FLIR ONE Pro Thermal Camera for Android USB-C Smartphones Pixel size 12um (con), 8-14um spectal range Higher Resolution Thermal Sensor Advanced Diagnostics One-Touch Reporting Enhanced FLIR ONE App Video, Photo, Time-Lapse Rectangular Region of Interest (max.): 3 (movable) Swipe To See Visible Image Thermal Colour Palettes: 9 High / Low Gain Mode IR Scale (Displayed on image, adjustable range) .
App needs everything "allowed" to function, but otherwise, this unit works well and is surprisingly good value.
Thermography is a way to take photos that show the change in temperature over an image. You can locate warm/cold pipes inside walls, find where your homes insulation could be improved, use it to find which electronic component has shorted on a board (it'll be hot), you can review how evenly heated some food is, or the cookware used to cook it.
The FLIR ONE is an attachment that has two cameras, one in the visible spectrum, and another, temperature-sensitive one. The app then overlays the two images so you can see which bits are hot and cold. However, it doesn't use your phone camera (that would cause parallax issues) and so you should expect a lower resolution image, especially compared to newer phones.
Even though the FLIR ONE Pro falls in between the price ranges for the cheaper FLIR ONE Pro LT, and more expensive FLIR ONE PRO GEN3, this is superior in two key ways.
1. It has 4x the thermal resolution of the other two models.
2. It can depict temperatures up to 400 Celsius, rather than the 120 of the other models.
This is an attachment for phones/tablets. Each model can come in any one of THREE different plug variants, and you need to buy the right one for your phone. If you get it wrong, you can get some adaptors that will work... but I don't recommend it.
Type 1, Lightning port for Apple devices: Anything over an iPhone 5 should work.
Type 2, Micro USB: Used for older generation Android phones. Since this is getting out of date, these tend to dominate the cheaper end of the price ranges on eBay.
Type 3, USB-C: Used on newer Android phones with USB-C port. As long as you use Android 11 or above, you're fine.
Since it's just a phone attachment, it's MUCH cheaper than the stand alone thermographic cameras of similar spec. Often $800 or more cheaper. However they're quite delicate, and certainly not water or even weatherproof. Keep this in mind.
The FLIR ONE app has a lot of mixed reviews. In fact, my first installation on the Android couldn't record videos. It was only after I uninstalled, then reinstalled with ALL the permissions allowed and the optional FLIR Ignite cloud account (free at the time of writing) that it could record video. It will try to upload any videos to the cloud, and this doesn't work if you have limited upload bandwidth.
I would love to be able to record videos to the local phone without any cloud nonsense. However, it does record to the phone as well.
You might read in other reviews about the timelapse function. Unfortunately, I couldn't find that option in the latest Android version. Many reviews have complained that certain features have been removed, if they were, I've found that they've been put back or simply moved.
I find the app quite intuitive. However, it's well worth calibrating the "overlap" of the thermal/visible images regularly. It needs changing every time you get closer/further away from your subject. This is just a slider, and can be done in mere seconds.
I really like the various colour palettes for differing circumstances. Some colour sets are better for subtle colour differences while other ranges are amazing for depicting wider temperature ranges.
I also love the ability to add/remove (and move) any spot readings to an area in the image, even include the colour key AFTER taking the image. You can literally edit ANYTHING after the fact as all the data is captured and stored. This allows you to move quickly when "on scene" and then fix anything up later.... oh wait, there's one exception.
The one exception to this is image calibration/alignment. That has to be done at the time of shooting.
Now the Pro can be set to work like the other models and only go up to 120 Celsius, and this reduced range does increase the accuracy of the readings somewhat. However, if you enable the 400 Celsius mode, there's only a few degrees here or there difference... There are some factors which impact this though (reflective, low "emmissivity" surfaces) and how long the unit has had to "warm up" or "acclimatize".
Since I'm used to the camera being on the top of the phone, and since the port is often at the bottom of the camera (where the attachment is connected), I tend to hold the phone upside down/horizontally when using this attachment, mostly so my hand doesn't obscure the attachment's cameras. The screen rotates accordingly when recording.
Just note that the US gov't has made selling any IR camera with frame rates better than 9fps illegal overseas, so you won't get smooth, high-motion video footage at this units 8.6fps.
Overall, this is a surprisingly capable unit for the money. If you're gentle, are willing to put the attachment away into the provided storage case, and can handle the attachments 1 hour of battery life (cannot charge while in use, and takes 40 mins to recharge, not off a phone), along with the lack of water/weather proofing.... then this is fantastic value because is matches some stand alone units that cost well over $2000.
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Works easily with phone; relatively simple App. Immediately helps with identifying thermal issues. Trades people much more willing to address things when then are given a picture of the problem
