On which camera you can easily see license plates?

[MS-444]

Hello!
I am having a very hard time finding a right camera for myself.
Can someone recommend me a camera, where you can easily see license plates on the video?
Sounds like none of them have an optical zooming or outstanding quality, allowing to see the license plates easily. I wonder, if there a camera with dual recoding, one could capture general situation, but other would have some zooming, so that you can see the license plates?
Another desirable feature is a battery, which would allow recording if power is disconnected.
So, looking for camera with 2 features - license plate visibility + ability to run on internal battery.
Please help.

 

[parklawn]

Hello, and welcome to the Forum.

I think that you are itching to buy your first dashcam, and it sounds like you are making things difficult for yourself. Don't pull you hair out looking for the 'perfect' dashcam, there isn't one, but the are lots of very good ones. I would suggest that you spend some time looking at video samples from different cameras on this site and elsewhere, and make a selection based on video quality, size, price, etc. Some inexpensive dashcams can produce very good quality, and some expensive ones can produce poor quality video.

Don't get fixated on reading license plates. There are many, many factors at play in capturing clear license plates, and this forum has numerous posts on the subject.

As to your initial question, I can recommend from personal experience the two dashcams that I use. The DR32 and the Innovv C2. They both produce very good quality videos, license plates are readable most of the time, and they are not very expensive. The DR32 does not have a battery though and must be powered via usb cable. The Innovv C2 does have a battery and will run for about 80 minutes on a full charge.

One other thing that I wanted to mention is that when you play back your recordings on the computer you can zoom in on the license plates (or anything else) using the settings on your media player. I use Media Player Classic but there are several other players that you can use.

Hope this helps. Cheers.

 

[Street Guardian USA]

The Panorama S has outstanding WDR Night Vision. The ODM Engineer has specifically fine tuned firmware to be able to read license plate numbers even at night with high reflections in latest firmware. Very low RMA / Very high QA, very heat resistant super capacitor, proven track record of a true "set it and forget" work horse dashcam appliance.
http://roadcam.ecrater.com/p/20167990/roadcam-rcpano2sdvr-panorama2s-dashcam-dvr

For the ability to run on battery it's best to utilize your own car battery via Battery Discharge Prevention Hard Wire Multi-Safer box. You need a DashCam that supports "Parking Mode" which the Panorama does well.
http://roadcam.ecrater.com/p/20173338/roadcam-rcpano2sbdp-hard-wire-constant

 

[MS-444]

Hello, and welcome to the Forum.

I think that you are itching to buy your first dashcam, and it sounds like you are making things difficult for yourself. Don't pull you hair out looking for the 'perfect' dashcam, there isn't one, but the are lots of very good ones. I would suggest that you spend some time looking at video samples from different cameras on this site and elsewhere, and make a selection based on video quality, size, price, etc. Some inexpensive dashcams can produce very good quality, and some expensive ones can produce poor quality video.

Don't get fixated on reading license plates. There are many, many factors at play in capturing clear license plates, and this forum has numerous posts on the subject.

As to your initial question, I can recommend from personal experience the two dashcams that I use. The DR32 and the Innovv C2. They both produce very good quality videos, license plates are readable most of the time, and they are not very expensive. The DR32 does not have a battery though and must be powered via usb cable. The Innovv C2 does have a battery and will run for about 80 minutes on a full charge.

One other thing that I wanted to mention is that when you play back your recordings on the computer you can zoom in on the license plates (or anything else) using the settings on your media player. I use Media Player Classic but there are several other players that you can use.

Hope this helps. Cheers.

Thank you for recommendation.
The reason why I want to have an ability "to see" the license plates is because I am getting very upset about road raging, as well as I had some cases, when someone is just trying to get me killed. It happened couple of times, when I was trying to pass slow moving cars, but they suddenly speed up and keeping me on the opposite lane for much longer time. So, don't worry, I want to report these kind of nasty drivers to the police.
So, if someone knows camera with a sure way to distinguish a license plates, please let me know. We need to keep roads safe from these kind of nasty people.

 

[MS-444]

The Panorama S has outstanding WDR Night Vision. The ODM Engineer has specifically fine tuned firmware to be able to read license plate numbers even at night with high reflections in latest firmware. Very low RMA / Very high QA, very heat resistant super capacitor, proven track record of a true "set it and forget" work horse dashcam appliance.
http://roadcam.ecrater.com/p/20167990/roadcam-rcpano2sdvr-panorama2s-dashcam-dvr

For the ability to run on battery it's best to utilize your own car battery via Battery Discharge Prevention Hard Wire Multi-Safer box. You need a DashCam that supports "Parking Mode" which the Panorama does well.
http://roadcam.ecrater.com/p/20173338/roadcam-rcpano2sbdp-hard-wire-constant

I tried Panorama S, it does have a good quality, but I can't really distinguish license plates.
Nothing personal to anyone, just want to report road ragers.

 

[Street Guardian USA]

I tried Panorama S, it does have a good quality, but I can't really distinguish license plates.
Nothing personal to anyone, just want to report road ragers.

The problem is the highly reflective coated metal plates the US uses.
If you look at night footage of other countries you can read the plates since they are non reflective flat plastic/vinyl etc.
The "Reflector" Properties of the U.S. plate causes intense hot spots since it focuses the light back into the camera.
Combine that with fast motion and it's tough for any DashCam to read USA Plates at night.

 

[Dashmellow]

Another issue I've noticed with license plate readability on camera here in the US is the wide variety of color schemes and designs from state to state. Some show up quite well on dash cams and some are impossible to read, day or night.

 

[BlackBoxed.ca]

It definitely is harder for dash cams to read North American license plates compared to license plates in other countries. However, quality dash cams will still be able to read necessary license plates no problem since the ones you need will probably pass by very closely to your car.

Kelvin

 

[DJR96]

License plate readability is primarily a function of camera sensor resolution and camera lens field-of-view. Even with 1920x1080 resolution it is not easy to read license plates that are more than about 20 metres away with a wide angle lens. It'll safely get a license plate of a vehicle as you go past it.
Speeding up on an overtaking vehicle is very dangerous and illegal in most jurisdictions for good reason. Nothing worse than getting hung out to dry in a speed limited truck with a blind crest approaching!
It's a big inherent compromise and there's not much that can be done about it. Choose high resolution and not too wide lens. That's all you can do.

The Panorama S is good reliable unit, but is quite wide angle lens. There isn't much better on the market. Until jokiin gets his unit to market.....

 

[Xybone]

What about the TF2+ Premium? It's rated the best in image quality.

Alternatively, you could shout out their license plate number at the camera.

 

[Number400]

What about the TF2+ Premium? It's rated the best in image quality.

Alternatively, you could shout out their license plate number at the camera.

I do this It seems/feels silly but I feel it could be important and may come in handy if the footage of the plate is questionable.

 

[MS-444]

After numerous searches, which took me couple of months, I came to conclusion that there is no camera which would be satisfactory to my demands.

On my option, it would be a dual camera: 1 view which has 2-3x optical zoom and another view with wide angle, like 140 degrees or so. With 2 separate cards, each per 1 view. Also, it should have a power backup, in case of major power loss. Like in case if you need to come out and film scenery around the accident area or in case if you lost major power due to the accident. Also, it should have a good night quality. Other features, like GPS, G-shock sensor are useful, but not essential for me.
I don't see are any kind of technological issues blocking to do this.

 

[Nigel]

On my option, it would be a dual camera: 1 view which has 2-3x optical zoom and another view with wide angle, like 140 degrees or so. With 2 separate cards, each per 1 view.

How about two with 90 degree for the front and two with 90 degree at the back, then you have a 360 degree FOV with enough zoom compared to the normal 135 degrees to read plates easily?

 

[MS-444]

You mean 90 degrees for the front will allow to see the license plates?

 

[Nigel]

You mean 90 degrees for the front will allow to see the license plates?

With my Mini 0803 with it's 135 degree FOV I can read most UK license plates of cars coming the other way as long as the lighting is good and the speed is not too high, above 40mph needs decent sunlight, at night it gets very hard to read any plates.

To read the plate, it must be in your field of view so a zoom lens with a very narrow FOV is a bad idea, better to improve:
A higher resolution gives more detail,
A brighter lens (eg F1.8) gives increased shutter speed thus less blur at night,
More sensitive sensor gives increased shutter speed thus less blur at night,
Increased license plate size and contrast - UK plates are the best
Increased lens clarity - a lens that is blurred in the corners as most are means that you cant see a passing plate clearly when it is at it's closest.
A narrower FOV as long as the plate stays within the FOV other wise it becomes impossible to read!

 

[MS-444]

With my Mini 0803 with it's 135 degree FOV I can read most UK license plates of cars coming the other way as long as the lighting is good and the speed is not too high, above 40mph needs decent sunlight, at night it gets very hard to read any plates.

To read the plate, it must be in your field of view so a zoom lens with a very narrow FOV is a bad idea, better to improve:
A higher resolution gives more detail,
A brighter lens (eg F1.8) gives increased shutter speed thus less blur at night,
More sensitive sensor gives increased shutter speed thus less blur at night,
Increased license plate size and contrast - UK plates are the best
Increased lens clarity - a lens that is blurred in the corners as most are means that you cant see a passing plate clearly when it is at it's closest.
A narrower FOV as long as the plate stays within the FOV other wise it becomes impossible to read!

Thank you for recommendation!
I have 2 questions(I did read specs, but didn't find an answer)
1) Can it run solely on a battery? I see it has a battery.
2) Can it record in a seamless mode? I can see that it can record in a loop, nothing about seamless.

 

[Dashmellow]

As inferred by @Nigel's above remarks about UK plates and what I mentioned earlier in this thread, USA plates can be much more challenging to capture in dash cam footage with some states plates being easier to read than others. I live in a state that has a lot of out of state seasonal visitors and I am sometimes amazed at the differences in "capture-ability". A few state's plates are near impossible to capture cleanly unless under idea conditions or a vehicle that is stationary. I've concluded that along with improved sharpness and contrast, one other key factor for plate capture going forward will be frame rate.

 

[Nigel]

Thank you for recommendation!
I have 2 questions(I did read specs, but didn't find an answer)
1) Can it run solely on a battery? I see it has a battery.
2) Can it record in a seamless mode? I can see that it can record in a loop, nothing about seamless.

1)Yes, the Mini 0803 can, but not for long, best to just assume that the battery is only good enough for it to shut down without corrupting the files. It does run nicely plugged into a USB battery pack though, I got 4 hours on a smallish battery pack last week.

2) Not certain what you mean by seamless. Mine is set to record 5 minute files, when the card is full it deletes the oldest and records a new one. There are no missing frames when you play them in sequence.

As inferred by @Nigel's above remarks about UK plates and what I mentioned earlier in this thread,

UK plates have been standardised over the last 20 years or so for ease of reading by automated plate recognition systems. It has a number of uses, for example if a police vehicle finds itself behind a stolen vehicle/uninsured vehicle/banned driver/etc then an alarm will inform the police officer.

I find it odd that USA plates have not been standardised...

 

[Dashmellow]

UK plates have been standardised over the last 20 years or so for ease of reading by automated plate recognition systems. It has a number of uses, for example if a police vehicle finds itself behind a stolen vehicle/uninsured vehicle/banned driver/etc then an alarm will inform the police officer.

I find it odd that USA plates have not been standardised...

In many ways your notions about standardization are understandable and logical but it is important to understand the vast size of the US and the long time history of the formation of the 50 different states that make up this country. There is a culture of states rights and all that and each state has its own history and culture that it is proud of and likes to display graphically on its vehicle license plates. Importantly, each state is responsible for administering its own motor vehicle registrations and regulations within the general guidance of the Federal laws. In various ways, this goes back decades and even more than two centuries to the origins of this country.

No doubt, based on your comment, you "Redcoats" still don't understand the "Yankee" mentality here in the colonies......

 

[Nigel]

No doubt, based on your comment, you "Redcoats" still don't understand the "Yankee" mentality here in the colonies......

We tend to see the USA as a single country with a single government, the plates are one of the few things we see that are different between states, maybe even the only thing!