AZRob

Here's a couple useful links to selecting a lens focal length: Lens Calculator: http://www.howtosurveillance.com/HowToVideo/CCTV-lens-calculator.html Sample views (video): http://www.howtosurveillance.com/HowToVideo/security-camera-lens-selection-part2.html

I agree, most wireless cameras (unless they are really high end big $$) are more trouble than they are worth. They are susceptible to interference of all sorts. Although, if you're in a rural area with low population density and less chance of interference you might get a good image using a high quality transmitter/receiver system. Otherwise, forget about wireless for now. http://www.howtosurveillance.com/HowToVideo/wireless-camera-systems.html

Palomino, This camera is probably a bit expensive, but it appears to have impressive license plate capture, even with headlights glaring into the camera: http://www.stardot.com/video/stardot-lpc3.html The future of license plate capture looks very promising! Hopefully, the price will come down!

Kiwi, Thanks for posting great images. I take it that the camera has a 1/3 in. CCD? As other folks have said, night time is the tricky part but your idea of having the gate reflect light back to sufficiently illuminate the plate (and possibly diminish some of the headlight intensity) seems to be quite effective! Best, Rob

Hi Palomino, To get a camera under $600 that will reliably capture a plate at 125' reliably and under all lighting conditions is going to be very tough. Soundy, also brings up a great point about shutter speed. This is very important when capturing plates on moving cars. Bear in mind, that as you go to a faster shutter speed, the amount of light reaching the imaging sensor is decreased, so you have to have alot of light, either visible or IR to make sure the object is illuminated sufficiently. I tried a sub-$600 camera that claimed to be able to capture plates and it was a disaster. Didn't work at all. Terrible. As I said before, license plate capture is a tricky thing to do reliably, in all lighting conditions with a moving vehicle. Bosch has a new line called the REG-Sentry and it comes in two versions. One with a 15 ft. range, and the other with a 78 ft. range. However, these are likely to be a bit expensive (most likely alot more than $600) but they are geared towards very high reliability. If you do find a reliable plate camera for less than $600 please let me know, as I haven't found one yet. Your best bet might be to take the advice given by Soundy and try the Panasonic lens 75 mm with the box camera. That's the only one that I would think would have a chance. Let me know how it works for you! Best, Rob

Hi Palomino, That Panasonic is a very respectable camera, very high quality. However, in my opinion 50 mm at 125' is still going to be a bit of a stretch. I won't say it's impossible but it might be beyond the capability of the camera. At 125' with a 1/3 in. CCD and 50 mm lens, the field of view is about 12 feet wide which is almost double the width of a car. Ideally, you would want something like an 8 foot wide view or less to really zoom in on that plate. This would require a 75 mm lens. So the short answer is, you MIGHT just barely get a plate at that distance with the 50 mm but I wouldn't count on it. I wish I could be more optimistic, but I have to be realistic too. It's a tough thing to get a plate, especially at 125 feet!

You may also encounter glare and blooming effects from the car lights when trying to capture license plates at night time. Please note, that I'm not trying to discourage you from trying to capture plates, just know that it's not as easy as it sounds. It's possible but at night time it really becomes a challenge. Daytime is a bit easier. Best, Rob

I agree with Sawbones, you can cut the advertised IR illumination distance in half. It seems alot of vendors 'exaggerate' the distance that the IR illuminators will provide EFFECTIVE illumination.

One more thing, try to minimize the angle between the direction of travel of the car and the angle of the camera. In other words, try to mount the camera in a place that is as close to being directly behind the car if trying to capture the rear license plate. If the angle is too great, the image will be blurred as the car travels across the view of the camera.

Just as a note, reading a license plate at 125' away will be a challenge. You'll probably need at least a 50mm lens at a minimum (with a 1/3 in. CCD) and even then it won't do it in all lighting conditions. Very difficult to read license plates reliably, especially at night. Hope this helps!

I have heard that there are new megapixel cameras on the market, but they require special lenses and the data storage requirements go WAY up, as you would expect. Anyone have any experience with megapixel cameras?

Hello, This is Rob in AZ, and it's hot here.......tell me about the cooler weather please....I need to cool off. Best, Rob