GoPro 7 Hero Black: Best low light night settings for video capture of number plates while cycling

[guerney]

It's difficult to tell from this video frame, but I've pointed the fork light (situated lowest) slightly to the right to better illuminate passing number plates at night... or that's the plan.

 

[guerney]

No problem recording plates going in the opposite direction, if they're close.

 

[guerney]

Fast pass but not close. Basically this set of settings does the job great in daylight. Newer GoPros with more sensitive sensors, should perform even better.

 

[guerney]

Because of high shutter speed darkening frames, and because I recorded during dark early morning, I've had to brighten up this very short and choppy compilation of blameless number plates, which you can pause to read at 1080P (selectable). Original overall video quality is higher due to higher data rate, but same resolution. You can see original quality still frame grabs posted above. I might add to this short compilation at some point, but editing is fiddly. My handlebar mounted Oxford lollipop prevents vehicles passing too close to my bicycle, so recording that continues to be impossible. I even angled it in a bit that morning. I've lengthened it a bit (said the Bishop to the actress)(the video). I might lengthen it again in future.

 

[Peter.Bridge]

I was just trying my <£30 Apeman A79 on my new bike on my lunchtime ride - I have it mounted on the handlebars with the usb cable plugged into my bike battery - I think the quality will be much inferior to the GoPro, but I tried reading a few number plates, both coming towards me and overtaking and using the "grab frame" they were all legible - don't think it would work in low light or dusk though - I might try it . I'm recording at 2.7k/30fps with electronic stabilisation on, there are some settings that I might have a play with.

 

[guerney]

I was just trying my <£30 Apeman A79 on my new bike on my lunchtime ride - I have it mounted on the handlebars with the usb cable plugged into my bike battery - I think the quality will be much inferior to the GoPro, but I tried reading a few number plates, both coming towards me and overtaking and using the "grab frame" they were all legible - don't think it would work in low light or dusk though - I might try it . I'm recording at 2.7k/30fps with electronic stabilisation on, there are some settings that I might have a play with.

It's good for cyclists to have flight recorder options. Perhaps upload some videos and frame-grabs?

Night tests with the GoPro Hero 7 Black at 1/960s soon, but probably not on a lively Friday night.

 

[Peter.Bridge]

this was on an overcast rainy day

Time for a helmet camera?

https://uk.apemans.com/products/action-camera-a79 Fans8off discount code IMVIP code reduces price to £32.50

www.pedelecs.co.uk

 

[guerney]

this was on an overcast rainy day

Time for a helmet camera?

https://uk.apemans.com/products/action-camera-a79 Fans8off discount code IMVIP code reduces price to £32.50

www.pedelecs.co.uk

Similar to my Crosstour Action 4K, which also did a decent job of recording plates in daylight, but was useless doing the same at night, hence my obsession - the GoPro Hero 7 Black does a decent job at night when plates are not too far away, at 1/480S. Video will look extremely dark at 1/960s. There won't be much viewable when played back on-camera, but I'm hoping post brightening will reveal all. I expect colour information will be scant.

don't think it would work in low light or dusk though - I might try it . I'm recording at 2.7k/30fps with electronic stabilisation on, there are some settings that I might have a play with.

I'm pretty sure my old Crosstour Action 4K could have been capable of recording number plates at night, if shutter speed was a user assignable setting... but no, functionality provided by the user interface copied the older GoPros.


ISO 100 is ok at 1/960s, which is the ISO the GoPro is set to automatically switch to for bright scenes, such as when pointed at the rising sun. The first part is ISO 800 when the scene was darker, the clues are car headlights and graininess. It was all underexposed, had to be brightend in post processing. Colours were lack lustre at such high shutter speed, hence boosted too much.

Frame grabs of innocent white car's plate which appears in the above video:







Another blameless BMW plate.





Other, brighter frames from original video. Screengrabs using VLC, bear in mind my VLC is set to brighten a little.

 

[Peter.Bridge]

Yes, I think that would be legible on the apeman but not as clear as that

 

[guerney]

Quite honestly, if I didn't do any dark cycling (sounds like something Aleister Crowley got up to lol), I would have stuck with my old cheap and cheerful £40 Crosstour Action 4K. But as night falls, a more customisable camera was required - nuts that I had to pay (at the time) £155 more plus new batteries, to get control over shutter speed!

 

[guerney]

With the settings in this post...

https://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/threads/gopro-7-hero-black-best-low-light-night-settings-for-video-capture-of-number-plates-while-cycling.44739/post-723410

...I've yet to cycle in the deepest inky dread blackness of night, but this was shot at 6.35am this morning, before the 6.49am sunrise... therefore I've had to brighten the video up rather a lot. Not at all a close fast pass, or a particularly close cutting in front after overtake before a traffic island.

Underexposed original frame grab from video, settings as above - looked brighter than this to the naked eye:





Three frames brightened:









...the above frame enlarged:





Brightened dark grainy video, further crappified by Youtube compression. I would use higher quality Vimeo, if they didn't want my money.

 

[guerney]

Sorry, drivers continue to be repulsed by my lollipop, even in the dead of night. Here's a fast pass, not close. Swearing was emitted by one of the tipsy pedestrians waiting to cross.

Had to brighten a lot:

Here is the original underexposed video frame grab:





Brightened:





Enlarged:






This plate would have been clear if closer, and grainier at ISO1600. I'll stick with max ISO at 800, WITH 1/960s shutter speed when shooting day or night, and everything in between.

 

[guerney]

Such digital cameras will continue to improve, I do hope someone will post about one suitable for cyclist use, which does the job better in the same conditions, without costing a fortune.

@rsscott: I don't know what anyone else thinks, but I reckon making posts editable forever would be a good change, like Endless Sphere. I've noticed old posts on this forum with informative media hosted elsewhere disappears over time: Dropbox, Photobucket, Windows Live, iCloud, Google Drive, Facebook, Myspace etc. and it'd be better if posts could be updated by the authors to maintain maximum usefulness for site vistors. One reason why I've been linking to my Vimeo videos, is because they can be replaced in situ, unlike Youtube, therefore if I haven't much time I can do a rough edit (let's face it, all vids I upload here aren't neat) to upload to Vimeo and infinitesimally improve to make less dull later, without having to to attempt editing the uneditable post after the 24 hours pedelecs.co.uk deadline and failing. It was a race against time to replace the Youtube video above before the 24 hour timeout. Other videos I've posted on this thread can't be updated.