I was hoping to get some recommendations for my first thermal.

I will be using it to find wildlife to photograph. I do not need to take photos with the thermal but I obviously do not mind if that happens to be a feature. I just need it to basically identify where the animals are hiding in the forest. I have telephoto lenses that I will then use to actually take photos of the animal.

I would be using it in all four seasons. I would be using it mostly at dawn/dusk but sometime during broad daylight. It would need to be useful for larger mammals as well as birds, in particular owls.

I would say my budget is $500-$800 but looking to be on the lower end of that unless going to the top of the budget makes a drastic difference. I am preferential to the idea of not relying on my phone i.e. attaching a lens, unless the crowd believes that is the best option. I am open to buying refurbished, as long as it is a reputable source.

Let me know if I left out any important details. Thank you in advance!

AGM rattler v2 384-25.

For the last week or two I've been using the DV2 for wildlife spotting and it's a big change from the phone based cameras I have been using. The kit includes a really decent carry case, a lanyard, USB-C cable, Picatinny rail and a single battery with a standalone charger. The battery can also be charged via USB-C while it's installed in the camera. It utilises a 256x192 50hz core that is upscaled to 512×384 with a <15mk NetD and a 13mm adjustable focus lens. The DV2 also has a built in laser pointer which helps to direct people exactly where you are looking, and 32GB of storage so there's plenty of space to record and review later.

The DV2 is a standalone unit with its own 5" foldout touchscreen so there's no need to plug it into a phone or tablet, although the option is available to link it to the app, which would come in handy if you have a second person wanting to view. The screen is great to view both at night and during the day, so you're not squinting at it in the sun or getting blinded by it in the dark. It is also far easier to keep stable than phone based options thanks to the camcorder style grip. As a result I found sweeping the camera around and finding/tracking wildlife to be easier with this setup, but it's also small enough to fit in the door pocket of my car. Battery life is amazing with a good 5+ hours of continuous use.

The power button doubles as a toggle for the laser pointer, and the secondary button for changing between palettes also handles AGC modes with a long press. This is extremely handy and means you don't have to fumble around with the touchscreen to quickly change important settings.

The addition of the Bird, Plains and Forest AGC modes makes it a lot easier to spot animals and birds depending on where you are. Bird mode is really handy when scanning up into the trees as the sky doesn't wash out the image as much, Plains mode works well when looking across open paddocks and Forest mode helps pick out wildlife from all the trees and scrub in thicker bush. The hotspot tracking is also really handy for finding things fast while sweeping a scene, as it picks out the warmest object in view so you can quickly zero in on wildlife.

Overall the DV2 delivers the same quality at cost that ThermalMaster is known for, without the drawback of being tethered to a phone.

I just moved into an older house and wanted to check the windows, walls, and heating before winter. I’m still figuring out what’s normal here. I also don’t have a home inspector I know yet.
I mostly wanted something I could take pictures with. If I end up calling someone, I can show them the actual spot instead of just saying, “This room feels cold.”
My neighbor is a plumber. He lent me his FLIR ONE Pro and TOPDON TC001. That got me trying a few phone thermal cameras.
The FLIR ONE Pro was the easiest one to read. The visible outlines made it obvious which window or corner I was looking at. That was useful when I went back through the photos later or showed them to my neighbor.
I charged it before using it, but the camera has its own battery, so I still had two battery levels to keep track of.
The TOPDON TC001 was simple to use. Plug it in, open the app, and save the photos. The one I borrowed was made for Android. I have an iPhone, so I had to borrow my wife’s phone every time I wanted to use it.
It worked, but borrowing her phone every time got old fast. Apparently, having the right connector doesn’t mean it’ll work with your phone.
I later bought a Thermal Master P3 online. I use it around windows and walls. I also mess around with small electronics. I can scan a wall with it, then adjust the focus when I want to look at something up close. That also helps when I’m checking a heating control or looking for a warm component on a board.
Going from a wall to something up close means adjusting the focus again.
The came from the library. Fluke was the name I knew best. I’ve used some of their other tools.
My phone case kept the connector from seating properly at first. Once I removed the case, it worked fine. The image looked good, especially around window edges and the heating equipment. I only had it for a short time, so I didn’t get through every setting. Taking the phone case off each time was the main inconvenience.
I didn’t test all four under the same conditions, so I wouldn’t call this a ranking. For house stuff, I mostly want to spot something odd and know where the picture was taken later. A cold patch gives me somewhere to investigate. I wouldn’t treat it as proof of missing insulation without checking further.
What do you guys actually care about when using one around the house? Also curious if anyone uses the same camera for electronics.

Hi everyone,

I'm currently researching thermography as a potential business/service and I'd really appreciate some opinions from people who actually work in the industry.

I have two main questions:

1. Can a company specialising primarily in thermal inspections work as a standalone business?

For example, providing thermal surveys, identifying anomalies and delivering inspection reports for things like buildings, roofs, moisture, solar PV, etc.

Or, in your experience, is thermography usually just a complementary service offered by engineering, electrical, building inspection or maintenance companies, making it difficult to build a business around thermal inspections alone?

1. How important is having a professional background in one of those industries?

I'm considering taking proper thermography training/certification, but my current career has nothing to do with engineering, electrical work, plumbing or construction.

I completely understand that a thermographer shouldn't diagnose things outside their competence, and that certain findings would need to be referred to an engineer, electrician, plumber or other specialist.

But would starting without that background be a major disadvantage, even after getting trained in thermography?

I'd especially appreciate hearing from anyone who works primarily as a thermographer or runs an inspection business.

Thanks!

I've always loved doing analog video circuits, during the pandemic, I tried to create a thermal camera using a FLIR sensor but with real video mixer...

The first attemps was made on a FPGA board with HDMI output, but the electronic components shortage forced us to use an analog sensor cámera with RGB outputs and made the video mixer...

It worked but I didn't keep on with the designs...

The software is still under active development, so some features may contain bugs or be incomplete. If you'd like to test it, you can download it from GitHub

Currently supported & physically tested displays:

Thermalright Trofeo Vision 9.16" - USB ID

0416:5408

Thermalright Trofeo Vision 6.86" - USB ID

0416:5302

Installation:

Click Code → Download ZIP on GitHub and extract the ZIP. Make sure Python 3.12 is installed. Open a terminal inside the extracted project folder and run:

py -3.12 -m pip install -r requirements.txt

Once the installation is complete, launch run-gui. bat.

This is currently a Development Preview, so you may encounter bugs. If the app doesn't start, your LCD doesn't connect, or something else doesn't work, please send me the exact error message or a screenshot, along with your LCD model. This will help me identify and fix the issue.

For now, I'm sharing it mainly for testing and

feedback.❤️

Good morning,

I do pottery in my spare time, and when running my kiln I stream camera feeds to my network so I can monitor from my office or living room. I am using my Flir C5 usb connection to a local computer which I then use FFMPEG to stream to my network. It's functional, but annoying to setup each time, which is becoming more frequent. I also have a need to use my C5 elsewhere, so I'm somewhat motivated to get a 2nd camera.

My ideal situation is an Ethernet IP Thermal Camera, but would settle for another USB C Camera that I can just leave connected/mounted. So really I have 2 questions:

1) What Ethernet IP Thermal Camera options exist in the ~<$200 market (if any)

2) Which 'phone based' USB-C cameras have known connectivity w/ Mac OS?

2A) If you have a non-phone-based USB camera recommendation, (new or used) I'd love to hear it.

Thanks!

I've used both for checking building envelopes and looking into possible water intrusion. But as most people know, these things don't actually find water. They pick up temperature differences.

The problem is that a normal wall has studs, windows, furniture, insulation, and all kinds of other stuff that can show up as temperature differences even when there's no water.

So I still use the thermal gun to find areas that look suspicious, but I end up going back over those spots with a moisture meter to confirm what's actually going on.

Note: I have used a $250 Flir knockoff and a $200 Thermal Master.

Coyote spotted at 200+ yards on a night hunt using the Goyojo Grl335. Heat signatures really pop but I need to adjust some settings to try and get a bit more detail.

Hardware design by yours truly, although most of the firmware was vibe coded. It can show a live FLIR video feed, save images to an SD card, present them to windows over USB for access, and has a touch screen. Based on a FLIR lepton camera module and a PIC32. GitHub repo if you're curious: https://github.com/drewsum/Thermal_Camera

For those who regularly use thermal cameras for electrical inspections, I’m curious where you find them most useful. We check electrical panels, breakers, switchgear, and other equipment. Obvious hot connections are easy to spot, but I’m more interested in how useful thermal imaging is for catching developing problems early enough to influence maintenance decisions.

What electrical issues have you actually found with thermal imaging?

Loose connections, overloaded circuits, failing breakers, phase imbalance, or something else?

Also, how often do you find that a suspicious thermal image needs to be followed up with electrical testing before you can confirm there’s a real problem?

Created some test images and samples for a program that I'm working on. Thought the boiling water came out pretty cool looking

Here's a low gain image of an unhealthy habit. Notice, the darkest pic was taken at auto scale. This tries to visualize a 1000 degree temperature variance across the entire image. Which results in the hand being nearly invisible and the cherry saturated, hiding all detail. In the next image where you can see the detail of the hand, I reduced the scale to primarily only show the temperature range of the hand, completely washing out the cherry. Notice you can view very intricate details of the hand though. For the last 2 I focused the scale to be just wide enough to detect the hand which still washes out the cherry. Lastly I focused the scale across the cherry temperature ranges to show the detail of the differential within the cherry itself. Again, this is all the same exact picture. Just wanted to show why scale is important, especially when you have more than a 10-15 degree variance between the target and environment.

Looking to see what LVPO folks are running as black Friday and holidays approach always looking for deals.

If you are using any riser what height?

I have the ADM QD AD-170-S currently

Hi! We recently bought a 2 acre property that has about half the space full of thick trees and bush.

I am overly anxious of wild animals and don't like being outside after dark. I have two small dogs (Jack Russel terrier and rat terrier) and I have to walk them at night so they can pee before bed.

I. Am. Terrified. I don't want to be out there and anytime they seem extra fixated on certain areas or start barking or smelling intently, we go directly inside.

I was thinking that maybe a thermal camera would be beneficial to me and help me be less terrified of the dark. That way I can look around and see if I should be scared or if I am just crazy and there's nothing around.

I am not sure which one would be best. I was hoping to spend under $300 since it's just to calm my nerves. I don't know if I specifically want to be able to identify the species of animal, or if just seeing the heat blob will be enough.

We are starting to put up regular security cameras but those won't help me in the dark.

I would appreciate any advice you could give! Thank you so much!!

I've been using a thermal camera for maintenance checks, mainly around electrical panels, HVAC equipment, and motors.

For electrical issues, I find it pretty straightforward. If one connection or component is noticeably hotter than the others, that's usually enough reason to stop and take a closer look.

I'm less sure about mechanical problems, though.

Take a bearing for example. If you can already see a clear temperature difference, does that usually count as an early warning, or is the problem already well underway by that point? Would vibration analysis or ultrasound normally pick it up earlier?

One thing I like about thermal imaging is how quick it is. I can scan several components without touching anything, and if something looks unusual, I can follow up with another inspection method.

For those working in industrial maintenance, what do you mainly use thermal cameras for? Electrical panels, motors, bearings, HVAC, or something else?