number plate camera for night use

[BigLebowski 0]

hi all

 

I'm looking for a weatherproof high resolution camera for day/night use to capture vehicle number plates against headlights. I've tried a few cams but they are simply dazzled by the headlights. So good illumination and compensation are probably the key. I can spend up to 800 USD per camera.

 

I appreciate there are dedicated number plate cams around but they're 900 UKP here (about 1400 USD) each. Can I not get a slightly cheaper non-specialist cam that will do?

 

I do not want to feed the output into any automatic recognition system. I just want something I can record and then examine manually. I plan to use the Geovision NV 2008 card or similar.

 

Many thanks

Dude

[ispy4u2 0]

I know thier are issues with the Brits and Irish , but try IC REALTIME based in Ireland and acquire the 10X DN for under $800 USD and works the same as the REG-X camera

 

Thier website is at

http://www.icrealtime.ie

[Scruit 0]

I know thier are issues with the Brits and Irish , but try IC REALTIME based in Ireland and acquire the 10X DN for under $800 USD and works the same as the REG-X camera

 

Thier website is at

http://www.icrealtime.ie

 

Britain/Ireland jokes are not funny.

 

 

 

To the original poster: You need:

 

1) Black and white box camera with an auto-iris lens (that does not have an IR CUT coating/filter on it) that will accept a threaded filter Usually like 48mm or 52mm threading

 

2) An 850nm IR-PASS filter that will thread onto the end of the lens.

 

3) An IR emitter that is rated for twice the distance you are trying to read plates from.

 

 

 

During the day you'll see the plates well. At night the headlight glare will be mostly reduced by the IR PASS filter, and the IR light from your emitter will be reflected well by the number plate. This is my setup and I can read US-style plates (thinner lettering than UK plates) 99% of the time. I only miss plates that would also have been invisible to the naked eye - such as covered up / missing etc.

 

Have your DVR record AT LEAST 7 fps, full frame if at all possible. Have the camera as close to the centerline of the car as possible so the car is driving towards the plate, not past it at an angle.

 

PM me if you want more details. Be warned it's taken me a long time to get this set up right, so I can't promise you won't be tinkering with it every now and then. My setup was $200 for the camera, $150 for the lens, $20 for the filter and $30 for the IR emitter. About 250 quid?

[BigLebowski 0]

Excellent, thank you. Re. the auto-iris, are most cams these days built with them in? Also could I ask what you mean by a "box" cam? I think I can get hold of the 850nm bandpass filter no probs, it's just the auto-irising cam that may be a prob. Could you give me any examples please?

 

What sort of TVL would you suggest and am I still after a day/night cam? I don't mind using a separate cam for daylight.

 

Incidentally I have since found specialist cameras for about 1300 UKP which are a bit beyond my budget.

 

Thanks again.

 

Dude

[Soundy 1]

Auto-iris is generally a function of the lens, not the camera itself (I suppose if the lens and camera are one integrated unit, it sort of becomes a function of the camera). Almost all analog cameras have the required driver circuit for it (IP cameras seem to be lagging in this regard).

[Scruit 0]

Excellent, thank you. Re. the auto-iris, are most cams these days built with them in? Also could I ask what you mean by a "box" cam? I think I can get hold of the 850nm bandpass filter no probs, it's just the auto-irising cam that may be a prob. Could you give me any examples please?

 

What sort of TVL would you suggest and am I still after a day/night cam? I don't mind using a separate cam for daylight.

 

Incidentally I have since found specialist cameras for about 1300 UKP which are a bit beyond my budget.

 

Thanks again.

 

Dude

 

A 'box camera' is one that has a threaded adapter (C or CS) so you can easily change lenses. You may be able to find a camera with an integrated auto-iris lens, but I suspect you may not be able to cleanly attach an IR Pass filter. The threading is ideal.

 

For TVL, I use a camera that is 460 TVL and record in full D1 mode which is roughly 640x480 in NTSC. A little higher resolution in PAL.

 

Must be black and white because color cameras don't respond to the IR sufficiently.

 

You can use 850nm or 950nm, but make sure you match the emitter to the filter. ie both 850 or both 950.

 

I documented my setup...

 

 

[BigLebowski 0]

Many thanks, any ideas where I could get a C/CS 850nm filter with a screw thread please?

 

Best

Dude