Looking to upgrade to a low light camera

[marinenickel]

I currently have 2 cameras out front.
The driveway camera is an IPC-HDW5231R-ZE which works good at night (also happen to have a street light across the street).
The other driveway which is at the far corner of the front of the house is an IPC-HDBW4631R-ZS. This camera really doesn't perform well at night or the lower light level.

I was thinking about grabbing the IPC-T5442T-ZE, but then I saw IPC-T5842T-ZE that Andy has posted in his subforum. Is the 5842 a better option then the 5442? The field of view from the front of the house to the other side of the street is 20-30ft.
Ideally I would really like to be able to read license plate of a car passing slowly at night.

 

[wittaj]

You have to decide, do you want plates or overview, you cannot have both, especially if you do not have enough light.

If you are looking for low light performance, most here would still recommend the 5442 series.

Regarding a camera for plates (LPR) - keep in mind that this is a camera dedicated to plates and not an overview camera also. It is as much an art as it is a science. You will need two cameras. For LPR we need to zoom in tight to make the plate as large as possible. For most of us, all you see is the not much more than a vehicle in the entire frame. Now maybe in the right location during the day it might be able to see some other things, but not at night.

At night, we have to run a very fast shutter speed (1/2,000) and in B/W with IR and the image will be black. All you will see are head/tail lights and the plate. Some people can get away with color if they have enough street lights, but most of us cannot. Here is a representative sample of plates I get at night of vehicles traveling about 45MPH at 175 feet from my 2MP camera (that is all that is needed for plates):

Most of us go with the 5241E-Z12E for this because it has the best focal length. If your distance from plate to camera is less than 60 feet, you could go with the 5442-Z4E and if within 30 feet you could go with a cheaper 2MP varifocal. And many of us do have two cameras side-by-side - one for overview and one for LPR.

 

[looney2ns]

New to LPR? Considerations Before You Begin | IP Cam Talk

 

[marinenickel]

You have to decide, do you want plates or overview, you cannot have both, especially if you do not have enough light.......

Thanks for that bit of information. I'll have to decide if I want to run another POE cable. I also have an option of adding a switch as I have a "holiday lights" junction box nearby.

 

[wittaj]

Many here use this splitter to get an LPR camera next to an overview camera:

https://www.amazon.com/Loryta-Extender-Repeater-Ethernet-Splitter/dp/B07RQ569MF/ref=sr_1_34?imprToken=eNnu.Pmf5hsW5hcTVECAQg&linkCode=w61&m=A329YQ83EBQGJF&marketplaceID=ATVPDKIKX0DER&qid=1652133510&redirect=true&s=merchant-items&slotNum=0&sr=1-34