another LPR setup dud..

[snoyes34231]

trying to use a
IPC-HFW5241E-Z12E
System VersionV2.840.15OG00A.0.R, Build Date: 2022-01-10
for a LPR camera.
focused the camera in daylight, NO problem grabing LP's out of the video.
Now its nighttime and can't get a thing.. the 1st picture is a street sign about 20 past the focus point .. the cars are moving about 15-20mph , I cant see anything. the last is snap of a car driving by..



thanks in advance.

 

[richardgohth]

Night time, good to use IR illuminator in monochrome mode.

 

[snoyes34231]

Night time, good to use IR illuminator in monochrome mode.

its MAYBE 40'

 

[richardgohth]

its MAYBE 40'

about 90 feet

 

[snoyes34231]

my setup is about 40 feet..

 

[wittaj]

40 feet or 90 shouldn't be a problem for the Z12E built-in IR. I am at 175 feet with just built-in IR



Now what is the first difference we see - yours is too grey so you have some parameters too high and that is messing with the focus. This thread shows how much having the parameters too high or low can cause focus issues.

Or it looks like you might be getting IR bounce off those leaves.

Drop HLC to 50 and even try it off. Drop brightness to 50 or lower. Increase iris.

Here are my settings:




How did you focus for night - you need to stop a vehicle in the center of the frame at night and turn the focus step to 1 (default is 20) and dial in the focus. If you are on auto or try to let it do it, it will be a blur.

Also, where are you from? You may have one of the 3M problem plates:

Poor IR contrast in new Tennessee license plates

I've noticed an issue with nighttime capture of new 2022 Tennessee license plates. The white lettering on a blue background washes out almost completely in IR light, making the plates barely readable. Has anyone encountered similar issues with other plates? I'm wondering if additional IR...

ipcamtalk.com

 

[snoyes34231]

im' in Florida.. I've changed the setting to roughly match yours.. waiting for a car to drive by.. can also move my van to the street and see how it looks.

 

[snoyes34231]

cam setttings

 

[wittaj]

Oh we have lot's in Florida that get good plates like @bigredfish

Another thing is these are not infinity focus and 40 feet to 75 feet is a big enough range that the focus number will change and be a different focus number at 40 feet and 75 feet.

Just my image above has a 10 step difference in focus from the top right to the bottom left corner.

For LPR, manual is for fine tuning, but you need to drop the Speed/step from 20 to 1 to fine tune it or else you are taking swings at focus at 20 step intervals.

With autofocus, it will focus one time on the bottom of the image, and the next time on the top of the image, and then you get a blurry plate and it will hunt all night.

And then have someone stop a car at 40 feet, 55 feet, and 75 feet and get a focus number for each one and you will see a difference.

Then you have to decide which one to use or hope they are close enough that even a little blurry you can still make out the plate.

 

[snoyes34231]

im' just saying the street sign is about 75 and my daytime focus was about 40.. here is car that just drove by., frame by frame nothing is usable

 

[wittaj]

Yeah that is a focus issue.

Can you have someone go out (or take a laptop if your wifi will reach) and stop a car in the middle of the frame and focus it.

Otherwise it will hunt all night for a focus.

Another option is to drop the shutter to like 1/10 and do a focus that way without a vehicle (it may or may not work but will be better than what you have now) and then right down that focus number and change the focus to manual and then set the shutter back to 1/2000

 

[snoyes34231]

could I be getting to much reflection , causing the plates to not light up?

 

[snoyes34231]

the cam is back in the bushes a bit.

 

[wittaj]

I do think that some of the issue is the IR bounce from the leaves, but based on your blurry image I think we get the focus down first and then play with the settings to see how much of those leaves are impacting the IR.

At 40 feet you might get away with it.

 

[snoyes34231]

I'll go park my van in the road and see what I can get.

 

[bigredfish]

Is the immediate above image a cropped one or the full image? Post the full image no cropping no digital zoom. That will tell us how tight your optical zoom is. Basically you want to be zoomed to about the length of car, very little more.

It looks like 1) focus is off, and 2) you dont have enough light, assuming a good zoom. Try increasing Iris to 50

Here's at 65-75 ft, vehicles traveling 15-25mph (note the motorcycle)



Night settings

 

[wittaj]

^Good point I forgot to mention! Lets see a full image during the daytime so we can get an idea as to how much zoom you have going on.

 

[snoyes34231]

these are the new setting, and look how the street sigh is lite up.. waiting for a drive by ..

 

[snoyes34231]

daytime

 

[wittaj]

OK that is zoomed in enough!

But you can see that shrub or tree will be problematic. I can see a blur of it in the daytime and night time, so you will want to trim that back now.

The street sign is clear to read, so focus will be close now, but it might still need some adjustment because the more we zoom, the tighter (smaller) the focus area gets.