ACTi KCM-5611 as a License Plate Camera

[dvarapala 0]

In my ongoing experiments with capturing license plates I have been looking for a camera that can do a better job than my current LP cam, an Arecont Vision AV1310DN. To that end, I recently purchased an ACTi KCM-5611 and swapped it in place of the Arecont. On paper this camera sounds great: good low-light performance, remote focus and zoom, relatively compact size.

 

The results were surprising: From the same location, using the same exposure settings and the same RayMax RM100 illuminator, the ACTi didn't even come close. During the day the picture was fantastic, but at night it went to complete crap: low contrast and so much noise that many plates were illegible. But the final nail in the ACTi's coffin was the frame rate: for reasons as yet unknown, this camera often delivers frames in a very bursty fashion; while the overall frame rate might average out to 30fps, the actual rate varies wildly from one second to the next. It might deliver 15 frames one second and then 45 frames over the next. This is plainly visible even when connecting directly to the camera using Internet Exploder (which ACTi forces me to use, since it doesn't appear to support any other browsers - but that's another rant ). Since my VMS records the timestamps of each captured frame and calculates the inter-frame deltas when playing them back, the same burstiness is aggrivatingly evident during playback as well. Sometimes the frame rate is stable, such as in "day" mode with the exposure set to auto or immediately after rebooring the camera, but to capture blur-free license plates at night I need a fixed shutter speed of 1/1000th or 1/500th and that setting seems to bring out this frame rate bug.

 

I have a total of 14 IP cameras from several manufacturers, and none of them have given me the problems that this ACTi has. Needless to say, the Arecont Vision has been swapped back in and the ACTi is destined for more mundane duty elsewhere in my system.

 

Here are a couple of frame captures so you can see what I mean. Again, these are with comparable exposure settings, from the same mounting location, and using the same IR illuminator.

[buellwinkle 0]

I find 1.3MP cameras in general have better low light sensitivity so I personally would not use a 1080P camera for LPR. The better cameras for this are box cameras like the Axis Q1604, Bosch 733 and Samsung Wisenet III.

 

The problem is you used the same exposure settings and you should turn gain down and maybe use a higher shutter speed with the ACTi.

 

This is Dahua SD59230S-HN with HLC turned on, about 100m away, did pretty well considering it was 1080P.

 

 

[qtmspin 0]

Can I ask where you got the dahua sd59230s-hn? I tried ordering at Aliexpress from Shenzhen Ousion Technology but it was a total mess. They lied about delivery and tried to postpone the order until my paypal dispute would have expired - shady. I did get a full refund in the end thanks to PayPal dispute.

[thewireguys 3]

Avigilon's 9-22mm Bullet cameras are very good at LP reads. 3MP and 5MP are what we normally use and customers have been very happy with the results.

[buellwinkle 0]

Can I ask where you got the dahua sd59230s-hn? I tried ordering at Aliexpress from Shenzhen Ousion Technology but it was a total mess. They lied about delivery and tried to postpone the order until my paypal dispute would have expired - shady. I did get a full refund in the end thanks to PayPal dispute.

 

The problem with getting these in China is they are too large so they have to ship China post and that can take a month or longer. Besides that, when Dahua gets an order for these, it takes about a month to fulfill. You are much better off going to a U.S. source.

[RustyJL 0]

How much are the new Bosch Dinion 8000 starlight cameras worth. The low light footage is rather impressive.

 

Looking at footage on Youtube from the Bosch 733, the low light capability is not bad

 

 

although i did see another video where the low light footage was terrible.

 

It is sad to see such poor results from the KCM5611, I was set on getting one acquired for work purposes. Perhaps the Bosch may be a better option for LPR and general mobile surveillance.