So this evening I finally got around to setting up a test rig with my new B5442E-Z4E that I bought from @EMPIRETECANDY and received in less than two days shipped from Hong Kong. Thank you Andy. I am impressed with this cam.
A little background on the job this cam is to do. I live on a T-intersection corner. I am about to install two LPR cams (HFW5241E-Z12E). The coverage will be such that the only vehicles I can't get plates on (provided they have plates) are ones that do not have a front plate and take the turn into the base of the 'T'. But with a recent incident where a guy stole my neighbor's tailgate from his pickup right in his driveway, I had no good footage to give him that said more than "possibly a blue RAM pickup with no front plate". And since it was at night, even if I had the LPR cams up and running, I would not get any description of the truck. And if he had no plates, then we got nada. I felt really bad that I could not help him.
So I got to thinking about what cam would be good to serve as a cam that would get vehicle color, make, model, damage, stickers, etc. even after dark. I tested an old 5231 varifocal turret that I just retired with a T5442 in 6mm. I was not happy with the footage at full zoom.
I also set up a T5442 in 2.8mm that has yet to be installed. While the FOV was not appropriate, the night color was great.
So I thought why not get the B5442E-Z4E? The color should be good at night and it has more zoom.
It is 65-70 feet from the cam to the intersection. I can't get over how well this cam performs, especially after dark. Here are a bunch of test shots at different focal lengths in different lighting conditions. I did mess with some of the exposure settings trying to dial it in, but these are by no means the final and best it can do. I will wait until it is actually installed to do the final dial in of the settings. The equivalent fixed lens value is listed on the bottom of each photo, along with the time of day.
These two are at 18mm equivalent. I can't get over the clarity of the plate. It is 7:30pm and the sun is down behind the house. All of these shots are looking East. You can even get a fairly decent face shot of the person driving the Honda.
This one is at 27mm. No problem getting the plate. Guy barley slowed down to make the turn, not stopping for the stop sign.
These next two are at 32mm, full zoom. Even get a paper plate ID. But 32mm is too close. Not enough view to get cars going down the top part of the 'T'.
Now it is getting dark. I dialed back to 28mm. I can get color, make , and type but plates are not readable on this car.
It is dark now. But the ice cream truck that is going very slowly and making the turn has a good plate cap. All of the cars headed out of the 'T' do great. There is a street light next to the stop sign. Plus most of them slow down to take the turn at the stop sign. None of them actually stopped.
So the blue (?) Camaro rag top was going too fast to get much. Hope I can do better once everything is installed. The red golf cart does not have a plate.
So what about people? We had some door checkers go by this corner a few weeks ago and my high mounted overview cam caught them and got somewhat of a description of clothing, but is too wide a FOV for faces. Well here I caught an undesirable walking along the street. I know this guy. Great face shot.
Well, to summarize, I was surprised at how well the plate cap were for most of the shots. As far as getting color, make, type, stickers, damage, etc, I think this will be really good for that. It can also augment the LPR cams when they are installed. I was also happy with the face shot at night. This will be a real plus.
A little info on the settings. I started out with all defaults in the first few shots. The color and exposure was fine. As the light began to fade, I was getting motion blur so I set the shutter to 1/2000 and boosted the Iris to 62. As the street lights came on, I was getting 60Hz flicker. So I switched to 60Hz/manual/ 1/120. Did mess around a little with brightness, contrast, saturation, and sharpness. Running full resolution at 20FPs with same I Frame. Bit rate type is CBR customized rate set at 16384 Kb/s. H.264H.
Well I hope you found this interesting, and not too long of a post. It will be a while before I can run the ethernet to the location. Unfortunately, life gets in the way of my hobbies. Please feel free to comment or ask questions.
I hope this helps n3bs with the concept of making a plan, defining the job of the cam, testing it out with different options, and realizing that plans evolve over time. I have been doing this for almost 2 years now. This cam position was not in the plan until a few weeks ago.
A little background on the job this cam is to do. I live on a T-intersection corner. I am about to install two LPR cams (HFW5241E-Z12E). The coverage will be such that the only vehicles I can't get plates on (provided they have plates) are ones that do not have a front plate and take the turn into the base of the 'T'. But with a recent incident where a guy stole my neighbor's tailgate from his pickup right in his driveway, I had no good footage to give him that said more than "possibly a blue RAM pickup with no front plate". And since it was at night, even if I had the LPR cams up and running, I would not get any description of the truck. And if he had no plates, then we got nada. I felt really bad that I could not help him.
So I got to thinking about what cam would be good to serve as a cam that would get vehicle color, make, model, damage, stickers, etc. even after dark. I tested an old 5231 varifocal turret that I just retired with a T5442 in 6mm. I was not happy with the footage at full zoom.
I also set up a T5442 in 2.8mm that has yet to be installed. While the FOV was not appropriate, the night color was great.
So I thought why not get the B5442E-Z4E? The color should be good at night and it has more zoom.
It is 65-70 feet from the cam to the intersection. I can't get over how well this cam performs, especially after dark. Here are a bunch of test shots at different focal lengths in different lighting conditions. I did mess with some of the exposure settings trying to dial it in, but these are by no means the final and best it can do. I will wait until it is actually installed to do the final dial in of the settings. The equivalent fixed lens value is listed on the bottom of each photo, along with the time of day.
These two are at 18mm equivalent. I can't get over the clarity of the plate. It is 7:30pm and the sun is down behind the house. All of these shots are looking East. You can even get a fairly decent face shot of the person driving the Honda.
This one is at 27mm. No problem getting the plate. Guy barley slowed down to make the turn, not stopping for the stop sign.
These next two are at 32mm, full zoom. Even get a paper plate ID. But 32mm is too close. Not enough view to get cars going down the top part of the 'T'.
Now it is getting dark. I dialed back to 28mm. I can get color, make , and type but plates are not readable on this car.
It is dark now. But the ice cream truck that is going very slowly and making the turn has a good plate cap. All of the cars headed out of the 'T' do great. There is a street light next to the stop sign. Plus most of them slow down to take the turn at the stop sign. None of them actually stopped.
So the blue (?) Camaro rag top was going too fast to get much. Hope I can do better once everything is installed. The red golf cart does not have a plate.
So what about people? We had some door checkers go by this corner a few weeks ago and my high mounted overview cam caught them and got somewhat of a description of clothing, but is too wide a FOV for faces. Well here I caught an undesirable walking along the street. I know this guy. Great face shot.
Well, to summarize, I was surprised at how well the plate cap were for most of the shots. As far as getting color, make, type, stickers, damage, etc, I think this will be really good for that. It can also augment the LPR cams when they are installed. I was also happy with the face shot at night. This will be a real plus.
A little info on the settings. I started out with all defaults in the first few shots. The color and exposure was fine. As the light began to fade, I was getting motion blur so I set the shutter to 1/2000 and boosted the Iris to 62. As the street lights came on, I was getting 60Hz flicker. So I switched to 60Hz/manual/ 1/120. Did mess around a little with brightness, contrast, saturation, and sharpness. Running full resolution at 20FPs with same I Frame. Bit rate type is CBR customized rate set at 16384 Kb/s. H.264H.
Well I hope you found this interesting, and not too long of a post. It will be a while before I can run the ethernet to the location. Unfortunately, life gets in the way of my hobbies. Please feel free to comment or ask questions.
I hope this helps n3bs with the concept of making a plan, defining the job of the cam, testing it out with different options, and realizing that plans evolve over time. I have been doing this for almost 2 years now. This cam position was not in the plan until a few weeks ago.
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