chili-girl wrote:

Is there a typical distance you can read a number plate.

Just to say a bit further ... if you *did* have a 25mm lens to make the
plate readable it wouldn't make a very good CCTV as you'd only see the
car and immediate surroundings, rather than an all round view, which is
why council/police CCTV have pan/tilt/zoom cameras and an operator.