Z12E through glass without IR?

[JimEPage]

Hello:
I am wondering if it's even possible to get a plate through glass without IR. I live in a cul de sac with plenty of street light at night, but my placement is limited. I am trying from my front window so the use of IR is impossible because of the reflection.
Any thoughts on possible settings or am I just beating a dead horse here?
Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[wittaj]

The likelihood is very slim. A few people can get away with plates at night in color, but that is usually a lot of street lights and a stop sign. In those instances, you might get away with a 1/500 or 1/1,000 shutter, but if the cars are moving, you probably won't get them.

It is all about shutter speed to get a plate. The faster the shutter, the more light is needed.

Do you have any other cameras now that just for testing you could run a different shutter speeds and see if the image is all black or not? Try 1/500 and 1/1000 - if the image is too dark, then you stand no chance at color.

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. Here is a representative sample of plates I get at night of vehicles traveling about 45MPH at 175 feet from my Z12. I have zero ambient light and no street lights. This is all infrared:

 

[TVille]

It depends on how much light you have, how fast the cars are moving, and how far away they are. I think it may be possible. As @wittaj said, try another camera and post the results here. I have a camera that just happens to catch plates in daytime at 40'-60', but not at night without IR, even though the camera stays in color at night due to a streetlight.

 

[JimEPage]

The likelihood is very slim. A few people can get away with plates at night in color, but that is usually a lot of street lights and a stop sign. In those instances, you might get away with a 1/500 or 1/1,000 shutter, but if the cars are moving, you probably won't get them.

It is all about shutter speed to get a plate. The faster the shutter, the more light is needed.

Do you have any other cameras now that just for testing you could run a different shutter speeds and see if the image is all black or not? Try 1/500 and 1/1000 - if the image is too dark, then you stand no chance at color.

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. Here is a representative sample of plates I get at night of vehicles traveling about 45MPH at 175 feet from my Z12. I have zero ambient light and no street lights. This is all infrared:

View attachment 114597

I already own one and I've been playing around with the Z12E with other people's setting suggestions without IR....so far it's pretty black.
I just had a thought: what about a separate IR illuminator outside in front of the camera?

 

[wittaj]

A separate IR illuminator would probably work if it is powerful enough to reach the distance you are aiming for.

 

[JimEPage]

A separate IR illuminator would probably work if it is powerful enough to reach the distance you are aiming for.

Does the camera have to be set for IR ON for this to work? If so, won't work, because glass, unless i get in there and disable the lights.
It's only about 75 feet. should work, range wise.

 

[wittaj]

It shouldn't just by putting it in B/W should make it available to see IR. Worse case toss some tape over the camera IR.

 

[JimEPage]

It shouldn't just by putting it in B/W should make it available to see IR. Worse case toss some tape over the camera IR.

Good idea. Thank you!
Last thought: Any idea if the Z12E is 850nm compatible?

 

[sebastiantombs]

Yes, it's 850nm compatible. 950nm is very rare because it doesn't project nearly as far as 850nm.

 

[JimEPage]

Yes, it's 850nm compatible. 950nm is very rare because it doesn't project nearly as far as 850nm.

Thanks for the help guys!

 

[samplenhold]

The Illuminator setting is independent of the Day & Night setting. You can set the illuminator to 'OFF' but have the Mode set to 'B/W'.

A separate IR blaster would more than likely work. You will have to experiment with placement of the IR.

Maybe something like this one that come in different beam patterns?

 

[dabeckham]

When using IR to illuminate a license plate it is important to remember, reflective materials such as license plates are made of tiny glass beads or prisms that collect light, focus it and bounce it back to the source ONLY. As you move the IR emitter off angle of the center line of the camera lens, less IR light will be reflected back to the lens. In my experience, if you position the IR emitter more that a few feet from the camera (> 5 degrees off center) the IR emitter becomes ineffective.

JimEPage , if you do place an IR emitter outside the window, try to get it as close as possible to the center-line between the camera lens and the target plate. The distance from the camera is not important as long as it's within a few degrees of that center-line. So if your mail box or a tree is directly between the camera and the target plate, you could hang the light on either of those and it would work.

Here are 2 images showing a Univivi IR Illuminator,850nm 12 LEDs, directly under a ReoLink RLC-410-5MP with a 25mm lens focused at 55ft. Cars are moving 25-35mph