Bullet camera which can capture the car license plate with headlights ON

vikrantl

For my apartment, I am looking for a bullet PoE or Wifi camera which can read (need not decode) the license plate?

I got a demo from hikvision 2MP bullet camera, if I have my mobile torch ON placed parallel to the license plate and facing the camera, the camera is not able to read the number.

I need inputs on the camera which can
- read the license plate with headlights ON
- camera placed at 12 feet height
- works in night and day

g40steve

Turrets suffer less from spiders webs.

mushii

There are dedicated ANPR cameras that maybe able to do what you are looking for but you better have very deep pockets as they cost several thousand pounds. I think that your expectation is completely unrealistic for most CCTV cameras especially in low light with the car headlights on. Most ANPR cameras are mounted at the same height as the registration plate and no more than 4 or 5 feet away. To mount a camera at 12 feet  high you are going to need the car to be stopped in a very specific position and at 4m high, the camera would need to be 30feet   away to get a decent angle to be able to see the plate clearly.

noiseboy72

Most ANPR cameras work in Infra-Red at night and filter out as much energy from the headlights as possible. You will need to do something similar and probably also add some illumination in the form of an IR radiator to give some bounce off the number plate.

mushii

You would need a very substantial IR illuminator to overcome the car headlights. This is not a cheap or easy solution given the height of the camera.

noiseboy72

Probably 20-50w for the ir source. Its more about getting some illumination onto the number plate than altering the exposure to compensate for the headlights.

Not easy or cheap!!

mushii

The other problem is given the camera height (12’ in the air) and angle you could end up with IR glare/flare off the numberplate itself, which is why most of them are installed at ground level.
Unless you either have a real need for this or very deep pockets or both, I would chalk this one down to a non-starter.

Puntoboy

Hikvision have dedicated ANPR cameras and software for this.

mushii

They wont work at the angle, distance and lighting condition that the OP wants to use them at. They ideally need to to mounted at the same height as the number plate not 12 feet in the air.

I know that petrol station forecourts use high level ANPR cameras (5 or 6m high)  but they also have 150 - 200 Lux,  4000k  lighting levels which allows much better resolution of number plates, the cameras are also focused on static spots, where cars stop to refuel.

Hik do have auto-tracking cameras with Number Plate recognition but they are expensive and they do need reasonable lighting levels and relatively low vehicle speeds.