Hoping for some advice on some adjustments I can make to my LPR camera

I have the same camera and was struggling with this as well. My day profile is using color while my night profile is using black & white so the focus was never quite right between the two profiles. To overcome this I'm using the camera's API to switch the profile, focus & zoom, frame rate and I Frame Interval between day and night. For each profile I first setup the focus and zoom the way I wanted it and then ran ip.address/cgi-bin/devVideoInput.cgi?action=getFocusStatus to get the values. I then plugged those values into the following script:

(changes profile from day to night)
(these are the values I got from the getFocusStatus above)
(changes frame rate. I run 30 during the day and 15 at night)
(changes I frameInterval. I run 30 during the day and 15 at night)

I'm using my home automation system to run these at the appropriate sunrise and sunset times. I run all four scripts in a single automation with a 5 second delay between scripts
 
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Where is the sewer grate in your typical LPR shot? maybe you can try the trailer reflector tape on the inside edge of one of the metal sewer grates so you can work the all the adjustments until the reflector is as crisp and unblown out as mush as possble...
Screenshot 2022-11-19 091451.png
 
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also both my LPR's are at 12 FPS
 
Vettester said:
I have the same camera and was struggling with this as well. My day profile is using color while my night profile is using black & white so the focus was never quite right between the two profiles. To overcome this I'm using the camera's API to switch the profile, focus & zoom, frame rate and I Frame Interval between day and night. For each profile I first setup the focus and zoom the way I wanted it and then ran ip.address/cgi-bin/devVideoInput.cgi?action=getFocusStatus to get the values. I then plugged those values into the following script:

(changes profile from day to night)
(these are the values I got from the getFocusStatus above)
(changes frame rate. I run 30 during the day and 15 at night)
(changes I frameInterval. I run 30 during the day and 15 at night)

I'm using my home automation system to run these at the appropriate sunrise and sunset times. I run all four scripts in a single automation with a 5 second delay between scripts
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I might try changing iframe fps at night. I would have assumed lowering fps would lead to blurriness, what does lowering it tend to do?

I'm using home assistant to handle day night, and have modded it to also control changing focus but found that was being handled by the profile change correctly.

Generally for focus calibration I just park there and adjust it, it's not a high traffic location
 
it will do something unique to each situation.....everybody's settings vary......
@samplenhold
What is your FPS?
@Vettester
what is your FPS?
 
I think Wittaj will tell you shutter speed has more to do with blurriness.....than FPS.....Although I'm sure you can get things pretty blurry if you go extreme....like 2 FPS...:)
 
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morelup said:
I would have assumed lowering fps would lead to blurriness, what does lowering it tend to do?
Click to expand...
Raising the FPS leads to a smoother video. I raise mine during the day because people tend to drive faster in the daylight. In color mode and depending on the time of the day, I usually can get a headshot of the driver.
 
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both my situations are residential with people generally not above 30mph..I get better plates on the cars slowing down to turn.....
 
morelup said:
I would have assumed lowering fps would lead to blurriness, what does lowering it tend to do?

I'm using home assistant to handle day night, and have modded it to also control changing focus but found that was being handled by the profile change correctly.

Generally for focus calibration I just park there and adjust it, it's not a high traffic location
Click to expand...
Flintstone61 said:
I think Wittaj will tell you shutter speed has more to do with blurriness.....than FPS.....Although I'm sure you can get things pretty blurry if you go extreme....like 2 FPS...:)
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BINGO lol - shutter speed is more important than FPS.

I would take 1 FPS at 1/2000 shutter speed over 30 FPS and 1/30s shutter all night long LOL.

I don't think it is the issue with your camera, but in some instances, running a camera at its max FPS means the processor in the camera is overtaxed and when it is, other things are compromised.

Keep in mind that depending on how you are recording, if you don't match FPS and iframes in BI for example, it may miss the motion as the plate is in and out of the view too fast.

For reference, here is a representative sample of plates I get at night of vehicles traveling about 45MPH at 175 feet with 8FPS from my 2MP 5241-Z12E:

1668874078663.png
 
I live in a residential area as well with the posted speed limit of 25 MPH, but it seems like the soccer moms in my area drive like a bat out hell. :)

Here's an example of a headshot.

Screen Shot 2022-11-19 at 9.06.36 AM.png
 
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After looking at these captures again, I am convinced that the plates you are not getting are either of a style that the IR struggles with or they were temp plates, or they had a cover or some sort of spray on the plate.

They appear to be Indiana plates and I see a few of those and some of them just don't pick up well.
 
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morelup said:
I think the thing that gets me with these middle ones, is i can make out that the camera is "almost" got the letters its just the NR or something obscuring it.
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Have you been changing sharpness from your original post? That will affect what appears as noise. Try taking that down to 40 or lower if you've not changed it in testing earlier.

Maybe a little more contrast too. Haven't tested the effect on my Z12 but I've noticed on some other cams that adjustments to contrast will affect that also. i.e., I can make the image look more clean or noisy just by adjusting contrast.

Neither of the above I'd expect to help much with the washed out plates with poor definition but might clean up the better ones you posted a little.
 
wittaj said:
After looking at these captures again, I am convinced that the plates you are not getting are either of a style that the IR struggles with or they were temp plates, or they had a cover or some sort of spray on the plate.

They appear to be Indiana plates and I see a few of those and some of them just don't pick up well.
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Agree on that.

FPS will not make ANY difference on motion blur to a static image. FPS will ONLY impact the smoothness of the video. All of this data are digital. A cam takes snapshots of the sensor at prescribed rates, known as FPS-Frames Per Second.

The shutter speed is how long the shutter stays open. The longer it stays open, more blur from a moving object occurs. The shorter it stays open, the more it can freeze an image.
 
Mike A. said:
Have you been changing sharpness from your original post? That will affect what appears as noise. Try taking that down to 40 or lower if you've not changed it in testing earlier.

Maybe a little more contrast too. Haven't tested the effect on my Z12 but I've noticed on some other cams that adjustments to contrast will affect that also. i.e., I can make the image look more clean or noisy just by adjusting contrast.

Neither of the above I'd expect to help much with the washed out plates with poor definition but might clean up the better ones you posted a little.
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I have not, but i'll tinker around a bit with that as well tonight
 
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I have the same camera and was having difficulty just like you. I was at full zoom 1200 and could never dial it in . I tried color, black and white, shutter speed, focus, gain ect ect. Several times i went to far down the settings rabbit hole that I had to default back to factory and start over. I decided to back out the zoom to 1160 and and focus at 785. Shutter 1/2000 and fps 20. I originally set gain at 0/60 and plate was not visible too dark, 0/70 lighter but not readable finally dialed into 0/78 and magically the plate appeared. 2d noise is at 20, 3d default 50. I am very happy with the results.
 
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Yes, i have had to set all back to default before as well....It's called learning i think.....or experimentation by trial and error.
 
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the dude who showed me the reflector trick was onto something.....I kept messing with the settings trying to sharpen it up to see the individual diamond pattern in the reflective sticker. But that setting was too dark for the typical plate going by....so then i began messing with the Iris......and then I got a lot more plates.....But the limitations of 1 camera at 4 way intersection leaves you wanting another LPR.......
What I wanna know is.....when I end up in assisted living......with no cams.....what the hell am i going to do on Saturdays?
 
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