is mine at 175 feet with no additional IR:

View attachment 91307

Now you may be getting some IR bounce the camera isn't seeing and some IR loss due to shooting it between two trees, but I think you have some tweaking left to do.

His plate shot looks alot like B&W with no IR, we know he's using IR, thus if its a used cam (5231 are old after all) it is possible the IR cut filter is not working

 

[biggen]

It doesn't appear you are getting IR bounce. That plate should be brilliant and j umping off the screen like below with supplemental IR:



Yeah, lets see your recent settings.

 

[Billyjack5]

Biggen, I agree. I'm running a Dahua branded Z12E with the latest firmware from the Dahua site. My settings are attached. From outward purposes, the IR on the camera seems to work in that I see four rather ominous looking glowing dots at night. When I was trying to aim the Axton illuminator, though, I had to use the overview camera on the tree (a IPC-T2231T-ZS 2MP I bought from Andy) as I didn't see any change in the image in the Z12E field of view, even when switch to "auto" nighttime exposure settings and ensuring that the picture was in B&W. I guess I've been assuming the IR was at least partially being blocked by the tree and that ambient white light was degrading the IR, but maybe not.

 

[wittaj]

Those seem in the ballpark.

Can you hear the IR filter when it kicks to B/W? I agree I wonder if it is stuck.

 

[Billyjack5]

Those seem in the ballpark.

Can you hear the IR filter when it kicks to B/W? I agree I wonder if it is stuck.

Wittaj, I've not tried, but will but will check when I'm able to physically get back in a couple of weeks. A IR filter isn't something that I'm familiar with. Would I need to physically take the camera apart to fix?

 

[wittaj]

Sometimes just a good ole smack on the camera gets it loose and going again LOL.

Sometimes they hang or get caught.

 

[Billyjack5]

Since I wasn't able to see the Axton IR at all with the Z12E when aiming it, I'm now thinking the cut filter is the problem. Observing the Axton through the 2231T-TS I could make shadow puppets on the median 250' away. If that's the case, my Z12E cut filter hasn't worked since I first installed the camera last September. Attached is a pic of the Z12E when I switched the exposure settings back to "auto" and ensured that "B&W" was on when aiming illuminator. Now that you guys mention it, I should be able to see the camera's IR against the tree on the right and the pine tree trunk on the left.

 

[wittaj]

Sometimes a factory reset can get it going as well. Or even a reboot.

I'd say since you aren't close to it, if you can give it several reboots remotely give that a try.

 

[samplenhold]

A few comments:
If you are worried that there is bounce back from the trees, then try placing the IR illuminator from the position of the overview cam. Even for a temporary trial may tell you something.

I do not think that artificial light can 'wipe out' the IR light. Yeah, daylight can, but I doubt if you have enough ambient light to do that. Both my LPR cams have a street lamp very close to the plate locations and I get good caps.

Some plates just do not reflect well. See my shots below. These shots are from my LPR-W cam and are about 100 feet to the plates. The cam is mounted in a box at the bottom of the picture below. See the FOV in red.

Here is what the view from the cam looks like in the daytime.


Here are some shots of plate caps using only the IR on the cam (5241 Z12). Rear are generally good, and fronts are usually not so good.


And here is what it looks like without and vehicles at night


Toughest for me is at dusk


Here are my night settings

 

[richardgohth]

Well, I installed the Axton Nano 5 watt, 10 degree illuminator and while the illuminator certainly worked, it didn't provide much noticeable improvement to my LPR capture. I'm running a HFW5231E-Z12E and have to thread a bit of a needle through two trees (see attached) with ambient light. From the pic, you can see the daytime capture area circle in red, which about 85-90 feet from the camera. I have a couple of cameras on the pine tree to the left, and the second pic shows the IR shining in the vicinity of the capture area (you can see the neat line where the tree trunk is blocking the IR). As you can see, the IR coverage extends across the median, even through ambient street light, which is actually pretty impressive for a 5 watt illuminator.

My settings aren't perfect, but when there's a license plate light on a vehicle I generally get at least a partially readable plate. I was hoping the illuminator would light up the plates that aren't lit by plate lights. While I do notice the existence of those plates with the illuminator, they aren't close to readable. I'm thinking I'm going to try the more powerful, 11 watt, 10 degree version.

The last pic is an example of a decent (by my standards, at least) plate read without the illuminator.

can post uncropped of last pic?