[SOLVED] license plate readabe action camera

[pinooooo]

Hi all,
About 2 years back I had (and returned) several action cameras (Sony AS200, Garmin Virb, TomTom Bandit) and borrowed a few action cameras from friends (Gopro not sure which types) because none of them captured license plates and road signs readable on 20~50 meter distance when traveling ~ 50kmh

I want to use the camera when driving (car/bike/motorcycle) I don't need any fancy features i only want to be able to read anything i encounter alongside the road. Passing cars and stuff like that. I googled this and found more people asking for this but found no concrete answers or camera specifications that guarantee this. Also there are a loooot more new camera brands on the market than a few years back. (Xiaomi,SJCAM,DJI OSMO,Instra360). i'm kinda lost.
Does anyone have tips or recommendations on distant readablilty?

 

[USAFRet]

50 meters away while moving almost certainly is not going to happen.

You'd need some optics that are zoomed in on that license plate. Which removes all the other stuff in the frame, which you also need.

And at 50 meters/160 feet, why do you need to read their license plate? They are far far away and have pretty much zero impact on what you are doing.


I have a couple of dashcams...a HaloCam M1 (cabin and back), and a Aukey FHD 1080p.
Very good optics, but nowhere near reading a license plate at 30-50 meters.

From my much better house security cameras (ReoLink RL-423), I can read a license plate from about that distance. But only when zoomed in close, and not moving.

 

[pinooooo]

50 meters away while moving almost certainly is not going to happen.

I based the 20-50 meter distance on a safe separation distances. I understand from you that these distances are just not reasonable but then, is it reasonable to be expecting or hoping to be able to read the license plate of cars that are passing you or coming from the opposite direction doing 50kmh on some cameras, if so on which cameras?

On the cameras i used basically none licence plates were readable unless standin still and pretty close to it.

 

[USAFRet]

I based the 20-50 meter distance on a safe separation distances. I understand from you that these distances are just not reasonable but then, is it reasonable to be expecting or hoping to be able to read the license plate of cars that are passing you or coming from the opposite direction doing 50kmh on some cameras, if so on which cameras?

On the cameras i used basically none licence plates were readable unless standin still and pretty close to it.

NONE of my current dashcams would do this.

From my house security cam, Reolink. MUCH better than any dashcam I've seen.
At about 35-40 meters...

If I zoom in, I can mostly read those plates.
But these cars are stationary.


From my Aukey dashcam

I am passing the silver car:

About 1 car length back, from a stopped car:

Police and toll booths use Automatic number-plate recognition (ANPR)
Distances MUCH closer than your desired 20-50 meters, and cameras probably out of your price range.

 

[pinooooo]

NONE of my current dashcams would do this.
Police and toll booths use Automatic number-plate recognition (ANPR)
Distances MUCH closer than your desired 20-50 meters, and cameras probably out of your price range.

Lots of thanks for the photos and explenation. I think i am going to give up on finding a camera that can do this.