I recently got my hands on the Wyze Cam OG Telephoto, and I’ve been really impressed with its capabilities. One feature I’ve been particularly curious about is its ability for license plate capture (LPC). After setting it up, I decided to put it to the test by aiming it at a spot on the roadway about 70 feet away from my home. Here’s what I found!
Daytime Performance
During the day, the OG Telephoto’s 3X optical zoom is sufficient to make license plates legible at 70 feet. While it’s close to the limit of distance, it’s still impressive. A 5X or 7X option would definitely improve the results, but for now, it works well enough for my needs.
Challenges with Moving Vehicles
However, capturing plates on moving vehicles is a different story. While the camera provides a fast enough shutter speed to avoid motion blur at 30 mph, the lossy compression washes out the detail of the plate itself. This makes it harder to read the plates on moving cars. I’d love to see an option for adjusting compression, especially for videos stored on the internal SD card.
Nighttime Operation
As expected, nighttime LPC is more challenging. Effective LPC at night would require a strong IR illuminator and faster shutter speeds. Wyze could really own the residential LPC market with just a few tweaks to the OG Telephoto. Increasing the zoom to 7X and adjusting the compression would make it a product every homeowner concerned about mail theft would buy.
Conclusion
Overall, the Wyze Cam OG Telephoto is a great choice for daytime LPC. While there are some limitations with moving vehicles and nighttime operation, Wyze has shown they’re capable of innovation, and I’m hopeful they’ll continue to improve this feature. If you’re looking for an affordable and effective LPC solution, the OG Telephoto is definitely worth considering!
#WyzeCam #LicensePlateCapture #HomeSecurity