thermal imaging camera

Status
Not open for further replies.

meternerd

Senior Member
Location
Athol, ID
Occupation
retired water & electric utility electrician, meter/relay tech
Take a look at the Fluke. Easy to use, fast turn-on and pretty rugged. We use it in utility work, so outside & bad weather is not uncommon.
 

MD84

Senior Member
Location
Stow, Ohio, USA
Taking a class is a great recommendation. There's a lot to thermal imaging. You should consider the applications in which you will use it. Some important properties are resolution and spot size ratio. You would be disappointed to spend the money on a camera only to realize it will not work for your application.

I used a FLIR T640 for a while and it was well suited to my applications. I could change the lenses to achieve 6, 25, and 45 degrees field of view. The resolution was quite nice as well.
 

Fulthrotl

~Autocorrect is My Worst Enema.~
I am looking to purchase a thermal camera for electrical and mechanical inspections I am considering the FLIR E40 any input?

first thought is, do you have a ready source of customers?

i looked at ir cameras a while ago, and they get 'spensive pretty fast.
by the time i got to where the feature set gave a professional
output, it was a lot of money... that thing would have to be
kept pointing at stuff a lot to pay for itself.

i was looking more at flir than fluke, to be honest....
and flir is at the interchangeable lenses, and high def
stage now, so that should knock prices down on the
mid range stuff, but top of the line is $40k... :sick:
it's easy to get to $10k really quick......
 

tkb

Senior Member
Location
MA
The Flir One is only $250 and can work with an iphone/ipad or roid.
It's good, but not the heavy artillery.
 

meternerd

Senior Member
Location
Athol, ID
Occupation
retired water & electric utility electrician, meter/relay tech
I took a week long class at the FLIR factory in Boston years ago. Much more to it than looking at an image. Definitely worth the trip (though the company paid the tab). That said, FLIR makes cameras for military as well, so they can provide LOTS of info along with the image. But, if all you are looking for is overheating, you could spend a lot of money for something you really never use. I've used FLIR and Fluke, but I seldom cared about many of the features on the FLIR. Just my experience, though. Ebay has lots that are used or refurbished. Pretty cheap. I think it's the skill of the thermographer more than the tool that helps solve problems.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top