Help me find a LPR camera around 1k dollars

[speed254]

Hello, Can you guys help me find the best ip camera for about 1000$ that can record number plates both on day and nightime.
Cars will be moving in speeds from 5km/h to 80km/h, the most important thing is that it can record readable plates during nighttime.
Distance from camera to road will be about 10m to 20m depending on wich lane.

I have been looking at a Geovision GV-Hybrid LPR 10R will this one do the job? or is there any better for about the same price?

Thanks in advance!

 

[bp2008]

If one lane is 10m away and another lane is 20m away, it sounds like you may not have a good angle on the road. If this is true it may reduce the brightness and readability of license plates.

Anyway, LPR does take a specialized setup (really fast shutter speed and lots of IR light), especially for fast moving cars like this. It usually costs more than $1000 to do it properly but maybe you get lucky and that camera will be all you need. Every situation is different. Though take note the specs for that Geovision cam say the max IR range is 12 meters. Also important to note is that if you try to cover two lanes of traffic you may be stretching the field of view too far and making the license plate numbers too small. That is only a 1.3 MP camera after all. I could not find better for a similar price though. Usually higher resolution means worse light sensitivity.

You can do LPR with cameras not specifically designed for it, but it is a lot more complicated to set up that way as it typically has you buying a box camera, a custom lens, an enclosure, and high powered IR illuminators. For examples: see http://www.networkcameracritic.com/?p=2177

 

[speed254]

Okey, thank you for the info. I could have been wrong about the distance after a check its about 8-15 meter both lanes counting.

Think I am going to try the GV camera, my budget is limited to around 1k$ and the setup from networkcameracritic.com is closer to 2k$

 

[speed254]

I have one more question about the IR distance, isnt the IR supposed to be turned off when trying to capture license plate number during night? Does the IR function have a big impact on the capture result during nighttime?

 

[bp2008]

The IR is a light source at night. If it was off, the camera would not be able to read the license plate nearly as well.

In fact I think LPR cameras try to filter out everything but IR so the headlights are not so strong. They might even filter out non-IR during the day; I'm not sure. They certainly could get by with it since sunlight contains a lot of infrared.

I have never used a proper LPR camera.

 

[networkcameracritic]

Are you trying to record plate numbers in a database and be able to act on plate number matches or just be able to see a plate number in a video? I can see plates at 15m with an ordinary 1080P or 3MP cameras, but not well enough for plate recognition software but I can if I put a longer lens on it.

 

[speed254]

It would be nice to have recognition function, but most important is that it records on video so that I can read the plate. And in night time.

Networkcameracritic, do u use 12mm lens? Hikvision cameras? I read a thread before in wich u posted some nighttime pics of captured plates.

Anyone know if one can use GV cam with other plate recognition software then Geovisions own software LPR-gv?

 

[networkcameracritic]

I actually put this 12mm Hikvision bullet (can be any brand) to view my mailbox and noticed that I can see plates during the day, then adjusted night time viewing to see plates at night since I don't care about seeing the mailbox at night anyway. It's worked out well for me and of course cheap. You can replace the lens with a 25mm lens, and that should provide a large enough plate if you choose to get LPR software which will way past exceed your $1,000 budget. When I first did LPR, the software for 1 camera was about $1,700, adding the second one was less though at $1,400 but I would never pay that sort of money for my home camera, it's just there if I need it and may never have to use it. For true LPR, you want a very good close-up and very low resolution, D1/VGA at most so your LPR software is not burning up a lot of CPU analyzing each frame. We use an Avigilon 9-22mm low light dome and an Axis Q1604 box camera with a 5-50mm lens.

 

[nzipcamera]

Hello, Can you guys help me find the best ip camera for about 1000$ that can record number plates both on day and nightime.
Cars will be moving in speeds from 5km/h to 80km/h, the most important thing is that it can record readable plates during nighttime.
Distance from camera to road will be about 10m to 20m depending on wich lane.

I have been looking at a Geovision GV-Hybrid LPR 10R will this one do the job? or is there any better for about the same price?

Thanks in advance!

Do you have a picture of the area you are wanting to cover?

 

[speed254]

Do you have a picture of the area you are wanting to cover?

I was thinking of installing the camera in the area marked with red and white color, any suggestions are welcome!

Thank you!

 

[nzipcamera]

Hi Speed254
See attached article "Vehicle License Plate Recognition (LPR) - Camera Positioning Tutorial.pdf" it details (from page three on) the camera placement for License Plate Recognition (LPR) to achieve the best results.

Cut and paste from article

HOW TO POSITION A LPR CAMERA?

Streets, Avenues, roads and highways.

Reading of vehicles in motion, without a trigger.

• Ideal Camera Positioning is at approximately 3.5 to 4.8 meters high.

• and at 30 degrees sideways between the camera and the vehicle’s license plate.

• The camera mounting pole should be installed next to the curbside.

• Install the pole at an approximate distance of 15 to 20 meters from the point of the license plate reading for vehicles in motion.

• Use a 50 to 80 mm lens for a good focus of the plate area without a lot of "visual pollution" (other scenes apart from the front or rear of the vehicle).

• Work with a Frame Rate of 20-30 fps.

• Use cameras with high power shutter for vehicles in motion.

• Use image quality from CIF to 4CIF under MPEG-4 or H.264.

• For vehicles in motion, consider maximum speeds of 150 km/h.