Hi, I recently lost a deal to a competitor because he could deliver LPR without IR. Losing a deal is one thing but when it's because I lack in knowledge I have to do something about it. Then I found this forum and hope that somebody here know "the secret".

The camera should deliver a readable image of a license plate at night with street light as only light source and head on with headlights on. I think he used Axis 221 mounted on a pole about 12' up looking fairly straight down and a little offset to the side. Distance from the pole's base to the car is about 7-10'. Anyone here ever done that? What would the camera settings be? Shutter speed etc?

Having the camera looking down this way reduces the backlight problem I guess, but still I have to have enought light at the plate so that it reflects some to the camera.

Calling my competitor to ask, isn't an option

After the install, go back and see if the customer is happy. Bet a nickel they are not.

Actually it has already been installed and the customer says he is pleased with the system. Haven't seen it myself though. I'll ask him if I can pay him a visit just to see for myself. But I've also heard of others who have done the same thing, but with IQeye 753.

I guess the setup isn't what I pictured. Looking down on a plate should involve some distortion of the letters and the risk that the plate is obscured. I'd expect that the only way it could work without additional lighting (visible or IR) would be if there was a clear choke point that required vehicles to stop. Any chance he's shooting the rear plate? That would take head light glare out of the equation.

I suppose it can't hurt to be frank with the customer and ask for a look at the setup. Tell them that you honestly didn't think it could be done, but you are opening to learning new things. Maybe he'll give you a tour to show off his new toys. Buy him lunch (or donuts).

Oops, forgot to mention, there is a stop involved. The setting is at a gate, an entrance to a loading area. The big test should be right now when snow and dirty roads smothers the plates.

I've used the low end, no IR, LPR cams..........I mean under 200 a cam. They work pretty good at lighted gates. And, dollar for dollar, they work. So why not use them?

I've considered the megapixel approach but have not gone there yet because the low end works fine..........

In any LPR camera you'll have a certain % of misses, dirty plates, no plates, ect. My opinion......LPR are a convienance and not needed........I'd rather spend that money on decent pics of the area........

case in point; gated community had LPR and a low end area coverage cam.....ex employee came in one weekend and cleaned out the liquor & freezer..........we had a great pic of the license plate and a not so great pic of the perp...........from day 1 I warned them about this and wanted them to spend as much on the area coverage cams.but they chose not to. So, the Cops bottomline is, the car was there.........now we have to prove he was. Oh, and the bigger issue in my area in the population here is more dark skinned than light skinned. And I am not being racist...but dark skinned people are hard to video at night......................a decent camera works but it is still very hard to get right.

Agree there VST_Man, I always use a two-cam setting on sites like this, where one is dedicated LPR. No point in just knowing which car they had... In more planned crimes the plates are probably stolen anyway.

Ted makes a good point. If they note the LPR camera setup, they'll simply remove the plate, or obscure it in some way. That's when you'd need to count on another camera to get a good shot of the subject.