Looking for an new driveway camera

[Jake1979]

Hi, I have a driveway that is about 250' long and half~ of it is lit by 2 garage lights. I also have a DS-2CD2347G1-L 4MP with a 1/1.8" Progressive Scan CMOS sensor. It does a good job at picking up plate numbers when a little past half way down our driveway.

Would the DS-2CD2387G2-LSU/SL 8MP with a 1/1.2″ Progressive Scan CMOS sensor be better? Is there an option that Andy would have that's close or better?

If I were to update this camera, the "old" one would be mounted either in the garage or on the other side of the door for a different perspective.

 

[wittaj]

Granted the cars would be coming straight at the camera and at slow speed, but I find it hard to believe you can read plates day and night at 125 feet or so with a 2.8 or 4mm camera.

Please post a day and night shot.

Andy sells the 4K/T and 4K/X that are on the 1/1.2" sensor, but I would recommend the bullet 4K/X as it doesn't suffer from the focus range issues that the 4K/T seems to have.

 

[Jake1979]

I measured, it's closer to 50'. Would a dome camera be a problem with the garage light to the right? IR never comes up at night due to the amount of light. I could try turning it on and see what it looks like.


Night time:

The odd yellow artifact on the left- I'm not sure what that is, I need to take a closer look. It's something on the lens, I think.

 

[wittaj]

A dome would be horrible. And the 1/1.2" sensor lets in so much light that it may be worse in that spot.

 

[Jake1979]

I just turned IR on and tested it, totally blocks the license plates so I'll need to go back to color mode.

What camera would you recommend?

 

[wittaj]

Yeah with plates you need to increase the shutter speed a lot because they are so reflective. But then it gets to the point of everything around it is dark.

What is your goal - to simply update the camera to a newer model?

If you are looking to upgrade to 4K (8MP), keep in mind that most of us here that have bought the 8MP on the 1/1.2" sensor use it simply for overview in color.

These larger sensors really show that these cameras are not infinity focus and some models the focus sweet spot is a distance of 14-17 feet and everything before and after that distance is blurry/soft.

Most here feel 4MP on the 1/1.8" sensor is the sweet spot.

 

[Jake1979]

The goal is to see the plates and surrounding information. It sounds like I should stick with this camera for now. Thank you,

 

[Ri22o]

I measured, it's closer to 50'. Would a dome camera be a problem with the garage light to the right? IR never comes up at night due to the amount of light. I could try turning it on and see what it looks like.
View attachment 188496

Night time:
View attachment 188497
The odd yellow artifact on the left- I'm not sure what that is, I need to take a closer look. It's something on the lens, I think.

It is possible the yellow is the reflection of the light on the right.