FLIR One Thermal Imaging Camera

[blxm]

Does anyone have experience of these at sea, fog or night time. As a cost effective solution it would seem to be handy but I've never used a thermal camera.
At £220 is this worth a go?

 

[Blue Sunray]

Does anyone have experience of these at sea, fog or night time. As a cost effective solution it would seem to be handy but I've never used a thermal camera.
At £220 is this worth a go?

I have not used the marine ones. However the main issue with those on the civilian market particularly at the lower price points is a relatively low resolution, even at higher prices I think that ITAR restrictions limit the quality available. They can be very good at night (or even, depending on what you are searching for, during the day) they will not however see through fog (or rain) to any great extent.

I would doubt that at £220 you will get anything very effective.

 

[Porthandbuoy]

I've got one. I got it to identify cold spots, drafts, heat leakage, etc. in my old house. It has its uses on the boat though. I rebuilt the stern gland last winter and, being hard to get at while afloat, I wanted to know if it was running hot or not. The Flir1 proved it was barely warm, perfect. No need to lift the cockpit sole while motoring to check.
Thin or collapsed spots on engine exhaust hose? No problem.
Dodgy electrical connections? This works at home or on the boat. If there's a high resistance under load the connection gets warm, or even hot. Easy to spot with the Flir1.
Beer too warm? Check your fridge or coolbox insulation.
Play hide and seek in the dark with the grandkids. Great fun!
Spot cats, rats, mice, voles, hedgehogs in the garden at night.

But. Not much use for distant objects. Beyond 20~30m its pretty useless, and as pointed out IR doesn't penetrate fog or rain.

I keep finding serious, semi-serious and fun uses for it.

No connection with the company other than as a satisfied user.

 

[sarabande]

I use one (Pulsar Quantum XD 50s) as part of the anti-deer poaching group on Exmoor, and for picking up deer wounded in traffic accidents.

It sees a deer or person at 800m, and focuses down to about a metre, so very useful for checking hot spots on board, especially in conjunction with an IR thermometer. I guess it might be good for picking up a MOB, but it is not like the sights used by the services, in that the resolution is not as good.

And it does not cost £220.

 

[prv]

However the main issue with those on the civilian market particularly at the lower price points is a relatively low resolution

A colleague of mine has a FLIR-branded phone with a basic thermal imager in it. It's pretty low resolution, but the FLIR app combines the thermal image with an edge-detected outline from the visible-light camera. The two blend together really well to help you understand what you're looking at.

No help for seeing in the dark, of course, but I thought it was an interesting solution for many of the other uses of thermal cameras.

Pete

 

[AntarcticPilot]

IR does not penetrate haze, fog or rain to any great extent - it's worse than visible light in that respect, as would be expected from considerations of the wavelengths involved. I've used a laser ranging system using an IR laser with reflectors, and they failed to work in conditions where the reflector was perfectly visible to the operators, but there was a low ice haze. And the resolution (at high sensitivities) is low for reasons connected with the fundamental physics; it can only be got round by having a larger collecting area, which means correspondingly large camera apertures.