Dahua IPC-HFW5241E-Z12E with Hikvision NVR

[Maximo101]

Thanks to all the advice from everyone in this thread: Car licence plates with non ANPR camera

I have installed a Dahua IPC-HFW5241E-Z12E, Roughly 2.6m height from ground. Fully zoomed 60mm lens over 50m distance (which falls about 1.5m over that length), roughly 36° off the direct line of sight to the plate.
Image during the day with the overview 4MP 4mm lens Hikvision Bullet camera. Night time comparisons included. The IR from this camera as well as cross from the other front camera through extra IR toward the area of focus for the LPR.

First image of stationary car at night is great. Used for focus and camera placement.
Video of car traveling at night 45-50km, Glare might be too high (30%-80%) but you can sort make out the plate.
I think its a good starting point. Slower speeds should be more clear too, being residential should typically pass around 30-45km.

 

[samplenhold]

Looks good. At night you want a very fast shutter speed, like 1/2000, to freeze the action w/o blur. Pump up the IR if you can. Look at the threads in the LPR forum. You really only want to see the plates and car lights. Everything else should be black.

 

[Maximo101]

I set the Profile: Day/Night

Gain set at 0 - 50%
Manual Shutter Speed 1/2000
Backlight: HLC

Can anyone suggest what Day shutter speed should be? Currently set at 1/500
What other recommendations would anyone make?

 

[Maximo101]

Some single frames from the video (test2) with the above settings.
40-50km speeds at 50m distance.

 

[wittaj]

Daytime you can run a faster shutter - minimum 1/2000 but you could probably go 1/4000 easily, but 1/2000 is decent all the way around especially at the sunrise/sunset times. Knock the gain and noise way down - under 30.

For night, try knocking the gain down to 30 and HLC at 30 and see if the image is better. Go with the 1/2000 shutter. Take Gamma to 40. Noise at 30.

 

[Maximo101]

Daytime you can run a faster shutter - minimum 1/2000 but you could probably go 1/4000 easily, but 1/2000 is decent all the way around especially at the sunrise/sunset times. Knock the gain and noise way down - under 30.

For night, try knocking the gain down to 30 and HLC at 30 and see if the image is better. Go with the 1/2000 shutter. Take Gamma to 40. Noise at 30.

I set these before bed. Below picture is with these settings but cant see the plate.
Ill try raising these somewhere inbetween to test tonight.

 

[wittaj]

Here are my settings:

 

[oknoob]

Here are my settings:
View attachment 68882

Hi to all. I just receive that camera from Andy today. I connected with my lorex nvr, where I can do those settings? My nvr don't have those. Thanks

 

[wittaj]

@oknoob - you have to log into the camera GUI itself, not the NVR. Either thru Internet Explorer type in the IP address of that camera, or if you have a Dahua NVR, there should be an e browser link that will open up explorer.

 

[Maximo101]

Hi to all. I just receive that camera from Andy today. I connected with my lorex nvr, where I can do those settings? My nvr don't have those. Thanks

@oknoob I tried the same thing as mentioned in this thread: Changing Camera IP through NVR Poe - the default ip for dahua is 192.168.1.108 (static set in the device itself)
but after trying the suggestion from @biggen , i could not access the Dahua settings through a pc connected to the nvr on same subnet / network segment as the camera.
Since I didnt have a POE injector or POE switch laying around, I managed to use an old DC 12V power adapter, plug a laptop (with ip 192.168.1.110, subnet 255.255.255.0, Gateway 192.168.1.1) into the Cat6 cable from the camera and change the IP address of the camera (to 192.168.254.10 to align with my hikvision cameras on192.168.254.2-9) and adjust settings.
This was fine when at the pc, but after installing the camera in its location (as pictured), I left the DC 12V adapter in the roof space, with an old extension lead to power it, i turn power on & remove the cat6 cable from the nvr and plug direct into the laptop, set laptop to settings attached (in picture), then i can access the Dahua Setting/interface via 192.168.254.10 in a browser.

I am doing this to adjust settings, then turn power off and plug cat6 back into NVR (to be powered with nvr POE), and NVR is recording continuous with settings stored on camera.

 

[Maximo101]

LPR is as per image above,circled in red with overview camera circled in blue. Overview camera has line crossing detection to trigger smart event (records) and i can use that time to search LPR recording which I have set to continuous recording.

Day time seems to be fine. Not sure if there is any point adjusting settings to get a sharper image. I can easily read the plates when i freeze frame.

Next to continue to tweak the night time settings. I will try your settings @wittaj

 

[wittaj]

Those look pretty good! I knew the Z12 wouldn't let you down even at that angle.

My angle is somewhat similar to yours, except I am up higher looking down, so hopefully my settings get your nighttime a lot closer to what they should be.

 

[Maximo101]

Those look pretty good! I knew the Z12 wouldn't let you down even at that angle.

My angle is somewhat similar to yours, except I am up higher looking down, so hopefully my settings get your nighttime a lot closer to what they should be.

Thanks for your help @wittaj I set them close to yours but a bit higher all around. (so will be inbetween my first ones night attempts above and yours). Will test tonight and tweak again.

Fingers crossed my dahua changes its settings for Day/Night as per schedule / profile.
I did notice at 7:30am it did switch from a greyscale image to colour, so hopefully switches back to night mode later.

 

[wittaj]

One thing to keep in mind with an NVR and this cam for LPR - you need to force it into night time about 45 minutes before sunset so that it has something to focus on. Running at the fast shutter speed at night, if it waits too long to go into night then it will hunt for a focus all night and not be able to focus on the car.

 

[Maximo101]

Caught a deadly magpie on camera.
Reverted settings back as per first settings above

Manual Shutter Speed 1/2000
Backlight: HLC

but lowered some settings. Results attached.

@wittaj do you keep the camera on a full schedule set to Night in B/W Or change based on Day/Night.
I would prefer just keep it in Night mode always over using a script or utility.

 

[biggen]

Some keep it in B/W 24x7. I use a script to switch between day and night mode before sunset and after sunrise.

Looks like your not getting any IR reflection back from the plates in your latest nighttime shots.

 

[Maximo101]

Gain 0-65
HLC 100
Gamma 45
IR (Far/Near) 100
I am pretty happy where it is at for now. Might now ease off the tweaking and do small minor adjustments over time just changing one variable for a night.

 

[biggen]

Those look better your 1.png and 2.png pictures two posts above.

 

[wittaj]

There is still some tweaking to improve that image. I agree, now work on changing one variable at a time until you dial it in. If you can have someone park in the spot for moment and adjust settings it would help.

For a year I ran 24/7 B/W just so I didn't have to worry about the focus adjustment issue. I used the same parameters for day and night. After about a year, I changed to run color in daytime and zoomed out just a bit and then B/W at night zoomed in even tighter. I found that in daytime, the color was able to allow me to figure out the state of the plates and when it was B/W they all looked the same. That may not be an issue for you. I am running BI, so I was able to take advantage of the great program someone wrote that would change focus and zoom via a windows program.

 

[bigredfish]

HLC is one thing to try and adjust, maybe 70, its too strong now I think at 100
Iris is the other, a little adjusting goes a long way with this