Thanks to this forum I was able to get a IPC-HFW5241E-Z12E setup for LPR with Blue Iris (hoping to catch a porch pirate!).
While I am still dialing it in, I am able to get what seems to be sufficient quality video for LPR use at night and during the day. I've been able to get the camera switching between the two modes via Blue Iris and the html command tied to sunset and sunrise.
My issue is: during the morning hours (8am-ish to 11am-ish) the sun is too bright and washes out all plates. My camera faces west, and as the sun rises, it appears to be too bright for my daylight settings to handle the very bright reflection of plates which are oriented east and west. I am able to tweak things to make the daylight profile work, but then, after noon or so, that profile won't catch any plates. So I'm trying to decide what to do.
I'm wondering if there is a way to make a 3rd profile (night, day, and "early day") and then I could have blue iris switch between the 3 at the appropriate times. Or, should there be some daytime setting which should be able to capture early morning plates with a very strong reflection as well as plates later in the day when the sun is overhead and there is much less reflection?
If making a 3rd profile is possible/an advisable solution, any pointers on how to do it? I tried using the "general" profile in the camera's settings, but it seems that when I make a change to the "general" profile it makes the same change to my "day" profile (ie I changed General to Color and then I went to my "day" profile" and it too was changed from BW to color). So I'm not sure what the general profile does exactly and not sure if it can serve my purpose of a 3rd profile.
Here's what I get in the daytime, between about 11am and when the sunsets:
This is the same settings, earlier in the morning, when the sun is rising, pointing directly at the plates and appears to be giving off too much reflection:
I modified the daytime profile where it will capture in the bright early sun:
But the profile that works on the early morning, bright sun, doesn't work the rest of the day:
And not sure that it's relevant, but this is what I've got so far for my nighttime profile:
While I am still dialing it in, I am able to get what seems to be sufficient quality video for LPR use at night and during the day. I've been able to get the camera switching between the two modes via Blue Iris and the html command tied to sunset and sunrise.
My issue is: during the morning hours (8am-ish to 11am-ish) the sun is too bright and washes out all plates. My camera faces west, and as the sun rises, it appears to be too bright for my daylight settings to handle the very bright reflection of plates which are oriented east and west. I am able to tweak things to make the daylight profile work, but then, after noon or so, that profile won't catch any plates. So I'm trying to decide what to do.
I'm wondering if there is a way to make a 3rd profile (night, day, and "early day") and then I could have blue iris switch between the 3 at the appropriate times. Or, should there be some daytime setting which should be able to capture early morning plates with a very strong reflection as well as plates later in the day when the sun is overhead and there is much less reflection?
If making a 3rd profile is possible/an advisable solution, any pointers on how to do it? I tried using the "general" profile in the camera's settings, but it seems that when I make a change to the "general" profile it makes the same change to my "day" profile (ie I changed General to Color and then I went to my "day" profile" and it too was changed from BW to color). So I'm not sure what the general profile does exactly and not sure if it can serve my purpose of a 3rd profile.
Here's what I get in the daytime, between about 11am and when the sunsets:
This is the same settings, earlier in the morning, when the sun is rising, pointing directly at the plates and appears to be giving off too much reflection:
I modified the daytime profile where it will capture in the bright early sun:
But the profile that works on the early morning, bright sun, doesn't work the rest of the day:
And not sure that it's relevant, but this is what I've got so far for my nighttime profile:
