Is there any way to disable auto-focus on this Dahua verifocal? I use mine as an LPR recorder using maximum zoom, and sometimes the camera will become and stay focused on the breezy air somewhere, rather than at the ideal distance for reading plates on my street.
Three options I know of:
1- Use the Sunrise/Sunset utility developed by a member here - bp2008/DahuaSunriseSunset
2- Keep the camera in B&W day and night
3- Ive had very good success with forcing (using the schedule in the camera) the switch from color to B&W 1 hour before dark and waiting until 1 hour after sunrise to switch it back to color.
Am seriously thinking of getting some glow in the dark paint to discretely mark the manhole cover in the street where the camera needs to be focused at night, or a small strip of reflective tape.
Ive tried that, using reflective tape. After a month or so it would peel off, and I got lazy and didnt replace it. I would still on occasion get an out of focus event. Ive come to the conclusion that while that may help, the sure way is allowing the camera to switch while its daylight out. Thus my hour before sunset/hour after sunrise setting. It seems to be rock solid for the past 8-10 weeks
I'll try the time offset, but I have a concern about losing two hours of useful daylight, as the night mode on this camera is set to capture lighted plates so that they don't get washed out, and the extended night mode during daylight hours will result in images which are too dark.
Good luck. I've tried it all. The only thing I've gotten to work 100% is scripts running 24/7 on my BI server which checks and adjusts focus every 15 seconds or so. I can't tell you how to do it but I figured it out by spending hours and hours reading and experimenting on this forum. Next time I'm at my church I can try grabbing the script if you want to see it
