I have a customer with a tight budget and I mean a tight budget...He wants a couple cameras one to view a gas pump from a distance to make out when someone is there, this a farm BTW. I can do this with a 100MM varifocal lens so this will not be an issue the issue is this.

The second camera he wants to see how much gravel is in the back of a loaded dump trunk while the dump truck is traveling about 35 MPH past the farm house. I told him I do not have confidence is obtaining what it is he would like to do but I would setup a demo system with a couple different cameras to see if it is possible. He basically just wants to see how full the trucks are. He suspects people are paying for half truck loads when in fact they are filling up their trucks in the gravel pit they own.

He has a street light by the road so I figure I would mount the camera looking toward the back of the truck as it is passing by and not the truck at a 90 degree angle going under the street light. I've seen cameras and how they handle moving vehicles and I do not have the confidence of getting a clear shot without the blur. The shutter speed would have to be quick and the DVR would have to keep up maybe an MJPEG DVR would be best but I don't usually carry those to try but I do have a GeoVision system that I could setup instead of a standalone.

What do you think? Am I wasting my time with this one? I figured what the heck I may learn something in this process even though I'll be wasting my fuel and my time getting to their location.

so you need to go for somthing with Progressive scan Image sensor with high fps recording above 30 fps!!

Probably with small video analytics in built to make some decision making convennient to your client??
Could be a nice case study!!

Good Luck
Kalpesh Nikumbh

India

There are a number of good cameras that can handle this. Look for a "traffic control" camera. These cameras have a very high shutter speed, and if you are using a good Geo card, at 30 fps, you should be able to get what you are looking for. There is a camera series called Pro7 and Pro8, but they are not cheap. You are looking in the range of 800$ USD. They are IR, weatherproof, and have a myriad of different settings that can allow you to get your shot...vehicle speeds from 0-60+ mph.

Good Luck,

Ddisher

You could also run a standard resolution camera at CIF or maybe 2CIF; which would only show the odd or even fields and would have less motion "jaggies". A fast shutter speed would also help if there is enough light.

Ya this guy is a tight-wad. As you can see by my original post date this has been a while back. I went to this guys place 3 times, I even offered him the cable so he can run them himself to save cost I even borught a demo kit over there and setup two camera on tri-pods just so he can see what he would see. I set it up for motion detection at a specific angle to get the best view of trucks leaving the gravel pit. He was all happy with the setup I brought over and it was a low-budget system.

I put the estimate together made 4 changes to it and here I am after a number of phone calls and a wide range of excuses with no sale. I've wasted enough time and money trying to land this one for little money anyhow.

I haven't contacted him back but things will be different next time considering he is a 45 drive from the office.....argh!!!

I'm preaching to the choir I know, most of you probably dealt with this before.

I'm thinking of charging for onsight estimates. I'm spending more for gas and wasting more time with tire kickers than I care to deal with. I'll charge a site visit fee and if they go with us we will deduct the fee from their bill. That should weed out some tire kickers.....this is for another post though ;-)

Later

Cool Man !
Thats falacy of Life.
cusomers are like this only over all teritories.

If you don't care of them, someone else will.

Feel Safe!

Kalpesh

I charge, and deduct for site surveys too.

It does not weed out the tire kickers that much, but at least you get something.

If they complain about the price, then I know they do not have a need, or a security issue to deal with.