pschmehl
Young grasshopper
I'm still thinking through what I want to do with the garage cam project. My original thinking was that I might catch evidence that would help capture bad guys who drove through our neighborhood or walked around trying car doors. I have a unique advantage, because my house sits beside the alley entranceway. Any vehicles passing my house have to make a 90 degree turn to exit or enter the alley, and the distance from my garage to any license plate would be about 25 feet. Furthermore, they can't be driving more than about 10 mph or they'll go straight into the creek.
So I thought perhaps I should look for license plate recognition cameras. But the prices are insane, so that's not an option. So I searched the forum for anything about license plate recognition and found this: https://www.ipcamtalk.com/showthread.php/516-Dedicated-License-Plate-Cam-project/page4?highlight=license+plate+recognition
So, my requirements are that I don't want to spend a ton of money to do this, but I want good video that makes the license plate characters at least visible if not perfectly clear. But I also want to get clear shots of any bad guys walking down the alley and trying the doors on my car. This brings up a question about where to mount the camera, if I decide to do this. So I took some pictures.
This picture was taken standing in the alley about where a car's license plate would be located. The total distance to the corner of the house is about 25 feet.
This picture was taken standing in the same spot but pointing to where I had originally planned to mount the camera (about in the middle of the garage door opening.) The distance to the camera would be about 28 feet.
This is a picture taken from the corner location toward the alley. The view would be more straight on to the cars. The camera would be mounted under the soffit and would be exposed to the late afternoon sun only.
This is a picture taken from the center location toward the alley. The view would be more oblique to the cars. The camera would be mounted under the soffit and never exposed to the sun.
Which location makes the most sense for capturing license plates? I would also want to capture activity in my driveway, so the camera would be aligned to capture both the alley and the driveway.
I had my eye on an LTS CMIP3042W-6. It's a turret camera with true WDR (not digital), a 6MM lens, IP66 and 4.1 MP High Definition. Would it be possible to get decent license plate capture with this camera at this distance? I'm pretty sure the FOV would cover the area from the alley to my fence. From my garage to the opposite curb is 28 feet and from the alley to my fence is 26 feet.
So I thought perhaps I should look for license plate recognition cameras. But the prices are insane, so that's not an option. So I searched the forum for anything about license plate recognition and found this: https://www.ipcamtalk.com/showthread.php/516-Dedicated-License-Plate-Cam-project/page4?highlight=license+plate+recognition
So, my requirements are that I don't want to spend a ton of money to do this, but I want good video that makes the license plate characters at least visible if not perfectly clear. But I also want to get clear shots of any bad guys walking down the alley and trying the doors on my car. This brings up a question about where to mount the camera, if I decide to do this. So I took some pictures.
This picture was taken standing in the alley about where a car's license plate would be located. The total distance to the corner of the house is about 25 feet.
This picture was taken standing in the same spot but pointing to where I had originally planned to mount the camera (about in the middle of the garage door opening.) The distance to the camera would be about 28 feet.
This is a picture taken from the corner location toward the alley. The view would be more straight on to the cars. The camera would be mounted under the soffit and would be exposed to the late afternoon sun only.
This is a picture taken from the center location toward the alley. The view would be more oblique to the cars. The camera would be mounted under the soffit and never exposed to the sun.
Which location makes the most sense for capturing license plates? I would also want to capture activity in my driveway, so the camera would be aligned to capture both the alley and the driveway.
I had my eye on an LTS CMIP3042W-6. It's a turret camera with true WDR (not digital), a 6MM lens, IP66 and 4.1 MP High Definition. Would it be possible to get decent license plate capture with this camera at this distance? I'm pretty sure the FOV would cover the area from the alley to my fence. From my garage to the opposite curb is 28 feet and from the alley to my fence is 26 feet.