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enlarge image after recording to get license plate #

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what camera should i use so that, my customer can enlarge or zoom into the image from a recording to get a closer look at the license plate. There is this convenience store that gets broken into every other month. The store has two entrance that the bad guys use to get in the store parking lot. The owners want to put cameras so that they can get a clear tight shot of the car at night( there is enough light) with the plate number. Need your feed back on the issue. The image should not pixilate so much that he cannot read the plate.

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I have heard of them. They are expensive. i was trying to see if someone had a innovative way of doing it. what would be the answer to the second part of my question? Let say i took a snap shot of the car from the DVR recording and then enlarged it, would it help.

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One of the most common request by customers is that they want to "zoom" in when watching playback. And this is possible. But when you enlarge an image that has already been recorded it will be distorted the more you "zoom"/blow up the picture. The thing is the camera is going to be putting out a certain resolution. The recorder will record that video at a certain resolution. So the playback will be in a specifiic resolution and if you zoom in your only expanding the pixels that are compiled on that pictures your playing back. So as you zoom in on the pictures pixels you will be lessining the number of pixels in the screen making the picture quality worse and worse.

This is exactly why the DIY people who rig up their business will make all their shots as wide as possible to cover as much area as they can and save money by lessing the amount of cameras to cover everything. And so when an event happeans the identifiable features that are so critical especially for prosecution are not easy to see because the item/action is such a small number of pixels on the screen that you cant make it out especially when you blow it up.

The answer to this is the have camera shots that are very narrow and not getting a "all in one" coverage shot. So that way it will have been recorded as a large number of pixels in the screen.

Now you are wanting to blow up a license plate. You need to re approach this. LPR is a difficult and has alot of variables not usually a concern in other type of camera shots. Your LPR camera has to be only used to get LPR. Cant be a overview shot of parking lot. Or front of the building. You have to design your shot for only the best spot for the LPR.

If you are an installer and are doing installs for a living you need to forget the concept of zooming in on playback. Its something that works really good on CSI but not in in the real world.

Now for your camera go to Extreme CCTV. Dont mess around with anything else. If you do you will be frustrated and disapointed.

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you got my point actoss very well. Yes I am an installer. I have seen Extreme CCTV cameras, I believe they run into $600 I believe or more. But the owner doesnot want to spend that kind of money. Do you know how much they cost?

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, I believe they run into $600 I believe or more.........

 

Oh man that is not even close. They are alot more than that. Yes I know how much they cost but I am not going to post it here. I would in the dealer forum.

 

But the owner does not want to spend that kind of money.......

 

Well then it is really not that important to they business owner. If he is serious he way pay several thousand for a camera that will do the job.

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i might get shot here. but ive been using a 22x zoom autofocus camera for plates and assumign you have good lighting it allways gets the plate clear as day.

 

only costs £120 quid trade as well in the uk (note if someone would actually add me to dealer i would not post prices lol)

 

now no good in difficult situations, but the client might have a site suitable for this kind of setup..... (note - it mangages to get plate and usually a nice pic of the driver car e.t.c.

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Most cameras zoomed in on a view such as the width of a car can generally get the licence plate when coupled with a decent shutter, High Res CCD and fast DVR, but if you want 24/7 licence capture, especially at night, you will either want to use a wide dynamic day night camera, or a specific LPR camera such as the Extreme, which Isaac already mentioned costs alot more than $600 .. and add alot of light, or Infrared. The Extreme REG cameras are really neat and worth the price if you are an installer and want near guarenteed licence plate capture, when you look at the guts of them and what they do to be able to cut out all the other light and get only the licence, it is really great. Unfortunately no Zoom or Traditional box camera comes close to it, without major modifications.

 

Here are some screenshots of one of the Extreme REG camera captures .

On this specific job the client had some JVC Box cameras installed zoomed in on the width of vehicles for licence capture, and although they worked well in the daytime, they saw virtually nothing at night. As they were willing to spend and werent adding any additional lighting, even though we did add temporary lighting to test, and still did not work great, they then decided they just wanted something that worked ...

 

http://www.bahamassecurity.com/Gallery/Cameras/Extreme_REG.htm

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you are right about the power zoom cameras they will work some times. But not consitently. One major downfall is the auto focus will go nuts when lights are in the picture especially if they are moving. The thing about LPR is if someone really wants then it is a area of high importance.

And most things are not going to happean under "perfect" lighting conditions. Get the extreme lpr. It works. Its proven. Its reliable. And it has a 5 year warranty. I have used these several times and NOTHING else out there can provide LPR as consistently and reliably as those.

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With LPR you really need to use the best cameras possible & the Extreme (Derwent in U.K.) are the bollocks.

 

We have installed some LPR systems however, for customers who are only interested in day time recording, using the cheap zoom cameras (as already suggested) with great success.

 

Remember to up the frame rate & have a fast shutter speed if you are not using dedicated LPR equipment.

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