How to improve car lights straight into camera at night

[tradertim]

Hi guys.

I had some near damage at night and couldnt pick up the number plate.

Attached is a still where the cars come straight up my driveway and shine lights straight into the camera. Its a shared driveway.

I'm not using BLC. Is this what I'm meant to use ? How does it affect the rest of the picture/video?

I also lengthened the day night filter time to 30 secs, which seems to have stopped the camera going from night mode to day when car lights came onto the camera at night.

The problem with that was when it fli ked to day mode and the main car lights past there was no good night picture to see the car.

Attached is a still.

 

[tradertim]

PS its a 3MP
drive camera 6
2132F-IS
ccch
v5.2.5

I have a 4MP to replace it with but havent got round to it yet.

cheers

 

[nayr]

If you want to read plates at night, you cant see anything else at all.. this requires a camera dedicated to License Plate reading..

the trick is running a fixed shutter speed ~1/500 or higher.. try it, you'll see plates at night but nothing else that isint glowing as bright as those headlaps

 

[hiky]

The answer is as Nayr says, if you are happy with the camera where it is now most of the time then you will have to add another camera running at a higher fps at night OR use same cam but set night settings to higher fps, but as stated you will not see anything else at night

When you say you stopped the camera entering day mode by altering the filter by 30 seconds, in actual fact going into day mode is kind of what you want to happen, it may help ID the front plate, you havent included an image of the day mode at night when headlights are facing the camera, you may just need to tickle a few settings with what you have to give the details you need

 

[tradertim]

thanks. mate. when i had it in flicking into day mode it would not ID the plate... and when the car moved past and the camera was in day mode i couldnt even see the profile of the car.

 

[nayr]

@hiky, FPS has nothing to do with it.. Shutter Speed !== FPS.. I took a good example shot tonight looking at the moon

Moon @ AutoExposure:


Moon @ 1/100000 Shutter Speed (same scene exactly)

 

[hiky]

ffs yeah my bad, i have no idea why i added fps !!!!! , substitute fps for exposure time in the Hik camera settings, i dont understand why you cant make out a car as there appears to be ambient light around the area

can you post your night time camera settings or type them at least

I have a similar situation and the camera handles the scene just fine, switching to day mode when hit by headlights and giving a perfect image with easy number plate ID

I have a feeling your using a high DNR with a mixture of other settings which is giving you issues, especialy as you say you cant even ID a car if it goes into day mode