Optical Zoom/Distance Question
TL/DR: will a 4K camera with 5x optical zoom capture license plates at 30m/100ft?
I am in the process of purchasing and setting up a security camera system on a new construction home that will use POE cameras and a NVR. During construction I thought far enough ahead to run Cat 6 Ethernet cables to every conceivable location I could think of at the time and in many locations such as the corners I ran two or more depending on the location. I even ran Ethernet to the doorbell location in hopes that future doorbell cameras would hit the market which they now have.
I have enough other camera locations to cover the whole lot which will likely be CX410s so I can dedicate a camera just to capturing license plates. The home is located at the end of a dead end street and there is an excellent choke point visible through my driveway entrance to the road where vehicles will be driving at a relatively low speeds before the road ends. I measured this out and the farthest mounting location on the front porch that gives the best angle of the road is right at 30m/100ft. There is also a relatively bright LED streetlight at the end of the street that illuminates license plates as the vehicles come down the road so I am hopeful nighttime performance will be decent. If I move the mounting location a little I can shrink the distance by approximately 3-6m/10-20 feet but the angle to the road increases which may/may not be better.
My question is will a 4K camera with 5x optical zoom such as the RLC-811A bullet camera or similar give me enough zoom and clarity to capture license plates? I understand there are higher zooms models, up to 16x zoom, but they are big and I’m trying to maintain some aesthetic and the bullet cameras will almost be invisible the way the porch eaves are constructed and painted. I also have seen people recommend LPR cameras for this application but every review I have read on the affordable ones is that they are near useless.
Open to other suggestions as well.
Posted Sep 23, 2023, 2:42 AM UTC
The short answer...
At night, absolutely not.
During the day? Probably, but it depends on how fast the car is moving.