Looking for LPR, or fallback LPC outdoor cam for under $300

[rihallix]

I'm looking for an outdoor wireless IP camera that captures the license plates of cars as they drive past my house for security. The house is set back about 25 feet from the perpendicular street, which is a one way street. The camera is mounted 15 feet high over the front door. Cars drive past at ~20mph. Really cars will be 60-100 feet away when you get a good view of the front license plate.

REQUIREMENTS:
- ideally under $300, better yet under $200
- Reliable WiFi (not Ethernet) connection
- motion detection, sends captured photos to FTP
- ideally true license plate recognition, writing license plate numbers out to an external location (FTP, email...)
- works in night and daytime

I've had a Foscam FI9805W with the standard lens, unfortunately this was never able to capture clear enough photos for license plates to be legible. I get the significant difference between LPRs and non LPR cameras and would very much prefer the former.

My ideal is a true license plate recognition camera, but maybe I'm deluded that this is feasible for under $300. Failing that I want a camera that provides a much greater likelihood of legible license plate capture.

Am I deluded that this is possible for under $300? Better yet under $200?

Thanks in advance.

 

[zero-degrees]

There are several posts here utilizing some HIK cameras and even the Huisun PTZ camera (which several users have posted there exact settings and configurations as well as example videos that are showing great results). However your desire to go wireless will limit you as to the examples I've seen here - most people run ethernet for reliability and the POE factor. As for the auto capture of the plate number and export - I don't think you're going to locate that in a sub $200 camera...

Here is the link for the Huisun PTZ camera examples and settings
https://www.ipcamtalk.com/showthread.php/7259-Huisun-10x-LPR-(License-Plate-Reading)-settings?highlight=Huisun+LPR

 

[Kawboy12R]

Given your price restriction, you can make almost any halfway decent IR camera see plates at night if you speed up the shutter, and even better with an IR illuminator. Cheap Hik bullets can work decently, or you can spend medium to big bucks on dedicated LPR cameras that do it better. 12mm will do it sometimes but you`ll probably want a lot more zoom at 60+ feet for more reliability when feeding the image into a software recognition program. Use a pair of Ubiquiti Nanostations for a reliable wifi bridge from camera to router. They were under $60 each the last time I bought them. I`ve used them and they`re rock solid. You`ll have to do your homework to get your snapshots to this program and start playing- https://github.com/openalpr/openalpr I`m not aware of any other solution even close to your pricerange. Your time and fiddling might be worth the money you saved from calling Axis or Milestone and paying 2+ grand for a camera and software for one lane. Avigilon has a nice solution as well, but with most good LPR solutions with support, if you have to ask the price you can`t afford it.