Hiding an outdoor cam in plain sight

[sequoia 0]

I'm satisfied with the outdoor camera coverage at my location, except I want very good and moderately tight shots of a driveway and entrance. From the angle I want to shoot from, my only location is to place a camera in a flower bed and disguise it somehow. I don't want to use a pinhole camera as I want much better image resolution and control than that.

 

What are some options on hiding a camera in plain sight? I read somewhere else about putting one in a bird house, which seems doable-- any other suggestions?

[Gator 0]

Build a board camera into something that belongs, such as an outdoor low voltage lighting fixture. One of those would already be water proof. Use more of the same fixtures to provide lighting.

[Soundy 1]

We painted an environmental housing black and dark green once, and hid it within the branches of a small pine tree near a driveway gate. Even I had trouble spotting it, and I knew it was there.

[SEANHAWG 1]

I assume you are wanting tight shots of the entrance and exit in order to capture license plates?

 

The problem with covert and small hidden cameras is that you are limited to the small lens sizes that are associated with them. Depending on how far away the cam is away from the entrance or exit, you will need a fairly good sized lens to view in on that particular area. More often than not, the typical smaller lens "general purpose" (ie 3.5-8mm, 2.8-12mm, etc) are not sufficient enough to cover this scenario as you will just pretty much get a wider view. Basically the lens size becomes very important in this scenario and should be one of your main focuses.

 

The least covert of the options that you have are to use a box camera and put it inside a housing, but there are alot more quality cameras to choose from if you go this route in my opinion.

Your other, more covert option is to use a bullet cam. And again, it depends on far away your camera is from the exit but more than likely you will atleast need something with 50mm from my experience.

 

Another thing you want to keep in mind is your nighttime situation. A big problem your going to run into is the reflection you are going to have on the license plates at night, this is a hard problem to combat even with the best cameras, but WDR cameras greatly reduce this problem and its something that you might want to look into. The more lit up your parking lot is at night will also help this problem but will not totally get rid of it.

[Gator 0]

There are a couple of ebay sellers of 600TVL WDR board cameras that can accept c-mount lens. I bought one and I'm impressed with it's performance. The trouble is you never know when you order on ebay & china. And these are not inexpensive at $75. It would be more friendly to package into small objects than a box camera. With a box camera, you know what you're going to get. There is also a 25mm and 50mm MTV lens that threads into these board cameras if you don't go with c-mount. I haven't tried the 50, but the 25mm was pretty decent.

 

edit

 

One of the 600tvl boards on ebay is the same board that's in the CMB-24VF dome. I don't know if the firmware is identical. I think you could do a great project with this part. Look closely at the vendor's photo for the "M" on the monolisa chip.

[sequoia 0]

I don't think the image will be tight enough for license plates but if I could see occupants in cars that would be a bonus.

 

I've used some bosch ltc 0630 WDR box cams and based on my experience with them I think I will choose that for this application. Sounds like either the bird house, or the custom built and painted housing is the way to go ...

[Scruit 0]

Meh. Hidden Schmidden.

 

 

The camera is fed by a buried cat5e cable.

 

The motion light provides illumination to capture license plates at night. There is no IR here, intentionally. My experience is that *printed* license plates don't show up on IR cameras - somehtign about the infra-red reflectivity of the lettering versus background not havign sufficient contrast. Infrared refelctivity is a weird animal - black clothing can show up white in IR mode.

 

The camera has a 60mm zoom lens as is being recorded at 30fps full D1.

 

The image is zoomed in enough that a license plate takes up about 1/3 of the screen as it passes. The angle of the camera means I get about 10 frames with a legible license plate.

 

During the day it works 100%. At night the motion light provides fill-in light to help illuminate the retroreflective paint on the plate.

 

 

I know this is not an outdoor camera. I have a WDR box cam with enclosure on order. This was a proof of cencept.

[SEANHAWG 1]

Is that a solar panel powering the camera or motion light?

[cglaeser 0]

My experience is that *printed* license plates don't show up on IR cameras - somehtign about the infra-red reflectivity of the lettering versus background not havign sufficient contrast.

 

What state or government makes license plates that are difficult to read with an IR camera?

 

Best,

Christopher

[ak357 0]

test

Edited December 26, 2010 by Guest

[ak357 0]

What state or government makes license plates that are difficult to read with an IR camera?

Best,

Christopher

 

Red numbers on white plate

Alberta, Canada

[Scruit 0]

Is that a solar panel powering the camera or motion light?

 

Yep. The solar panel puts out 7.2v. I'm planning to use an LM78XX voltage reulgator to take the camera's 12v feed down to 9v to charge the battery instead of the solar panel.

[Scruit 0]

My experience is that *printed* license plates don't show up on IR cameras - somehtign about the infra-red reflectivity of the lettering versus background not havign sufficient contrast.

 

What state or government makes license plates that are difficult to read with an IR camera?

 

Best,

Christopher

 

 

Indiana plates cannot be read by pure IR cameras. Ohio Veteran plates and other vanity plates are also printed /unreadable.

 

When I say unreadable, I mean when you use IR light to illuminate a plate. My main license plate camera has an IR pass filter (cuts out everything except 850nm) and a big IR illuminator. Indiana plates show up as completely blank. My friend's Ohio Veteran plate was similarly invisible. I had to add a visible light camera also. The camera shown is the second visible light camera which faces the back of the car. This was added after a car with no front plate drove forwards into the driveway and then backed out - ie no plate read!

[rory 0]

 

Indiana plates cannot be read by pure IR cameras. Ohio Veteran plates and other vanity plates are also printed /unreadable.

 

When I say unreadable, I mean when you use IR light to illuminate a plate. My main license plate camera has an IR pass filter (cuts out everything except 850nm) and a big IR illuminator. Indiana plates show up as completely blank. My friend's Ohio Veteran plate was similarly invisible. I had to add a visible light camera also. The camera shown is the second visible light camera which faces the back of the car. This was added after a car with no front plate drove forwards into the driveway and then backed out - ie no plate read!

 

Quick question, have you tried putting dark tint on it?

[SEANHAWG 1]

SEANHAWG wrote:

Is that a solar panel powering the camera or motion light?

 

 

Yep. The solar panel puts out 7.2v. I'm planning to use an LM78XX voltage reulgator to take the camera's 12v feed down to 9v to charge the battery instead of the solar panel.

 

 

So its powering both the Camera and Motion light? Do you have problems with the camera running out of power at night? or do you have it setup just to trigger on when you have motion?

[Scruit 0]

 

Indiana plates cannot be read by pure IR cameras. Ohio Veteran plates and other vanity plates are also printed /unreadable.

 

When I say unreadable, I mean when you use IR light to illuminate a plate. My main license plate camera has an IR pass filter (cuts out everything except 850nm) and a big IR illuminator. Indiana plates show up as completely blank. My friend's Ohio Veteran plate was similarly invisible. I had to add a visible light camera also. The camera shown is the second visible light camera which faces the back of the car. This was added after a car with no front plate drove forwards into the driveway and then backed out - ie no plate read!

 

Quick question, have you tried putting dark tint on it?

 

Definte "Tint"

 

I have not applied any kind of film to the lens or housing.

 

The IR camera is recorded on a dedicated 4 channel DVR on channel 1. Then channel1 is looped out to channel2 input, and chan2 to chan3. This gives me 3 identical images. Each has different brightness and contrast settings.

 

 

Ohio Plate, Stamped...

 

Front plate:

 

IR Camera:

 

Backup visible light camera:

 

 

 

Here's what I get for an Indiana plate (printed)

 

No front plate for this Indana-registered rental car:

 

Rear plate is invisible to IR:

 

Rear plate caught by backup visible-light camera:

 

Looking at these images again, I think I need to zoom my IR plate camera in a little closer if I can...

[Scruit 0]

Sorry for jacking. Back on topic...

 

 

OP: You have a choice to make on the quality of image you need. I tend to find that the best quality outdoor images come from the bigger cameras with auto-iris lenses. But those tend to be more difficult to hide... I just chose to skip hiding the camera completely because the compromise in quality was too great.

 

Are you shooting back towards the house? or away from the house? A flowerbed will be low enough to get blinded by headlights of cars pulling onto the driveway, right? Or exterior lights on your house?

 

 

Exactly what do you want the camera to do?

 

Tell you if someone is there, or give you a general idea what they are doing: Bullet IR cam in the bottom of a lawn ornament of some kind. Just walk around walmart until you find something that wouldn't look out of place in flowerbed, is hollow enough you can mount the camera inside it, and you can disguise the hole that the camera looks out of.

 

Give you a picture of the bad guy's car that you can give to the police:

I'd forget the flowbed and go for a higher mount where headlights/taillights won't be affected by it. Bullet IR will do this as long as it's not blinded by lights.

 

Give you a picture of the bad guy that you can give to the police for a wanted poster:

Pick a choke point and aim for that. Front door is a logical place, but then you'd be better with a eye-level cam installed by the doorway. doorbell cam? Look at the cctv pics they release of bank robbers. If you think to yourself; "I wouldn't recognize that guy in the street even if he walked up to me with a big sign saying; I'm that guy!" then ask yourself how the image could have been better, and apply that to your own setup. IR cams are great for when nobody is around but when someone gets close enough for an ID shot they get washed out by IR! I use IR bullets in concert with motion lights so the IR turns off when someone approaches. Also, I have used an old IR bullet (with the IR disconnected) in combination with a big external IR emitter mouted some distance away to reduce the IR glare. Also stops the effects of IR reflecting off rain/snow and fog.

 

Give you a license plate:

Totall dependedn on you getting the bad guy's car to be stopped or moving slowly in about the area of a parking space. Most homes in a subdivision are useless of this because the bad guy doesn't tend to pull into a driveway. And unless you want to annoy your neighbors by catching every plate that passes your house... You simply shouldn't rely on capturing plates on any camera that is not 100% set up and dedicated to capturing plates.

 

 

 

So ask yourself again: What do I want to with this footage?

[Scruit 0]

RE: Seeing people inside cars: Get a lens that has a threaded fitting to accept filters. Get a polarizing filter and thread it on. Park a car in the driveway with someone in it and then adjust the polarizing filter until you can see inside. The polarizing filter will reject the light that has been reflects off the windows.

 

Bear in mind that that the way light polarizes if you shoot the corner of the car withthe a-pillar in the middle of the shot then your polarizing filter will let you adjust and see in the windshield, or the side window, but probably not both at the same time. Pick an angle and stick with it.

 

You likely won't see in the car at night unless you add your own light or they have their dome light on.

[Scruit 0]

Polarizing filter before:

 

 

 

and After:

 

 

Note: See how the windshield got tougher to see through even though the side window became clearer... that's a function of the light polarization.

[sequoia 0]

I live on a cul-de-sac in an area of low density homes (typical 1-2 acre parcels.) Although it is a very nice area, we have a crime problem like all areas do-- mostly vehicle smash-and-grab burglaries.

 

The camera will be facing away from the home and toward the cul-de-sac. It will look at both my driveway entrance (closer) and cul-de-sac (immediately behind the driveway.) I presently have a bosch wdr dome camera mounted in the top of the eave, and this camera gives me a general idea of "who" and "what cars" are coming through the cul-de-sac-- but it is far enough away so that I don't have much detail. I figured that by putting a box camera in a flower bed I would be much closer to the vehicles and get better images. From experience elsewhere, I have learned that most vehicles have *something* uniquely identifying to them-- whether it is a bumper sticker, body damage, or whatever. I'd like to be close enough to identify such unique items, but I do not want to try to capture license plates as that would be very difficult in my situation.

 

I mostly want to ID specific vehicles so I can match them up to incidents of nearby crime. (i.e. a xxx vehicle pulled through our street 5 minutes before a smash-and-grab on a nearby street. Plus get a good facial shot of anyone walking up our driveway. I can probably shoot the cam right down the driveway at the cul-de-sac so the facial shot should be the easy part.

 

No problem on the jacking-- I always find interesting reading here, on topic or off topic!

[Scruit 0]

How good are your local police at following up leads? I used to live inthe big city just to the south of me and if you didn't give them a license plate then they wouldn't even try to investigate it. That's not a knock on them, it's just the reality of their manpower to workload ratio and the need to be efficient. When my truck was broken into I called them and got a fax number for a written report / "No solvability factors" spiel.

 

Where I live now is a much quieter jurisdiction and the police are more willing to do the investigative aspect. Examples would be actually attending the site of a burglary, photographing footprints and tire treads, taking fingerprints etc. They did eventually hit a wall, but at least they tried. This is great evidence once you find the guy, but other than fingerprints, nothing will lead you find the guy. A fingerprint (if on file) or license plate (if not stolen) will actually lead the police to the bad guy.

 

So, where this ties in to your situation is... How much do you have to be able to give your local police in order for them to put in the effort? A bumper sticker would be interesting and may be metioned on a "Wanted Poster" but likely won't help find the guy. A vehicle make/model is good but won't get you too far unless it's a rare type of car.

 

Body damage is good, but can be temporary. Odd colored panels are good. Imagine the difference in the APB/BOLO between "Red F150 with a bumper sticker" versus "Red F150 with a white bed cap, dented rear bumper with a dented bumper and a maroon right fender."

 

As far as reading bumper stickers... If you are zoomed in close enough to read a bumper sticker then a license plate will be easy to read.

 

 

I don't know what your cul-de-sac looks like so this may not make sense, but I would probably look at getting a dedicated camera with a reaaaally big zoom lens and aim at a choke point as far up the cul-de-sac as makes sense, covering the whole width of the road. Don't expect license plates from this setup, but you can get a good vehicle description during the day. night-time is a while new set of problems.

 

 

 

If you want license plates of cars travelling on the public road ... well... Does your cul-de-sac have a HOA or neighborhood watch? Can you suggest they get a proper license plate camera. I wouldn't try to read plates on a public highway without my neighbors' knowledge/consent. However if our neighborhood watch suggested installing a LP camera then I'd be all over it.

[bryceb 0]

You said the camera connected via a buried Cat5e cable, is that PoE?

[Scruit 0]

You said the camera connected via a buried Cat5e cable, is that PoE?

 

It's an analog camera with passive baluns at each end. I send the video down the orange pair, the power goes down the blue and green pairs. The cat5e cable is wired industry-stndard with RJ45 ports on each end (goes into the patch panel on the DVR end) so that swapping for an IP camera with POE will require no wiring changes.

 

On the DVR end I made a pigtail that has an RJ45 on one end and the other end has the wires broken out for the video and power. The power comes from a 16 channel CCTV power supply.

 

On the camera end I have a similar pigtail, inside a weatherproof housing.

[cglaeser 0]

Indiana plates cannot be read by pure IR cameras. Ohio Veteran plates and other vanity plates are also printed /unreadable.

 

Seems like a design flaw.

 

Best,

Christopher

[Scruit 0]

Indiana plates cannot be read by pure IR cameras. Ohio Veteran plates and other vanity plates are also printed /unreadable.

 

Seems like a design flaw.

 

Best,

Christopher

 

 

Well, I'm using 850nm. I don't know what the IR reflectivity is like at 950nm. All I can tell you that at 850nm I'm utterly blind.